How can you tell a good gunsmith from a bad ?

BuzzBee

BuzzBee

New member
In response to the recent posts of a member that had a bad experience with his gunsmith. I thought this topic may help some of the members here. So, lets hear about how to identify or qualify a competent gunsmith, BEFORE handing over your gun for his service.
 
Mostly by word of mouth. It also helps to find a smith that shoots his guns in competition. The smith I use belongs to a benchrest club and builds all of his fellow members rifles. He has awards and targets displayed that his guns have won. It is good to go with an "accuracy" smith when having a rifle built.
 
Questions to ask yourself.

How do you know this gunsmith?
What type of reputation does he have?
Is he always busy with someones project? The good ones always seem to be back logged with alot of work.
Does he guarantee his work?
Will he give you a firm quote before he starts work?
Does he have a lot of happy and satisfied customers?
Just some common sense questions to ask before you hand over a member of the family to be worked on.
 
What coyotesmoke said sounds like good advice.
I have never used a gunsmith, but for any precision technical work here are some things I would consider.
-Reputation... what do others say....give him some work that isn't your $8000 shotgun and see how he does.
-Experience...ask him how long he's been at it how did he learn his business..he should be glad to tell you.
-What is his shop like?.. has he invested his life in his work?
-See his work with your own eyes..then you know what he's capable of.
-Upfront honest answer about what the job involves..if he has alot of experience he should know how many hours and $s it should be.
-Never go by price.
PC
 
Word of mouth is always good but remember that one bad or disatisfied customer, is worth two or three dozen good satisfied customers. You will hear about he "bad job" a lot more than about the good ones, and the bad ones will get magnafied as others who hear tell others so soon it is the i have a friend who knows somone whos cousin went to a bar and heared about That guy, sort of like the internet. You hear a lot, but a lot of it is not exactily correct. And there is always two sides of any story.
 
I've had good ones and bad ones. If you find a good one, hang on to them. Word of mouth is the best indicator. Reputations are valuable and the best gunsmiths will do anything to protect theirs. Otherwise, it's hit or miss. If you hear bad stuff, there is probably more where that came from. I like the idea of letting them do something on a piece that is not real valuable or cherished.
 
The Bad ones will tell you how great they are and how bad everyone else is.

Really, ask around. Like the others said word of mouth. But you have to ask around. The good ones will never come up unless you ask but anyone that has had problem with one will tell you the problem they had with them.
 
My experience is this; If you spend about $2,000.00 and your "custom rifle" shoots almost as good as your factory rifles, maybe you better rethink this gunsmith??!!LOL
I did.

Some guys "repair" well, not many "build" well. Ask for references.
Carl
 
I've run into both good and bad. Look at the shop and the equipment. Does it look good? Does he keep it clean? This doesn't always mean he's good, but it does show attention to detail. My current 'smith has an ego and will tell you who is bad, but he does great work, even does work for writers and other people in the gun business. A good one will always have lots of work. A bad one will be sitting around most of the day. I tend to agree with those who've said be careful about one bad story. My smith has had guns come back because they "won't shoot." Taking them to the range (and he sometimes asks me to do this so he has an independent person trying it), the guns will shoot extremely well. Some people can't shoot...and they're the ones who will tell you about 1" groups at 200yds from standing! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif
 
word of mouth, however, i heard good things about Lone star guns in Plano, had a trigger job done, got the rifle back and the barrel was touching the stock clearly on one side. Nice trigger work, but they slapped it back together like a toy. Won't go back.
 
I have used several different smiths over the years. I use a buddy who has been building custom rifles for years now.
He is great, but not perfect.
No body is perfect. Keep that in mind. Gunsmiths are human and every job they do will not be perfect every time.
A gunsmith may put out a rifle that he has machined as close to perfect as humanly possible and it still wont shoot.
There are other reasons for rifles not performing pefectly every time other than the smith that built it. Occasionaly bad barrels make it out of the factory, (even the most reputable barrel companies can put out a bad or "weird" barrels on occasion).
What ever the reason, a good smith will deal with your rifle until it does shoot and admit if a mistake has been made.
One thing I like in a smith is a guy who will do what I tell him to do and not try to convince me to do something that he thinks should be done to my rifles when I want a certain configuration.
I will not question my smith about diagnosing problems but I wont let him build for me what he thinks I should have.
Anyway, thats my opinion about gunsmiths.
All a gunsmith has is his reputation.
 
If you hear someone bad mouthing any gunsmith listen to what he is saying not just who he is talking about. Sometimes the person doing the bad mouthing is blaming the wrong person or party.

There was a posting (on several sites) about a problem a customer in Italy had with a rifle from a well known American gun maker; he blames the gun maker but if you read his posting his problem is with the importer not wanting to send the rifle back to the gun maker for repair (the gun maker wanted to check the rifle out and repair or replace as needed). This guy, however, blames the gun maker even though the gun maker never got a chance to make the problem right. If you are wondering, the importer had the rifle repaired by heaven knows who in Italy rather than send it back to the states for repair.
 
Honestly its a crap shoot.

I have a mauser currently at a gunsmith. I was told everything I wanted to hear, but when time came to pick my gun up, it wasnt ready. Six months later, and its still not ready. He does not adhere to our agreed upon schedules of contact, does not return calls, and to keep me from takin my business elsewhere he has cut the agreed upon price twice.
Sad thing is He came HIGHLY recomended to me. He does work for a large local law enforcement agency, shoots/makes high grade benchrest guns and work he has done for others is impeccable.
Im just S.O.L., i guess
 
A good friend of mine bought a custom Jarrett rifle to deer hunt with. He paid big money for this rifle. He took it to a local gunsmith to have a scope mounted on it. When he returned to pick it up it had a scratch about 3 inches long down the side of the barrel right down to bare metal. He expressed his anger about this to the gunsmith/owner and was told not to worry, just come by the next day and it would all be taken care of. My friend returned the next day to find that the barrel of his new rifle had been spray painted flat black. I think that pretty much constitutes a bad gunsmith. Since then that so called gunsmith has gone belly up.
 
Word of mouth is about the best bet. However, you must hear it from knowledgeable firearms people in the first place. Someone who knows nothing about firearms can give you a great recommendation as anything done is good to them.

I always liked to find great smiths that don't have one of those high dollar names. They are out there and hard to find. They are always busy and covered up with work.

There are alot of smiths out there but finding one that wants to work is hard! Most usually want to build up a large amount of work and only work on it when they need money. Also, you have to expect delays in work depending on parts coming in. You can wait up to a year for a barrel from some folks and so on!
 
There is an alternative.
Do all your gunsmithing yourself.
It does require a bit of machinist or toolmaker background and a substantial investment in equipment. After that you are in total control, as long as you keep barrels in stock.

Jack
 
I don't like gunsmiths that are salesmen. They sell you on the work and then sell you on all the reasons you should be satisfied with the work they've done. In fact they insult your intelligents by saying you don't know what you're talking about.
 


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