Larry Delgrego turn arround time?

[Kenny Graft]

I sent Larry a DHE back the 1st of March for roll joint, repair/replace few bad screws, and barrels and guard blacking...thought it would be back in time for Hauseman's shoot in June. I called and it was not ready but he did say couple more weeks, waiting on the barrels. It seems to be a long wait and September is close. Anyone else had longer than normal waits?? I hope all is well there. SXS Ohio

[Tom Jay]

Try waiting 3 years for a gun sent to Bachelder and then having it sent back to you saying they can't do what they said they could.

[Steve Huffman]

I feel your pain !!!! My barrels have been away for over 3 years next phone call they will be going somewhere else if not done ! Every time I called said that they were the next set to do. Sorry had to vent too. Just to say the barrel are not at either of the two places above

[Brett Hoop]

Back in time for Ernie's, what year, you forgot to mention. These fellows operate on their own time clock unlike the rest of the real world. Best to figure 90 days for every hour required to complete the job, and 5-4 months after they receive your gun and before the job starts. HA HA

[Brian Dudley]

Back in time for Ernie's, what year, you forgot to mention. These fellows operate on their own time clock unlike the rest of the real world. Best to figure 90 days for every hour required to complete the job, and 5-4 months after they receive your gun and before the job starts. HA HA


And then people get pissed when you don't take work in an attempt to manage backlog.

I will tell you what... the way to get to 4-5 years backlog and never get out of it, if to take EVERYTHING that comes your way. It can get out of hand very fast.

It is not a bad position to be in, to get the inquiries, but one can only handle so much.

[Marty Kohler]

You know...it's one thing to take a long time with a gun...but the thing that really gets me is the poor communication, and all the BS etc to get you pacified until you can't stand it.....and then you make another call and you get different BS....and on and on it goes until you loose it completely and become someone that you really aren't...... Blah Blah Blah....Just brutal....

[edgarspencer]

I called and it was not ready but he did say couple more weeks, waiting on the barrels.
:rotf::rotf:

[Kirk Potter]

For the work Brian did for me (A complete restoration) he quoted a completion time of around a year.. And sure enough, that was pretty much spot on.. Definitely better to get an accurate estimate like that than get a estimate of 3 months and wonder WTH is going on at 12 months.

[Brian Dudley]

For the work Brian did for me (A complete restoration) he quoted a completion time of around a year.. And sure enough, that was pretty much spot on.. Definitely better to get an accurate estimate like that than get a estimate of 3 months and wonder WTH is going on at 12 months.


Thanks Kirk. I TRY to be conservative and accurate. But mostly at this point people need to know that it takes what it takes. Period. Some take quicker, some longer. And most understand, because they know what it means to get decent work done. And that everyone is busy.
Continuously telling someone “two weeks” is something I hate being told and too many do it.
And I do drop the ball and let things slip sometimes. It happens. Or just plain loose track of how much really needs to be done and how it is all going to get done.
However, To me the most important thing is the quality of the end product. In my book, if the customers only complaint is that something took longer than hoped, then that is pretty darn good.

[Kenny Graft]

First let me say....The gun was received by Delgrego the 1st of march with a 2-3 week est. for roll pin and couple of screws replaced or repaired. I added barrel blacking and guard refinish after he received it. I just called Larry and asked about my gun and that it was overdue and that he last said,...waiting on the barrels. I told him I wanted the gun back by September for the fall hunting season and that I needed a delivery date. He then said that my barrels may in be in a big batch they just finished and to call him in the morning. I will call....If they are not done I will ask no bullshit delivery date. If he gives me any reason to doubt his answer I will just tell him to send my gun back and bill me for what he did do! When a shop gives a opprox time frame thats O.K. until that time has doubled, tripled with no final delivery date in sight. That's bull-%!* and I will tell him so. I did auto body repair for many years and prided my self getting jobs done on time or with a very short delay if something went south! and that was NOT the norm. This was my first time sending a repair to Larry,,,we will see how it shakes out. SXS Ohio

[Michael Moffa]

I'd like to say that Brian did a CHE for me after Geoffroy Gournet was done touching up the engraving. It was done well and in a timely manner. He has earned my future business and as soon as the Parker Fund recovers he's going to do another CHE to convert back to English stock.

