Gander mountain FAIL at gun smithing services

Go to Brownells.com
Order Jerry Kuhnhausens 1911 Service manual
Order a plunger staking tool
Read book, install plunger tube, read book some more, get the files and stones you may or may not need, install safety.

1911s are one of the easiest handguns to work on if you know how to fit parts together.

It sucks to hear that, I was at Brownell's gunsmith career fair last April and I know that G.M.s chief gunsmith was there and interviewing for positions.

Another reason I do ALL of my own gunsmithing.
Yes , IF, I do something for someone's gun it is done first rate.
I charge a fair fee ( more than 10.00) and if they dont pay they dont get the gun.
Pretty simple, you are as good as your fee. 10.00 and hour gets you crummy work.
I would hate to see Gander go under, I would rather see them grow and compete for business. We need more gun related stores not fewer.
But they should buckle down and compete, not be like our crummy Unions are in the US.
Buy you some tools and the book the 1911 is almost fool proof.
Sell the tools when you are done or make money using them.
Ron

It doesn't surprise me they are dropping gunsmithing. For ten dollars an hour you can certainly get hit or miss but more likely miss. As someone said the bean counters control everything. A guy I knew worked in the gun department. They offered him a position with commission for selling Artic Cat ATVs. He took it and six months later Gander went out of the ATV business. He was not transferrred back to guns but let go.

Well, in my personal experience, Gander Mountain sucks beyond all possible belief. The first, last, and only experience I had with their gunsmithing was very similar to yours...
"Gander was supposed to install them but instead gave me a bucket full of 1911 parts plus the two parts I ordered, charged me $75 and said "Good luck!". "

I took my custom Mauser '95 rifle into the store that used to be in Bloomington, (the original Burger Bros site after they bought them out), (it's a very nice job, really - complete custom. Fitted with a Winchester Model 70 bbl in 257 Roberts, Timney trigger, Leupold scope base, new custom bolt shroud, etc. and a beautiful stock) at any rate, I took it in to have the bolt shroud fitted. The head gunsmith had his cards out - "Expert in Custom Rifles" so I thought, great...

Well, a month later I got a call to pick it up. The expert wasn't there - never actually saw him. The "new guy" who was a recent grad of a gunsmithing school - which still should be good - handed me the disassembled rifle, and a bag of miscellaneous Mauser bolt parts (all for a Model 98), and my original shroud, which had been squeezed in a vice until it had split almost completely through. He then mumbled something about not being able to make it work, and left me there. The charge? -- a mere $150.00! I paid it, and then went home and thought about it and cancelled the check with my bank. I eventually got a collection letter from their collection company, and sent a letter in reply explaining why I had cancelled my check, and copied the store manager on it. I never heard from them again. (I believe I may also have mentioned I was willing to go to jail before I'd make good on that check...)

Oh, and the last time I made the mistake of going in to buy some ammo, I asked the guy working in the ammo dept a question about the different levels of Federal ammo. His response? - "I don't know, I usually work in the Shoe Dept..."

Gander in Sugarland Tx dropped their smith sometime back as well. He was a nice kid who seemed eager to please his customers. Hope he laded on his feet and I can locate him again as I have additional work I would have liked him to do. As far as dropping another weapon there for Gander to send off, no thanks. I don't need to be paying a "Middle Man" a cut.

I wonder - would it be worth it to see if we can get someone from GM to go online and participate in one of the world's largest shooting forums?

Does anyone know anyone?

I would have left the parts they ordered, taken my stuff and walked out.

I would do open-heart surgery than have GM's "smiths" work on my guns - here, they are the most inept people I have ever seen around guns; I have seen amateur shade-tree folks with better skills

Good thing you didn't pay. Now you just need to get some compensation for them disassembling your gun.

You didn't pay right?

