what is appropriate ETA for this job?

**Franky4Fingers** · June 6th, 2011, 10:48 PM

I gave a smith my pistol to get the slide blued. Its a .22lr so its one of those half-slide deals, its not the whole top of the gun like a center fire. Plus, I also wanted him to replace the spring for the hammer.

I gave it to him in March.....I think. I honestly can't remember exactly (possibly February)...it was still cold, I know that. As I was walking out the door he said "oh, by the way that should be done around May".. Im like "WHAT!?!?!?!?!?!?"( I thought, WTF, you importing the shit from Mars, or what?) I walked back to the counter and honestly thought whether or not to leave it there. I said, why does it take so long? he said, he likes to get a big batch before doing one, and he said he had a bunch of guns in the back already waiting to be done. Which obviously means there have been people waiting longer than me for who knows how long. So then I said, well how about you call me when your going to do it and I'll bring it over so that way I can still shoot it. He said thats not a good idea because he does this stuff on the fly and he'll decide at 3AM to do it on a certain day and thats when he'll do it. So, I said, alright...I'll leave it here.

Now its June and I still have no call. I'm going over there tomorrow and getting the damn gun back.

Am I being unreasonable?

**red dog** · June 7th, 2011, 05:25 AM

no not unreasonable at all. keep in mind a good shop will be swamped with work, but he should be able to give a more accurate time line for work being done. as far as doing this kind of work in a batch per say it is the most economical method for the smith so you can't really blame them. not to mention it's a pain in the ass dirty, hazzardous, smelly, hot job. once and done for awhile is how i'd do it myself. good luck with your project, red dog

**RobW** · June 7th, 2011, 11:47 AM

In my experience, there is nothing unusual about your gunsmith's rather imprecise accounting for time. In gunsmith talk days=weeks, weeks=months, months=years. Common to the point of being cliche.

I have a shotgun with a Long Island gunsmith that I dropped off for a custom stock fitting the year before I moved . That was NINE years ago! Last time I talked to him, he said "I haven't had a chance to get to it yet" with a straight face. Really?

**Franky4Fingers** · June 7th, 2011, 01:24 PM

I'm wondering if this is just one of those things that being they are a rare breed, they can get away with it due to no one else is really pushing the envelope for competition.

I dropped a gun off once to another shop, he had it 9 months and the gun was never worked on. He did clean it up damn nice though, I'll give him that.

Then I took the same gun to anther shop about a half hours drive away, expecting it to be another nine months, the guy had it done in about a week. And he apologized for it taking that long. So, once I go get this gun today, I'm going to see if that previous smith will be willing to do some work, he sounds reasonable.

I know in my heart this is a shitty, shotty way of doing business...but what I wanted to know is if this behavior is common across the board. If it is, which it does seem so...looks like another chalk up for "weird" gun people................god damn it

**cdi** · June 7th, 2011, 03:43 PM

That kind of turnaround time is unacceptable- period.
Turnaround should be 2-4 weeks for a local shop.

**johnfritz** · June 7th, 2011, 04:32 PM

I gave my LGS a 1911 for a mainspring housing replacement and a 3rd generation Smith for a recoil spring replacement. Bear in mind, this is only a "take the old one out and put the new one in" kind of job. No custom fitting. No fabrication. Only reason I didn't do it myself is because I got to talking with this guy and wanted to try him out and see how he did.

It's coming up on four weeks here pretty soon since I dropped off my guns and I hadn't heard anything yet. So I called this morning and asked what's up. Got told they were "working on it". OK. Then I asked how much longer it would be and was told that they would "give me a call when it was done".

Longggg silence.

I was going to ask my question a second time since it hadn't been answered at that point but instead I just said OK, bye, and made the decision to no longer be a customer after this repair was completed. It's a shame, I like this guy and his shop and he's been around forever. Which might actually explain his indifferent attitude.

When I finally get "the call", I'll go pick up my guns and be done. How much you want to bet it'll be pricey too...

**Gun Bowanna** · June 7th, 2011, 05:35 PM

Originally Posted by RobW

In gunsmith talk days=weeks, weeks=months, months=years. Common to the point of being cliche.

I'll second this.

It's especially true if he works alone.

**Franky4Fingers** · June 7th, 2011, 05:50 PM

I just went over. I'll make this short as possible.

I asked for the gun, but he said it was stripped down, including blueing stripped off the old slide. So I opted to leave it there. He tried to turn things around on me like I was being unreasonable for going over and asking for the gun back. For instance, he said he got the spring replaced ASAP because I said it needed to be done....which is true, but what that has to do with the situation at hand I have no clue. Then he said it would have been blued but hes waiting for more of a batch before he starts it. I didn't quite understand that one either, but whatever.

The way I figure it, this guy blues 1-2 times a year. Thats unbelievable and unacceptable for someone that advertises in the paper alot that he does this shit all the time and he can make your gun look and work like new (yeah, if your willing to wait a year). If your not going to do a job in a reasonable amount of time then don't accept it. As the old saying goes, if you can't do something right, don't do it at all.

I asked when it would be done, he said about 2-3 weeks and that he'll call me.

**normanvin** · June 7th, 2011, 05:59 PM

Just my two cents.

Some one who decides to accept the job you requested should at the last be able to give a reasonable guess on how much the job will cost and when the job should be completed.

9 years to get a stock refitted? It must be one hell of a shotgun to let it rid for 9 years. In 9 years styles change interest also change, people die.

**normanvin** · June 7th, 2011, 06:02 PM

Originally Posted by Franky4Fingers

I just went over. I'll make this short as possible.

I asked for the gun, but he said it was stripped down, including blueing stripped off the old slide. So I opted to leave it there. He tried to turn things around on me like I was being unreasonable for going over and asking for the gun back. For instance, he said he got the spring replaced ASAP because I said it needed to be done....which is true, but what that has to do with the situation at hand I have no clue. Then he said it would have been blued but hes waiting for more of a batch before he starts it. I didn't quite understand that one either, but whatever.

The way I figure it, this guy blues 1-2 times a year. Thats unbelievable and unacceptable for someone that advertises in the paper alot that he does this shit all the time and he can make your gun look and work like new (yeah, if your willing to wait a year). If your not going to do a job in a reasonable amount of time then don't accept it. As the old saying goes, if you can't do something right, don't do it at all.

I asked when it would be done, he said about 2-3 weeks and that he'll call me.

Two questions. How much does he charge to do one gun? Not one gun mixed into a batch of guns.

How much does he charge for one gun mixed into a batch of guns?