DaveinGA: It's not like that at all. Bennie is a great guy, and he totally understands why I did what I did; when I got the gun back from him, I said: "Dude, I feel bad that you paid me for it, when it's probably nothing you did wrong. I also know how busy you are. I am gonna' take it back, and send it to a guy who said he loves Hatsans, and would like to take a crack at it. If he can't fix it, you may see me again." Sounds like you handled it pretty well.And you know what he said? He smiled at me, gave me $40.00 back, and said, "To cover the shipping." That's good.We discussed it further, and he said the reason he is so busy is because he can't say no to law enforcement; he not only gets all the business of the local police, highway patrol, and sheriff office, but he also has game wardens, and out-of-town officers who drive 60 miles or more to come see him, because their buddies who live local told them what a great smith he was. Yes, it's tough to say no to guys who put their live on the line every day to keep the peace for the rest of us and keep the wolves from our doors. Good smiths get buried like that pretty often. I don't have an ad, a website, a number in the phone book and I haven't given anyone my phone number in 5 years. I've raised my prices and refuse to do any work on anything but premium firearms, military and police. Yet still I've got more stuff to do than I can keep up with. I taught my son in law how to take certain guns apart, clean and inspect them for me so I don't have to work 60 hours a week any more so I can have time for family and friends to live live a bit.Also, he knows that I eventually plan to buy at least 2 pistols from him (firearms) and that when I start fiddling with the 30-06 again that I intend to let him tear it down and give it a thorough cleaning; he knows that he will continue to get business from me, no matter what happens with the Hatsan. Also, he told me that he is getting a few Hammerlis and FWBs from a friend of his in South Africa (where he used to live until he came to the U.S. a few years ago) and I have a funny feeling that at least one of those airguns will find its way into my collection Nice guns, those Hammerlis. It's good to have a friend in the business. Go over and over to help him some, any type of labor. He'll really appreciate it.However, in a different situation, I believe that your advice would be totally valid, because the vast majority of business relationships are on a more formal / acquaintance level, and in those situations, taking the gun back could indeed be seen as a lack of trust. But Bennie knows that it's nothing personal, and that I intend to be a good customer of his for years to come. It really would. I have an old friend who gunsmiths. I met a guy at the range who had "overtuned" his .22 lever action and needed it fixed. I gave him my friend's number, who is pretty much an expert in those rifles. Guy dropped rifle off with my friend, then started calling him every single day for the next two weeks pestering him about the gun. Finally decided he wanted the gun back. By the time he picked it up, he'd alienated my friend to the point my friend told him: "When you leave here, toss my number in the trash and don't ever call here again, I don't want your business." BTW, my friend is a very outgoing guy and very laid back. It takes something to make him react like that. But people do things like that more often than you'd think to gunsmiths. For a guy that's buried in more work than he can see, he reaches the point he doesn't have time for foolishness. He'll give the guy his gun back, but won't accept any more work, because he has too much work to do to fool around with crazy.
It works like that in all businesses. I do demolition work all over the U.S.A. Sometimes I have a few hours to roll on a job because whoever had the contract backed out and I'm the 'Go To Guy'.Those are the ones I can get really screwed on if not careful! We've lost $10,000+ on such jobs.I could have been on a demo in NC right now but I called a BS on them.I'm not ready to toss another 10 grand to the wind!
Yeah, I try not to pester him on the work. I text or call about once every two weeks, or if I happen to be at the range, I poke my head into the shop for about 5 minutes. I know how it is to juggle multiple projects, and how some minor things get pushed to the side for weeks at a time because of urgent things that arise; I am the director of an academic library, believe me, I understand that concept, LOL
boy, did he blow it picking a wife
I betcha that job can get political every now and again.
Quote from: DaveInGA on June 18, 2014, 12:23:32 PMboy, did he blow it picking a wifeAsk my Son about that! Not sure what it cost him to buy his freedom but I'd bet it was over $150,000 easy if all added up.
What I wonder about is: if he warped the receiver tube somehow, shouldn't re-honing it fix the problem? He said he did this three times. It doesn't seem like the problem would persist through three re-hones
I am also beginning to think that the soldering is not at fault; here's why:When I first came to him with the idea of mounting scopes to both of my Diana P5 Magnum pistols, I asked him if he could just machine a dovetail groove into the top of the receiver tube. He said no; he said that the metal on that tube is super thin, and you will ruin the tube by doing something like that.That right there shows that he was aware of the thin nature of the tube, and how fragile it was.That's when he suggested silver soldering a picatinny rail to the top of the tube instead.Here's another point: there is no picatinny rail out there of the proper length to fit a Diana P5 Magnum. He had his assistant (who is a professional machinist) make one from scratch. And by scratch, I mean that he started with solid block of aluminum, and went all "Michaelangelo" on it! LOL I believe that both he and his assistant know enough about metalworking to know whether or not they would hurt a tube by soldering it.The Hatsan got thrown in with the Dianas after my red dot (which was mounted on the Hatsan) died; we weren't sure what caused it, but both of us suspected that it was the Hatsan's violent recoil; even with the recoil dampener, that pistol MOVES when you shoot it. I feel it every time. So he suggested we just put a picatinny on the Hatsan as well, just in case.When I got the guns back, I had two problems: the failure of the Hatsan, and one of the Diana's safety wouldn't engage. He fixed the Diana lickity-split; he said it was from over-tightening the frame screws. The safety now engages as it should. Neither of the Dianas have had cocking difficulties, and I have put about 200 pellets through each of them since. Both perform quite well.I think I am going to give him the money back, get my Hatsan, and let Privateer try to fix it. (He offered, LOL )EDIT: I talked to my gunsmith about 10:20 AM CST today, and he said the following:1) When he soldered the rail to the tube, he put the tube back in the furnace, and re-tempered it.2) He had never heard of the term "buttoning," but when I explained to him what it was (reading the post from EzMan-Dave) he said that he intended to do exactly that, or at least something extremely similar, in order to get it working again.3) He also said it might be a good idea to replace the piston altogether, period.4) He also said that the internal tolerances of this gun were "all over the place," and left a lot to be desired. He said Dianas and other German guns are built to much higher tolerances. (Which is probably why my Dianas work fine, LOL )5) The only problem is that my gunsmith is so busy, he won't have time to get back to it for another several weeks.So I definitely think I am going to buy my Hatsan back from him, and try to get it fixed.
It's not aluminum. A magnet will stick to it.
have you checked the tube for roundness yet? fairly simple to do with some precision v-blocks and indicators. that would let you know real quick if it was warped from heat. I can't imagine heat from silver soldering would warp a reciever tube.