Pretty sure you have to pay or you don't get your gun. Plus services were rendered even tho all were not completed. ****ty but true.

sorry frankenstein but that is far from the truth in this instance. Had they handed him a reassembled firearm just minus the parts he had ordered then yes. But since they handed him an UNASSEMBLED firearm, that was a functioning and operating firearm when brought in, then they are actually liable to either pay for the reassembly or reassemble it themselves. Personally, I would have raised about 4 degrees of hell if they had even suggested that I pay for that. It's not the OP's fault that the bean counters decided to let the smith side go. Why should HE have to deal with a "bag of parts" when he brought in a functioning firearm?

bogie said:

I wonder - would it be worth it to see if we can get someone from GM to go online and participate in one of the world's largest shooting forums?

Does anyone know anyone?

Click to expand...

I can get word to the Manager of gunsmith services, our gunsmith instructor knows him pretty well and I have met the guy a couple of times. Should have his contact info at the office. No idea if he will stop by though, worth a shot at any rate.

Edit: that is, of course, if that position is still being held by the same guy...he had been with them for several years but that may have changed with the current stuff that appears to be going on.

Freedom_fighter_in_IL said:

sorry frankenstein but that is far from the truth in this instance. Had they handed him a reassembled firearm just minus the parts he had ordered then yes. But since they handed him an UNASSEMBLED firearm, that was a functioning and operating firearm when brought in, then they are actually liable to either pay for the reassembly or reassemble it themselves. Personally, I would have raised about 4 degrees of hell if they had even suggested that I pay for that. It's not the OP's fault that the bean counters decided to let the smith side go. Why should HE have to deal with a "bag of parts" when he brought in a functioning firearm?

Click to expand...

Read the thread. they did offer to pay for it, but did not tell him where so he did not feel comfortable. don't know why your jumping down my throat when you don't know the facts yourself...

They offered to send it out, and have HIM pay for the re-assembly.

He paid for two parts, and got a box-o-parts back. The OP gained two parts, and lost a fully functioning device. All for the low price of the previously mentioned two parts.

Then what's the point of offering to send it out. Wow that's absolutely horrible. I really can't believe that they were gonna make you pay for that to. I'm speechless.

It seems like its very hard to find a gunsmith. Why is that?

Firearms are not brain surgery, they're relatively simple devices. I'm a mechanic, and if I wanted to, I'm sure I could work on my firearms (I don't want to, LOL!).

I don't see how you'd need much different in the way of tools. Punches, chisels, hammers, other metal fabrication tools, etc.

LOL, it's ok Frankenstein, I kind of figured you hadn't read the whole thread when you said that. I wasn't "jumping down your throat" was just correcting the assumption that you had made. We as Americans seem to be going down the "sheeps" path on far to many things these days.

Like I said before, no way in hell I would have paid them a single dime until I had a firearm in AT LEAST the condition it was in at the time of drop off. Handing me a "bag of parts" would have been the same as dangling a fresh cut steak in front of a hungry lion. Would not have been pretty to say the least. In all honesty, they should have given you the parts free of charge for the trouble you were going to have to go through on reassembly. My hourly rate is $65.00 and that is what I would have charged them had they not offered reassembly at THEIR cost.

Dang! That really sux. But you know GM is doing what the public wants. We have this Walmart mentality that we should get a frikkin' genius in his field and pay nothing for it. Like many of these types of jobs a good gunsmith is tough to find, a good gunsmith, with time to work on your gun, and good customer service is like a Yetti. Lots of folks claim to have seen one, but I'll be darned if I have ever seen one.

I can tell you if I did find one, I would not mind paying fair market value for his skills.

walking arsenal,
If it were me, I would take Lonestar49’s advice and send it to Springfield. What’s sad is that GM can’t handle work on the very popular model 1911. It’s not some out of production or rare gun. On the semi-auto side, it has to be the most common semi-auto in the US; much like Smith and Wesson are the most common revolvers. In addition, the model 1911 has to be the “poster child” of guns for gunsmiths to work on.

chuck