Hi all, just for fun here. What are some of your shake your head gunsmithing projects that you've had done to some of your doubles. Don't want to drag up any painful memories, just some that had you shaking your head.

I have two.

The first was when I had a guy recommended to me for stock refinishing. Well sent the gun off (it was a 12b hammergun, I still have)got a call saying the oil soaked forearm was beyond help and he could make me a new one. Okay go ahead, got the gun back, the forearm looked like the slide off a pumpgun with really crude checkering. It looked terrible. Had to send it off to a real gunsmith to have a new one fitted. Oh, the stock finish BTW just came off, not dried nor would it dry, you could take you hand and just wipe it off. Had it refinished again!

The second one was I wanted a recoil pad put on to extend the LOP, well the recoil pad with spacers was close to 4" long and get this, glued on to the stock, no screws, needless to say, it came off and had the job done right by someone else.

And yours?

Best!

Greg

Oh, gosh, here we go.

I had two Winchester 23s that were choked M/F. I wanted Skt/Skt and took the guns to a nationally recognized barrel guy. That's four barrels. When they came back, one of the barrels had never been touched. Another had the reamer only run part way through so as to leave a sharp shoulder with 90 degree corners midway through the choke. By rights he should have made the work right, but how smart would it be to give the guy another crack at the guns?

I took a gun to a local to check out the chamber length and he must have been as blind as Mr. Magoo-I watched him scratch the outside of a barrel when he somehow missed the chamber and put a scratch on the outside of the right barrel with the chamber gauge.

I bought a gun and when I tore it apart (A&D boxlock) to see why it wouldn't cock I found an orphan top lever spring squeezed into the action as a hammer spring.

Of course that gun had also been "professionally" finished with GunKote (glorified spray paint) over top of pits so bad I had to take all the engraving off the action to get rid of them.

CHAZ

Took a beautiful 30" Miroku field gun in for a new pad and it came back with ported barrels. I hate ported barrels.

I have a baggo stories, but they're no fun to tell if I can't mention names, and I won't do that.

Please no names!

Actually Greg names should be mentioned to spare future people the heartache of having their gun ruined by a nitwit.

I took my Greener in to be rejointed. While there, I asked the gunsmith to have several replacement screws engraved to match others on the gun. He rejointed the gun perfectly. He also used the narrow edge of a mill file to cut three more wide slots in each head to make a sort of star pattern. Fugly!! I ended up making new screws and engraving them myself. He was a good machinist but a bit heavy handed on the finishing side.

I have seen that done and was not impressed.

The problem with nameing names is it can really open a can of worms, both legal and not. I may think so and so is rotton, but someone else thinks he's great.

Better to use the PM system.

Best!

Greg

There are two nationally known gunsmiths, revered by many on here, that I will never use again because they screwed up a couple of my nicer guns. One is not repairable, in any practical sense. The Miroku was screwed up by a local guy, but I still use him.

Sent a gun back to the maker to have new upgraded wood put on it. While there they reblued the gun which had been blued just a month earlier with a very deep black high shine. Factory was black like old blacktop. Looked almost grey. I was not a happy camper.

Had one gunsmith loose my gun in his shop. I ended up waiting months extra. In the end I helped him find my gun. No joke he never put a name or work order tag on a gun. He had 200-300 plus stored in his loft. Some I suspect were there for years. Mine left with me.

There's nothing wrong with using names provided what you write is the truth.


I think people just like to not use names because it makes them sound sophisticated.

I left a drilling with a Top Tier Gunsmith, we went over it together. The barrels were to be refinished, rejointed, two buggered screws replaced, and a firing pin replaced. When I picked up the gun all of the aforementioned was done to a very high standard; except the Horn Buttplate had been replaced with a Pachmayer Old English Pad. Maybe his shop cat ate the Horn Buttplate ??

Or maybe shop mice, Rockie.

A friend told me a story about a sxs taken to a local smith for repair. The gun had the gas relief slots you sometimes see in the breech. The gunsmith, in addition to accomplishing the requested repair, filled the gas relief slots with solder. Said they didn't belong there.

Polishing off the patina of a classic double on the wire wheel! Done as a gratis "service" to the client when the barrels were to be blued.

Ever since then I write a list, in capital red letters, of things NOT to be done.

A fellow and his wife stopped in town and called to see if they could come by the shop. This is a fairly common event during summer season.

"I've read your articles for years, love your work," he said over the phone, "Would love to see the guns."

They came by, I showed them several finished guns, some projects in various stages, my own and customers.

Sitting at my workbench talking, the attractive and genuinely interested wife is conversational but deferring to his lead. I've got a sidelock in the bench vise that I'm stocking with a juice piece of walnut. Rasp and plane on the bench, saw dust and wood shavings on the floor. .

Hubby going on about how well my guns balance, how nicely they are checkered, finished, engraved...He Really likes the stuff.

"But there is one thing I just don't understand, I've always wanted to ask" He says, "I just don't understand why they cost so much money?"

I pause, don't know what to say...

Out of the blue the wife smacks him on the shoulder with the back of her hand and says, "Can't you see Honey, He's making them by hand!"

Never underestimate a creative mind. You can never think of everything to tell them not to be done. "you never told me not to flare the muzzles like a blunderbluss!"

Duh. And when nitwit files for damages to reputation & income will the shxxhouse lawyer caugh up $ to help with your defense costs? It's comical, someone using initals & vague location is first to write that nitwit names should be disclosed.

Nitro, the OP (Greg) and J.R.B are friends in real life and live relatively close to each other. One was just ribbing the other.

Thanks canvas. That we are. I kind of chuckled at the location comment. I guess we should all post a map showing where we live. As to initials, so what?

Anyway, some good stories!

Thanks all!

Greg

Thanks canvasback, you saved my temper from hitting the berserk level. Maybe Nitro will realize that even a fish wouldn't get caught if it didn't open its mouth.

Nah, he won't, Joel. Can a leopard change his spots? This is his M.O.

SRH

it has been my experience, that when dealing with double gun smiths, age and experience is far more valuable than youth and education.

It has been my experience that once a gunsmith hits about 70 - 75 years his patience to do a very good job is gone as are his eyes and steady hand and that comes from experience with 3 such smiths in my vicinity.

Probably at age 70, he realizes that most clients don't notice if all the screws are registered properly after working on the gun. And taking down and reassembling a double 10 times to get some sear/cocking lever problem really timed right isn't understood by a bubba client who wants to hunt with grandpa's "priceless" Nitro Express.
I'm getting to the Grumpy Old Fart stage myself.

Yet another instance in which the wife was clearly smarter than the husband and probably spends way too much of her time making him think she isn't. And where the husband would have done better keeping his mouth shut.

But, to be fair, unless and until one gets into dealing with top-end materials and skilled hand work in any field, one doesn't have any real idea how much this stuff costs. And then there's the years of being underpaid while gaining experience, the limited number of people with the skill set, and the cost of keeping the doors open.

I had my grandfather's Beretta 410E to a smith last year for an overhaul after several generations of hard use.

The gun was sent for a new stock by one of this country's better known stockers; instructions were that the wood need not be fancy, but I wanted the lines and chequering pattern replicated.

The stock came back needing the circular sander marks sanded out and lots more oiling and finishing; the chequering pattern was nothing like the original.

It's not really a horror story, but I will never recommend Kevin Wright for stock work to anyone...