Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing What happens when you take it to Bubba

Obviously, neither does that guy!

Hey, if it wasn�t for guys like this all of us would have less work.

Gentlemen:

I doubt that you have seen a finer example of the gunsmith's art than the photo of a SMLE that I provide below...

If you have, please post pictures, because right now I think I have a photo of the most "Bubba'ed" rifle I've seen...

I shudder to think that there are worse!

John

[img][IMG]http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e47/meplat/Bubba_scope_mount.jpg[/img][/img]

I didn�t know that NAPA auto parts still made scope rings!

wow, that's a great pic!! I'm saving that.

Easy Rick, I choked on that one!

... and they fit both 1 inch and 30mm!

"Smellies" are not pretty to start with, but this is an ugly thing to do to a war veteran!

John

Well there are. I don't have a photo to show you so I will describe it. It too was a SMLE. The customer called and said he couldn't get his scope aligned. I said to bring it in and I would see what I could do.

He showed up with an SMLE that had a piece of angle welded to the receiver and 2 "U" bolts holding the scope in place. I couldn't help it, I immediately burst out laughing. Later my wife told me I was ignorant for laughing at the customer. It was one of those uncontrollable laughing spells. I was still laughing when he slammed the door and drove away.

The guy was a real craftsman. The edges of the angle were ground smooth, even the accidental grinding marks on the stock and the receiver looked like they served a purpose. I could see he gave it a lot of thought. I mean, you don't do something like on a seconds notice and NOT chip the slag from the weld!

Hey, Boresnake...too bad we can�t post the pictures of the butcher job done by that infamous AR moderator �Bubba� without getting someone else in trouble!

Reminds me of a Clint Eastwood saying in The Outlaw Josey Wales " A mans got to know his limitations". I had a SMLE for a while that someone had tried to drill and tap. Only had 2 screws holding the mount, the other 2 had coatwire stuck in them as filler because they were out of line and spaced wrong.

I really appreciate you guys showing pictures like this cause it makes me feel so much better about my work. I know that I'm a "Bubba". That is why I pretty much won't work on anyone elses firearms except mine. Unless I have done the same job several times on my rifles and know that I can do a good job. Makes for a slow learning curve though.

Dave.

I've seen some of that moderator's work and this Rem ain't much worse. There's a reason he's called Bubba! A couple years ago a guy brought in one of his Bubba special big-bores. It feed fine as long as you counted hitting the bolt handle with the palm of your hand repeatedly fine, lol. The scope base holes were almost on center but pointing in different directions. The three position safety was installed using a dremel tool, or something similar, for darn sure it weren't no mill. The guy said he didn't want to bring it up with him because he was easily offended. Anyone that turned out that kind of work needs to be offended. Interesting that he doesn't have an FFL. That sort of thing was frowned upon when I was smithing.

Well, I have to admit that angle iron WELDED to a receiver beats my picture of Philips screws and gear clamps... so take a picture next time!

I'll bet we could put together a great "Rogue's Gallery" of fine gunsmithing pictures here...

John

look on the bright side, you probably never have to worry about anyone stealing that rifle.

Now here is the voice of reason. Would you really call the BATF over a mistake made in a piece of metal?

And to the others who suggested putting the persons head in a vise. Would you really do violence to a person over this?

This is just a mechanical matter than can be corrected with money. Stay calm.

So, you advocate breaking the law? These guys in most instances give us all a bad name, not only via customers but from the gov't itself.. Plus, they don't carry the required insurance, obtain the necessary licenses and risk injury to the owners via sloppy and/or ill-advised work.. For 1/10th the cost, these yahoos set up 'shop'... Competition's fine as long as it's legal competition..

I haven't called in yet, probably won't ever and certainly wouldn't over something silly like this.. Heck, guys like this help keep us full-timers in business... Besides, the BATFE has more important things on their list than a small-time 'smith'..

Unfortunately, whenever some knuckle-dragger does ANYTHING involving a firearm it always seems to have a way of coming back and biting the rear-end of just about every gun owner and legitimate gun business when we all get painted with the same broad brush strokes by law makers and the media.

Sometimes it pays off to clean our own houses rather than waiting for congress to clean it for us. Gun laws were written intentionally to include LOTS of grey-areas so congress and the courts would have room to play with their crayons. Just my opinion.

In almost all instances well regulated industry becomes accepted as "free enterprise". Governmental regulation is first resisted, then accepted, then welcomed, then utilized as a means of limiting competition. In this instance, anyone who is not an FFL holder is labeled a "hack". This in spite of the fact that many non-FFL holders are incredibly competent if not gifted gunsmiths. In some areas of the northwest especially, resistance to Washington's restrictions is an acceptable, even desirable lifestyle choice!
Do I advocate breaking the law? Sometimes, you're damn right I do! Some laws need to be broken. Some laws are unjust, some are immoral.
I'm taking your word for it that failing to obtain the FFL will reduce costs by 90%. Seems a little extreme to me. Do the machinery manufacturers offer major discounts to non FFL holders? I don't think so. I'm sure they pay the same for lathes, milling machines, reamers, etc. that everyone else does.
The other point which has to be made is that the posession of any piece of paper does not insure competence. That is why we have architects who design collapsing buildings, surgeons who kill patients, dentists who pull the wrong tooth, and licenced gunsmiths who screw up rifles. There are FFL holding "gunsmiths" who do not have proper equipment nor the ability to use it if they did.
If a person is inept, it matters not whether he is licenced. In this case he may or may not have been licenced but he was surely having a tough time lining up some holes! GD

To become an ffl, my understanding is you need a workshop of somesort, a fairly clean history and money.

FFL�s are not expensive to obtain (PITA, yes, but not expensive)...and obtaining one certainly doesn�t equate to competence on the part of the licensee anymore than owning a set of Brownells screw drivers and a vice makes one a gunsmith.

When and if the ATF raids a gun business one of the first things to take place is the confiscation of ALL weapons on the premises, and good luck trying to get them back. That�s something for every prospective customer to consider should they decide to send their prized firearm to someone who does not hold the required federal and state licenses.

Civil disobedience is a wonderful thing...as long as those who choose to practice it are fully aware of the likely consequences should they piss on the wrong pair of shoes!

Just to be clear. I recommend anybody gunsmithing in the United States should get an FFL and operate according to the laws. However, I don't believe in being an informer unless I deem it necessary. Making things easier for the BATF isn't high on my list.
Nazi Germany produced a generation of informers and I don't believe it was a positive social experiment!
I'm sorry to have led this thread, started by JKob to show us something amusing and of interest to us, down the path of political discussion. My bad, as the kids say. GD

Now, just what the phuque does this have to do with my original post. We saw what Bubba did and it ain't the guy you referred to earlier. It was simply an example of someone working at a job at about 150% of their capacity.

Let it die.

Jim