Well, Y'all have convinced me never to have a smith work on anything, ever.  Too much chance of asshattery out there, seems to me.

Local guy can't d&t for a front sight on a bolt gun. Put it on cockeyed, off center. Can't read a fucking print, and cut the threads on the muzzle 75thou too far back. First thread cut was oversize, and suppressor didn't fit. Second cut he took too much off, can still locks on tight when it bottoms out on the shoulder. Lost the bedding block of the rifle.

Did a sandpaper on a drill "recrown" on another rifle, instead of chucking it up in a lathe and doing it right.

Both rifles went in at the same time. I didn't notice the bedding block was missing until months later when it warmed up and actually went to shoot.

Mark Mills, "the gun surgeon" in Urbana, OH. Fuck him.

The old guy who I contracted to put together my M16A1 upper kit. I stupidly managed to give him the fire control parts, from the kit, and he stole my autosear because he told me it was "illegal" to possess.

I wrote it off, as I didn't want to deal with him anymore and it was a hassle. He didn't even time my birdcage flash hider right. I now just tell everyone to avoid him.

Called a local gunsmith and inquired about a trigger job for a 1911 and having night sights installed. Was quoted $85. Arrived after they called to say it was completed and was billed $125. Informed them of the quoted price and was told, “Sometimes when they get in there and get to working on them they find they have more work than they initially thought.”

I told them to call the gunsmith, who was of course not at work that day. Three days later after no call I called again and was told, “Oh yeah. That’s what it was. They had extra work.”

Paid the $125, took my gun, never stepped foot in there again, and told all my friends what snakes they were.

I can't stand that guy.  He really botched some work for me.  I was doing a FAL build, but ended up not being able to barrel it myself because the barrel was not timing correctly by a very large margin (almost 180 degrees).  Steyr barrel and IMBEL receiver.  I had recently had a firearm "lost" in the mail (barreled and headspace receiver and bolt group for this project) on which USPS refused to pay out the insurance, so I wanted to stay local if possible, as shipping a firearm just felt really sketchy to me after that experience.  Lots of people sung his praises and claimed that he knew how to fix the problem, had done many FALs, etc.  I also needed a couple of other things done, including timing the muzzle device, making the cuts for the charger-guide top cover, opening up the rear sight aperture to 5mm, and I figured that I'd have him Parkerize everything since he said he did that, too.  He gave me a quote to do all of the work and I agreed to bring the rifle over to his place (he's not an FFL, so I had to sit there and wait for it to be done, which was probably for the best).

On the charger guide top cover cuts in the receiver, he did the first one just like it should be (or close enough as far as they eye could see; his cuts ended up being almost a millimetre too long).  The second one he decided to get lazy and skipped the last cut since it wasn't essential, so the cuts do not appear to be symmetric.

Then to time the muzzle device, he started to just grind on the crown of the barrel.  Once I walked over and saw what was going on, I was aghast, but what was done was done (for whatever reason the muzzle device has seized, and out of time, so I can't even take pictures of the crown to show prospective gunsmiths and see if repairs are needed and such).  The crown the person who had cut down the barrel 10 17" had put on was beautiful, but this was ugly.  At this point I really should have just cancelled everything and walked away.  He really seemed to think he wasn't doing anything wrong.

Finally, he gets to the barrel.  Now, on a FAL barrel, a little bit of material can be removed from the breech to make it time, but there is a limit to it.  You have to leave enough of the chamfer at the breech end to ensure proper feeding.  You have to try something else if too much material is needed.  He said that it would be no problem to get it to time.  Anyways, I look over and notice that the chamfer is completely gone.  The barrel timed correctly, but it didn't look right to me.  He tells me everything is fine, that there's nothing wrong.  I'm skeptical.

Finally, he makes a headspace determination.  I wrote it down so I could get a locking shoulder later and install it myself.

After he did the refinishing work (which looked nice enough, although I had rust seeping out of every crevice in short order, which perhaps is what caused the muzzle device to seize; nothing I've tried has made it so much as budge), he tells me that he wants to charge me a bunch extra over what he quoted me for the work, and if I wanted the last few parts (stuff that doesn't show when assembled), it would be extra yet.  I told him I would not have him refinish anything else.  He would not budge on the raised price and just said that if I didn't bring enough, that there's a Chase not too far away.  At this point I just wanted to be done with him, paid him his money, grabbed my stuff, and left.

