question to gunsmiths and custom gun owners
- Thread starter chache
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rscott5028
Well-Known Member
+1
After lots of unreturned calls, I bought a Grizzly lathe.
I now have a much better understanding of some of the delays in getting all of the necessary parts, materials, and tooling together. ...although a professional should already be well equipped. In any case, there's no excuse for running a shoddy business and not communicating with your customers.
There are several smiths that frequent this forum that seem to be great communicators and with whom I wouldn't hesitate to do business.
It's just sad to think that a few bad apples can ruin it for the whole bunch.
It's no wonder Savage is so popular with the DIY crowd.
-- richard
????? Why is savage popular with the DIY crowd. Sorry for the stupid question, but you sparked my curiousity.
Camshaft
Well-Known Member
Because savage uses a barrel nut to make headspacing the barrel a breeze. With a few simple tools, and a good understanding of what you are doing, you can order a prethreaded and chambered barrel and install it yourself.
Well just an update... I finally got ahold of my smith today. He said he was aware of my calls and email and that there was no excuse for not taking them.... He said my gun should've been done months ago and the he profusely appologizes... He said the gun should be done in two weeks and he will ship to me prior to final payment to make sure I'm happy. Once again, I told him to pad his timeframe and once again he said that was with padding extra time.
I confirmed again it would be done "first to middle July" and he agreed. I them said I would call him after the 4th holiday week. So we'll see....
Until them I will calm down by celebrating my favorite holiday of the year.
Happy Fourth of July everybody and God bless America!!!!!!!!!!
I confirmed again it would be done "first to middle July" and he agreed. I them said I would call him after the 4th holiday week. So we'll see....
Until them I will calm down by celebrating my favorite holiday of the year.
Happy Fourth of July everybody and God bless America!!!!!!!!!!
J E Custom
Well-Known Member
Sounds like good news.
J E CUSTOM
J E CUSTOM
Hired Gun
Well-Known Member
This would concern me one who would screen your calls over something as small as a missed deadline. Just think if he messed up or owed you something......... With so many choices out there for quality gun work every customer is important to me.
Oooohhh.... believe me, it does. There have been many lessons learned through this process. I guess it comes with the territory. Fortunately, caused me to find this sight, which I have learned alot from. Also, so far I haven't been chastized by members for asking what they might think are stupid questions. When the next build or upgrade comes I will definately be refering back here before making any moves.
Thanks alot guys....time to go fishin' now.
madcharlie61
Member
These times you are saying it takes to get guns built is shocking. If this was your plumber you whould be as angry as anything. only rifle i ever sent away to get re barreled came back in under a week. a mate of mine got a custom rifle made in something like 2 weeks. mind you the company that did the work also makes the barrels so at least they have the product on site and know they have it before telling you they will do it.
Yes it can be frustrating dealing with Smiths.. On my wood guns depending on the Smith it is one to two years depending on what has to be done. Now on my competition rifles and synthetic sporters I use one Smith and when I go up to visit him with all of the parts we cobble one together in 24 to 48 hours.. That includes making the sizing die and modifying the Wilson seating die---still have to send the sizing die off to carburize but the rifle is completely finished.
WildCall Custom
New Member
Chache,
This is a pretty common problem and there aren't any good answers these days. When you look at the processes of most builders, they have no inventory to draw from at the time a rifle is ordered. Take into account that most barrel makers these days are anywhere from 16 to 22 weeks (or more) out on delivery, stock makers are mostly 12 (or more) weeks out. Couple this with a reasonable work load and it doesn't take much for the delivery time to stack up.
Small shops usually will not invest in inventory just to have it sit there until orders come in. Due to this, there are a number of well know builders that will only build on customer supplied components.
Currently, with my precision rifle division (Underground Skunkworks/BlackOps Precision), we keep nearly 100 barrels in inventory and usually have about 30 stocks. With the hunting rifle side of the house (WildCall Custom), we don't have quite that many barrels/stocks, but we're building the inventory. This measure is to mitigate a large portion of the delivery issues most guys experience these days.
Hope this helps and hope you get things squared away soon.
This is a pretty common problem and there aren't any good answers these days. When you look at the processes of most builders, they have no inventory to draw from at the time a rifle is ordered. Take into account that most barrel makers these days are anywhere from 16 to 22 weeks (or more) out on delivery, stock makers are mostly 12 (or more) weeks out. Couple this with a reasonable work load and it doesn't take much for the delivery time to stack up.
Small shops usually will not invest in inventory just to have it sit there until orders come in. Due to this, there are a number of well know builders that will only build on customer supplied components.
