Gunsmiths that you recommend

For BC gunsmiths:
Chris Wilcox in Lumby has rebarreled and or chambered 4 rifles for me and I was always pleased with his work.

Mick McPhee in Kamloops did one rifle we own and his work is very fine as well.

I've seen some of metal work done by Patrick Smith in Penticton and it looked very well done as far as I could tell.

I've corresponded with Bill Leeper in the Kootenays on several gun problems and he has yet to steer me wrong. I've seen photos of his work and it is very good work indeed.

Thanks to all who've responded, it makes choosing a gunsmith much easier.

Regards,
Dwayne
 
I have to put my vote for Peter Riedel/owner operator of Rusty Wood Trading Co. Sent him my Ruger SA revolver with a couple of problems. Did a beautiful trigger job and also fixed my gun which would totally lock up. The turn around time was very reasonable in my opinion, especially considering the work load he has. He will get anything from here on in that I own. Here is a link to his business http://ww w.rustywood.ca
 
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fredem said:
John Rempel in Toms Lake, BC has built a few custom rifles in his time.
I had a M95 turned into a beautiful 7MM AI as a gift for my son. All of my repairs have been done in a timely manner.
John gets to re-repair a lot of others' work and accepts work from all of Western Canada.
The new shop will be online second week of February, 2010.
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John has been ignoring me for quite some time now. He has one of my rifles and money I put down for a barrel.....I wasnt' sure if he passed away or if I should call the rcmp.

He sent me an email in september 2007 telling me it would not be long now....I guess we have different perception of Time.

Edit: Thanks to Fredem I got a hold of John and I will (hope) get my Rifle back....supposed to have turned out nice.....we will see if and when I get it.

Not sure what happened....I guess we had some communication issues.
 
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Avoid this Gunsmith in Calgary AB.

Twister at twister's gun shop in calgary ab

I contacted him to replace a broken trigger guard on a vintage .22 rifle.

I brought it in and he said that he would have to custom build it for me because normal parts are not made anymore.

He asked to keep it for a week and said that it would be done and ready to pick up.

A week went by and i called him and he said that he was not able to complete it. I said no problem i would wait another week.

Another week went by and he had not completed it yet. He said i should pick up my gun and he has the old trigger guard so he can finish the work without having the gun. he said that he had a guard replacement to last me till he finished the new one. I paid him in advance what he was asking for the guard and waited.

3 months went by and nothing. I contacted him by email and asked why it was not done. I got a bs reason, "other people brought in stuff and i had to get there work done. also i had some personal issues". Then he said that the money i paid in advance was for the cheap part to tide me over. and that the new part would cost more money..... but the part was done.

I responded and asked how much and when can i pick it up, because i still needed a replacement. No response, i emailed twice in total and no response called several times no response.

I would avoid this gun smith at all costs.

Below are pictures of the cheap part he put on my gun to "tide" me over which ended up being his costly replacement. Myself i could have done a better job.



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Guy in Prichard B.C. ? Sent him my M1a Match rifle a few years ago,just to shorten the takeup a bit.Good thing I only put two rounds in it when I got ready to test fire cause it would have emptied the whole mag if I would've loaded it up.Stopped right there,took it home and pulled the pin out he had installed.Never looked back.Good thing it only cost me 35.00.
Now for the guy at Armco ? Sent him my 1911 Gold Cup series 70 about 5 years ago and let him have it for the winter.Also sent him sample ammo to test fire in it including some CCI Lawmen ammo I had cause I knew it had a reputation for being hard to feed.Told him I would send him 100.00 per month.When he had it done,I would send the remainder.
Next spring I got the gun back.I didn't have a chance to test fire it and just put it away.I thought "I'll get to it soon" and left it.Being a single Dad I had other things to do.I used to watch his website quite a bit.One day I notice he has a .45 convertable Blackhawk for sale and in the picture,looks very much like CCI 200g JHP Lawman ammo sittin beside the extra cylinder.I got curious and looked in the box he sent my gun in.There was a bag of spent carts in there.I knew that but didn't look too close at the time.But now I look and none had a Winchester head stamp,which I used exclusively,and definitely none had a CCI Speer headstamp.In fact what I had,looked very much like range brass.Some of it fairly weathered.
By the time all this happened,it was,unfortunately for me,over the year warranty period.I took the gun out,at that point and tried a test fire ,with a variety of ammo.First shot....great.....next shot.....trigger froze...oh oh...bad hold,I thought...flipped on the safety during recoil.....NOPE.Tried again...frozen trigger....O.K. drop the mag,cycle the slide..clear...point down range...drop the hammer.....repeat.Mag in,cycle slide,fire down range...good.....fire next round...frozen trigger...WTF.Did this 1 more time,same damn thing. Then decided to dry fire to try to figure out what's going on.Only thing I got out of that day was that I got shafted big time.Gunnar NEVER test fired that damn gun...in fact he went so far as to give me empty brass to make it look like he had.That was my ammo in the picture with the Ruger BlackHawk.
1100.00 bucks GONE !
It took 350.00 bucks just to replace parts to get it to shoot and even at that,the guy in Vancouver who fixed it,told me the barrel Gunnar fitted was chambered way out of speck and headspace was out and the slide hadn't been touched.
When I sent a private email to one of the elite here on CGN,he flatly refused to believe that Gunnar would do such a thing and that he was a good friend.Well...I'll tell you what,If I had a good friend who did something like that,I'd have him up against the wall,asking for an explanation.If I'm going to support a friend of mine,he damn well better come clean and fix the problem or I'm gone.I don't do that to people and i expect my friends to be the same way.
I never heard a peep after that.
 
