Where are the good gunsmiths at?

[Bill_Long_Tan]

To say I'm frustrated with all this is an understatement. I rarely need gunsmith work but when I do, I generally try to seek out someone who is highly recommended and/or specializes in what I'm looking to have done. I've had 7 instances where I've used a gunsmith and 4 of those have quite frankly been poor experiences. The 3 "good" experiences were pretty basic stuff that I'd hope anybody with the title of gunsmith could handle (one sight install on a Hi Power, one screw extraction on a P365, and inletting bottom metal on a Remington 700).

The 4 others?

1) Minor work on my old Sharps I got from my dad. Searched out a suggested gunsmith on a Sharps forum, a guy in Arkansas was highly recommended by these guys so I hit him up and tell him what I need done. Send pics and get an estimate on price and timeframe and he says 5-7 days to do the work. I schedule a time to drop off the rifle and plan a trip to Memphis around it and on my way back to pick the gun up he's asking me what I needed done. 8 months later, its done. Work was good...but how does 5-7 days turn into 8 months???

2) Sights installed on P226. I got punches but I would rather have it done "right" so I took it to "Gunsmith #1" in Bixby. I get it back and they have been hammered on with witness marks on the side, obviously from a punch. I guess I should have asked but thats a hack way of doing it especially if you're leaving marks on new sights.

3) Custom work on Hi Power. Gunsmith in Arizona comes highly recommended...he says 6 months...somehow that became 16 months. Gun looks good...but the trigger has basically zero perceivable reset in it now. The pull is smooth and lighter, but that's only half the job in my opinion. Hardly what I'd expect from a guy who is supposed to specialize in Hi Powers, and take so long to do a a few basic mods right off of his services menu....not even anything over the top.

4) Barrels threading. Took these to "Gunsmith #2" in Bixby. Rimfire rifles, tell him what can I'm using (which is a dedicated rimfire can) and it gets threaded to AR15 specs (about .75" of thread)...too long of a thread for rimfire which is .400" so the can wont seat on the shoulder. Ok, I'll deal with that...Silencerco sells a spacer for this instance since I guess it happens alot? Get two spacers (I had two guns threaded) and guess what...not enough relief against the shoulder for the spacers to thread down all the way anyways. So now I pissed away $150 to get two barrels threaded and 7 months of waiting on my can to arrive for my annual Prairie Dog hunt and I guess I dont get to use the can this year. That's pretty damn frustrating. So I guess I'll try my hand again with another gunsmith when I get home from Prairie Dogs to get the's f'n things cut and threaded AGAIN and hopefully it goes better this time?

Do I just have the worst luck ever, or are they generally hacks across the board and nobody wants to talk about it? We wont even get into the only experience my dad had getting a Colt Woodsman worked on where the gunsmith had the gun for well over a DECADE and didnt even get the job done. What's the deal with these guys?

Sadly most have passed from this world Young people appear reluctant to go into the trades, which is also sad. The few who are interested in gunsmithing are often put off by the very real prospect of having their trade deemed illegal by our leaders and losing their livelyhood.
What do you think the odds of a public high school guidance counselor suggesting gunsmith as a career are?

 

[adamsredlines]

Well since this has been resurrected....I'll add that I just recently got one of the rifles that "master carper" fugged up fixed. Took it to Radix in Omaha and he did a good job, so that's a nice change of pace.

He's a teacher who does precision rifle builds in evenings/weekends. Nice little shop at his home.

https://www.radixprecisionllc.com/

 

[Profreedomokie]

Washers not recommended for use on cans. The bullet travelling through the baffles has a critical measurement. Any deviation will result in a baffle strike and destruction of the can.

Dennis is right. If you know someone that has a surface grinder, they could grind a washer one side for a light true up cut and then flip it to get a final dimension cut. Then the washer would be parallel to the shoulder of the barrel and not throw you baffles off to the bore of the rifle. Most people that have a surface grinder would have a lathe and could make you a new spacer from scratch.

