Beware the Amateur Gunsmith

By David LaPell

USA – -(AmmoLand.com)- The definition for a gunsmith is someone who repairs, modifies, designs and builds guns, but in the end, it’s not as simple as all that. If you have been around firearms for a long enough time, you will see shoddy or even dangerous work, and often it comes at the hands of someone who calls themselves a gunsmith, but in reality, shouldn’t be near a gun at all.

In the last two decades, I have seen some work passed off by so-called gunsmiths that range anywhere from decent and good to downright scary and dangerous. I have seen people refinish guns with spray paint instead of re-bluing them and calling it the same, to cutting off barrels with no thought to re-crowning them and then wonder why the accuracy went out the window. Some guns I have seen are downright scary and are in the category of unsafe and truly dangerous.