Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing The longest time you had to wait for your gunsmith?

My gunsmith has had 2 of my rifles going on 19 months. One is a rebarrel & bedding. The other has cycling problems.
What is the longest you have had to wait?

I think I'd be taking a visit and picking up my rifles from him

I have a few that I use and they let me reserve a place in line. If a barrel is starting to go south I call and get my spot reserved. Two weeks before my turn he calls and I send my barreled action and a new blank. Door to door about 3 weeks. I can't tolerate being on "gunsmith time", (one week = one month)

Might ask if you owe for storage fees while your at it . . .

That sounds like a good idea. I'm betting that the ones who would hang on to your gun for two years wouldn't even consider that system, simple as it may be.

Longest I've waited is 6 months and the guy I'm currently using usually gets stuff out in a couple weeks to a month.

Five years ago I would drive for an hour or more to a 2 man shop in the middle no where.
They would often take 6 months but it was worth the wait.

I knew a gunsmith in PA that often told me that the night before
buck season someone would show up with a rifle that they were
going to use the next day that would be broken or missing parts
and when he told them it couldnt be done that night, more than
once guys would storm out of his shop cursing. He would also
get guys come in with old obsolete guns that they wanted restored
because they got it for almost nothing. Told several of them
to just hang them on the wall and save their money.

A year or so on a couple of my revolver builds.

Agreed. I know one specialty gunsmith who currently quotes an eight month wait. You give him a small deposit and get your place in line. He notifies you when your turn is coming up, and you send him your rifle. Has an excellent reputation, both for his work and sticking to his stated time frame.

I recently suggested something like that to another 'smith who quoted six months, and he basically responded that it would be too much trouble to keep track of. Said he doesn't even open the shipping box until he is ready to work on a rifle.

I find it hard to believe that a gunsmith would want all those guns lying around taking up space while presenting a liability for loss or damage, but that seems to be SOP in the trade.

Paul

Im sending some emails out to some smiths for a time and money estimates. Normally the guy I use is 2-3 months. I wouldn't of minded so much if he would of told me in advance that it could possibly take this long. 1/2 this time is painful enough.

Just realized that I am going on a year for some scope bases.

Last Tuesday a buddy and I took his remington M700 and a Krieger barrel to a gunsmith a couple of hours away. He called Friday morning and said it's done. This gunsmith is an accuracy fanatic that a lot of guys in the benchrest world would recognize, I can't think of anyone I'd pick over him to work on a M700. I'm not going to mention his name because he's retired and doesn't want to work on rifles full time, but it just goes to show how ridiculous it is that a lot of these gunsmiths can't manage their workload in a timely manner when this fellow can turn out a high quality rebarrel job in under three days.

I've heard it said that many gunsmiths are terrible time managers and I think it's true to an extent. Many of them are constantly broke despite having months of backlogs worth of business. I realize you don't go into gunsmithing to get rich, but a guy who can turn out top quality work should be able to live a VERY comfortable life from his shop. There's no excuse for someone with a six month backlog of work to not be able to pay their bills. I think a lot of these guys suffer from a lack of ability to focus, they're more interested in BS'ing than actually working on guns.

The problem is two fold. First, there is way to much demand for competent gunsmithing. Secondly, many excellent gunsmiths (along with many other talented tradesmen) are not good businessmen. I'm afraid it's not going to get better soon.

Fortunately for me, the gunsmith that I use is prompt, very good at what he does and apparently reasonably prosperous, judging from his home and shop. He is also young enough that I will very likely be dead or incapacitated before he retires.

I made the mistake of telling my gunsmith "no hurry" and he believed me....

He had an action that was supposed to get a barrel on it for about 9 months, when I checked in and he hadn't ordered the barrel yet. He apologized, and I sent him payment for the barrel and I had the barreled action in my hands about 8 weeks later.

I would have no problems using him again, but I'll never tell a gunsmith "no hurry" ever again!

greg tannel usually has a 1 year wait

The real problem is with the guys that also sell guns and they're a one man show. Customers love to BS in long periods at a gun shop. Then there's the 20 guys that show up the week or day before opening day with their Rem 742's.

Five years -- had the barrel to make a 7 mm out of a .257 and claimed my FIL never said "Go". Bobby Pitchford fixed me up in around six months, and he is very busy. The old 'smith enjoyed holding court...

I got on his list early last spring, and dropped off my pieces to him a couple weeks ago. That way he has them when he is ready, because my turn is coming up soon.

Very true. A high school classmate of mine went to Colorado School of Trades. Upon graduation he and his dad opened a small shop in a small town - a fair sampling of guns, general 'smithing and repair, and the odd custom gun. All was well when dad was alive - he handled the BSer's. After his dad passed, my buddy changed the store hours. He opened early 2 days a week, and was only open to the public 'til about 10am; he stayed late one night a week, but didn't open to the public until 3pm or so. His wife dropped him off and picked him up so curious customer's didn't know if he was around. All calls went to answering machine and he responded during his 'open hours'. From Dec thru June he had a huge flashing sign out front telling folks 24 hrs a day, to get there guns in for repair before the various seasons opened. He took on no work between Oct 1st and Thanksgiving. I remember seeing guys lining up outside the door at 6:30am before their factory shift started to drop-off work the last days of Sept.
Once I asked him where he came up with the idea. He said that he had an instructor at CST that harped on the fact that if you can't complete work, you can't get paid, or pay the bills, and it was one of his (CST instructor's) ideas. He couldn't get the idea past his dad, but that changed.
He later sold his business and now 'sub-contracts' work from various other small shops. He still doesn't permit visitors during his work hours. Each of his customer's has a specified time during the week to drop off and pick up work.