 

[Profreedomokie]

I don't know of a gunsmith that has better machining capability or talent than Robert Denton here in Ponca City. He has mills, lathes, surface grinder, laser engraver, a Rockwell hardness tester and more. The thing with Robert is he know how to use them. He has trained on several occasions under Gorty Getters whose rifles have held national benchrest titles. One .30 BR f class style rifle he built shot a 5/8" 300 yd. 5 shot group. I'll check with him on posting his phone number when he gets back from vacation.

 

[dennishoddy]

I don't know of a gunsmith that has better machining capability or talent than Robert Denton here in Ponca City. He has mills, lathes, surface grinder, laser engraver, a Rockwell hardness tester and more. The thing with Robert is he know how to use them. He has trained on several occasions under Gorty Getters whose rifles have held national benchrest titles. One .30 BR f class style rifle he built shot a 5/8" 300 yd. 5 shot group. I'll check with him on posting his phone number when he gets back from vacation.

I didn't know Robert was still doing smithing after his shop closed.

 

[Profreedomokie]

I didn't know Robert was still doing smithing after his shop closed.

He got back into roping and closed the shop then. He got his FFL back and he put up a large shop on Prinest Rd. by his house. He has been building some real nice rifles too. He has a very well stocked shop. Another plus is he can weld any type of metal that is weldable.

 

[dennishoddy]

He got back into roping and closed the shop then. He got his FFL back and he put up a large shop on Prinest Rd. by his house. He has been building some real nice rifles too. He has a very well stocked shop. Another plus is he can weld any type of metal that is weldable.

I'll have to get that number from you one of these days. My .22 RF can is about 7 months in NFA jail currently,, maybe getting approved one of these days hopefully. I need a couple barrels threaded.

 

[ChrisWilson]

I’ll also give Steve Baldwin a big thumbs up, he can do it all, like love visiting his shop but I always end up buying something from him!!! Any rifle he can do it! Specializes in older rifles especially single shots, sharps, low and highwalls, ballards and lever actions! He’s built several custom bolt action hunting rifles for my brother and tapped several for cans. He’s done some work for me on a couple older rifles! I’ve got several sets of his tang sights. He use to be big into Black Powder Cartridge Rifle competition (BPCR) And won the National championship one year! Guy knows his stuff!!!

 

[DRC458]

I’ll also give Steve Baldwin a big thumbs up, he can do it all, like love visiting his shop but I always end up buying something from him!!! Any rifle he can do it! Specializes in older rifles especially single shots, sharps, low and highwalls, ballards and lever actions! He’s built several custom bolt action hunting rifles for my brother and tapped several for cans. He’s done some work for me on a couple older rifles! I’ve got several sets of his tang sights. He use to be big into Black Powder Cartridge Rifle competition (BPCR) And won the National championship one year! Guy knows his stuff!!!

I agree, Steve is top notch, but I thought he 'retired?'

 

[ParrotPirate]

In my experience there is a lot of what the kids call “gatekeeping” in the world of gunsmithing and for good reason: When a gunsmith accepts your job, they are accepting a certain amount of personal and professional risk. The first job I ever took to my GS he quoted me six weeks and $100. I wasn’t happy with the timeline, but I accepted it with the rationale that I couldn’t do it myself in 7 weeks for any amount of money. The job ended up taking 2-3 weeks, so I went to pick up my gun and asked him about another small job I had in mind and he said something like “that’s too small to be worth bringing to a smith, but if you wait and put together several small jobs it’ll add up to an hour or two and you can get your money’s worth”. I took his advice, and a few months down the road I had 3-4 little jobs for him. I dropped them off and a week later he did some night sight installs, trigger work etc. on a few handguns all for around $50. I have been back 15-20 times since then for big and small jobs, and it works because he and I both have a realistic expectation of one another. I rarely ask how long a job will take or how much it will cost because I trust that it’ll take as long as it takes and cost whatever it costs, and if I’m not willing to pay and wait then it isn’t worth having done. In return for my patience and loyalty I have a smith in Tulsa who is willing to do just about any job I propose.