Thread: Gunsmith trouble - need the member's opinions

Hi fellas,

I've been having trouble with a gunsmith. I got them to screw in a pre-threaded barrel, set headspace and mount Leupold bases on an undrilled sporting Oberndorf Mauser 98 receiver. They messed up the alignment of these bases. So they welded the receiver, both front and rear bridges and re-tapped the holes. They did this so poorly, that it was still misaligned (not enough scope windage at 100m) and both front receiver holes had large voids, heavily chamfered holes and incomplete threads. They then sent me an invoice for $970 claiming they had to make a special jig in order to line up the holes.

I received the rifle back, couldn't line up the scope with the barrel, noted the prodigious use of Loctite, investigated and found the aforementioned. So I went to another gunsmith, placed a 1inch tube in the rings to show the offset to the barrel and took photos, which I then emailed to the 1st gunsmith. We then agreed to send the rifle back so they could inspect their work.

They proposed to fix it by either:

1. Drilling the holes bigger and putting bigger screws in (the diameter of the screw hole in the front lug race area would be 7mm (yes 7mm) due to the voids/chamfers they created with first welding attempt)

or

2. Weld the receiver a second time and re-tap the screw holes again. (would you be happy pulling the trigger on a twice welded front receiver?)

I was not happy with either of their 'solutions'. So they sent the parts back, which I got today.

To date i've paid $300. I want this money back and I want them make good on (in my eyes) my ruined receiver which i'd paid $800 for.

Please share your thoughts. I will then send them a link to this thread. Maybe i'll get some restitution.

Photos to come.