Well, I assemble everything else and try to chamber a round, and the cartridge nose smashes into the breech where the chamber used to be, pushing it halfway into the case and jamming the rifle.  It cannot feed a single cartridge.  I tried getting in touch with him and now he acts like he nows that it's an issue (when he was saying before that there was no problem and it should feed fine) and that all I need to do is just hand-cut a couple of feed ramps and all should be well.  He would not offer to make it right (not that I had any intentions of letting him touch my stuff ever again).  He would not offer a refund.  He refused to give me even a partial one for botching the job and possibly ruining the barrel (and most FAL 'smiths and experienced private builders out of CA on the FAL Files were telling me that the barrel was toast; only Mark Graham and Terry Bridwell thought they might be able to fix it).

I ended up shipping it off to Terry Bridwell, as he had a fast turnaround time at that point in time and was less expensive than Mark, and seemed very confident that he could save the barrel.  That work ended up costing me almost as much as a new barrel, but still not quite as much (especially for a Steyr and considering that I'd have to get it cut down to the desired length).  He was able to salvage the barrel.  Headspace was determined to be very different than what Randall had said it would be.  Had I fired it with a locking shoulder specified by him I would have had a kaboom on my hands.  Terry also repaired a top cover that I could to be binding the bolt carrier after I had assembled the rifle and di an excellent job at it.  This BS caused me to miss being able to use it at Cola Warrior West 3, but it got used at 4.  Terry did great work fixing it.  Had I just sent it to him, while the base cost would have been higher than using Randall, it would have samed me a lot of time, hassle, and money overall.

I will never recommend Randall to anyone and have steered local FAL shooters away from him and showed them pictures of his disastrous folly.  Anytime I ask about gunsmithing advice or service on Calguns, he always pops in like I'd actually use his services again.  People constantly recommend him to me and when I post briefly why I want to use someone else, they all delete their posts so that no one can associate my comment with Randall.  He's kind of a protected class on Calguns.

Unlike Randall, I highly recommend Terry Bridwell of Oregon for those guys who need a FAL 'smith.

Pics below show the breech before Randall touched it, what it looked like afterwards and what happened when trying to chamber a round, and finally Terry's repair.

Seems like I've had better experiences with machinists willing to help me out with stuff than actual gunsmiths overall.

First time I used a gumsnith was for my Yugo SKS.  I took it to the range and found that the rounds were keyholing at 50 yards.  I ordered a replacement barrel.  Gunsmith said he'd fix it and was taking forever to get back to me, but he eventually called.  ATF had pulled his FFL and I needed to pick my gun up.  He had replaced the barrel but couldn't headspace it.  After years if it sitting around I finally sold it to someone who was willing to deal with it.  I had gotten sick of the gun.  One of only two firearms I've disposed of willingly.

Another time I ended up paying for work that I now realized I could have done myself (I didn't know any better back then, and Internet resources weren't as good).  Needed my extractor replaced on my first Hi Power.  Also wanted the magazine disconnect replaced.  They did the work, which probably only took a few minutes (but they charged as it it took a couple of hours).  There was finish wear on the "new" extractor, but I haven't had an issue, yet.  They were going to keep my magazine disconnect had I not said anything.  Business was failing and got sold and renamed not long ago, and now the new owner is closing shop.  I did get a great price on 7.62X54R on chargers when I was there, though.

I think Terry Bridwell may be the only gunsmith with which I've had a largely positive experience.

I'm a bit nervous right now as I'm dropping off the Hi Power that I use for carry (when I can) and defence in general for new sights, even though the guy has great reviews.  Seemed like a nice guy who knew his stuff when I met with him before ordering the sights.  He's not going to be cutting on the slide at all, so worst case scenario I'm out a set of sights and some money (his prices are extraordinarily reasonable, though; it might not cost me $100 to have new sights installed, including the cost of the sights).  If I like the work I'll have him replace the sear (since the current one is wearing out) and mainspring (with a lighter one, 28 lb like on older Hi Powers instead of the 32lb I have), and polish the hammer and sear engagement and trigger linkage surfaces.

