What do I do when the custom gunbuilder sends me garbage?

[gunmaker43]

I'm not sure if your whining, or just BS'n us. But I take that warning--personally...I've made over 50 guns in last 35 yr.--and NONE has ever come back to me for any reason. Me and most other builder's will do the best that we are able--that's why we choose this craft. Don't paint us all with your tar brush.
Brown still working--easy, take metal off gun submerge in tub COLD water. Dry well, oil with gun oil....Gunmaker

 

[Dean2]

By FAR the best gun I've purchased to date has been a Pedersoli Jaeger, followed shortly thereafter by a Pedersoli Brown Bess. Leonard Day does superb work too. Also Leonard is very accessible. Besides that...custom builders haven't been worth the money at all. Philips head screws, cracked stocks, and now this. I'm the kind of person that a custom builder would want to cultivate. I can pay for the gun, and I can wait. I don't think you can charactarize what I'll do now as "whining". It will be more like "warning", to stay away from custom builders unless you are a competent gunsmith yourself.

Had not read this part when I first posted. If this is what you are getting from the "CUSTOM" builders you are using then you must have SUCKER stencilled on your forehead.You are paying good prices and clearly getting crap results.

You really need to find a true custom builder to work with, the guys you have been using are poor workman at best and downright bandits at worst. They do not represent the majority of the custom builders I have ever met or dealt with, and in fact do the trade a huge disservice.

 

[wattlebuster]

I doubt we will see a pic of this "Garbage" cause this post has made no common sense to me at all. If I just spent 1800 bucks on a gun and it came in looking as he has said then I would be talking with the builder that day an not asking questions an calling the mans work garbage on this or any forum several months later. After giving him an honest chance to fix said problem and it still was not resolved THEN I would bring it to others attention :shake:

 

[gunmaker43]

TROLL ?

 

[Dean2]

Easy guys, this member has over 500 posts and been on here since 2009. I don't recall any bad or even borderline behaviour from him in the past, unlike some others I could easily mention. It seems right to give him the benefit of the doubt.

 

[Alden]

I agree. Something wasn't right with the gun, at least from the OP's perspective (which is his inexpert reality), and it has deteriorated since into at least a debilitating case of buyer's regret.

Wahka... First, take a deep breath and relax. The answer to your question is to doubt yourself first and have faith that you can turn this supposed lemon into lemonade. Fear not. Move on.

You don't have the specific experience nor, I suspect, the facilities to do much in the way of more than basic gun work such as cleaning it after shooting and maybe working on the lock at the kitchen table. Do I have that about right? No problem.

Start a new thread, with pics, on how to salvage this gun. A preliminary, non-accusatory, conversation with the builder to minimally find out how he finished the metal and wood would be quite useful to all of us. You can always tell him what it looked like to you from the start and has happened since -- it's not going to make a difference (practically speaking at this point you cannot expect him to "make things right") and he may step up and be helpful -- if he is at fault somehow it's not like he's going to make it worse unless you send the gun back to him.

 

[Dewey]

If you can't (or don't want to) try to fix the barrel (and if the barrel is the only problem), why not just buy another barrel and brown it yourself (or leave it in the white) ?

Surely you know the brand of barrel used ???

I think the remarks about custom rifle makers were as unfair as untrue. It's one thing to question the expertise or work of a particular maker, but quite another to tell new folk here to avoid ALL riflesmiths - people who have been in this hobby for awhile know that those remarks were uncalled for. And we have the custom guns to prove it !!!

 

[Billnpatti]

If all else fails, you can always post it for sale on this forum with an honest and accurate description. You certainly will never recover your initial investment but you can get at least some of your money back. A gun builder on the forum may be able to part it out and get some usable parts from it to build another gun. You might expect to get a few hundred dollars for it as a parts gun depending on the actual condition and the quality of the stock. If someone can get it cheaply enough he might be able to recover and rework the parts but no one is going to be willing to pay full price for a ruined gun. It's one way to recover at least some of your investment. It's beter than just putting in into your gunsafe and letting it go to ruin and then you have nothing. Just a thought. :hmm:

 

[kopfjaeger]

:idunno: :shake:

 

[galamb]

I don't know about you, but I think $1800.00 is a lot of money for only a wall hanger!

Rick

That's all perspective.

At a recent Julia's auction a John Armstrong rifle sold for 120K. I somehow can't see that one out on the range poking holes in paper.

So was this gun bought to be a "shooter"? Difficult to tell if the OP did nothing more than toss it in a gun safe and basically forget about it - sounds more like it was destined to be a decoration from the get go (???)

 

[hoochiepapa]

...and who pays $1800 for a gun and doesn't go right out and shoot it???

 

[Bradg]

This sounds like someone is bitter with custom guns or builders in general. No matter what type of gun owner you will always see people who want to knock and put down quality guns by saying brand x is just as good and cost 1/2 as much.

