The most important step in choosing the correct gunsmith for your custom rifle project is to educate yourself on the different styles of rifles. I think that the most important factor is how well does it shoot. The next issue is who does it function, does it feed the cartridges well from both sides of the magazine and eject the used cartridge cases properly? How are the trigger pull and the stocks length of pull? These are some of the basics for any custom rifle. The gunsmith should take the time to measure and fit the customer. A custom rifle is like buying a suit from a tailor, there’s usually a reason for not buying one off the rack at Sears.

After building custom rifles for over 30 years and teaching metalsmithing and custom building and Trinidad State during the summers, I’ve run into some interesting types of gunsmiths trying to do this kind of work. Some of my past students were only interested on how well it functioned and the cosmetics were secondary. Others were trying to make their rifle into a piece of functional art. They were using Winchester pre-64 actions, Krieger barrels and English walnut. The checkering patterns were laid out in advance, everything was first rate quality. Above all, the rifle needed it shoot under a minute of angle.

As a customer you need to figure out what kind of custom rifle you need and can afford. Ask to see a few of the gunsmith’s past projects and see if they meet your needs. If you find something you like, let the gunsmith that you want your rifle built to that level. The gunsmith will know what to build, and you will know what to expect when the project is complete.

Hmm, why didn't I think of that? Good advice Mark, maybe that one can be turned into a sticky?

Well said Mark.

Mark, you spelled the process of a custom project perfect.
I can say I followed these directions to a tee and the project went very smooth and the results will be posted a bit later. I just picked up my project gun from Scrollcutter and just returned home. We still have the floorplate to engrave but it can be completed in the near future as I have not totally decided on the exact scene I want.
I would like to thank both Mark Stratton and Roger Kehr for the outstanding job they did for me and the help of Customstox and a few others. It made this project all come together very well and to top it off, the gun is a tack driver

Mark:

I found your post most interesting. We met at the airport in Las Vegas when leaving the Shot Show. I had bought one of your books a couple months earlier. Being a gunsmith or doing gunsmith work, I am not sure how to clasify myself. I would say I fix more than I break. And the ones I fix generally shoot better than they did before I got hold of them. I just enjoy working with my hands and making something work that was designed to do a specific task.

The post I read about gunsmiths and what I see brought into my shop make me very sad. I see people tackle jobs that they have no concept of what they are doing. I am not casting any stones as I learn something new every day. But if I break or damage, a mans guns I repair it , get it repaired, or replace it. I see so many guns that are butchered. The customer wants you to fix the other guys mistakes and you are obligated to do it for free or less than the going rate. Recently I have begun turning away jobs that I know I am going to loose money on. So many people want you to take an inferior actions a make it a classic. The customer has no idea the cost of opening a shop. The cost of licensing, taxes, insurance, machines, tooling, supplies, utilities, and labor. I did gunsmithing and custom load development for 35 years for my friends for free or at cost. Now they expect me to continue when I opened a shop. I had 6 hours of shop time in a friends gun and I charged him half my going rate and he still seemed offended. He was very pleased with the quality of work. He brought in another project and I told him I was not interested in doing the work. He carried it to another Gunsmith who really butchered the job and the gun was unsafe to shoot. He brought it back to me and I told him how much I would charge to repair it and it was much more than he paid for the original gun. He left my shop offended. Now I am sure he is going to bad mouth me for not doing the job for free or at a reduced rate.
If you do a good job and care about the quality of your work that is all you can do. My bigest grip is guys doing work way over their head.
Longshot

Hi Longshot,

I remember our meeting in the Burger King at the airport after the Shot Show. I was happy to leave Las Vegas....

For some reason gunsmithing has been related to a hobby. If your gunsmithing you should get paid less because you enjoy the work. That must be the thinking of your friends and the general public. If you look at your investment in machines, tools a shop to put it all in plus all the other business expeneses that go along with a bunsiness in general, you need to charge enough to cover the costs plus a little to eat on. It take years to learn how to do this work, that's why you don't see many 18 year olds enter the trade.