He's one of the only people I found locally who still can stake on front sights (besides the Randall/AR15Barrels guy mentioned in my previous post, who I will never use again for anything).  He also has a quick turnaround (less than a week), which is very important to me since I don't have much in the way of handguns (just one other Hi Power that has the older feed ramp that doesn't work great with JHPs and a capa and ball revolver).  My first thought had been to use Jim Hoag, but he had a fall a couple of years ago, I guess, and his family liquidated his business.  Everyone else is dead, retired, closed down, or going out of business who I might have used for this sort of work.  I'm putting on a Millett Combat Fixed Mk1 rear sight, which he is modifying to work in the old Hi Power dovetail, and a Millett serrated ramp stake-on front sight, tall enough to allow room for filing it down if needed for zeroing.  I'm hoping that my end experience will be better than what I have on average been experiencing from gunsmiths.

I wish I knew why so many gunsmiths act the way they do, kinda like why I wonder why so many FFLs eschew the very notion of customer service.  My bad experiences don't seem at all uncommon.

Holy hell, that link brought back some names and memories!

I took an M&P9 to a local gunsmith to have a set of night sights installed, and when I got it back the spring that goes under the rear sight was all bent up, and the front sight was movable with finger pressure. I took it back to him after fixing the spring under the rear sight, and his idea of a fix for the front sight was to "peen" it into place with a steel punch, which he obviously did without telling me or me seeing him do it.

Many don't come from a Machining background. They think hey I like guns, this could be fun! Get the AGI video set and then set to work, which ends in butchered customer guns. Many take on projects that are too advanced for their talents and too damn proud/broke to turn it down.

Its not a good paying job, any one with a mechanical talent goes in to some other line of work. So you are left with the gun counter guy trying to be a smith, where really they are an armorer in talent.

Local ‘Smith took it upon himself to give me a “reliability package” when I paid for a trigger job.

Over-dremeled it and turned a reliable Colt Delta Elite into a jam jar. Would not feed anything. Then he has the audacity to tell me he couldn’t replicate the failure. Wouldn’t let me demonstrate in his firing range.

I still cringe whenever I hear that shop name. I wouldn’t bat an eye if it burned down it’s all employees in it.

I have only used gunsmiths that come highly recommended from people I know.

The longest I have waited for a rifle to be rebarreled was 4 weeks and that was dropping it off at UPS to being delivered at my door. Quality work to boot.

Had a local tulsa Smith tell me he refuses to work on black rifles. I wanted him to pin and weld a flash hider for me.

My worst experience with gunsmiths...

Well it was bad

I bet, I would never use him again!

39 references to "local smiths" in this thread. It's 2019. Use the internet to find a suitable smith.

This thread has made me petrified to ever deal with a gunsmith.  I've got Cajun parts coming from my CZ, and I will do everything in my power to install them correctly, cause I don't want to deal with gunsmiths now.

Customer we make parts for is a gunsmith.  He says over the years that if I ever need work done to bring it to him.  Eventually I want to do the 45ACP conversion to a Mauser and need the original barrel pulled.  He says he can do that easily and the next time he's picking stuff up I give it to him.
A couple of days later he brings me the receiver and old barrel separated.

That's my only experience with a gunsmith, so if anybody starts a "What's your best gunsmith story" thread I'll copy-paste it

I asked a gunsmith to pin/weld "permanently attach" a muzzle brake to a barrel.

"No problem."

He used epoxy.

ADCO is the only shop that I've ever had a good experience with.

Brought a family heirloom shotgun to a local guy. It would not eject high brass and would never recock for the second shot (semiauto).

After three weeks he says its fixed so I go pick it up pay him and put it in the safe.

Went to shoot it a week later and it does yhe same thing as before like he never touched it. He changed his number

HOLY CRAP...yeah, that's a kaboom.

That idiot needs to be out of business, take up snow plowing or something.

Not sure.

Only have two, neither were good.

First one - gunsmith put a new/taller front sight on my Colt Combat Commander.  It came loose.  I took it back.  He restaked it (free of charge) and it came loose again.  The last time he silver soldered it into the slide (he told me up front it would discolor the front of the slide and I told him I didn't care, as long as it held).  A few months later I lost it at the range.  It was there, and then it wasn't.  Looked in the dirt/sand/gravel/brass but never found it.  I don't even know if that guy is still in business, it was a long time ago.

