I'll try to condense this without losing much:

For a couple of years now, a gunsmith friend and I have been discussing building a rifle, basically a Rem 700 PSS, with and action I already have. I purchased the stock, a Hart barrel, a scope, scope base, rings, etc.. When the gunsmith wanted something, such as a bullet seated in the case at the desired seating depth, or the action / barrel brought to the shop, I delivered the same day it was requested.

The gunsmith did not have a .308 Win. chamber reamer, and we decided to order a tight-neck reamer. I wasn't 100% behind this (No factory ammo), but went with it. We agreed to this in mid-December, but the gunsmith did not order the reamer until mid-January. At the time the reamer was ordered, the company said to expect it in 6 weeks. It finally arrived in mid-April.

As of last week, NOTHING had been done with my rifle. The barrel had not been taken off, action cleaned, NOTHING. Every time I saw the gunsmith, I would get another talk about how he was not happy with his project to true the action, and another reason he had not started on the project. I could tell, and he admitted, that his heart just was not in working on my rifle. He is supposed to be a semi-proffessional gunsmith, but has no other projects going.

Am I being unreasonable to expect more progress on the rifle than this?

I have already made my choice. I picked up my rifle parts this week, and I'm back to square two. I'm afraid a friendship of several years is over. I'd just like some honest opinions on my actions. Thanks in advance.

1. He is a semi=pro and the pros are bad enough getting things done in timely fashion

2. It sounds as though very little of your time was wasted by the smith. Getting the reamer etc seems to be the bit time lags.

As I read it, you are not out much and an honest man gave you your stuff back and let you move on. This does not sound too bad. I'm still waiting on a barrel that was ordered a year ago and which I have been told back in October was "out on the floor" being finished.

I know of no professional gunsmith that works any faster than your friend. A lot are a whole lot slower - especially the good ones.

Brent

Unfortunately, I have to say Brent is right. It takes an exceedingly long time for work to get completed with most smith's. For some, that's because they are overloaded with work, they keep a tremendous backlog. I have a couple of smith's that now get the bulk of my work, because they turn things around. They get all the jobs I have except-- meaning they get anything except projects they don't do, like certain stock jobs.

If I was you, I would just find another smith to handle the project, and count myself ahead of the game since nothing is screwed up, and you've got all the parts to go forward.

Good luck with your project.

Alot of good smiths have close to a year back log. You should buy the guy a beer. I would rather get a job turned down than have a half hearted half assed job in the end. Could just be he did not want to make a mess out of a buddys rifle, maybe the work you wanted was a bit more than he could handle. Does not sound like any one was being unreasonable. What you describe is alot like my Home improvment projects. What my wife wants is over my head a lot of times. So it takes a bunch of asking staring and figureing before I get started and even more once the project gets going. That comes because I aint no carpenter.

Sounds like maybe he thought he was in over his head and didn't want to tell you.

I wouldn't let this ruin a friendship. They are considerably harder to find than another gunsmith.

quote:

He is a semi=pro and the pros are bad enough getting things done in timely fashion

When I sent my rifle off to a very well know 'Smith another member here told me not to worry about timelines and check in every three months or so. I was told the work would be excellent at worse. Well that was in October. All is well though. I needed to save up a little for a nice scope.

However, it does not sound like you were going to ever get the rifle, or a job that would have been satisfactory to you. You made the right choice in my opinion.