A family heirloom NID

[Brian Dudley]

I just finished up a full restoration on this NID 12g field for the owner to keep in his family.

Stocked in the factory style using curly American walnut. The extensive fine surface pitting in the metal was all polished out and the top lever replaced due to a damaged original one. All new screws. The frame engraving was restored by Turnbulls house engraver before they case hardened it. I recut the breech engraving before rust bluing and I nitre blued all of the small parts.

I may have the gun for display at the NE SxS. I am not sure yet. But check it out if I do.

126133

126134

126135

126136

126137

126138

126139

126140

126141

126142

126143

126144

126145

126146

126147

126148

126149

[Rick Losey]

Very nice work

An heirloom to be proud of

[Jerry Harlow]

Better than it was new!

p.s. I see an elephant's head in picture 14.

[Phil Yearout]

Don’t get me wrong; that’s beautiful work. But it’s not the family gun anymore. Depends on what your idea of restoration is I guess. It’s like the old woodsman’s story: “I’ve put a new handle and a new head on her but she’s still a damn good axe.”

[Mike Franzen]

That is beautiful work. I’m sure the family will be proud of it and hopefully keep it that way. Brian are you engraving now?

[Brian Dudley]

That is beautiful work. I’m sure the family will be proud of it and hopefully keep it that way. Brian are you engraving now?

No. Not really. I do very minor stuff that I feel like I can handle when needed. Like a simple screw head or a basic border touchup or something.

[Stephen Hodges]

Beautiful! Brian, your work is wonderful, and Turnbull sure know how to case color:corn:

[Harold Lee Pickens]

Wow, probably didn't look that good coming out of the box!
Great work, hope to see it at Ernie's.

[Jones Cahill]

Better than it was new!

p.s. I see an elephant's head in picture 14.

You have quite the eye, to pick that one out.

Jones

[Rick Roemer]

I hope you do decide to display this at Hausmann’s

[Larry Stauch]

First class work all the way. Very nice indeed.

I have a 20 gauge AHE with 30" barrels that needs a similar treatment.

[George Davis]

When will you please leave New York and move to Arizona or Texas? Better weather and Taxes and lots of work for such a talent gunsmith!!! Beautiful gun!!!!

[Brian Dudley]

When will you please leave New York and move to Arizona or Texas? Better weather and Taxes and lots of work for such a talent gunsmith!!! Beautiful gun!!!!


Who says I have a shortage of work?

[George Davis]

But you wouldn't have the big taxes or poor weather, you could spend more time working on your antique cars and shooting. Just think about less taxes more money to spend on "toys".
I have the feeling my sales pitch isn't working.

[Brian Dudley]

Just a heads up to anyone out there to possibly protect someone from a bad deal.

The guy I restored this beautiful NID for is Dan W. Mcelroy of Idaho Falls, ID. apparently of Mcelroy Construction and Delelopment LLC.

Well, Mr. Mcelroy is refusing to pay me for my work on this gun. To the tune of $4,400. I have had the gun completed since late May and he has been stringing me along and lying to me since then.

I still have the gun. But at this point it appears that he is sticking me with it.

Just be mindful of the name if anyone should possibly have any dealings with this guy. He cannot be trusted. Beware.

[edgarspencer]

Well that sure sucks.

[Jerry Harlow]

I would think a builder and developer would not have a problem with such a bill. When can you sell it?

[William Woods]

Have you put a "mechanics lien" on the gun yet? If not, I believe I would let him know that unless payment is received within a specified time frame that you would be doing so. it is certainly a shame that some would treat a craftsman, or anyone else for that matter, in such a manner.

[Phil Yearout]

Did he have an idea of the number going in, or did he give you carte blanche to do the job? Sucks either way; just curious.

[Reggie Bishop]

I would think a builder and developer would not have a problem with such a bill. When can you sell it?

Trust me, builders and contractors are like everyone else, some are good and some are worthless. I can say that because I have been selling product to that industry group for 32 years.

