Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Bad Experience With Classic Barrel Works

25 months ago I sent the barreled action from Gew.88 based sporting rifle, made by Otto Bock, to Danny Pedersen at Classic Barrel Works for reboring and chambering as the bore was worn out.

The e-mail link on his web site is broken, e-mail is returned undelivered.

His phone voice mail box is always full so a message cannot be left. On the very rare occasion that a message can be left on his voice mail he fails to return the call.

I fear that I may never get this rifle back.

Based on my experience I suggest any body contemplating using Classic Barrel Works and Danny Pedersen should advoid him like the plague.

Eric Easterling aka Vlad
Charlotte, NC

I would give a personal visit if it is local to you.
If thats not possible send him a registered letter explaining your wishes. This puts the ball in his court. If he still has not contacted you after a reasonable time, say 2 weeks the next step I would take is to give the local law enforcement a call and ask if they could drive by and check things out.

Call the ATF. Simple.

There are at least two sides to every story. Here is an example. http://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/2631088/page/0/fpart/1

Fellows,

Thank you for your advice. I think I will follow JN316's sugestions of the letter followed by local law enforcement. Should this fail I will then go with CWG's suggestion to contact BATFE.

Vlad

Danny only answers his phone on Fridays. Give him a call on Friday and he will usually answer. He is pretty much on the phone all day long on Fridays. Don't panic, there has got to be an explanation. He is a good guy.

He's down to a one man shop and really behind, I understand.
As dennisinaz said, "He's a good guy".
Call, leave messages, write with postal mail.

FWIW; It's been my experience that there are three kinds of jobs:

1: Good jobs
2: Cheap jobs
3: Fast jobs

I have never heard of anyone providing more than two of the three... ... Your choice! (I usually get only one of the three... ) I would doubt that a one-man shop that is any good is gonna be fast..

My way of dealing with the above, is to have enough projects going with various gunsmiths that I am constantly getting something new every few months. Just takes a bit of planning.

And yes, I will likely have something in the works when I go to my final reward... But I doubt I'll ever miss it.

YMMV...

Grasshopper

That's over two years, Guys. Two years. I doubt the smith was that far backlogged that he just hasn't gotten to it yet, and won't talk to him about it. Something's wrong with this scenario...on one end or the other.

Sir,you did confirm that your action got there two years ago..Yes? Was there a deposit made? I'm playing the devil's 'hey-boy' here,but's something's wrong in this picture?? Almost 2 years??

Danny has one of my rifles and I have no reason to believe that he is other than a good guy who is now working alone and swamped - based on the phone conversation I had with him. I've had your same experiences with attempts at contact, except he returned a call when I was able to get through to his voice mail some time ago. I sent him a snail mail 2 weeks ago as an added try, as I've not had luck getting through the last 3-4 times I've called on Fridays. I'll let you know the response I get.

Not professional enough for correspondence = not professional enough. Lots of other fine smiths that you can talk to - including a couple in this forum....

"Sir,you did confirm that your action got there two years ago..Yes? Was there a deposit made? I'm playing the devil's 'hey-boy' here,but's something's wrong in this picture?? Almost 2 years?? "

Yes, I did confirm that the barreled action was received in by Danny in January of 2007. A deposit was not made though I offered to prepay. Danny said he would accept no money until the job was completed, a risky move for a business but one I applaud. I did not keep good written records of contacts with Danny but It was probably about 10 months to a year before he even pulled the barrel. He did have to make new receiver wrench for this action due to an unusual front scope mount that was pinned to the receiver. It took Danny a while to get around to making the receiver wrench. Last contact I had with his shop was with an employee last summer? stating the barrel had been rebored and was awaiting rifeling, with others to be cut to the same caliber, which would be done when Danny got back from a safari in Africa where he was going as a guest of a customer. Since that time there has been no contact. I have left two voice mails since the last contact, one of them this year. These are the only two times that I have been able to get through to his voice mail.

I recognize that work of this nature requires time and that Danny was backed up at the time I sent the barreled action to him. I feel that I have been patient by waiting two years. The lack of responses to my request for a status update is inapropriate and unprofessional.

Eric Easterling aka Vlad

+1 Dennis.

Call him and he will explain the situation.

Vladymere, I got a call from Danny Pedersen this afternoon in response to my letter, to update me on my rifle. During the conversation, your rifle came up. If you'd like some details, please PM me. I'm pretty sure everything is OK, but he's got a big backlog doing all the work alone. As you probably know, this is not a good situation but unfortunately all too common with the 1-man operations that prevail among the custom gun trade.

Wildcatter264, PM sent. Thank you.


tomk said "Call him and he will explain the situation."

That is the primary problem. You can't get through to him. He doesn't answer his phone. Usually his voice mail box is full and you can not leave a message. The rare instance that a message can be left in his voice mail box Danny fails to respond to it. The e-mail link from his web site is broken, e-mails are returned undelivered.

I can continue waiting if I know that Danny is actualy going to work on it. I think Danny is cherry picking his work and not working on items sequence of arrival.

I can understand batching work and reboring all of those that are to be one size and then reboring those that are of another size etc., the same with cutting the rifleling, once you have a setup do all of those in that caliber. I was told previously that my barrel had been rebored and was waiting for the rifling to be recut along with others of that caliber and that Danny would get to it when he returned from safari.

All I want is a status update and ETA.

Eric Easterling

Just another reason I don't have rifles built any more.I can expect some delays with a couple of restorations I've had done and work them into the plan.But to wait 2 years on a barrel? Just not my cup of tea.
Best of luck to you and your project...rifle