Thread: Gunsmith recommendations? Particularily someone local in Nelson?

Hi Guys,

I was wondering if someone who knows of or could recommend a reliable gunsmith in the Nelson region. I have a Sako 75 that needs some work to the safety mechanism and trigger assembly. I need to check if it is in safe functioning order as the safety does not properly engage and when pushed forward to release the firing pin sometimes goes. Or when safety is engaged the trigger is pulled and the firing pic goes off.

Cheers in advance.

Elliot

Dave Ward in Dovedale. He has converted two 7-08s to .284 Win for me and does good work for sensible money.

Originally Posted by Spitfire

Dave Ward in Dovedale. He has converted two 7-08s to .284 Win for me and does good work for sensible money.

@Spitfire Cheers for that, I have herd of him but struggle to find any contact details. Are you happy with him and his work?

Yes, he’s good - was doing the Gun City riflesmithing when they were in Mot. He’s an interesting bugger too.

Dave Ward, ph 03 543 3777, of Dovedale Road, Nelson.

He chopped and threaded my 308 at the start of the year. Definitely an interesting guy to talk to.

I've had Dave do a few jobs and he has been very helpful.

Agree with others Dave does a good job

Great cheers for that. Good to know we have a reliable smith here in Nelson. Will give him a call and have a yarn to him.

He told me once that his son wanted a harp but he couldn’t afford one so just made one himself. His son is now a pro concert harpist. He used to know PO Akley too. He is also one of not many gunsmiths who will stock a rifle from a blank.

....and he will ream out a Tikka chamber, which most will not touch.

@Spitfire it sure does sound like he knows what he is doing and can do some trustworthy work!

Over the years l have owned 3 75's ,2 for over a decade .I have seen 2 problems with 75 triggers on client guns, one was from crud build up & the other from poor adjustment , have you taken action from stock & cleaned /checked,has the trigger been lightened ?Both are easily checked/fixed at home, l just checked on getting some work done by my Smiths & they are snowed under,so getting something checked may take a while,so having a quick check your self may save a bit of time & frustration .

A Old School field test l was shown years ago for intermittent trigger/safety problems is done with a triple checked UNLOADED rifle obviously, hold the rifle upside down ie scope down facing ground , trigger guard facing the sky and close the bolt & see if the problem is now easily replicated,if so it shows poor out of adjustment trigger/sear engagement .

Cleaning/checking is easily done & should be something everyone does as part of good maintenance , if you are not sure on adjustment after checking manual a smith is the answer.

Hi Guys,
Thanks for the input referring Dave Ward. Thought I would give a bit of an update of how I got on. We had a yarn on the phone and I popped round to drop of the rifle. He is has a pretty awesome set up and clearly knowledgeable on all things gunsmithing given he has been doing this for many years.
Dave did a fantastic job and sorted it super-fast considering the amount of work he had on at present. I would definitely recommend him for anyone local looking to get some work done.