Lots of different perspectives on this issues - thanks.
I am in the professional services business and try to work with gunsmiths the same way I work with my clients. I ask for but do not negotiate an anticipated price and completion date at the front end. If they cannot provide either at that point, that is something that should be discussed. I expect to be given a heads up if there is going to be significant delay or cost over-run. I realize most good gunsmiths to have a backlog but also expect that to be factored into the proposed completion date. I would have a different set of expectations about a completion date if I were told it will take two years to build a custom gun from scratch as opposed to being told it will take a month to re-blue some barrels or fix an ejector. And I only use gunsmiths that have direct recommendations from folks I trust - including in these two situations (which involve names familiar here, so that is why I have not gotten into the details too much).
One problem with shipping your gun to a gunsmith in another part of the country is that it gets pretty difficult to retrieve it if the situation does not work out.
