U ever had a gunsmith tell you “no”?

[WOLFY]

a nice old gun plumber in cruces said he couldn cut my model 12 down to 20” 

 

“when so many short shotguns are available for cheap” 

 

should i have mentioned that wild bunch doesn allow all makes?

Edited Monday at 10:53 PM by WOLFY

[Blackwater 53393]

Been told no, but never anything as routine as that.

[Creeker, SASS #43022]

I would have agreed with him, "You are correct; you shouldn't cut this down - when there are so many gunsmiths who will do what I request"

 

And then I would have walked out.

Edited Monday at 11:23 PM by Creeker, SASS #43022

[Rye Miles #13621]

I had a gunsmith tell me he wouldn’t slick up a gun, he didn’t want to be responsible for anything that would happen due to a light trigger and/or hammer pull. Okay man, I respect that, see ya never! 

[The Original Lumpy Gritz]

Why I learned to do it myownself!  👍

[Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474]

I had my G'smith talk me out of cutting down a Winchester '97.

He sold it for me on consignment (Good$$$) and I bought a '97 Norinco clone, that he polished up the action on for me.

[Shawnee Hills]

27 minutes ago, The Original Lumpy Gritz said:

Why I learned to do it myownself!  👍

This is the best way.  Yes, you’ll have some $$ tied up in tooling but you won’t have to burn fuel, time, and wear on your vehicle to visit a smith twice and pay him for the work. 

[Rip Snorter]

When the first Ruger OM Vaqueros came out, I bought a pair for SASS. Took them to an excellent gunsmith / antiquarian for a trigger job and general slicking up.  A couple of days later he called me back, remember landlines? He wasn't interested, the guns were different than the old ones and he didn't want to go there.  He was ready to retire and a year or so later, a great gun shop / gunsmith shut down.  I was surprised, as he had slicked up a'97 for me brilliantly.

[Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770]

The best gunsmith in town, (Murphy) retired a few years back, and his son was taking over. 

I've mentioned before that I have several Taurus 85s. I managed to stumble across a guy on ebay that had a three inch barrel for sale. I bought that, as well as the cylinder that went with it. 

I took it to Murphy Jr. and asked that he remove the two inch barrel and replace it with the three incher. "No."

Okay, fine. I looked around and found a guy who would. He was expensive, but that gun now shoots a tighter group than all the others. 

BTW, if you're looking for used parts, there's a website called https://everygunpart.com/ that has many Demilled guns and parts for sale. I could have saved a bunch if I'd known about them before.

[Uriah, SASS # 53822]

I had trigger work done on a savage model 25 and a Remington 03A3, by the same gunsmith.

Springfield Krag 1898, he would not do. Even though that is my worst trigger to date. Two stage, and three creeps.

 

Uriah

[WOLFY]

el paso has so few ginsmiths that the waiting time is a little exagerated

 

i’ve found a used barrel that I’ll practice shortening myself

Edited Tuesday at 04:43 AM by WOLFY

[Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967]

33 minutes ago, WOLFY said:

el paso has so few ginsmiths that the waiting time is a little exagerated

 

i’ve found a used barrel that I’ll practice shortening myself

 

I've gone that route - used barrel to cut and preserve the original.  Model 12's are plumb sweet!

[The Original Lumpy Gritz]

10 hours ago, Shawnee Hills said:

This is the best way.  Yes, you’ll have some $$ tied up in tooling but you won’t have to burn fuel, time, and wear on your vehicle to visit a smith twice and pay him for the work. 

You will learn more by do'n it yourownself. 

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

Been told no many times and never doubted the 'smith.  They know more than I do and have always given me a reason.....or different logical suggestions to suit my needs.

 

Thanks guys and ladies.

[El Chapo]

Boggus could do it

[Irish Pat]

The first nice rifle I bought out of college was a Browning Grade II 270.  One of my dad's good friends was an old WWII Navy vet who who had ran the machine shop on a hospital ship in the Pacific.  He told me  he cut steel out from all over in that ship and every wounded Marine left with a Bowie fightinig knife he made and sold.  Anyway I took him my new BAR and told him I wanted the stock cut and a recoil pad put on it. He told real quick that he was not cutting that rifle and the only time I felt it kick was sighting in the scope. He you never hear it of feel it when you are shooting at a buck. That has been fifty years ago and I still have that recoil pad new in the box.   I still remember that from 50 years ago...    Irish  Pat  

[Eyesa Horg]

He was right, huh?

[Cypress Sun]

My Dad was my primary gunsmith....he told me NO hundreds of times!

[watab kid]

i take it he felt it was against his principles to cut such a nice classic shotgun wown ? i never had one so nice that i requested cut so , no i never did for that request , i did have one tell me he wouldnt work on one of my old guns that needed repair because he said it was unsafe so i hung it on the wall 

[Shawnee Hills]

13 hours ago, The Original Lumpy Gritz said:

You will learn more by do'n it yourownself. 

