Gunsmith time ?

[shooter57]

I had one smith say if you want certain parts and brands fitted to you gun and you know their hard to get you should order all the parts and supply them with your gun to be fitted. He will not get them any faster than you and he will get the job done sooner with your parts.

[Toolguy]

That's actually a pretty good idea. Thanks shooter 57!

[bamf_shadow]

I am a full time gunsmith as well. I do my best to keep projects on schedule, but often there are delays. The two things that I find causing most of the delays are parts availability and customers. I bet I spend atleast 2 hours a day listening to "how I shot this monster buck" and such. Another thing that chaps my rear is customers who constantly make changes during a project. I recently installed 3 different sets of sights on a customers 1911 in a one week period because he kept reading about different types online. That gun was originally just getting some checkering and a new thumb safety! I am also getting tired of what I call "you-tube-smiths". I get atleast two guns in for repair each week after someone watched a free video of some kid in his basement reshaping his sear with a chainsaw file

[Wild Gene]

I am also getting tired of what I call "you-tube-smiths". I get atleast two guns in for repair each week after someone watched a free video of some kid in his basement reshaping his sear with a chainsaw file

THAT'S FUNNY! And yet not in the least bit surprising.

[jaredr]

I get atleast two guns in for repair each week after someone watched a free video of some kid in his basement reshaping his sear with a chainsaw file

a chainsaw file!!! what the heck, all of the tutorials I looked up said you should use a rasp!! those chainsaw file guys clearly have no idea what they're doing...

[Merlin Orr]

Life must really be a drudge for those with no sense of humor.....

Great thread.

[mike cyrwus]

You dont repair them for free, do you? Id be smiling as I got those in.

[wide45]

Chainsaw file is for fitting barrels not sears.

[RIIID]

I think a wood rasp works better on sears myself, as to barrel lower lugs a Roto-Zip does wonders.

Rich

[whitedog]

Had a nimrod file the trigger hammer engagement on a 2nd gen colt so negative that moving the gun dropped the hammer. What did he use you ask? His wife's nail file. Took him two weeks to ruin original 2nd gen parts. One determined individual, I'll give him that. Wife's nail file.

[GrumpyOne]

Never underestimate the lack of ability and common sense of amateur gunsmiths......

[jmorris]

The problem the smiths are talking about are common in most any small business. Let alone one that is often a "one man band.", only so many hours in a day. An answering machine is worth more than gold. If you have a good product for a fair price, you will always have work. If you have years worth of work sitting there, you need help or higher prices.

[tgford58]

Hmmm, as a practicing gunsmith of 34 years full time work. I find "Gunsmith Time" to be quite an insult. A professional gunsmith's time is about 65 to 80 hours a week. As so very much of that time is spent listening to customer's descriptions of what he bought, how the bought it, how the found it, how grandpa fed the family with it how he felt after shooting last week . Etc. I charge partly as a counselor and as a gunsmith too when the time arises. Often a "Gunsmiths time" is spent by listening to customers explain how to do a job I have done 100 or maybe 500 times.

A "Gunsmiths Time" is filled with looking for parts a customer has asked the gunsmith to look for. Never mind the internet has been around along time, most customers can spell and google is free. My time should not be. One hour in the morning answering questions for free on e-mail. An hour writing guns in and out of the log books. Two to three hours every few days looking for and ordering parts, finding information on new procedures, looking up historical dates for customers. Then there is machinery upkeep, cleaning the shop, etc. The only way a gunsmith can make any money is to be closed as many days as possible. Being open one day would be ideal so there was less conversation and more work getting done. This is in a field so very difficult to learn it takes a minimum of ten years to start knowing what you are doing well enough to make decent money. A profession so arcane even wives and co-workers do not understand what the gunsmith does. A profession requiring 50 to 100 K investment made over 20 years to "arrive". A professional gunsmith will schedule the work on a calendar. do his best to stick to it. And if there is a blip, call the customer and explain. Even with this straight forward clerical work, the customer often confuses one month with two. A call yesterday by an irate customer upset that his gun was not done by now as it had been two months. The card write in date was only 28 days old. Customers do not read signs. Customers do not remember what gun they left. Customers listen to answering machine telling the hours and days clearly and then on a closed day drive 50 miles and kick the door and curse me to God. I hear this often. I'm inside repairing 1900 guns a year and if I stop to talk to them, I lose $2.33 per minute. With 250 guns to work on and a non-stop stream of questions and endless phone calls, I am surprised I get anything done at all. Thank god there are few gunsmiths out there or I would not be so busy. And thank god for my customers. 95 % whom are completely sane. It's the other 5% who give me crap about "Gunsmith Time." In all fairness, I DO understand the complaint. I do not repair my own motorcycle any more. Those damned Ninja repairmen probably sit around goofing off most of the time, drinking beer, playing with their own bikes. I bet they have a 40 hour workweek and make too much money too. Oh the Protocol Design fellow is a good pal of mine and he works more than I and is too nice to be sure. I am the grumpy evil one who locks the door and files away on bbls as the irate kick my door yelling at God.