Currently, with my precision rifle division (Underground Skunkworks/BlackOps Precision), we keep nearly 100 barrels in inventory and usually have about 30 stocks. With the hunting rifle side of the house (WildCall Custom), we don't have quite that many barrels/stocks, but we're building the inventory. This measure is to mitigate a large portion of the delivery issues most guys experience these days.
Hope this helps and hope you get things squared away soon.
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TexasHunter
<strong>SPONSOR</strong>
This is exactly why I founded Thoroughbred Rifles four years ago. I and all my buddies got tired of the run around. We also got tired of the quality or better yet, the lack of quality. You pay for a custom gun and when it ships, you have the unmitigated gaul to ask "how does it shoot" and they respond "don't know, we don't have time to test them, let us know when you get it". One of my close friends pulled the trigger on a brand new custom 338WM and the muzzle brake went down range never to be found. Gladly he didn't get hurt. Another waited over a year for a custom 30-06 guaranteed to shoot 1 inch at 100 yds with factory ammo. After the recommended factory rounds blew primers on every shot, we realized the throat was almost non existent. After two years of jacking with it back and forth between two different gunsmiths that the original manufacturer paid for and two new barrels, the best we were able to get it to print was 1.25" and we tried 10 different boxes of premium factory loads in different weights and bullet types. The agg was close to 2". He finally sold the rifle.
We have over $100k of actions (our own design built for us by Stiller), barrels, stocks and all the other pieces. Unless you want a stock or barrel contour we don't have (which happens occasionally) and we have to wait the four months for McMillan or others to deliver, we can build, test and deliver a half moa hunting rifle or tactical rifle in eight weeks. And that's half moa with factory ammo - and not just match ammo but real hunting ammo. And when I say test, I mean test!!! If you think it doesn't shoot half moa with the ammo we send with it, then buy a plane ticket to Dallas. I'll pick you up at the airport, put you up at my place, cook or buy you dinner and spend a day at the range together. If I can shoot the gun to half inch, the plane ticket is on you. If I can't, plane ticket is on me and we fix the rifle.
We have over $100k of actions (our own design built for us by Stiller), barrels, stocks and all the other pieces. Unless you want a stock or barrel contour we don't have (which happens occasionally) and we have to wait the four months for McMillan or others to deliver, we can build, test and deliver a half moa hunting rifle or tactical rifle in eight weeks. And that's half moa with factory ammo - and not just match ammo but real hunting ammo. And when I say test, I mean test!!! If you think it doesn't shoot half moa with the ammo we send with it, then buy a plane ticket to Dallas. I'll pick you up at the airport, put you up at my place, cook or buy you dinner and spend a day at the range together. If I can shoot the gun to half inch, the plane ticket is on you. If I can't, plane ticket is on me and we fix the rifle.
bamadawg2009
Well-Known Member
Geez Im glad Ive never had problems like that with my smiths the first rifle I had built took all of 2 months. I've got 1 at the smith rite now, when I dropped it off I told him to take his time, he called me 3 days ago and said he would be done with it by October. He wants everything out of his shop by then so he could have all hunting season wihtout looking at a job.
Ok so here's an update. After my last post I finally got ahold of him by having to block my number like a little high schooler. That was ridiculous in itself. He told me 2 more weeks.
Called numerous times 2 weeks later and got ahold of him on the third week. He told me the gun was done and he forgot I wanted it Teflon coated. I told him not to worry about it and just send it to me. To which he responded it was shipped to the teflon guy the previous day and was another two to three weeks out. I bit my tongue and said I'd call back.
Finally got ahold of him, by blocking number again, last Monday. That was over 4 weeks from the last call. He told me the Teflon guy said another 3 months due to moving business. To which I responded "unacceptable". He said he knew I would say that (go figure) and told the guy to ship it back. I then told him to not worry about installing the rings and put it in a box as soon as he gets it and ship it to me. Talked to him yesterday, he actually called me back an hour later, and he said it would ship tomorrow.
Sooooooo.....the moment of truth is almost upon me. We will see.
Called numerous times 2 weeks later and got ahold of him on the third week. He told me the gun was done and he forgot I wanted it Teflon coated. I told him not to worry about it and just send it to me. To which he responded it was shipped to the teflon guy the previous day and was another two to three weeks out. I bit my tongue and said I'd call back.
Finally got ahold of him, by blocking number again, last Monday. That was over 4 weeks from the last call. He told me the Teflon guy said another 3 months due to moving business. To which I responded "unacceptable". He said he knew I would say that (go figure) and told the guy to ship it back. I then told him to not worry about installing the rings and put it in a box as soon as he gets it and ship it to me. Talked to him yesterday, he actually called me back an hour later, and he said it would ship tomorrow.
Sooooooo.....the moment of truth is almost upon me. We will see.