I know what to mean about doing work for your friends, when I was learning to checker, I was doing friends rifles for free becasue I need to learn the craft. Later, I had to buy a MMC electric checkering tool to keep up with all the free work. I'm beyond those years...

Mark,

Good post. I think that there are two root causes of customers that are unhappy with the results they get from a gunsmith. First is not communicating exactly what he wants the smith to do, and perhaps he does, but the smith doesn't bother to write down exactly what the customer wanted at the time the order was placed, and 6-12 months later when he gets around to doing the work, that conversation was well and goodly forgotten. I think the single most effective means of recording this information is having a formal written description of the work to be performed, and critical dimensions. It seems that an excel sheet could be easily put together to record the important facts and have room to put down notes on special requirements.

The second point that buggers up the custom gun is the customer being unable or unwilling to come up with the funds for what he really wants. The compromise he makes is to either go to a "gunsmith" that works at discount rates, for a reason, or to take shorcuts that result in a rifle that is no different than a factory offering at best, yet cost a fair bit more money.

So to sum it up, if customers want to be happy with their custom rifles, they need to write down exactly what they want done, they need to find a competent smith that can perform the work (which includes delivery times the customer and smith can live with) and then the customer needs to be willing to spend the money to make it happen.

Last point, communication is a two way street. If a customer is appraised of delays in a timely manner, 95% of the time he has no probem, if he calls 1 week after the gun is supposed to be delivered, and the answer he gets is, the gun will go out next Fri, 100% of the time the customer is pissed off. I imagine a smith could spend 1/2 hour at the end of the week to appraise his customers of the status of their projects via e-mail, ie Mr smith, your barrel blank arrived today, Mr Jones your barrel was chambered today, Mr Lawrence your metalwork was blued today. That 1/2 hour would generate more good customer relations and future work than anything else the smith will do.

Paul you know, early in my career is was working to customer instructions as I heard them. But I found out that it hard to build a rifle that fit your customer dreams. You never get it right. I now do drawings. When you place an order with me, the first thing I tell you is to watch the mail for the drawings. Once you receive them, if you want to make a change, make a note on the drawing and send it back. A chip doesn't hit the floor until the custom agree on a set of drawings.

I have a great CAD (computer aided drawing) program for doing this work. The customer usually gets into the project when he sees his dreams on paper. Sometimes thing don't work about as he invisioned and changes need to be made. Work on the project doesn't start until the customer buys off on the drawings.

Mark, you and others have made some very good points about gunsmiths and customers alike. An idea for potential customers to ponder would be to purchase a used gun made by a given gunmaker before commiting to commisioning a new work. The customer would then have the opportunity to develop his ideas about the proper custom rifle to suit his needs. Being able to use and study a maker's rifle would make the customer more conversant about his tastes and preferences. The used rifle wouldn't have to be the exact style or caliber a customer has in mind for his custom job, just close enough to be functional and educational.

ForestB,

I'm a vey small gunmaker and I don't think you will be able to find any of my work around let alone buy some. Around 75 percent of my work is custom metalsmithing for other stockmakers. You know what might be an eye opener for 1st time buyers for custom work is to go to one of the national shows. I'm always have a booth at the NRA convention. I'm not always at the Custom Gunmakers Guild Show in Reno, but I will be there this year. The Safari Club show in Reno is a great place to start. All of the worlds great gunmaking companies are there, Holand& Holand and others. In fact, that might be where I'd start my education in custom guns. The Dallas Safari club might be interesting as well, another is the Las Vegas Gunshow at the begining of the year.

You need to see good work to know what it is. Now you might be thinking that traveling around the country is an expensive way to get your education. These rifle aren't cheap and I think you will get a bigger bang for your dollar if you know what to buy from the begining of your purchase. Be able to talk to the gunsmith of your choice with terms he understands. The purchase will go smoother with less problems.

Another thing, gunsiths and gunmakers usually try to sell you what they do best. Know what you what from the start any find the gunsmith that will fill your needs, not theirs.