And very well said. Thank you. I am printing and posting in my shop.

[EduardoM]

first and foremost gunsmiths need to understand that they owe themselves to their customers who re the ones putting the food on their tables , specially the " full time " ones , this is true to ANY and ALL kind of business , second some business knowledge and preparation will help them with their workload , simple ideas like sending pictures of the build to the customers will indeed save them conversation time and unexpected visits which will just send them back , we are in the 21st century and technology is there for each and everyone of us and if you dont use it you will just simply dissapear as a gunsmith or at any other trade you might want to incurr , stop thinking that a gunsmith is some sort of god you cant demand anything from ( even thou you are the one feeding him ) , japanese sword makers will tell you when the sword will be delivered as sharp as the sword is , at this time will be ready and you can be certain ready and delivered will be with the legendary quality from 10ths if not 100ths of generations and that 100 times for difficult to achieve since theres is no sti/svi/caspian providing major components of the build plus the lack of machining and modern tools , im not saying that what they do is esay and simple but if you consider yourself being a gunsmith who is charging to create/sell a product please understand that you are running a business and that 95% of it is your customer , if you say 6 months you should more than know the time you are estimating includes all those " annoyances " form your EXTREMELY IMPORTANT CUSTOMERS and should/will finish the product in the time promised

if is the customer not respecting the time promised then PATIENCE and INTELIGENCE comes into play using the tools available to be ahead of a anxious and desperate customer

gunsmiths please call ahead your customer once a week and you will see how easy your workload will be , 3 minutes every week , one picture a week or once a month , one text message , one email explaining how's everything going , etc

many manufacturers of pistols are coming with race ready pistols that will cut all of that allegedly " needed " relationship with a gunsmith , for example Dan Wesson elite series pistols and CZ czhec mate pistols , sti's selection of guns aamong others

if gunsmith dont take care of their customers they will lose the battle to all those companies hearing those same customers that think they need a gunsmith to have an outstanding pistol which 90% of them will never outshoot or outlive

gunsmith ; do not understimate nor underapprecite your customer

customer ; please be patient and understand that when your gunsmith might be a good one he might probably not be a business man and that if you dont feel comfortable with their way of handling their job you can always find more and sometimes better options

thanks ( wow was this long )

/

[mike cyrwus]

Eduardo, if gunsmiths were smart businessmen, theyd be all sitting in an office in some big building, making real good money, because they sure as heck wouldnt be working with callused hands under a hot lamp. The good ones look at what they do as a service or a calling, not as a way to make a good buck.

One call a week, for some of the busy guys would take up two whole 10hr days.

[Wild Gene]

Good gwad, ya lead someone to believe they will have their gun in six to nine months, it takes a year and a half, of course it is gonna piss a guy off. I was pissed off when I wrote the thread, but it was still meant to be humorous. If I blew up everytime something went wrong, I'd have been dead a long time ago.

Do I want to make every gunsmith in the country mad at me, no, but if I do, then so be it. There are a lot of great guys out there that do a great job, and I would rather deal with a decent honerable man, than someone that sat in their cave, howeled at the moon and swore at Jesus and every new customer that wanted to walk through their door.

I got my new gun, and it is dang nice. I love it. I was not happy waiting but I never said anyone's name. I would have the same guy build me another one. I would also have some of the other gunsmiths I have spoken to since build one too. I missed an entire season because I waited. By the time I got the gun, my summer started, and I was busy farming. You want captial investment, you buy yourself a Ranch and the equipment to go with it some time.

I am glad some of you saw the humor in this, and if you didn't, and you hate your job that badly, then go be a greeter at Wal-Mart or something.

Hey, have a great day!

WGH