Thread: Show us your Varmint rifles

Gun smiths can say and do some funny things. What ever happened to "the customer is always right"? You pay for a service you expect to get it.

Originally Posted by Beavis

Gun smiths can say and do some funny things. What ever happened to "the customer is always right"? You pay for a service you expect to get it.

The customer is always right, unless the customer is getting a service performed by a trade professional, that has a reputation, and a obligation to make sure everything is safe, then sometimes, the customer is wrong.

I did the Armourers trade and got some gay certificate as well as completing the apprenticeship saying I was a gunsmith. But was just a glorified parts fitter as far as military stuff went really.
The only one I know of that is certified from the UK is Roberta Tiffen.
Not saying there is not others.





Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk. So please forgive my sausage fingers!!!

Originally Posted by Tussock

How many NZ "gunsmiths" actually apprenticed as Gunsmiths to someone else who was apprenticed as a gunsmith, and how many are fitter and turners who declared them self a gunsmith, or ex armorers?

I think more of the latter. Iv seen a fair few guns that have gone away with clear instructions and come back with something completely different (most of them Gimps).

Non the less, you can't say the customer is always right, when it comes to thing that could potentially hurt someone, or ruin a business (not implying barrel length could hurt someone but other requests could). I'm not getting into the quality of the jobs, or the qualification of the tradespeople, just stating that, in some cases, the guy who calls himself a gunsmith, might know a little more than the guy that owns the gun, hence why a gunsmith might second guess someones decision to shorten a barrel, below what they believe to be optimal.

Originally Posted by Tussock

That would make sense if you left out the barrel bit, as short barrels are not dangerous, and only illegal if too short, which is actually ridiculously short.

Optimal, as far as Im concerned is your business. Not theirs.

O_o I guess I should of put an I'm in front of "not implying barrel length could hurt someone but other requests could"

I agree with your statement on barrel length, but if some knob who thinks he knows everything, and there are a lot of those people around, went to a gun smith with is 300 win mag, and asked for it to be shortened to 12 inches, cause the internetz told him it was optimal, would you expect a gunsmith to go ahead and do it?

I think if a smith was asked to do something that was obviously going to cause safety concerns, then they are fully entitled to turn down the work. But, as has been said, something like cutting a barrel down, should be fairly straight forward. The customer is paying for a service, not an opinion. Just like the smith who wouldn't drill holes in a fake flash hider on an M14, "cuz it will make it E cat". Somebody else ends up getting the money instead.

there is also the angle that ******** gunsmith ruined my gun by shortening the barrel too much.......
they then fail to mention that they asked him to make it that short.
they are also aloud to have an opinion, specially if they think what you are doing is wrong in their mind and you are not aware of it.
they probably see turkeys come thru all the time, part of their service is their advice and experiance, like any other professional.
if you persist and say but this is what I want then I cant see them turning you down. they will just do it and think you are a fool at worst.

It's like any trade , you Dont have to accept every job that comes your way, and should be obliged to tell a client that it's not , legal or unsafe , or not the norm . Myself I turn down jobs if I don't agree with the terms or attitude or safety aspects . It's a pc world out there if you are a qualified trades person and do a task that is "not trade practice " you may be liable . Not worth the risk in my mind.

Tussock pretty much summed up the point I was trying to make

Good to see this thread is on topic

This is my centrefire varmit rig, Savage model 12 BCTSS in .223. Originally with 26 heavy barrel, now chopped to make it 24 with suppressor. Just came back from gunworks yesterday with the Maximus suppressor. Cant wait to see what a difference it makes. Looking forward to slaying bunnies and hares with it this summer.

Mate has same but with the original plastic Savage stock which is not really up to the job, too much flex.

Would upload pic but bigger than tiny forum limit.....

My latest addition to my gun cabinet. A Marlin .22lr here is a video of shooting it only a 40m .22lr Marlin - YouTube , I have nailed a few goats with it so far thats about it, got it on trademe its pretty rough but nice to shoot.

Hey guys,
After a lot of research into calibers and rifles and ended up going after a Savage model 14 classic (I've got a couple of Savage rimfires and love them) in boring old 223 (was only considering 223, 204 or 22-250, but 223 seemed like a good compromise between noise, range, different projectiles, powder usage etc etc). Got a 1:9 twist so I can load up the heavier projectiles too. I hadn't realised but you can get those little pills coming out of the 223 at 3300fps or even higher for the little sub 55 grain ones... that's fair moving.





I took it to the range and couldn't get under 2" with the ammo I'd be given by someone at the gun store. turned out it was just his plinking ammo for his AR as it had 6 different types of brass, with the entire rounds weighting between like 177-187 grains. So I took them back. With my own carefully put together reloads I was rewarded with nice 5 shot clovers (nearly all touching) at 100m after about 40-50 rounds of the wearing in and cleaning routine. It's the most accurate gun I've owned. Next step is to get it threaded for a suppressor.

Nice rifle bro. Try some Hornady training ammo

Originally Posted by Beavis

Nice rifle bro. Try some Hornady training ammo

I tried to hit them up about giving me some for wearing it in, but they didn't have any in stock. I'll do all my own reloading for my hunting ammo but I'd love to buy a couple hundred of those hornady rounds just to have some plinking ammo.

It doesn't take long to shoot them, but it takes a long time to load them! I was picking eggs off at 100m with it today.

Can you reload the hornady training brass? Someone said you couldn't (and I'm not talking about the steel cased stuff) but I don't see why you couldn't.