Second one - bought a used Browning BDM.  Took it home, started taking it apart to clean/inspect/lube and a pin fell out of it.  I'm trying to figure out where the pin came from but can't find any holes that don't have a pin in them.  I look closer and realize it's the last 1/2" or more of the firing pin.  DANG IT!!  Didn't even get to shoot it.

Took it back to the shop where I bought it (had a 60 day warranty) and they said they'd take care of it.  Long story, I'll cut out some of the text and just give the "low lights."
1.  All in all, they had it almost 4 months.
2.  They called me twice to tell me my "Browning" was back from the gunsmith.  One time it was an Auto 5 and the second time I didn't bother to go to the shop before asking them if it was a BDM pistol and they checked and confirmed it was not, so I don't know what it was or who it belonged to.
3.  They called to tell me they couldn't get the firing pin anywhere.  I gave them the name/phone number/web site of Midwest Gun Works and even the part number.
4.  They called again a couple weeks later to tell me they couldn't get the part.  Again, I gave them the info on MGW.
5.  They called again to let me talk to the gun smith so he could tell me they couldn't get the part.
6.  I told them to pick the gun up from the gun smith, call me when it came into the shop and I'd fix it myself.  They guy got testy and replied that he didn't know how the hell I was gonna fix it when you can't get parts for them anymore.  I told him I'd already given them the info on where to get the parts but they were unable to follow simple instructions so I'd already ordered two firing pins on my own and I'd replace the broken one.

Oh, I don't even stop in and look around anymore.  I have proof they aren't honest when they say they will fix guns under their warranty period.

My gunsmith is incredible!  I bought a CBC Brazilian copy of a Nylon 66 in parts at the local pawn shop for $25.  He said it was a tough project, but he put it together for me for $25.  So I have a functioning copy of a Nylon 66 for $50!   He is not a licensed gunsmith, but does work for me as a hobby.  He is a retired state trooper and enjoys working on firearms.

Agreed. "Gun smithing" is where shady assholes make money.

I've had a really damn expensive action come back from coating only to find they didn't clean out the media before coating it.  

That's probably one of the best gunsmiths mentioned in the whole thread, because they knew enough to turn away work they'd butcher.

Hey!

I've had one good experience and one horrible experience with gunsmiths.

The good:  I was getting a Hi Power customized and talked with multiple gunsmiths regarding what I wanted, any recommendations they had, and the cost.  The smith that I ended up going with was responsive to all of my questions and contacted me when my Hi Power came up in line to confirm the details of what I wanted done and to discuss some additional options.  While he was working on it, he contacted me one additional time to discuss an issue with the sight alignment caused by the way the dovetails were initially milled, suggested a remedy, and then asked if I wanted to do that and then asked what grain ammo I was planning on using so that he could use the correct grain when test firing it.  Then, on top of all of this, he finished the work on the Hi Power quicker than the quoted time.

The bad:  I was getting an H&K 93 clone built.  I ran across them on hkpro, where they were a site sponsor.  I emailed them about building the rifle in January and they indicated that they could build one for me and that they were actually planning on building several in March.  Initially, they were very responsive to my questions and changes to the build.  I waited until June to contact them and ask the status because I may need to change the FFL that I provided.  I was told that they had just received a batch of guns back from finishing and that the only thing left was to put in a few small parts that they should have soon.  In August, I was told that they were still waiting on a custom mag release and if they did not get it soon, they would mill it themselves.  Then in September, I was told that the only thing that they were waiting on was the flashhider.  Everything was finally finished mid-October, and I received the rifle.  When I went to shoot it, most of the magazines that I had would not work properly, there were multiple failures to feed and failures to eject, and the sights were way off.  I contacted them and they gave some suggestions but largely seemed to dismiss my concerns.  I have finally tinkered with it enough to work the bugs out and it is working pretty reliably, but it was incredibly frustrating to deal with and took multiple range trips to get it functioning properly.

Overall, I know that this is relatively minor compared to many of the other stories in this thread, but it managed to hit many of my buttons.

My first rifle was a Sako 30-06 and I could not get it to sight in low enough at 100.  So I took it to my favorite local good ole boy gunsmith.  I place the rifle, intact, I a big vise and then proceeded with a large ball pen hammer to smack the top of the sight base on the rear of the receiver.  I mean this big ole grain fed boy really smacked it and of course the rifle fell out of the vise for two days and hit everything between the vise and the floor.  He picked it up and handed to me and said "that should do it, you owe me a hundred".  I was looking at the scratches, dings and gouges all over my brand new Sako.  I sat it down and proceeded to try and push his nose to the back of his skull in one massive punch.  I broke his nose and his right orbit bone.  I picked up a new rifle, just like the one he fucked up about two weeks later at his shop and never went back.  Its a wonder I didn't get killed that night...fuck him.