Indeed!  There isn’t much a mechanically-inclined individual can’t do; especially if they have a mill, lathe, welder, tooling, and are willing to learn new things.  Oftentimes the end product will be better than from a smith that isn’t well-known. 

[Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770]

1 hour ago, Shawnee Hills said:

Indeed!  There isn’t much a mechanically-inclined individual can’t do; especially if they have a mill, lathe, welder, tooling,

I've got a circular saw, a drill, and a Dremel. I'm not trying ANYTHING with that combo.

[Singin' Sue 71615]

23 hours ago, WOLFY said:

el paso has so few ginsmiths that the waiting time is a little exagerated

 

i’ve found a used barrel that I’ll practice shortening myself

Did you call Col Lou?

He is in El Paso

[WOLFY]

50 minutes ago, Singin' Sue 71615 said:

Did you call Col Lou?

He is in El Paso

 

my filipino brother?  he’s clear over on the other side of town from us

 

maybe i’ll go bug him if my barrel cutting goes poorly

[Singin' Sue 71615]

11 hours ago, WOLFY said:

 

my filipino brother?  he’s clear over on the other side of town from us

 

maybe i’ll go bug him if my barrel cutting goes poorly

He is a lot closer to YOU than ME !!

Yup , go see him. A great mexifood place next door to his shop...just sayin'.

[WOLFY]

2 hours ago, Singin' Sue 71615 said:

He is a lot closer to YOU than ME !!

Yup , go see him. A great mexifood place next door to his shop...just sayin'.

 

I’ve wondered about that spot, but I’m rarely there at lunch time  - Albano fixed the loose arbor on my cimarron pocket gun for cheap (and he did it in an afternoon).

 

Thanks Sue, I’ll bring the shotgun and spare barrel to the good Col.

 

 

Edited Wednesday at 07:11 PM by WOLFY

[Stump Water]

15 hours ago, Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770 said:

I've got a circular saw, a drill, and a Dremel. I'm not trying ANYTHING with that combo.

 

I'm with ya.  I'm a fair-to-middlin woodworker and have the small fortune in tools that goes with that.  But when it comes to hacking on guns or any other metal work (other than sharpening blades) I leave it to those more qualified.

[Singin' Sue 71615]

1 hour ago, WOLFY said:

 

I’ve wondered about that spot, but I’m rarely there at lunch time  - Albano fixed the loose arbor on my cimarron pocket gun for cheap (and he did it in an afternoon).

 

Thanks Sue, I’ll bring the shotgun and spare barrel to the good Col.

 

 

Please tell him I 'urged' you his way! He rebuilt my Stallion P's while sittin' on my front lawn...stogie in hand! Great guy... gotta love the Col!

[Singin' Sue 71615]

5 minutes ago, Singin' Sue 71615 said:

Please tell him I 'urged' you his way! He rebuilt my Stallion P's while sittin' on my front lawn...stogie in hand! Great guy... gotta love the Col!

 

[WOLFY]

He’s talented … are the Stallions 7/8 scale SAAs?  I saw a Model P jr at Cabellas recently and could NOT resist it.  

I’ll let him know you sent me, Sue. 

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

On 8/31/2026 at 6:42 PM, Shawnee Hills said:

This is the best way.  Yes, you’ll have some $$ tied up in tooling but you won’t have to burn fuel, time, and wear on your vehicle to visit a smith twice and pay him for the work. 

This is only a good solution if you are confident in your own skills.

 

I'm not, so I don't.

[watab kid]

i once cut a barrel off with a RIGID pipe cutter tool , it was perfect cut but the edges were quite sharp and needed a bit of easing with a file 

[Singin' Sue 71615]

On 9/2/2026 at 2:05 PM, WOLFY said:

He’s talented … are the Stallions 7/8 scale SAAs?  I saw a Model P jr at Cabellas recently and could NOT resist it.  

I’ll let him know you sent me, Sue. 

I believe so...I bought them to try to continue shooting Duelist.

Very small profile, great little guns!

[Doc Shapiro]

I have had a gunsmith tell me no.  But he came back with a better solution to what I was looking for, so it was all good.  

 

"No" is a bad answer.

 

"No, but have you thought of this?" is much better.  

[Subdeacon Joe]

Never had one tell me "No." But I watched one tell a guy "NO!" emphatically and enthusiastically.  Guy had swept him with a loaded 1911. Mac grabbed it, dropped the magazine,  ejected the cartridge,  stripped it in about 5 seconds, threw it in the trash, told the guy to get out.

[Dutch Coroner]

"Hell no" was the response when I asked a gunsmith if he worked on Schofields.