Hey guys. I'm looking for a little advice.

At the beginning of the year I sent a Stevens 200 action off to a gunsmith/builder that does a lot of work with savages to get blueprinted. I paid the money for the service at the same time.

In that time I have heard from the builder one time and that was over a month ago. I asked for an update and he said that my action was done and that I should receive it soon. Again that was over a month ago and have not yet received the action or have I received any other communication from the builder. I have tried emailing him, PMing him on forums that he is a member of, calling him and no matter what I try I can not get a response from the guy.

If he was local I would just go to his shop but I live in Oklahoma and his shop is in SD.

I have tried calling the local sheriff and they apologized but said all the could do is server him papers if I took him to court (which I'm considering).

Does anyone have any advice?

Brandon

He's probably out hunting, post the city and maybe a fire member will go by his place and check for you.

Mike

That would be Watertown SD. I would rather not post any of his personal information in the posting.

If someone is willing to help, PM me and I will send what I know.

Thanks

-Brandon

Good call a friendly visit to check on him wouldn't be out of order, he may have health issues, be hunting, be typical gunsmith! (operate in a 3 foot world) Who knows.

Hope it turns out well, what are you going to build?

Welcome to the Fire!


Mike

I am hoping it is something like that. I guess time will tell.

I'm building a 243 AI for my wife. That's the plan anyway. :-)

-Brandon

Cool

I did a .338-06 on a Stevens 200, good starting point for sure, wish I had a couple more around I plan on checking the local shops after deer season to see if I can snag a couple cheap.

Mike

I have been looking for another one to build a 22-250 for my daughter. I think the secret is out on them because the ones I find locally, which aren't many, have doubled in price over the last couple years. I paid 200 for my first one. All the ones I have found lately are anywhere from 350 up to 500. But it is right before deer season though. I will have to
see what I can find after the first of the year. I wouldn't mind having a couple laying around either. Might have to get a bigger gun safe, though. Oh darn :-)

Whatever a gunsmith says multiply by 4 then add 1 month....

I'm trying to understand why you need to have a Savage action blueprinted. I've built quite a few rifles on Savage/Stevens actions. Never blueprinted one, and all of them were tack driving machines.

Not sure if he got word I was asking around or what, but when I get home from work last night I had received the action in the mail. And to the gentleman's credit, the machine work looks great. The guy is just slow and doesn't communicate very well. I'm new to this so that might be normal, I'm really not sure.

I guess the real test will be when I get a barrel put on it...

Kelly,

I wasn't going to have it blueprinted but I had found this guy doing a sale on the blueprinting and I looked him up and found that he had a reputation for doing good work so I had it done. I figured for the price it was "Cheap insurance".

One thing I will say is that before the blue printing the recoil lugs were only making about 30% contact. Now they are at 100%.

I had a real misadventure several years ago, there was a firm that had a good reputation for installing rifled barrels on shotguns, this was long before they were offered by the factory. They had been written up in many of the outdoor magazines so I figured they were a reputable firm to do business with. I packed up my shotgun along with the required funds and sent it to them, promised delivery at the time was six months. You guessed it, six months go by and no shotgun so I wait patiently another sixty days before contacting them to inquire about delivery. One year turned into two years, lots of promises, your shotgun is at the bluer, etc.. Then calls went unanswered for a long time, when I was able to get someone to answer it was the guys mother with more excuses. After two plus years I had enough and contacted the State Attorney General's office, they had multiple complaints similar to mine and were putting together a class action suit against the guy to try to recover customers money and guns. This dragged on for another eighteen months or so, then one day my gunsmith called to say that he had received a package from the firm. When I opened the package, inside was my original package that had never been opened. The shotgun had never been removed from the package much less had the promised barrel installed. I never got my money back but was happy enough to have my shotgun back. After that experience, I get multiple references when considering a gunsmith, I contact these people and question especially regarding delivery, communication and overall experience before making a selection. There are some gunsmiths with national reputations for their work who are just not good business men, just because they have big reputations for their work or are members of the gunsmith guild does not guarantee you will have a satisfactory experience. Due diligence in checking them out is always necessary, talk to as many former clients about their experience before making your selection.

The reason I questioned it is that Savage actions have a floating bolt head so there isn't a need to face the action. Lug contact is a different matter though. Does that lighten the bolt lift, or make it heavier?

This, in my experiance, is typical.

If you ever find one who will do what he says he will do (time frames)...hold on to him.

Your first mistake may have been to pay up front.

One of a very few business that get that kind of leaway.

In the construction business, late work costs the contractor!

Had a slow gunsmith once, when i finally called he was recovering from a five way heart bypass. I told him to finish it whenever he chose to. It showed up some time later with a sincere note of appreciation.

Paragraph breaks, check them out.

Well, not much luck with 60% of the gunsmiths I've used, the other 40% were not only good, they were great. I am currently completely stumped as the two good ones I used are retired or unavailable.

Wanna talk about taxidermists?

Now HERE is trouble with a gunsmith:

http://www.waguns.org/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=59844&hilit=Mike+Palazzo

I had one of them Israeli Arms Pump 357 rifles that I took to a gunsmith to have d&t for a scout scope mount. He buggered up all the holes so bad he had to epoxy the mounts on. I figured it out right away but he did nothing to make it right. I sold it at a $400 loss.

That sounds like a Russco special.

I lucked out .. the other shops warned me before I had him do any work. The said one crappy gunsmith in town could keep all the other gunsmiths in business just fixing his mistakes.

It was no exaggeration.

Tom, where the heck is a good gunsmith in our area?

I took a rifle to him. Bud Hopson's shop was closed at the time. I fell and broke the screws off holding the mounts on. It took him about a year before I received the rifle back. When I did, the barrel was worse than hand tight. It was loose! I tightened it with a pipe wrench so folks at the range would notice the gouges in the barrel. When they asked about it, I told them which 'smith did it.

Eventually I had good ol' Bud Hopson put a new barrel on it.

The situations has changed a lot in the last year. One of the two gunsmiths I used is not doing general gunsmithing now, just building custom rifles and manufacturing. The other was changing to a different line of work and I think gave up his FFL.

I need to talk to them to see where the lines are drawn, what their definitions are.

Two that I know are still working are Ed Boening (kinda by Blackbird / across from BiMart on West Main in medford) and Val Albert (I think in the Vilas Road area towards Central point ... vaguely) I'm not aware of anyone in Grants Pass right now.

In the 80s I had work done by Bud, by George Long, and by Dick Wall.

I think there is a shop or a 'smith out by Murphy but I've never been to it. Talked to them on the phone once about a gun I was looking for. I don't know if that was Chick Donnelly's outfit or not.

10 years ago we had gunsmiths and shops all over, all the sudden the well is pretty dry.

There is a new 'smith in Grants Pass. I met him at the range, but other than that I don't know him or his work. His address is 124 north "D". When I work up the nerve I will take something for him to look at.

I'm getting ready to try one down here in Sacramento who comes highly recommended. Not exactly your neck of the woods but closer than others on this forum. I'll report the results.

I cannot recommend this gunsmith. I found his knowledge to be woefully lacking. It was downright embarrassing to hear him going on... PM if you want details.