[CraigThompson]

I realize gunsmiths and people in general have their own agenda's and relative time frames for whatever . And i fully understand having to wait if you go to someone that has a big name in whatever it is you want done (not only gunsmiths) . So with that being said the bigger name the person has the longer wait I anticipate . And i like to think of myself as understanding , BUT if that person keeps giving me a run around when they don't even come close to meeting their projected time of completion I get pissed PDQ . And I truely believe a lot of folks in professions like gunsmiths that do work for others have a natural human tendency to stop on this or that to do something quick for a favored customer or friend . And to be honest you should kinda expect that . But if a guy can't do for me in a timely manner based on his finished estimate we generally don't do buisness again .

[Jack Damon]

A year or so ago I sent my Fox barrels out for rib repair and reblueing from a prominent shop which I chose from our membership's positive comments. I was told the job would take "around 3 or 4 months". I ended-up waiting for more than 1 1/2 years, and although I was entirely pleased with the finish work, I was very displeased that I was led to believe the job would take X amount of time when the actual time was about 4 times longer. Seems to me the owner of a shop should know about how long a job is going to take, and not lead their customers to believe something else entirely different. Just my $.02

[CraigThompson]

A year or so ago I sent my Fox barrels out for rib repair and reblueing from a prominent shop which I chose from our membership's positive comments. I was told the job would take "around 3 or 4 months". I ended-up waiting for more than 1 1/2 years, and although I was entirely pleased with the finish work, I was very displeased that I was led to believe the job would take X amount of time when the actual time was about 4 times longer. Seems to me the owner of a shop should know about how long a job is going to take, and not lead their customers to believe something else entirely different. Just my $.02

You’re absolutely correct ! Give me an overly conservative time estimate then get it to me a little earlier , I’ll be far more satisfied then hearing some short order BS and then wait 3 or 4 times longer then the original estimate .

[edgarspencer]

There's no mystery in being in the business of performing a service, or making a product. The better you do this, the more the customer base.
Making a special, or unique product, is the same as performing a service. It does not go hand in hand, that running a business for the benefit of others is always going to be enjoyable, and lots of times, it's downright miserable.
Unless you're making one unique item, only certain operations can be 'batched' for economy. Other operations have to be performed, nearly start-to-finish on a single item.
Assuming we have a predictable overhead, knowing exactly what our bills are going to be at the end of the week, month, whatever, it's pretty easy to know how much product or service we need to complete, in order to make a wage and sustain the business. Knowing how to do this is not easy, but the difference in knowing it, and doing it, is what makes some companies survive, and others (and lots of good) fail.
As Brian said previously, it's so important to manage your backlog. The size of the backlog gives you the flexibility to 'pick and choose' the work in order to meet your target. If the picking and choosing is all the easy work, then the backlog of difficult, or complex, work builds, and builds, and builds.
When we all send our guns to the chosen gunsmith, we may have a very good understanding of what he's going to do, including knowing how many hours, or days, it's going to take. How much additional time it takes is where we go off the rails. Until one of them says to me "I just didn't feel like working on your gun" I don't know how I'll react, but I hope I react better than I do when I hear the exact same thing, over and over. What we inevitably believe is the most recent promise is the real one, the one before that was one with good intentions, and the one before that, by default, became plain and simple BS (I'm trying very hard not to say 'Lie')

[Paul Ehlers]

One of the problems is there are so few gunsmiths that specialize & do good work on our beloved Parkers. Because of this, the smiths that get the good reviews are swamped with work & turning customers away.

I've always suspected that they all for the most part have good intensions when they give us a time frame to have the work done, but I also know from experience that they very seldom hit the mark for their promised time frame. I just appreciate it when they do hit it.

Every now & then you get a pleasant surprise. I recently sent a set of Parker barrels to Kirk Merrington to have a lite bore clean-up hone. He wouldn't give me a time line until he saw the barrels. He received the barrels on a Monday, I waited to call him until that Friday to see if he had looked at the barrels. I was shocked when he told me he was packaging them for shipping back to me because he was done with the hone job. He said that I lucked out in that he got the barrels on the day he was starting to do a batch of hone jobs & he was able to include mine in the batch. He said if it had been a few days later it might have been a few months before he had put together another batch to do. Some times you just get lucky!!

IMO; We can all do these smiths a favor by taking a deep breath & being patient with them up to a point. Good work takes time & we aren't their only customer that wants our gun fixed right now. In the mean time grab one of your other guns and go enjoy it until the other one is done.

