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There is a gunshop near here and has been business for 20 years. they have had a variety of Gunsmiths work there,none of which ever impressed me.

Well I have a Mdl 12 winchester that I needed to change the barrel on. I took it in thefirst part of December with a promise of having it done by christmas..I called and called after the first of the year to get it to no avai.

today I went in to the shop and picked it up undone,when asking why the owner said they coulden't get the barrel off the receiver, this is a takedown. I showed him how to get it off in about 10 seconds, I thought he was going to faint from the look on his face, it was priceless. He then asked if I still wanted him to change it. I said no of course.

Same stuff happened to me twenty years ago. I asked for a set of bases for my gun, I got my bases with a pop can shim. Now I am my own smith.

Gosh Darn. Last week I bought all the Gunsmith's Kinks Books and now I are one!!



Are Miller cans thinner than the old non-pull tab Rainier cans?

Now you are one what, a kink?

Just an observation on Kinks. There's always more than one way to skin a cat, which works best depends on who is doing the skinning. In other words which kink for a particular task depends on tools, skill level, and the way the "kinker" approaches the task. I've had some work very well, others that didn't fit my usual methods not so much.

I thought the Kinks were an awesome rock-n-roll band back in the day.

I think you are on to something.

Yea I was afraid to buy the first volumn way back when they came out, thought it was something that Larry Flynt had put together.

RE methods, yea there is a bunch of junk in the books but there are a few suitable methods hidden in all the pages. Just keep the skinning knife sharp!

Most "smiths" in my area simply put new parts on. Heven help them if they need to make something. I learned long ago that I can do most of the work on a gun and if I can't figure it out there is usually a book - or today a web page - that will tell me how.I have found that most of the 'warnings" are more libality statements. Besides it's fun.

i live in wa state and need a good smith for shotgun and rifle stuff, any advice?

More really good smiths in Wash State than about anywhere.

The Mod 12 requires special tools and reamers to fit up another barrel from another gun. When changing out a barrel you need to have a headspace gage and the reamers to fit up a new headspace ring in the receiver. There is some adjustment on the old barrel, but most are not easy to fit on another gun. We had all the necessary tools and this was not a time consuming job. Try to find a special shop to do this change over to be safe. I dought the shop where you went had the proper tools or the know how. Look for some of the older gunsmiths and ask if they have tools and reamers to fit a Mod. 12 extra barrel. I wish I had a copy of the original shop manual for gunsmithing on these old shotguns. Look around on the internet and see if someone has a copy to view.