Price of a Chamber job from your gunsmith

[bozo699]

The point that seems to be getting lost in all of this, is the OP has had work done in the past, as recently as two months ago, and was not told up front that there was a price increase.

If he had been told so, it would be then up to him to whether or not to have the smith in question do the work.

Providing, of course, the work to be done was the same in the past, he was not given that option......

BTW, the same thing happened to me a couple of years ago. The guy raised his price 47% over what I had been paying without saying up front. He has no idea how much money that's cost him since.........

I have to agree with Alf on this, Thud has used this smith before how much I don't know but recently for sure, I think the right thing for the smith to have done was to say hay just a heads up for XXXXX reasons I have raised my price by X amount for this service. Not knowing Thud at all but judging by past posts I have read of his on many different threads he would have still of had him do it, my take on it is he just wished the smith would have given him a heads up, if I were a smith and I am not I leave it to you talented professionals I would get irritated if one of my good customers which by the way has usually worked into a close relationship between smith and shooter to have them ask every time they wanted the same job done how much does this cost? but I guess to each his own. As for as all you quality smiths out there my hat is off to all of you and I have the utmost respect for your dedication in going to school for two to four years of your life and buying untold thousands of dollars of equipment to do quality work for us. I have four smiths that do work for me, three of them are very good friends as well and one is my best friend and shooting partner, I demand he charges me full price as he does excellent work in a timely manner every time I ask which is often, he for some reason does not charge me full price and sometimes nothing so I try to make up for it in some way from time to time, last year my son and I bought him a 12-42 NSX for his new build as a appreciation gift for always having us ready for the first match of the season, usually at the expense of him getting little to no sleep doing it. There are the price shoppers and cheap people out there for sure but I believe most of us dedicated shooters have a lot of respect for you schooled, professional, dedicated Smiths. I just think if your going to raise your prices by 40 +% in one jump it would be nice at least for your return customers for a heads up so were not shocked and your not pissed because we complain. Happy reaming and shooting to all
Wayne.

 

[jkl]

I agree that this thread is out of hand but I am in the construction business as the owner for 26 years. People will not complain about a $100.00 per hour shop rate for their car mechanic, shop fees and hazardous disposal. I get complaints for a $50.00 to $65.00 rate per man hour many times a year. I just tell them to get their mechanic to do it for them.

I shot with Lester Bruno and we were discussing this in the pits today. He hears it all the time and it is your right to go to any shop that you choose. Lester cannot keep up and he is not cheap. You could always buy the tools and do it your self, I spent enough to have Lester do barrels for the next two life times. I do enjoy doing my own barrels.

John

 

[Rustystud]

I love a good debate. Example Butch Lambert and I have not met in person but I consider him a good friend. We have posted behind each other for years. We both like rifles that look good and shoot better. We often disagree but we respect each other and our ideas. I know that I have pissed him off a time or two. He has hurt my feelings before. But we tell it like it is and have great respect for each other. I call him for advice all the time.
This post about "Price for a Chamber Job from your Gunsmith" has not gotten out of hand. It has allowed for a number of folks to air out thier feelings. It is good to communicate it refreshes our points of view.
I get tickled reading "I use to pay..." I think about it for a minute and the first thing that comes to mind. I bought a Cheverolet car new for $1,715.00 in 1967. In 1977 I bought my first house for $16,000.00
That car had a 250 in line 6 cylinder engine, three on the tree. No power brakes, no power steering, no air condition, and only heat and a AM radio. That car had a 21 gallon gas tank and got 30 miles to the gallon. I drove that car for 225,000 miles and sold it for $500.00. I lived in that house for 5 years. The mortage payment with insurance, and property taxes was $140.00 per month. I now rent that house for $900.00 a month to someone else. It has bought and payed for two other houses over the years.

When I first started chambering rifles in 1974, I charged $25.00 and was told that I was robbing folks then. My have times changed but the people stay just the same.
Nat Lambeth

 

[jkl]

I always enjoy the comments and reading. How someone broke it off in them or someone is getting it for free. It is about the enjoyment you get from the work the gunsmith did to your shooting skills at the range. If $50.00 is going to break the bank you better take up another hobby.

John

 

[Frankr]

Im in the automotime field, I have been a ASE certified technician over 20 years and spent 6 years as a assistent service manager(which means i did all the work,while my boss read the auto trader). I got sick of it and went back to turning a wrench..All i can say is. I have had the customer who said what $350.00 buck I did not know it would be that much..most of the time they were lieing just trying to get a discount..I allways made sure i went over the work and the price and made them sign my work order..That put a stop to that and i had a large loyal customer base who liked me,to the point where they would say just do the work needed.even when i tryed to explane why it cost so much they did not want to hear about it,just wanted it fixed..
I dont know to much about chamber jobs other than like everything else the prices have gone up and up...
I dont think $250.00 for a chambering job from a top smith is all that bad of a deal..But at over $350.00 maybe it will be time to my money back into shotgun shooting.lol But at the same time we are not really sure what the charges were for either? Thats one i get all the time from friends.so&so spent $500.00 bucks to have brakes put on..I really doubt that, there was more done than you think for it to be that much. when i looked at the bill , both rotors,pads a wheel brg and a oil change was done..I said well you save 50 to 100 buck over what it would have cost you at our shop.lol..

