Dismissive Gunsmith II
Just saw the previous post and couldn't resist a contribution. This question comes up all the time regarding inexpensive top break revolvers from that period. Even in like new condition they were weak actions at best and the metal was questionable. Anyone who has worked on one internally will tell you that the quality of the parts is terrible. They were designed to be inexpensive and not ment to shoot thousands of rounds through them. Also modern high pressure/high speed ammo will break them in a hurry. If you tell them to use standard rounds only or cb caps most of them won't even understand and when a high pressure round breaks the gun they blame you. There are no good parts available, the ones you get are take off parts from a gun that was no good either. No wonder they don't work or if they do they break after very few rounds (by todays standards) and they expect you to refix the gun for nothing. This is why most gunsmiths will not work on them and why the standard response is not to shoot them. I fixed one for an oldtimer (against my better judgement) who wanted to give it to his grandson for Christmas. My recommendation to him when I returned it was to keep it as a heirloom but not to shoot it and if he chose to shoot it I would not be interested in fixing it again. Perhaps he could have expressed himself differently but you do get tired of repeating the same story over and over.
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I certainly get your point (and largely agreed with it in the last thread). I'm not a gunsmith, but I do think there is such a thing as "professionalism".
That means (among other things) not being dismissive of your clients/customers concerns, even if you do hear the same story again and again.
How long does it take to say "Old top-break revolvers like this one are nice to look at, but in my experience as a gunsmith for XX years, they are made of non-hardened steel and they develop all sorts of problems easily. There is just no way for me to guarantee that this gun will be safe to shoot, and my advice to you is not to try. No charge for the advice." ?
I suppose if you're the only gunsmith in the area, and you're all booked up with work, you can afford to be dismissive of paying customers, but even so, I don't think its a good way to run a business.0 -
I agree with beantown. I didn't address that in my first post. A gunsmith, or any businessman for that matter, can certainly use professional tact. 0 -
What beantown and sandwarrior said! 0 -
Beantown made the point very well.
Gunsmiths or any other "professionals" who treat their clients as if they are doing them a favor, patronize and insult them and who demean them to others for not understanding a business the client has no reason to understand, or for not knowing all the industry buzzwords, jargon and other cliquish BS, are simply contemptable in my estimation. That kind of gunsmith costs the shooting sports members.....people who drop out and don't own guns and who probably eventually turn against guns or produce kids who aren't interested in guns. I can size a person up rather rapidly and when I run into that level of silly-assedness, (and I have on several occasions; once with a gunsmith), I abruptly stop and then explain that I'm sorry for taking up their time, but that I believe they are probably better off dealing with people they can treat badly and still collect money from later. Then I leave. Better for me/Better for them.
If you don't have the time to spend a few minutes with someone who may later come in with something you are able to work on, then in my estimation, you are not passionate enough about the work that you do and the client is better off going elsewhere. And, it doesn't surprise me that you a happy to see that.0 -
I think that this has gone far enough, too far probably.
Please read the Posting Guidelines and do not open up a third thread.
Best.0
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