How much lee-way to give a Gunsmith??

[jbouwens]

Well I know your pain, I used to go to a gunsmith for all of my work, Let me say he is well know and respected. He does great work, he can make a gun out of a chunk of metal and is good enough to weld two pieces of paper together. I have great examples of the work he has done and a am very greatful for his work. He made muzzle breaks for my lar grizzles that look like they are suposed to be there. Now comes the kicker. HE TAKES HIS TIME. Now he does not give estimated times on his work, everyone knows he has tons of work, he does great work-and you can eat off his equipment/floors he is so good and clean. He says when it is done it is done. I always get questions of who does my guns and such but I can not really recommend him to most folks because of the time thing. I have had things back within two weeks before but, I recently got a cowboy gun back for a new paw and fittting after 10 months. He has had a few others for a year plus.

I took me a long time to walk away from him but, I now have another smith do my work for me because I can't wait that long on guns anymore, I may be in the groud in another year so I have the other fellow do any repair/bluing jobs for me and leave the manufacturing jobs to my old gunsmith.

Long story short-- even the best guy in town/the area-- is just the guy in town/the area. Shop your business around and get back to shooting a.s.a.p.

 

[Uncle Larry]

I'd be tempted to find this guy's address ( it shouldn't be rocket science), just show up and reclaim your gun...I mean the alleged gunsmith has to live somewhere unless he's taken up residence in a Dumpster and/or a used refrigerater box.

I went through a similar situation with getting one of our horse drawn buggy's worked on..The guy claimed a 2 week wait and after 3 months of excuses and BS, I just showed up at his shop one day with truck and trailer, found the buggy in the back (still untouched by human hands), loaded it up and said "if I get a bill for this, I'' see ya in court"...off I went and didn't/haven't heard any thing from him...btw, I heard he went out of business after shafting a few other carriage owners

 

[Nygma]

Anyone know a good gunsmith who does S&W revolver work in the SE Michigan area?

I don't know if they do the type of work you're looking for but try Mag-Na-Port in Mt. Clements. I've been very pleased with the work they've done on my revolvers in the past.

 

[robotoid]

Must.......maintain.....composure......rage.......building.......fury.....growing....blood......pressure......rising.....eyes....turning.....green......

Anyways, I called about it today. The gun is disassembled on the bench (he says). He says he works on it in between other small/fast jobs because it is a labor intensive, detail type job (like I said, I thought a barrel swap was a relatively simple 1 hour job-with the right tools). I made it clear I would like VERY MUCH to see it done in the next week. Citizen complaints on me at work are usually, "it's not so much what he said, it's how he said it". I've been told I'm the master of inflections and tone. I can't very well demand it back NOW! and end up with a basket case gun no one else may want to work on because someone else started monkeying with it. Not a happy camper here. I have joined the MGO site, and may post this story there after I have the gun back in hand. I don't want to call anyone out in public.....yet.

 

[kennyb]

get the gun back...now...i do hope he still has it!

 

[Joni_Lynn]

Give them a call and tell them you are severely tired of the wait and in this loooong period of time you changed your mind and want NOTHING done to your gun. Tell them you'll be in to pick it up immediately. Don't let a clown work on a gun unless you want it to look like it was worked on by a clown.
I did that once and was left with a ruined gun. All I could salvage was the small parts.
Magnaport is a good suggestion. Sending it off to JD Jones is also a good thought.

 

[robotoid]

Retrieved finished gun (finally!!) yesterday

http://smith-wessonforum.com/showthread.php?t=78244