TackDriver284
Handloader
- Feb 13, 2016
- 2,559
- 2,139
I will try to make this story short of my first bad experience with a gunsmith that built my custom rifle. :mrgreen:
I have had many custom rifles built for me since 1990. I had a custom 6.5 Creedmoor built for me with a Surgeon 591 and shot real well at decent .3 to .4 MOA on first trip to the range, but the local gunsmith who built it last year screwed up where you feed a loaded round and the neck of the round ( case ) would jam up against the bottom of the chamber so I took it back and he must have taken shortcuts to fix it and reamed the very bottom rear part of the chamber and polished it. Called me up and said it was ready, went back and took my ammo with me and tried to feed it and same thing again. He was upset that he had to redo it. The third time I went to pick it up, it chambered better but I could feel a little bumpity bump when chambering it but went to try it anyway. So I went to shoot 40 rounds at the range and shot real decent. I was flabergasted to see that the fired brass had a noticeable bulge on one side of each fired brass at the bottom part close to the case head. I marked each un-fired brass with a Marks a Lot at 12 o clock ( top of the brass ) before I chambered it and fired it and each bulge was at 6 o clock ( bottom of the brass ) of the 12 o clock mark I made on the brass before firing it. I assumed that is the crappy work of the gunsmith but I won't name names. I resized the cases and it took at least 60 to 70 pounds of pressure to size a "lubed "case. I had to stand up to size it. :roll: So I took it back to the gunsmith and he was upset that he had a come back. I asked him " Do you remember when I asked you before I gave you a deposit that if I have any problems with the rifle, what will be the solution? " He replied " I remember telling you that if you have any problems, and I cannot fix it, then I'll give you your money back, all $4500 dollars." I had him put that in writing before I gave him the 50% deposit before he built it.
Now I told him there is a brass issue, its very hard to size and case looks like trash after shooting it. I asked him how he fixed the feeding issue previously , he would not answer my question but I knew anyway. He looked at the fired brass and said there is nothing wrong with the brass and that it looks normal, I laughed and said look closer but just try to sized these fired cases and here are my dies, he said I got my own dies and lube. I said be my guest, he got the brass and strolled over to his reloading bench and pulled out his fancy Redding dies and some Imperial wax lube. He sat down and screwed in his dies and waxed the brass and proceeded to raise the ram, it won't go no more than halfway down the brass, and he made a grunting sound to try to size it from a sitting position, haha. Looked like he was about to blow a fart. Made me laugh right there, but I kept my cool and he finally stood up to put almost all his weight to size that little bitty case. and when he tried to pull the case out of the die, he could not pull it up, he was smacking on the handle of the ram handle several times and finally pulled the case out of the die. I said " See what I mean, that is not normal" His responded sarcastically " That is normal" . I told him in my 30 years of reloading, I never had to size brass like that. He proceeded to size three more and with the same heavy exertion to size them. After sizing them he says brass looks fine. Geez, what a load of BS. I told him that its not fine and that I was not happy with the rifle and asked him to rechamber it since the barrel was a 30 inch barrel. He refused to, so I said " Like you said, you made an agreement and I expect you to abide by it otherwise I have other options" He stormed out of the room and came back with a stack of $100 bills and I knew what was coming. He counted and gave me a thousand dollars at a time until $ 4500 was counted and he took the ATACR scope off the rifle and handed it to me. I told him that I am sorry that it had to come to this, his response was " Get the ,,,, out of here". Wow. :lol: I said my pleasure and it was the last I ever saw of him. But I felt a great feeling of relief that I got all my money back and he is stuck with a crappy gun and a waste of his time building it. After a few weeks, gave GA Precision a call and told them that the .308 Crusader they built for me shoots like a dream and that I wanted a 6.5 Creedmoor. Made the order for a 6.5 Creedmoor Crusader with a 26 inch barrel and turn around time is 8 months. Can't wait.
I have had many custom rifles built for me since 1990. I had a custom 6.5 Creedmoor built for me with a Surgeon 591 and shot real well at decent .3 to .4 MOA on first trip to the range, but the local gunsmith who built it last year screwed up where you feed a loaded round and the neck of the round ( case ) would jam up against the bottom of the chamber so I took it back and he must have taken shortcuts to fix it and reamed the very bottom rear part of the chamber and polished it. Called me up and said it was ready, went back and took my ammo with me and tried to feed it and same thing again. He was upset that he had to redo it. The third time I went to pick it up, it chambered better but I could feel a little bumpity bump when chambering it but went to try it anyway. So I went to shoot 40 rounds at the range and shot real decent. I was flabergasted to see that the fired brass had a noticeable bulge on one side of each fired brass at the bottom part close to the case head. I marked each un-fired brass with a Marks a Lot at 12 o clock ( top of the brass ) before I chambered it and fired it and each bulge was at 6 o clock ( bottom of the brass ) of the 12 o clock mark I made on the brass before firing it. I assumed that is the crappy work of the gunsmith but I won't name names. I resized the cases and it took at least 60 to 70 pounds of pressure to size a "lubed "case. I had to stand up to size it. :roll: So I took it back to the gunsmith and he was upset that he had a come back. I asked him " Do you remember when I asked you before I gave you a deposit that if I have any problems with the rifle, what will be the solution? " He replied " I remember telling you that if you have any problems, and I cannot fix it, then I'll give you your money back, all $4500 dollars." I had him put that in writing before I gave him the 50% deposit before he built it.
Now I told him there is a brass issue, its very hard to size and case looks like trash after shooting it. I asked him how he fixed the feeding issue previously , he would not answer my question but I knew anyway. He looked at the fired brass and said there is nothing wrong with the brass and that it looks normal, I laughed and said look closer but just try to sized these fired cases and here are my dies, he said I got my own dies and lube. I said be my guest, he got the brass and strolled over to his reloading bench and pulled out his fancy Redding dies and some Imperial wax lube. He sat down and screwed in his dies and waxed the brass and proceeded to raise the ram, it won't go no more than halfway down the brass, and he made a grunting sound to try to size it from a sitting position, haha. Looked like he was about to blow a fart. Made me laugh right there, but I kept my cool and he finally stood up to put almost all his weight to size that little bitty case. and when he tried to pull the case out of the die, he could not pull it up, he was smacking on the handle of the ram handle several times and finally pulled the case out of the die. I said " See what I mean, that is not normal" His responded sarcastically " That is normal" . I told him in my 30 years of reloading, I never had to size brass like that. He proceeded to size three more and with the same heavy exertion to size them. After sizing them he says brass looks fine. Geez, what a load of BS. I told him that its not fine and that I was not happy with the rifle and asked him to rechamber it since the barrel was a 30 inch barrel. He refused to, so I said " Like you said, you made an agreement and I expect you to abide by it otherwise I have other options" He stormed out of the room and came back with a stack of $100 bills and I knew what was coming. He counted and gave me a thousand dollars at a time until $ 4500 was counted and he took the ATACR scope off the rifle and handed it to me. I told him that I am sorry that it had to come to this, his response was " Get the ,,,, out of here". Wow. :lol: I said my pleasure and it was the last I ever saw of him. But I felt a great feeling of relief that I got all my money back and he is stuck with a crappy gun and a waste of his time building it. After a few weeks, gave GA Precision a call and told them that the .308 Crusader they built for me shoots like a dream and that I wanted a 6.5 Creedmoor. Made the order for a 6.5 Creedmoor Crusader with a 26 inch barrel and turn around time is 8 months. Can't wait. 