[Brian Dudley]

The bill came in at like $1200 more than he expected and I had originally quoted. But my original quote was based on half of the work that ended up being done. Through the process a lot of stuff came up that needed to be done, which resulted in a full metal restoration being done too. I keep him up to speed on all of that, but we never really assigned a dollar figured to the extra work. But he wanted it done “right” and told me “do it as if it was your own gun”. Then he balks at the bill for that. He has either just gave me grief about the bill and told me how much horrible I am for what I am charging him. Or he gives me lines like he will get me paid “next week”. He has been stringing me along since June on it.

In over 12 years I have never dealt with this before. And I have not dealt with having to keep someones gun over an unpaid bill. Believe me, I dont want to keep the gun. I want him to get his gun back and to have him happy with the work. But I am not having that happen at my loss.

However, something tells me that this would be happening regardless of the overage on the bill or not.

[Phil Yearout]

Sadly, even if you do resolve it he’s never going to be happy; it’s a lose/lose situation, but I do hope you get paid and he gets his gun back.

Seems there’s a certain type of person who complains after the fact thinking if they complain enough they’ll get a price reduction.

[Stephen Hodges]

I was told a long time ago by a contractor who was doing work on our house that the cost is not in the materials, it is in the labor. I would image that the labor was intense for a project such as this and the expertise to turn out that kind of work is not cheap. You get what pay for.

[chris dawe]

Story's like this ,are far too common in this business it's the same up here ...I'm to the point of,if I don't get a good feeling from a potential client I don't continue ...it takes so long to do the work,and people can be incredibly ignorant as to what goes into this kind of project ,haveing your potential paychecks months after you start is very worrisome as well.

[Daniel Carter]

In my lanscape business i would get an upfront payment to cover my materials cost and any sub contractors payments. When the client balked at that i was pretty sure they were not intending to pay me. The sure fire indicator was ''money is no object'' that was 100% a stiff.

[Bill Murphy]

We have heard many stories on this forum about bad vendors as well as bad customers. Brian is my hero because he is the first one to name the offender, yes, the first time ever. We'll see how this pans out. This customer knew that the end result would not end up with a profit. It reminds me of a Parker VH 12 gauge that was in process for more than 15 years, but ended in a wonderful result. I'm sure the shipping charges were more than my VH is worth, but I'm very happy with it.

[Craig Larter]

Sorry to hear about your problem with the customer.
Hopefully it all works out. I know Doug Turnbull has faced similar issues with customers. I hope you institute a new policy to protect yourself in the future. Sad but as a small business person it's needed in today's world.

[Brian Dudley]

This is address a few of Dirty Harrys questions and concerns. For some reason I feel like making sure he is satisfied.

To my knowledge this guy is not a member on this site. Like I said, I want to make sure others know what sort of person he is should anyone have any encounters with him. He made sure to tell me all about guns that he owns and work he has had done over the years. But that was all likey just to try and impress me or something.

I do not have photos of this gun “before”. It was just a barreled action, with no wood. But the metal work had been previously “restored”. Rust blue and case color.

I originally told him the cost to fully restore the gun would be $4-5k

When I saw the gun in person, I saw that the metalwork that had been previously done was not exactly to the best quality. The barrels still had a lot of fine pitting on them that was not polished out and the bluing was dull looking. And the same issue with fine pitting was on the frame under the new case color. But, I said that the finishes were workable and there was no reason to redo them just for the sake of it. They still looked decent.

Well, when I actually got into the work, I found that the tang on the frame had been warped so much that it would never be able to be straightened without risking breaking it. And that the frame would have to be annealed in order to be corrected and then re-hardened. And of course, prepped out right and engraving touched up. That it would be good opportunity to sort out the issues with the less than desirable metalwork. This time out of actual necessity.
I was told to do it right and as if it were my own gun. Well…. I had originally quoted $4-5k for that. And then the bill ends up being right in that range. I am the bad guy and it is the wnd of the world and I am not getting paid.

[Mike Franzen]

Can you legally sell the gun to recoup your money?

[Brian Dudley]

Can you legally sell the gun to recoup your money?


IF, I can do that it will be a while before I can.


The guy is now telling me he will be filing suit against me for stealing his gun and extorting him. So, we will see how all that goes. Things have sure gotten pretty nuts.