Things a competent gunsmith should ask

Before beginning building a rifle

How do you want to go about keeping your wife from knowing what you spent on it?

The only thing I can see asking is every specific detail on what you want such as barrel, action, trigger, special bolt knob, etc etc. They already know how to make if fit and shoot

Good answer I was thinking more specifically about bullet choice, brass, OAL of cartridge, The rifle is to be custom. Why not ask these questions?

I thought most of these custom rifle makers did that research for you and then worked up the ideal load FOR you, not the other way around?

I have never seen a gunsmith that did load development for you. Maybe they are out there.

The biggies are action you plan to use, caliber (then select proper twist barrel, barrel contour, length, crown, etc), stock you plan to put it in.

Some will, for a price. A couple of my friends have bought gun 'packages' from Gunwerks which includes gun, scope, rangefinder and load development. Cost is north of 10K.

The only one I've actually looked into was Carolina Custom Rifles....from what I can tell, you tell them what caliber you want, and the intended purpose, and they work up the ideal load combination and even give you a box of like 20 custom-loaded rounds to "get you started", as well as the "recipe" so you can handload comparables at home. I guess I just thought that was the norm for high-end custom rifles. Hell, for $5-10k for a rifle, working up a load recipe is the least they could do...

What grain bullet will you be hunting with (for twist purposes).

What is your budget??

Rifle purpose? Deer at 335 yards or hogs at 40? Load workup is at least half the fun of rolling your own.

Do you want a good clean chamber or want it put cuts all in your brass?

You can get a very nice rifle built for way less than that.

No You did not !!!

Seems a backwards question. I would think there are things a customer needs to ask a competent gunsmith. Mostly those things won't be known to ask until a person actually has need of a custom rifle. The reason to get a custom would be to change those things that you ask the smith about,from what you could get in a production rifle.

RH you are correct...almost. You should have a good idea about the type, components to be used and purpose of rifle you want to build but listen to suggestions the gunsmith may give you about the finer points of the build. You should be asking questions and he should be asking you questions. If you find that he only wants to do things his way, you may need a different gunsmith. Don't go to a smith who builds 'tacticool' rifles and expect him to be able to rebuild a mauser 98 with a beautiful English walnut stock, it ain't gonna be pretty. Find a smith who builds as close to the type of rifle you want and try working with them.

Its like buying anything else, the more research you do the more informed you will be and be able to make better decisions. WRITE the specifications for the build, do not trust that they will remember what you agreed upon.

In my experience youre supposed to tell them what you want in a good hunting/target rifle and then they'll make recommendations for you to decide on

I would absolutely agree.All good info. I would think finding the right gunsmith would be the most important thing. I've known people to try to use a gunsmith simply because they are close to their home.

Thanks for all the responses

I've been told that you can make a dummy round with the trimmed case length you want (within reason) and the bullet you want to shoot out of it, seated at whatever depth you desire, and the smith can ream the chamber and throat to perfectly match the round.

Something I don't think has been mentioned is preferred trigger weight

I got sick to my stomach when Chris told me what was going on 😰

I feel like there's a story we are missing out on here