Gunsmiths

Arthur Troth- Mt. Brydges ON( near London) Getting up there, not cheap, but one of the best around!
 
beaver455 said:
Jason Spencer, business name "Gunco " in Ottawa. Apprenticed under George Pohle a master gunsmith from Germany.
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Yes, Jason is a good smith. Built a custom target 30-06 for me and put a number of Mausers together and has done other general repairs. And he has come up with small parts for me on many occassions.

He is also a very honest guy.

Worthwhile to check out his ever changing used stock as well - both non restricted, restricted and prohib.

Highly recommended.

George did fantastic custom rifle builds back in the day....Jason had a good teacher.

CD
 
It'd be helpful if people would mention what type of work these people are good at, most gunsmiths specialize.

Sean at Freedom Ventures in NS did a pretty good reliability job on my STI; Stephan at TSE seems to be competent, did a good job on my P226.

All gunsmiths are slow, I never expect them to finish on the quoted date, I don't think it's ever happened and I've used dozens over the years (frankly the best ones don't quote dates, they just give you a vague idea - counterintuitive I know but that's been my experience - unfortunately the worst ones are the same). The other problem in Canada especially is that any gunsmith worth his salt ups sticks and moves to the US on an E-2 visa. Lost count of how many gunsmiths I met when I lived in the US who had moved there from somewhere else. Briley of Briley chokes fame was a gunsmith in South Africa for example.
 
What's interesting to us is that EVERYDAY we get people in here that claim to be a gunsmith :rolleyes:

Our Gunsmith; Stefan, actually apprenticed for FOUR (yes, 4) years in Switzerland before getting his certification.

Then he worked under the watchful eyes of a "Master" gunsmith to ensure he was actually paying attention.

I must say (although I am biased) that Stefan is an awesome gunsmith. I am equally impressed because he is always clear with everyone about what he CANNOT do. Which incidently, is not too much.

JR
 
nevermind the good what about the bad

I realize there are some good smiths out there but maybe we should get some heads up on the not so good or maybe a little shady?
 
Another vote for Peter Riedel (Rusty Wood)

Did an action job and trigger job on my Marlin 1895 XLR and the same on my BLR (virtually everyone says BLR triiger can't be done... Peter did an awesome job.)

Extractor was missing at the first range trip with the BLR, kinda think I bought it that way as I sent it to Peter before I fired it, and Peter wouldn't have had a reason to mess with it. He ordered an extractor and refused to let me pay him for it. Also noted a small problem with one of my scope bases and milled it + reblued it, again at no charge.

Stand up guy and very reasonable prices IMO.

From talking to him his specialty is CAS guns (lever guns, SA revolvers, shotguns, etc), but also does 1911's and modern revolvers.
 
JR, no truer word's

TSE JR said:
What's interesting to us is that EVERYDAY we get people in here that claim to be a gunsmith :rolleyes:

Our Gunsmith; Stefan, actually apprenticed for FOUR (yes, 4) years in Switzerland before getting his certification.

Then he worked under the watchful eyes of a "Master" gunsmith to ensure he was actually paying attention.

I must say (although I am biased) that Stefan is an awesome gunsmith. I am equally impressed because he is always clear with everyone about what he CANNOT do. Which incidently, is not too much.

JR
Click to expand...

I have read on this thread next to hearing my gunsmiths mentioned.

CBY
 
Greg at Corlane-Rocky Mountain Rifles in Dawson Creek BC gets my vote. Always willing to share info and answer questions, but never tries to push a guy towards his own personal preference. Been dealing with Corlane for years, and Greg has built me a .300 RUM on a Win Model 70, and a .300 WSM on a Browning X-Bolt. Truly a stand up guy, and a great gunsmith, working at a well established buisness.
 
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