Not actually the gunsmith's fault but Remington. The disconnector broke on my SP10, Rem would not even sell the gunsmith one, he had to send in the entire trigger group. I was going on an expensive hunt too soon to wait so Rem was nice enough to SELL me a new trigger group. Like I was going to build a full auto 10 gauge 3 shot shotgun.

So you made him look like this?

I would have loved to hear the negotiations after that compelling opener.

INSERT GOOD DICK JOKE HERE

Have none of you people with local gunsmith screw up's ever heard of small claims court?

I once asked a gun smith to include mounts for a leatherwood scope on a beater mouser.  Not only did he not put mounting studs on the beat up mouser, he took the leatherwood scope apart and gave me a box of parts that could not be put back together and voided the warrenty on the scope  I was out over $500 on that senile old fool.

Sounds like I need to either buy a lathe and a lot of books, or find some 85 year old gunsmith who actually knows his stuff

A local "smith" has worked over the triggers of two guys I know.  (About 10 years apart). Both of them wound up with guns that would discharge when the safety was clicked off.

No, not Remington 700's either.  IIRC one was a Browning and one was a Weatherby.

Just OC, no need to explain that shitshow

I’ve used a local Smith/cerakote once locally and he’s solid. (Fixing OC shit)

I do everything myself.

Had one cerakote a 1911 that was supposed to be parkerized. That's probably the worst.

Surprised no one has mentioned the AK thief Gary Gooch and his chicken coop. That is the worst gunsmith tale ever.

I dropped off a Remington 700 at a well known gunsmith in Memphis to have the barrel threaded for a suppressor.  It took months to get it done.  When I went in to pick it up, the threads were very messy, wouldn't accept the thread protector or the can.  They were shocked that I was upset.

There's a quote with a link to that further up this page.

This thread has opened my eyes to the fact that there are very few "gun smiths" left in this country, just a bunch of tards who wear a hat that says "I ARE GUNSMITH" who don't mind fucking up other people's guns for undeserved amounts of money.

Youtube and myself have been my gunsmiths for many years and neither of them has ever let me down, the job always gets done right (eventually).

This is your worst? Seriously?

The bad:
Mike P in Washington state. Was a HK builder. I sent him a brand new HK91 parts kit. Got back a mix of new and used parts.
Gary G in Kansas. AK builder. First build was very good. Second build had a lot of trouble getting it back. His emails became bizarre. Then his business imploded. Ripped off many people. Chicken coop? What ever happened to him?
The good:
Troy at Inrange. AK builder. Very good on several builds.
The Gun Rack in Starke Fl. Broomhandle, Luger's, Browning's rebuild service. They even blued an AK47 for me. Very good on several rebuilds. The owner has since passed away. I don't know if still open for business.

Same mike p from OC?

This was maybe 15+ years ago. I don't know what "OC" means.

Olympic Cerakote.

(Not the same guy probably)

Did he store you HK in his couch cushions?

I got very good service from them. Ended up have them refinish a beat-up .30 Mauser Broomhandle with a bad relining job. They made sure it was safe to shoot and even substituted the right replacement part for the wrong part I sent.

Fast turnaround and the price was very fair. Sorry to hear the owner passed away.

Nothing too extreme, but seriously annoying and a huge waste of my time to get it fixed:

Dropped off an Aero M5 upper and handguard, and a Faxon 6.5 CM barrel to get barreled and headspaced at Kilo Guns in Phoenix. A couple of months later, I took the complete rifle out of the safe and the fucking handguard rotated, held in place only by the gas tube. Bastards couldn't be bothered with using the correct number of barrel shims and torque the barrel nut properly.

I took it to Accuracy Speaks in Mesa and he (Sean) fixed it up- with the proper number of shims- at a reasonable cost and turnaround, and their people skills are better, to top it off. Shoots like a dream, too.

https://www.ar15.com/forums/equipment-exchange/Missouri-Custom-Armaments-2-years-and-still-no-AK---2nd-Update-p-4/109-569216/