Visited Gunsmith Today

[6pt-sika]

We have a new young gunsmith in town !

He's been in buisness about 6 months , just recently finished gunsmith school in CO .

I have a Marlin 1894CL in 32-20 that has something in the chamber that I cannot remove . So I took it in to see if he could help me out .

While there I also drug along my Glenfield 36A to see what he would stick me to rebarrel in 7-30 Waters and reblue it .

His prices are within reason of the other guys ! So I may go on and start that 7-30 Waters project this year after all !!!!!!

Also asked him about doing my NIB 1895G into 50 Alaskan , he seemed pretty optimistic about that project as well !!!!!!

[Jack Stanley]

Having talent like that nearby is a great thing . there are very few around this area , some have good talents for a specific type of work and that's all they do . We had a good gunsmith that could fix about anything , the bad thing is , he got old and died , I still miss staning around and chatting with him .

Jack

[jim4065]

A word of caution - give him a a small project first to see if he's any good.

We had a new "gunsmith" move in 20 years ago. I gave him a Ruger 22 Auto pistol with a 6.875" barrel to mount a scope on. I liked his confidence and attitude, so I also gave him my new Ruger Red Label to smooth out the bbl selector/safety.

He mounted the scope off center, so you had to set the cross hairs at an angle to shoot it - said "Sometimes they turn out that way." He couldn't figure out how to take the Red Label action off the stock, so he peeled off the buttpad (and chipped the stock in 4 or 5 places.)

When I threw a fit - the local cops made me pay for the shoddy work to get my guns back. All that I could do was tell EVERYBODY what a lousy gunsmith he was. He went out of business three months later and moved on - but I still had two screwed up guns.

[waksupi]

I agree with Jim. New gunsmiths, have a lot to learn. I have been teaching lots of stuff to a guy from the CS of T for the past couple years. This guy is one of the best machinists and gunbuilders I have ever come across for his age, but there are things he doesn't know. And, only experience, and grumpy old farts like me can teach them. He didn't know squat about Mauser actions, and I had to teach him step by step on the left hand Mauser we just did for Craig Boddington. I will also say, a lot of what I know about Mausers now, I have learned from this group, over the past 11-12 years.
Call the school, and talk to the instuctor. He will give you the lowdown on what kind of student he was, his strong and weak points. If he hedges, press for a straight answer. If it is the same guy in charge, I doubt you will have to try all that hard to get the real story on a student.
I've seen some very good guys come out, like we have working for us, and some that no longer work for us, for just cause.
Keep in mind, not all gunsmiths know everything about every firearm. It is impossible. If they claim to know evey one, turn around, and run very quickly in the opposite direction.

[TCLouis]

10 years ago or so a new graduate of Trinidad starting shooting with us at the range. I got to see some of the guns he had built for himself and was impressed with the quality of his work.

As luck would have it two different people came to me asking where they could get some "simple"un work done.

I recommended him and the shop where he was the gunsmith.

He screwed up three different guns for my friends.

I recommended another smith in a town south of Nashville where I knew the owner. That gunsmith screwed up one gun.

NOW I tell people I don't even know of a shop that has a gunsmith and do NOT try to find one.

[Lloyd Smale]

like was said be careful. Especially with that 50 alaskan project. There not a simple conversion and ive seen gunsmiths that everyone here has heard there names mentioned butcher these conversion. Ive seen samples from about 4 smiths now and when i have mine done Ben Forkin is getting my money.

[Char-Gar]

I agree with the advise to start off small with a new gunsmith. Over the past 60 years I have delt with quite a few. There are more gun butchers than there are good gunsmiths. Some of them have the theory, but just don't take the time and concentration to do it right. They are always looking for a short cut to economize their time.

This fact has driven me to doing most of the work myself. I will take the time to do the job right. Gun work is not rocket science, but you must use your head and care about what you do.

[Adam10mm]

There is a smith here locally that came from CSofT (great school- I thought about going there once). He has been good with my 1911's, mostly safeties and triggers.

Heard horror stories about him messing up a D&T job, split a barrel doing a forcing cone lengthener. I'm cautious what I bring him.

[jh45gun]

My local gun smith is a true artist a fine machinist and great with stock work also from scratch. He also learned from some good folks including working for a custom gun shop before he went out on his own. He has made some very nice guns besides doing the mundane chores most gunsmiths do. In all fairness some guns can be a pain to do and he has learned some are not worth his time or effort he has a list of guns he will not work on not that he cannot but guns that are not worth his time and effort to bother with. This list does not include most good brand name guns but those that are junkers or cheap guns that just are not worth it. If he feels a gun is not worth fixing he will also tell you.

[6pt-sika]

Well I got my 1894CL 32-20 back today in fine shape and all it cost was $21 .

We talked a bit about doing the 7-30 Waters conversion on my old Glenfield 36G . Think thats gonna set me back about $500-550 after Xmas .

Depending on how it looks and functions will be the basis for whether he gets the 50 Alaskan job or not [smilie=1:

I do not think it should be overly difficult for him to rebarrel to 7-30 Waters , and there "shouldn't" be any feeding problems .

He has already relined a Winchester 1892 in 32-20 for a friend and he did a pretty decent job . He is also getting ready to rechamber a Winchester Model 12 28 gauge barrel that has an out of round chamber for the same friend .[smilie=1:

Thats one of the reasons I wanna wait until after Xmas , to see how he does on some of these other jobs that someone else is providing the material and mulah :roll: