How long should a new build take?

Barks

Barks

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Petawawa,Ont
So I finally pulled together the funds to have a proper precision/target rifle built. I did a ton of research as to which gunsmith to get to do all the work. I read far more positive comments than negative about their work. I was initially quoted 3-4 months wait time. I sent the donor action at the end of April. I am now told that I'm probably looking at the new year.
How long, from start to finish without any interuptions whatsoever, does it take to chamber, cut, crown, thread, true, turn, rifle twist and install a barrel?? How many honest hours go into a project like this??
 
When I built my 6.5/06 it took the better part of 8 months and that was doing the work myself. With the way it shoots it was worth every second. With this kind of precision, the gunsmith taking his time is a good thing IMHO.
Good luck
Dave
 
Barks said:
How long, from start to finish without any interuptions whatsoever, does it take to chamber, cut, crown, thread, true, turn, rifle twist and install a barrel?? How many honest hours go into a project like this??
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Once the action and barrel are in hand and there are no other jobs to finish first:

To "true" a 700 action and and chamber a barrel using the latest benchrest methods and thread and fit it and crowning can be done in a normal working day. Two at the most.

I don't know what you are referring to when you state above - "rifle twist".
 
A week or so, depending on what's being done. However, most smithy's do the work in the order it came in. Add some time for parts to arrive, etc. Nearly a year sounds a bit excessive though.
 
I'm all for good things come to those who wait, but I was also thinking this is getting a bit much.

Guntech...I'm sorry. I was referring to the twist rate of the barrel. I wanted a 1:13, and the smith said he'd have to cut the lands as he didn't have a 1:13 twist barrel blank to work from.

I don't want to be a pain in the ass and constantly hound him, but by the time my rifle shows up, the competition I'm building it for will have come and gone. Even if it shows up in say the first week of Jan, I still have to develope a load for it before it sees competition.
 
Your best bet when building a new rifle is to get as many of the parts needed yourself. Take these to the gunsmith and have him put it all together.
If he needs to order a stock, it could take from 6-8 weeks to a few months. Barrels anywhere from in stock to a month or two depending on the twist and contour you want.
Remember unless you put a big chunk of change down when you dropped the parts off, the smith is using his own money to purchase your parts.
Phone the smith and ask him how your rifle is coming along, then ask him if you should send more money to keep the project moving.
Like guntech said, a barrel job even if the action needs to be squared up should only take a day or two at most.
 
I always buy all the parts myself before dropping a gun project off at the smith's, this way he can't give me the "waiting on parts" standard response when I enquire about any delays. Doing it this way I have gun projects in and out of my smiths in as little as 2 days and never longer than 3 weeks.
 
A smith who is well regarded may have a long list of work ahead of yours. I have a 338 Lapua being built at the moment, and the "specialist" whom I use ordered the action (Nesika) barrel (Rock Creek) and stock (McMillan), while I was standing there in June 06. To date the stock arrived , yesterday, the barrel was shipped last monday, so will be another week, and the action we are still waiting for.
Once the parts are all in his hands, I fully expect it will be another 2 months until he is able to start work on MY gun.
He has been totally straight forward with me on this, typical build time he says is about 2 or 3 days, depending on how often the phone rings or someone "pops in to BS"
Something to consider when amassing your own parts , what if there is a problem ? Ie the stock you brought in has the wrong inletting, or the barrel has issues? These things do happen, the 1 advantage I see to letting the smith be responsible for all parts is then the entire project is HIS responsibility to deal with, if a problem does come up.
On another forum there is a thread about how long it is taking for a pair of "Fraternal twins" to become reality. I know that the fellows involved have had nothing but grief getting the actions and parts, but the smith has made strident advances in completeing this rifles in the time since the actions, finally showed up.
The "parts on order" thing I would think is just as frustrating for the smith.
Having been in the shop several times where the twins are being conceived, I know the smith there has spent alot of time on the phone trying to get said actions.
I hope the boys who these rifles are destined for, appreciate the efforts Rick has made on their behalves to get these rifles done in a reasonable time, given the rocky start.


KK
 
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As for my build I already have the stock, which I'll be bedding myself once the barreled action gets here. There are no parts to aquire since I have them all here. I want to do most of the minor stuff myself.

Quite litterally, the barrel was to be made from bone stock stainless steel. The action trued, then assembled. Then shipped back to me.

I have only contacted him twice. Once in early October and he mentioned that it should be ready mid November. Well here we are in mid December and after a few tries I got through and found out that....well..... sometime in the new year it should be ready.

I don't mind waiting my turn, but perhaps I should have asked when my turn is.
 
