Questions

Yes. We hold a Federal Firearms License, so we can legally receive your firearm by mail, work on it, and ship it back to you. A good portion of what we do comes from out of state.

Call or email before you send anything. We will confirm the work, send you our license, and tell you exactly how to pack and address the package. Return shipping gets quoted with the job and everything goes out insured.

Use the quote form, call the shop, or bring the gun in. Tell us the make, model and caliber, and describe the problem or the work you want done. Photos help more than you would think, especially for damage, wear and anything custom.

Most quotes go out the same day. Anything that needs the gun in hand gets a range up front and a firm number after we inspect it.

The rules depend on who you are, what you are sending and where you are. Someone without a license, a licensed dealer and a carrier all have different requirements, and handguns and long guns are treated differently from each other.

We will walk you through what applies to your situation before you take anything to a counter. Ship it unloaded, with no ammunition in the box, packed so it cannot move around, and insured for what it is worth.

Only when we have to buy parts for your job. A barrel, an optic plate, a recoil pad, a special order component. The deposit covers the parts so we are not carrying inventory for a job that gets abandoned.

Straight labor jobs are paid at pickup.

Because that is the number most people compare us against. The large retail gunsmith services publish detailed price lists, so we put ours right beside theirs, line by line.

You can verify it yourself in about a minute, and that is the point. We would rather you check than take our word for it.

Sight work and cleaning run a few days. Repairs run about a week. Slide cuts and threading are one to two weeks. Cerakote is two to three weeks because of the bake schedule, and bluing or stock refinishing is three to five.

Restoration and slow rust bluing are measured in months, not weeks. We tell you which one you are in before you leave the gun.

No. Prices are labor, including teardown, reassembly and a function check. Parts, barrels, blanks, optics and pads get billed separately at cost plus handling, and they are on the estimate before you approve it.

Refinishing is also separate. Several jobs leave bare metal behind and need coating or bluing afterward, including opening an ejection port, stippling a frame and fitting a beavertail. Those lines are marked on the price list.

Usually, and we will be honest about whether you should. Refinishing a collectible often costs it more value than the work costs you. If that is the situation we will say so and suggest doing only what is needed to make it safe.

For soft soldered doubles and prewar guns, slow rust bluing is the correct process. Hot salts will destroy the solder joints.

We will not perform any modification that would make a firearm unsafe or unlawful, and we do not take work outside what our license covers. If a request falls into that category we decline it and explain why.

We also turn down jobs we would do badly. Some specialty engraving, certain European actions and a few obsolete platforms are better handled by shops that see them every week, and we will point you to one.

We order parts for jobs we are doing, and we handle transfers through our license. We are not a retail counter, so we do not carry general inventory. What we buy, we buy for a specific gun already on the bench.

The gun unloaded and cased, with the action open and the magazine out. Photo ID. Any parts or optics you want fitted. Leave ammunition in the vehicle.

If the gun has a stuck round or a blocked bore, do not try to clear it. Call us first and we will tell you how to bring it in safely.