Tools, time, money, knowledge and equipment are all things that I have lack to one degree or another in the past. No only time remains lacking for most jobs. I can do all my own stock work, most metal work, except barrel hone and choke work which I send out. My interest is more to the field grade guns than the high grade guns so my needs are often less demanding.
A loose rib repair can be fairly easy until you get into the one you expect to be easy and then it becomes like a loose thread in a sweater which unravels the whole thing. Loose ribs near the point where the fore end attaches are almost always more involved than you expect from my experience. Those near the muzzle are almost always easier.
Good gunsmiths have all the work they can do for months out in advance of your call to them. Bad ones can get you in fast and screw it up either fast or slow, as you like it. Point is that a high quality job is a job which you just send out and forgetaboutit until you get the call that it is done and on the way back to you. Regular customers get first in the line and one timers get worked in as time allows. Can not fault a smith who takes care of his regulars as long as he is fairly honest about when yours will get done and completes the job fairly close to the estimate.
I have a short list of smiths that I will use for work and just let the have the gun and tell them to call when done. As many here, I have more than one gun so one more or less is no great problem. In fact, according to my wife, I have more guns than Carter has Liver Pills. Hey, didn't they come in a bottle of 500? If so she will have to eat those words, for now at least. So many fine shooters and so little time to buy them all. To think I wasted 20 years collecting Model 70's when these doubles really were dirt cheap.
