Does anyone know if he will see customers on a Sunday?

Yes

Well, what'd he say??

Could not get him on the phone. Drove to his shop/home on the day before Thanksgiving, no one home.

Spent thanksgiving week hunting 75 miles away. Wanted to hold a NULA in my hands. So we took a chance and drove up.

Too bad, I'm sure you would have enjoyed him and his guns.

Very knowledgeable and can answer any question you might have, I gotta admit. I was rather disappointed in the way he handled a situation. We discussed and ordered a 260 for my son. I went through the specific break in process and went through one box of ammo when the gun would not fire when cycled. I returned it and he said the action/trigger was gummed up with cleaning solution. I had used Hoppes #9 as recommended but when the copper was slow to remove, I used wipeout, thats it. Anyway he cleaned it out and test shot it because I couldnt seem to get it to group better than 1 1/2.(which is also the reason why I tried the wipeout) Gun comes back with $100 invoice, 60 for cleaning& shooting and 40 return shipping. I called up to discuss, as I thought it was unreasonable but I would have paid it. He disagreed. He said he would not be building another gun for me. BTW, this is the second gun I ordered from him, the first was a 22lr. This had feeding problems after 1500 rounds, but seemed to work itself out after I tinkered with new magazines I bought from him. I did mail him the $100 but he returned envelope without opening.

I would guess Melvin was out at his hunting camp with his son and grandson getting ready to go hunting ......

An accumulation of wipe-out will form some crud on a trigger mechanism. Keep it in the barrel. FWIW, I had the same thing happen to a Nula with wipe-out. Difference was the firing pin on mine would drop when you took the safety off or wouldn't stay in the firing position when you opened the bolt.

Melvin is a pretty nice fellow, but like the rest of us he can get cranky.

I've yet to come across a gunsmith especially that isn't grumpy! Oh well though, I don't care if they are grumpy so long as they do good work. They aren't gonna hurt my feelers.

Yeah, Melvin can get grumpy, especially when he gets rifles back due to problems caused by the customer.

He told me the most common such problem is the rifle "not grouping" due to a scope that went bad. Often it's a brand-new scope, and the customer's convinced the problem can't be the scope because he paid XYZ dollars for it. Melvin puts on one of his test scopes and rifle shoots fine, exactly as it did when he tested it before shipping, but he just used up considerable time making sure.

When I clean a rifle with Wipe-Out, I put an empty case in the chamber to keep the stuff in the bore.

when using wipe out I put a patch over a chamber swab and put it in the chamber when shooting the wipe out in the barrel from the barrel end...this keeps it out of the action and cleans the chamber also

I have known him for several years and been in and out of his shop several times. Have seen him bit frustrated but not grumpy.
Which is more than I can say for myself.
Lefty C

I [bleep] up my stock (at the time the idea sounded great, possibly due to some dark rum and Mexican coke). Called him, told him I did something stupid,he agreed it was indeed stupid, told me to mail it back. Had it back in hand in about 10 days, repaired and looked like new. Every time I've talked to him was a pleasure.

I have a business and between the long hours, dealing with employees, dealing with insurance, dealing with a mountain of regulation and Govt. Oversight (osha, deq,e&s etc....) and dealing with customers, I find myself more and more telling people to go [bleep] themselves in as polite a way as possible/warranted.

Have heard the same treatment from others..Very grumpy at times

ive been dealing with melvin for 3 years now and i have several guns that were either made by him or rebarrel/ reworked by him. he has been great to deal with. cant say enough good about him and his work. i live in WV, about 2 hours from his shop so i am able to talk to him face to face when setting up builds, hes a super nice guy. main reason i went to him was i had a lot of disapointment in other local gunsmiths. everyone i had dealt with was a joke, one i had to get the police involed in to get my finished gun back from, 2 others ruined my guns, one triple charged me for a "rush job" when he was the one that set the finish date and arranged the pickup date/time. i was so sick of dealing with so called "gunsmiths" that i turned to melvin and im glad i did. it has been worth the extra money to deal with somebody that is quallified, competent, knowledable, and great to deal with. i plan to have another rifle built in the next week or so. the best complement i can say is repeat buisness.

I have known Melvin for 44 years, and am honored to consider him not just a superb gunmaker but a friend (although I generally see him only once a year, at the SHOT Show). I also have decades of experience dealing with various types of customers and issues with mechanical things, and I know how hard it is to please everyone. Everyone has a different level of knowledge and background relating to a real or perceived problem.

I have re-bedded and smoothed a lot of guns in the past, and most ended up pretty accurate. I have two of Melvin's rifles and a third in the works. He meets and exceeds my expectations.

I have heard it said that an unhappy customer will tell 10 people that he/she is unhappy with a particular seller and that a happy customer will tell, on average, less than 1 person that he/she had an excellent purchase experience.

I have never met Mr. Forbes, but I have spoken with him on the telephone about doing a couple of CLR/NULA hybrids and he was always helpful and polite. He even dissuaded me from doing one conversion and how many guys who are in business just for the money would do that?