I never ask a gunsmith how long it will take to do a job. I've got plenty other shotguns I can use. If I can't stand the thought of it being gone several months, I don't send it to start with.
SRH
Stan,
If your concept of a gun being at a gunsmith's shop for a long time is "several months" you have either been exceedingly lucky or you haven't sent many guns out for work.
I always ask for a completion date on projects & explain that I need it completed for a certain event i.e. season opener, shoot event, special hunt or something similar. It doesn't always work but I think it does give you a little more leverage if you have an agreed upon date & I try to allow 6 months to a year for the smith to get things done but unfortunately, getting my work done has exceeded a year on more than one occasion. That said, once you have established a relationship with a gunsmith, I've been pleasantly surprised with the quick turnaround on some of the smaller emergency type jobs but I realize its at the expense of some other poor S.O.B. that isn't getting his stuff worked on.
When the agreed upon delivery date has been exceeded by a couple of months about all you can do is politely remind the smith of the original completion date he agreed to & establish a new agreed upon completion date. Picking things up & taking them to another smith usually puts you back at the bottom of the new smith's priority list & I've never found that many really good gunsmiths that I trust to do things correctly, not bugger screws etc.
Just my $.02 worth & one of the reasons (as stated on this thread by others) that I try to do as much work on my own as I can.
