Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Gunsmith Rant

I most likely missed the golden age of Gunsmiths doing actual Gunsmithing, given my relatively young age.

BUT, I live in a heavily populated area, in a reasonably gun-friendly location... and for the life of me, I CAN NOT find gunsmiths willing to do anything more than put glocks, or ARs or some other 'lego kit' gun together.

Took me almost 2 years to find one that was willing to even try and repair a hammer and trigger for my H&R 195 pistol. And only because he could do it by hand mostly and didn't need to rely on his clapped out milling machine. Which, takes me to the second issue of every gunsmith having clapped out machines that can't hold tolerances - or super small lathes that barely fit tiny barrels. Yes I know machines are expensive.

I understand that the smithing part of gunsmithing is hard, not everyone wants to spend all day checkering stocks, reprofiling old parts/making new ones, or relining barrels.... but the sheer number of what I consider to be incompetent gunsmiths who just assemble modern plug-n-play firearms, and wont touch anything that requires even small amounts of custom work is maddening to me. I have reached out to every 'gunsmith' I can find listed, or have been refereed to locally. Somewhere around thirty to forty.


Still looking to get some parts reblued, still looking to get four holes indexed and drilled properly, still looking for barrel fluting....

So, thankfully I know a good machinist for the last two.

Checkering is gonna be a whole new level of searching, and most likely not gonna be local I bet...

The woods are full of them.

Wish I was in the woods....

I'm glad i learned from some good ones

Time is money. If you have the money, someone will do it. I'm sure there are some out there yet, but they gotta eat and feed family. Quick, easy bucks are the order of the day anymore. Inflation is under 7 % you know. (Cough!)

You can't pay me enough to hand-checker a stock anymore - even if I was decent at it, which I am not. Anymore, if I am re-finishing one of my stocks (only person I'll work for!), I just take the checkering off, unless it's in very good shape. Slimmer stocks work for me anyway!

It's a fuggin handle on a fuggin tool.

YMMV- and you are welcome to it. Good luck on your quest.

Where are you located?

It's frustrating.

Too bad Toyota doesn't make guns.

then the actions would rust out

Can't help with the gunsmith situation, but research Sean
Rowland for the checkering. His stock building and checkering skills are perfection.
He can be found on Facebook. His business is called Stockworks.

The woods I'm speaking of are the woods of the gunsmiths you're speaking of.

I don't know where you are, but I can recommend two good ones: Robert Parker, Parker Arms in Wheat Ridge Colorado and Pete Hubbard, Homeland Gunsmithing in Kiowa Colorado.

minnesota

I've seen many shingles nailed on doors that read, " I r a gunsmiff". You have to sift through them to find the good ones. State your location and whether you're willing to ship. We can help you find the good ones.

Thanks, will do.

Jim Kobe, enough said. 😉

Ahlman's in Morristown does very good work including very nice bluing and actual real gunsmithing.

https://ahlmans.com/gunsmithing.html

Sounds familiar. In my neck of the woods 2 outstanding gunsmiths within a 1/2 hour of me have retired. The nerve of some people...

The closest gunsmith that I trust is now 4 hours away and he's world class. Problem is, he'll be retiring soon as well. Crap.

Generally one must either do everything that comes in decently enough to get it working and look passable, and do it fast.

Or specialize in one area and do it very well. Accuracy guys usually fit this category.

Or finally, have a wife who is a doctor or lawyer or real estate magnate, do outstanding artistic level work, get it done when you get it done, and cater to the big money crowd after you’ve made a name for yourself when someone of note discovers your work.

Making a living as a general gunsmith isn’t easy. There’s always some guy with no tools or machinery coming in wanting you to do something quick and cheap and he always says the same thing when you quote him a price. “How much? All you have to do is…..”.
That or people want PeePaw’s cheap 22 or shotgun fixed for nearly free.

one hour from my place near a main hi-way near ST. Cloud,MN. airport there is a very fine younger gunsmith called Stu`s Gunsmithing .one of the finest small shop machinist Greg Walstrom is 15 Minutes from me who does plenty building of new bench rest rifles and installing ,chambering ,machining new barrels on rifles . i feel very fortunate to have these 2 professionals so close. its part of the reason i have so many newer barrels on my rifles.

We had very fine gunsmith here, but he got some investors and started a big indoor shooting facility, plus selling firearm and having a squad of gunsmiths. Now he doesn't' touch a firearm .

Their work is not bad, but nothing to brag about and if you take a firearm in to only have them look at it, it cost $75 at least and you never get to talk to the guy that is doing the work .