[Phil Yearout]

I guess I'm naive, but I don't understand why it's so hard to schedule work and be up front about it. I had a loose rib on one of my guns and called a well-known smith about it; he really didn't even want to listen to me, just said "Send it to me; I have 4-5 of those to do and whenever I get around to it I'll do them all at once. No, I don't know when that will happen." Can you imagine an auto mechanic saying, "Park it here and whenever I get around to it I'll take a look." I sure couldn't get away with that in my business. Seems there's a bit of a prima donna syndrome at play when it comes to gunsmiths. And no, he didn't get my business, but I don't think he cared.

[Kenny Graft]

I called Larry the next day when he was in his shop as requested. I asked if my barrels had been finished and if my gun was ready yet. He told me that my barrels were done and the only thing not done was the trigger guard and it would be ready by mid week coming, he would assemble it and the gun would go out. He said to mail the payment now so gun could ship when it was ready, they do not except C/C payment. Check went out and I wait....(-: We also talked about my gun and he said it was real nice and suggested getting it back for light wood refinish and skeleton plate refinish and fix the plate screws, then it would be a new Parker less color case that he said NOT to do that, it looks antique and better as is. It was nice to talk not feeling rushed or blown off. If the gun comes as he said they will have had it 5 1/2 months.....I'm good with that. Fall bird hunting is close!, this will make a dandee shotgun for gunning doves and Kansas roosters. I have wanted a nice early D grade 16 for a long time as prices kept going up. Just could not find the right one as most of them are close to 7lbs or over. This one comes in at 6lbs-9oz with English grip, good stock dimensions and still has its skeleton plate. SXS Ohio

[tom tutwiler]

I've had some absolutely horrible work done on doubles over the years by local folks. Once had a german gun barrels that were left in the rust blue solution for apparently a few days to the point where they came out pitted all to hell. Then the smith carded them a few times and said they were what they were and that they arrived deeply pitted to start with (which there weren't in the least). Anyway, lesson learned on that one and a few others. I don't mind waiting in the que because quality work takes time and looks great in the end. Crappy work is just crappy work and it stands out like a thumb that's been cut off. I would however like to have a realistic time table provided up front. Falling into the FWIW, category, I've only one time had one gun returned prior to the up front provided delivery date.

[Kenny Graft]

I sent Larry a DHE back the 1st of March for roll joint, repair/replace few bad screws, and barrels and guard blacking...thought it would be back in time for Hauseman's shoot in June. I called and it was not ready but he did say couple more weeks, waiting on the barrels. It seems to be a long wait and September is close. Anyone else had longer than normal waits?? I hope all is well there. SXS Ohio

I received the DHE-16 back today 8/19/19 ...about 5-1/2 months. I am happy to get it back in time for fall hunting. Larry did a wonderful job with the roll joint, gun is tight as new! The rust blue barrels and new screws look great too, engraved perfectly to match other good screws. This is now one sweet DHE-16 6lbs-9oz. I will add some pictures soon as I can...SXS Ohio

[Ed Blake]

Lawrence did single trigger and ejector work on two guns for me about 10 years ago. He told me turnaround time as 4-6 weeks and as I recall I got them back in about 4.

[Kenny Graft]

I shot the gun today...the ejectors no longer work, they did when it was shipped out. Boxed up to go back...)-: SXS Ohio

[Steve Huffman]

Sad !

[Dean Romig]

I thought all guns sent for service and repair were test fired before returning to the owners...... :shock:





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[allen newell]

Lawrence re-stocked my grandfathers/Dad's 16 ga VH about 8 yrs ago I recall. Lawrence quoted a yr and it was done on time. And done very well indeed.

[Donald McQuade]

I have been very lucky in my few interactions with gunsmiths. I have used Turnbull twice, once to do a full wood and metal restoration on a badly worn AH Fox and I also had them recase a Parker Repro. Both jobs were completed within the estimated time and right on the budget. I have had Abe Chamber do several repairs on rifles and shotguns for me, again, all jobs were completed on time and budget with excellent work. I just today picked up another Fox that I had Brian do his magic on the stock. The results were fantastic and he completed the job a little earlier then he estimated when I dropped the gun off. I think the one common thread is that all the folks I have used are top of the game in the gunsmithing business. I was luckily in that all my work was completed within the estimated time frame, but more importantly, all the work was first class. I think the key is working with the best, and trust that they will get your work done as soon as they can to the best of there ability.