Major bummer!! Gunsmith closing!

LMLarsen

I had my local guy Hatfield refresh one of my carbines, and he told me today that he’s closing his doors at the end of the year.  

<darthvader>NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!</darthvader>

There’s a couple of minor things I need him to do before then, but afterwards I’ll have to find someone else more-or-less local...

Old Ron

That is a sad thing to see.
Many have told me there just isn't enough money in it to make a steady living .
Once the good ones are gone then there will only be hacks left that will over charge & do bad work. The ones that take pride in there work are getting to be few & far between.

LMLarsen

He’s not hurting for business or money; in fact, one of the reasons he’s closing is to write a series of books for a college program.  Just moving on to a new chapter.

Diver43

Is this the guy in Virginia that you pointed us to with the Springfield 1873?  If so, you are losing a good one.

LMLarsen

Yeah, my guy in Manassas.  Says he may come back in a year or two for limited custom stuff, but yeah, he’s good.

Elk creek

It’s only a matter of. A couple years before our local smith called it quits. The Craftsmen are leaving us and we get stuck with the parts mashers. 

MileHighShooter

Yup, a "gunsmith" these days is a kid who puts together an AR15 or beds a plastic stock.  And that's about it

FFLshooter

There are very few people that want to pay us what we are worth. You tell them a price and all of a sudden they turn into a tire kicker looking at a used car. You can either pay for a good job or a YouTube job and the result WILL show.

snake284

I don't think mine is oing anywhere for awhile but he's very slow. Hes a damn good gun smith but gun smithing is only his side line. His bread and butter is oil field machine work.

bellcat

Lost ours a couple years ago so he could work on nothing but rifle stocks.

jaywapti

snake284 said:

I don't think mine is oing anywhere for awhile but he's very slow. Hes a damn good gun smith but gun smithing is only his side line. His bread and butter is oil field machine work.

Very true, I started smithing in 1960, at first it was mainly repairs, as i started doing more advanced work the cost for tooling got to be very expensive, buying lathes, mills, tig welders, etc, add to that the cost of running all that tooling, insurance, heating and ac etc. Had it not been for my main job, working at the airlines i would not have been able to afford all my toys.

JAY

Jayhawker

There's a lot of guys out there that call themselves "gunsmiths" because they can put together an AR or install a rail in pre-drilled holes...but shy away from drilling a couple of holes in a receiver...you know...basic gunsmith stuff...It took my last gunsmith in Kansas took near three months to install a tang sight on my 1895 Marlin...not because he was slow but because he was busy...and I didn't have problem one with it...
 It's a dying art...