 

[deadlyswift]

Well as Rustystud said it's just the difference in ppls opinion, and I'm always up for a good debate when I don't have anything else more important going on. Actually by keeping a open mind during a debate I have learned a thing or two. As well been right once or twice in my life ;D

I'm assuming that $350 was to Thread, chamber, crown and polish the barrel. $350 each? I don't really know the going rate for polishing. I have a friend that does my polishing a lot cheaper than most. I'm guessing $250 to $275 for chambering, thread, and crown the barrel, then $75 to $100 to polish. I would think those prices are competitive prices but not a out rage. Just on the High end of the price range.

The 1st thing I would take into account is the quality of his work? The 2nd thing and almost as important as the 1st is his customer service. Witch I will agree with the OP if he jacked the prices up with out any notice then customer service isn't so great. Considering the OP and the Smith had a on going good relationship in the past. Seems like it would just be the courteous thing to do. I would have to sit down and figure out away to better the communications between myself and the smith. If I couldn't then I would just move on. With that said I do have to agree with Rustystud when he said take some responsibility and ask for a quote. Makes since, and It is business not love making. Most ppl do have a policy that prices are subject to change without notice. So there you go.

I can understand some of the guy's opinions on aggravating costumers. I've seen my Smith take call after call after call. Causing him to take 2hrs to just do a FFL transfer. One guy called just to ask my smith if he had used the reamer to chamber his barrel that the he supplied. That's like asking a surgeon if he does Surgery's. : I ordered a complete custom FTR rig from my smith in Mar. 2011. It still isn't built yet, but at no fault to the smith. He did not get the Action until the Fri before this past Thanksgiving. As well I have told my smith to push my build back because of his work load and some wanting something yesterday. The thing is even if he built it today. The rig would just sit in my safe at this point simply because there are other things slowing my shooting down. So I do him a favor and allow him to get his work caught up. The favor I get is when he does get to my rig he isn't stressed out, Rushed to get it done, or on edge with me. In other words I get his best possible work. Not to mention the favors I already owe him for just taking the time to show me things other than just building awesome rifles. Great guy, and one of the top Smith's in the country! His rifles and the ppl shooting them speak for him.

Even before I had my Smith do any work for me. I had already had a cpl of bad experiences with gunsmiths. I will say I made my own mistakes with one of them. How ever the 2nd one who claims to know what he is doing did not! Big Name but all talk!!! Knows nothing about gunsmithing! I put that junk behind me and done my homework the 3rd time around. I asked current customers about this smith. I even asked ppl that knew this smith but used a different smith. I searched hard to find something bad about my smith. Nota nothing! There is a reason I couldn't find anything negative about him!!

I will add that when I have work done by my Smith he sends me a invoice via email. That has the cost and price of everything and it is broken down from cost of parts to cost of labor! As well a message is sent with the invoice that if something doesn't look right or isn't right to let him know. Personally I love the sport too much, to complain too much and I'm just thankful I still have the right to own as many fire arms as I want!

 

[Frankr]

The point i was trying to make And Thud i mean no disrespect to you in saying this..
If someone charges me $100.00 bucks over what i feel is normal,I'm going to ask them why..Yea I'm going to say what! 350.00! my last one was 250.00 whats up here..
The point i was trying to make is,,We have know idea what the smith really did..I have see this alot..Was it a factory action with a suck on barrel that pulled some threads when he Finlay got it off.. did he have to make some kind of repairs to the action we don't know about, grind a recoil lug anything that could of justified extra cost.
And Gunsmiths please..I hear it takes 4 to 6 hours to do a thread/chamber and crown job..$250.00 is in my opinion on the high end..I know some top reputable BR smiths that charge $175.00 and that includes polish or bead blast..Now the one i use charges $200.00 + $40.00 to polish or mat finish and i gladly pay with a smile on my face..
But at $250.00 a job and I'm use to long hours i don't mind putting in a 12 hour day.. lets see i could make $500.00 a day in my garage. Yea maybe a 10k investment in a lathe and learn how to do barrel jobs,with a 6 month back log. its looking quite interesting. I work 4 ,12 hour days that's $2,000 a week. hey that's big money to me..
I'm lucky to make 1k a week and that's working 6 days.Hey I'm just saying...I have allways been interested in it just not enough to do it.

 

[dennisinaz]

There are three guys that I can think of that charge that kind of money but you see their names in match reports a lot and lot of them being winners. That is worth something. If they have to charge that much to keep the demand to a reasonable level, fine. They don't need to charge that much to be fair and make money.

I do my own now, but the last three I had done were all $250 and were done by someone who shoots BR and builds rifles that way. I have had them done cheaper and that's what I got. I have my own opinions about what works and that's how I do it. Some guys have different ideas. There's a guy in Co that is way out in right field with his ideas but I guess it works for him.

I, personally, would be pretty upset if I had been having barrels installed for $250 and then got a bill for $350.