maynard said:
Your best bet when building a new rifle is to get as many of the parts needed yourself. Take these to the gunsmith and have him put it all together.
If he needs to order a stock, it could take from 6-8 weeks to a few months. Barrels anywhere from in stock to a month or two depending on the twist and contour you want.
Remember unless you put a big chunk of change down when you dropped the parts off, the smith is using his own money to purchase your parts.
Phone the smith and ask him how your rifle is coming along, then ask him if you should send more money to keep the project moving.
Like guntech said, a barrel job even if the action needs to be squared up should only take a day or two at most.
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Guys, I have to dissagree with this line of thinking. As a mechanic, if a vehicle comes to me for repair, it is not the customers responsibility to bring the parts to me and a pile of cash up front. It is my responsibility to repair the vehicle in a quick and timely fashion, then get my payment when the customer comes to pick up his or her vehicle. I had a rifle built once, nothing fancy. The action was in stock, the barrel and stock were delivered within a couple of weeks. It took 6 months for that rifle to be assembled, and then only because I hounded the gunsmith to death. If you brought your vehicle to me for repair and I kept it for 6 months, you'd go ballistic. I think the problem is that most of us only have 1 maybe 2 gunsmiths in our general area if were lucky, and anybody that is having a custom rifle built is going to be a regular customer. So the attitude becomes, oh, that's just so-and-so, he'll be back, I can look after all these quick jobs first, and the custom job gets put on the back burner. What the smiths must realize is that the regular customers are the loyal ones. They are also the customers that keep buying powder, primers, dies, etc, from their shops. I doubt that I will ever have another custom rifle built.
 
Did you explicitly communicate to him the reason you wanted this work done, in the first place ??? i.e., for a competition in February, March ???? (whatever)

If so, he probably figures he has until at least late January or so, despite the fact that there would appear to be only a few days work involved.

Your anticipated "deadline" and his ... may be two different things altogether.

Did you forward 50 percent of the estimated cost in good faith to get things going ???
If not, ask him if that would expedite the work to be done to meet your stated deadline for delivery.

Get some (specific) communication going !!!
 
My question is did the Smith say that HE was needing to cut the rifling himself or needed to custom order a barrel. The import paper work to get barrels from the USA if one is not available in Canada can take months on it's own.
I have waited as long as one 14 months for Canadian barrel and smith work.

Growler
 
First off, you are't getting a gun built, but rather an action trued and barrelled. Good barrels in all twist rates/contours etc are available in Canada. Labor to thread, chamber and crown should not be more than a few hr. Cutting extractor slot etc. more time. Metal work is straight forward precision machine work. Stocks, esp. wood are a different story. IMHO you are getting the run around. Mark
 
Hi-Standard said:
Guys, I have to dissagree with this line of thinking. As a mechanic, if a vehicle comes to me for repair, it is not the customers responsibility to bring the parts to me and a pile of cash up front. It is my responsibility to repair the vehicle in a quick and timely fashion, then get my payment when the customer comes to pick up his or her vehicle...
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... so if I towed in a worn out 55 Chevy, you would supply a new motor, overhaul the suspension, brakes, steering and do the body work and paint, and install the new tires ... and you already have 5 other vehicles you have committed working on ... you do this without any money up front?
 
I had a benchrest rifle built by Lester Bruno. From the first phone call to the gun being shipped was 5 months. This includes a Bat action that should have taken 8-9 months to get. I got lucky as I actually had bought a used Bat and the exporter shipped it to South Africa by mistake (mistakes happen). Lester managed to get a Bat action quicker than usual and took real good care of me. I used the same exporter as they and the importer where very obliging throughout this. I would not wait a year for an action to be trued. Lester told me he can build a complete bench gun in 2 weeks. It depends on how much work is ahead of you of course but a gun smith who is in the business full time shouldn't take over a year to do the job. I would not give too big a deposit on a job, as small deposit means the smith needs to finish to get his money. I have had a lot of work done by Bill Leeper and he has always refused to take a deposit. It is easy to call yourself a gunsmith, but more difficult to prove it. There are a lot of people who make claims of having gone to school to be a gunsmith. Ask to see the diploma! Ask for references and contact those references. Better yet ask on a sight such as this for P.M.'s as to good gunsmiths. You will be surprised how few good gunsmiths there are in Canada. Smiths the likes of Bill Leeper, Corlane Sports, Dennis Sorensen, Ron Smith, Ted Gaillard, Grant Schick, Henry Remple & Lyle Linkaitis in western Canada come to mind. Ask each how long of a waiting list and when you will see the end result. Pick the one that you like and go with him. Just remember that every minute you spend on the phone with the smith is a minute behind he gets in his work. My approsch is he knows what he is doing don't waste his time telling him how to do it, instead tell him what you want in the end and let him go to it. He knows how to achieve the best results.....
 
Barks,

Quote "How long, from start to finish without any interuptions whatsoever, does it take to chamber, cut, crown, thread, true, turn, rifle twist and install a barrel?? How many honest hours go into a project like this?? "Quote


Take the total labour costs, divide it by 40-$50 or whatever the prevailing shop rate is in your area and you will know how about how many hours were spent on your rifle. Nobody works for nothing, and nobody expects them to.
Most of the delays are due to waiting on parts, if you drop everything off at the beginning it can speed the process immeasurably. After that it depends on how busy the smith is. I've gotten a rifle back, completed in 3 days and he actually fitted 2 barrels. Waiting on the bedding probably took longer than the machining.:D I don't expect that kind of delivery time to ever happen again though. 3-6 months seems to be fairly normal. "Never" seems to happen too.
Dogleg
 
I also have a rebarrel job in the works. I want a Lilja.

Can I order a custom barrel from the US or does the gunsmith have to do that ? If I can, I will.
 
dpopl8r said:
I also have a rebarrel job in the works. I want a Lilja.

Can I order a custom barrel from the US or does the gunsmith have to do that ? If I can, I will.
Click to expand...

Yes you can, but be prepared to do a bunch of paper work and spend several months waiting. Or you could get ahold of Corlane sports, who have a permit in place with Lilja and have it in short order....They may even have one in stock!!!
 
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