fair price for installing a muzzle brake?

Beer_drinker

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Would $100 be a fair price to install a brake or should I move onto another gunsmith?


and my smith is also charging $50 to put a recoil pad on a tikka 3, are these things hard to install? isn't it just two screws holding them in place?



many thanks for any replies!
 
That's a good price to install a brake, if it's not one of those "bolt on" jobs.But you should install the recoil pad yourself it's not hard.
 
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If it is a brake that requires indexing I charge $100 to thread and fit it.

I charge $25 to $50 for the labour to fit and grind a pad on most rifles. Attaching the pad is not particularly hard to do but grinding the profile down to fit without damaging the stock takes a bit of patience and skill. It is also a real piss off when the pad you are trying to fit to a skinny stock ends up being destroyed because you have ground into the metal plate within the pad. I have 3 or 4 Decelerator destroyed pads in my drawer to remind me.... they are out of my pocket, not the customers... so $50 isn't out of line for a good job well done.
 
If it is a brake that requires indexing I charge $100 to thread and fit it.

I charge $25 to $50 for the labour to fit and grind a pad on most rifles. Attaching the pad is not particularly hard to do but grinding the profile down to fit without damaging the stock takes a bit of patience and skill. It is also a real piss off when the pad you are trying to fit to a skinny stock ends up being destroyed because you have ground into the metal plate within the pad. I have 3 or 4 Decelerator destroyed pads in my drawer to remind me.... they are out of my pocket, not the customers... so $50 isn't out of line for a good job well done.



Would I be able to sand the pad down myself with a knife and sandpaper or is a belt sander needed for this job?
 
"...a belt sander needed..." Not absolutely required, but it's must faster and you can be more accurate. A few layers of masking tape will help protect the stock. A sanding block will do if you don't have access to a bench mounted belt sander or sanding wheel. I wouldn't use a knife though.
 
It's been my experience that unless buying a pre-fit recoil pad, which I think Simms does make for the T3, find a good gunsmith and pay him/her to do it. $50 is very reasonable, I was paying that more then 10 years ago to have grind to fit pads installed on my rifles.
 
It's been my experience that unless buying a pre-fit recoil pad, which I think Simms does make for the T3, find a good gunsmith and pay him/her to do it. $50 is very reasonable, I was paying that more then 10 years ago to have grind to fit pads installed on my rifles.

X2 Agreed!
 
If you think it is a bit expensive to install the pad then do it yourself. With this experience you will then consider $50 real cheap. We charge $70 including a Decelerator pad, but only on stocks we manufacture.
 
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