 

[kaintuck]

Sounds like the barrel blowing didn't get neutralized, and or the Aqua fort didn't get stopped either :hmm:

Taken apart, cleaned, rusting stopped, and reassembled may be a nice piece.....I work to artificially age my metal, and wood.....this one may be just great if treated now :grin:

Let's see some pictures.....
Marc n tomtom

 

[hanshi]

I reserve all judgement until I see pictures posted. Something smells about the whole post. And I've never heard of nor have I seen any gun with phillips head screws.

 

[azmntman]

dunno bout Alden but I figure I got 30-35 years left and in 30 years I will still tell folks what the taxidermist done to me!

Old family rule ya know..."anybody can screw me once and NOBODY gets a second turn". I feel I'm assisting others in not getting taken by the guy and thus am justified. Being a business owner one SHOULD know screwing a guy will cost ya (specially in a smallish town).

If Aldens post bother some they can just see the first few words, gather that its another rant, and scroll on down :idunno:

and NO this is not (totally) ff as the bull was harvested with a .54 roundball!

As for this post I can only say I would have been on the phone before the UPS guy turned the corner myself. Possibly getting instructions to stop the process mightcoulda saved the gun? Or at least lessened the work to restore it? Too late now IMO

 

[Zonie]

If you can't (or don't want to) try to fix the barrel (and if the barrel is the only problem), why not just buy another barrel and brown it yourself (or leave it in the white) ?

Surely you know the brand of barrel used ???
...

Don't take this wrong but it's not as simple as that.

The barrels used on custom guns do not come with the underlugs installed or the dovetails for the sights cut. Often, they do not the breech plug fitted and installed or even included with the barrel.

The vent hole doesn't exist if the gun is a flintlock and if the gun is a percussion, the nipple drum or breech scroll will need installing and finishing.

The exterior of many require draw filing to remove the machine marks that were made when the octagon was cut and occasionally, even the length of the barrel may have been modified and a new muzzle crown formed.

A builder can easily put 10-20 hours of work into getting the barrel ready to install and finish.

Then, there's the matter of drilling the tang hole(s), the underlug pins, installing the sights and finally actually finishing the surfaces.

 

[Alden]

Actually Mac, it's a thread about a custom gun that isn't what the customer as well as member of quite a few years here expected and who had little recourse, practically speaking, if any at all now to have things made right. He feels taken advantage of and he is unhappy.

Let me make it simple for some: had Wahkahchim been handed the gun in question to look at he would not have handed back to the gun-maker any money to own it. I understand that, having dealt with TVM, and paying in advance for a custom gun I couldn't handle first which they knew was wrong and shipped anyway and then failed to make good as promised.

The OP brought up Pedersoli. I concurred with his perspective having learned a valuable lesson myself, and have kept my eyes open since, while others have too much invested in their TVM assembled-parts guns to be objective.

This is about Whakahchim's dilemma though, so, please don't all the usual suspects get defensive and hijack the thread as usual. Had the OP followed the common-sense advice I proffer, to be cautious and not buy a gun sight-unseen, there would be no problem here either.

Same can hold true in all such transactions. As a fraternity we want to trust. But we know some assemblers may not be worthy of it. That an individual may not be a gentleman. Let me quote one who was: "trust but verify."

 

[Dewey]

Don't take this wrong but it's not as simple as that.

No problem ... I'm here to learn, and see - I've learned something today !!!

Luckily I've never run into that kind of problem (or any kind, actually) on the custom/semi-custom guns that I have bought.

If I had, I would have called the gunsmith IMMEDIATELY, if not sooner !!!

 

[19 16 6]

I can pay for the gun,

Y'all see this. He can pay.
1800 bucks might as well be 18,000 bucks to some.
With others it only goes part way on that 1951 vintage bottle of Grange Hermitage or the 1775 bottle of Massandra both of which go for between 40 - 50 grand.
$235,000 for a matched pair of Purdy 12 gauge shotties. Now we get our panties in a knot if they start to rusting up.
O.

 

[Keb]

I sell about a dozen guns a year. In the past 4 years I've had only 1 instance. Some time between leaving my shop and the buyer's home the used gun developed a crack in the forestock. The buyer contacted me about it as soon as he opened the crate. He sent pictures. I told him (what I tell all the people who buy anything from me) to ship it back & I'd refund all his money. The only stipulation I make for a refund is a 5 day time limit and the gun must not have had any work done to it. I always tell a buyer this up front. I would suggest this to any gun buyer. Make this agreement part of the deal before sending any payments. Good clear communications help, too. It doesn't take but a few minutes to agree on something that could avoid an unhappy customer and a web bashing of an otherwise honest person.

I don't know about anyone else but when I sell something I want the buyer to be completely satisfied with it. If you have no communication with the seller how you feel he will never know if you are satisfied or not.

Also, without pictures it's hard to imagine the original poster was shipped garbage.