Gents, collective note to say i'm just starting to wade through emails from early last week. I got home on tuesday to find my fatherinlaw in hospital in a coma on a life support machine not expected to make it through the weekend. Everything (such as getting on the pc) had to be dropped to arrange for the family to be by his bedside, i ended up babysitting kids and ferrying folk about.By friday his condition had worsened, then got a bit better. I managed to get a half days shooting that i couldn't cancell (and it was only 10mins drive from the hospital) and was away most of the weekend back and forth.my wife complained like hell about people calling on our private number when she is sat by the phone waiting for news of her Dad, please only use my workshop or my mobile number ( Col -Pete & Pete)
Now i am sorry that i am some times difficult to get a hold of. As Darkside says, i have 2 jobs, a family, a building site and i do need some time to my self, all work and no play etc. Now in job 1 we are very busy at the moment, short of staff and with lots of problems, which means i cannot answer the phone when i'm at job 1. I do a fair few night shifts which means i sleep during the day, obviously i can't stay awake all day. I run my rifle business part time, i do not have the time to call people back to update when nothing new has happened or nothing new has come in,I also don't have the time to answer the same questions from the same persons on several different occasions just because some one either is bored or likes the sound of my voice,and i can't operate the milling machine or lathe and the blates telephone at the same time, i won't answer the phone in the middle of a meal because i want to teach my kids some good habbits and i have stopped answering the phone after 20.00, because most other shops shut well before that, a large portion of time is spent on the innevitable burocracy that the German system demands. Supply in the gun trade is notoriously bad here in Europe, no one has anything on shelf and much of it is made to order, delivery from other countries can be quick, it can also be abismaly slow. I've noticed that one needs to email, fax and phone the same order to make sure that its gone through.
I cannot possibly give level of info-contact service that a full time shop can, but i can deliver a superbly accurate, well built rifle for a fraction of the cost and in a time frame that is all things considered not bad going. (when you consider up to 2 years is normal for several other european riflesmiths)
I am seriously considering going full time on the rifles next year. Depending on a few factors. For a start i'm sick to death of bieng 300 miles away from home doing job 1, and sick of the driving involved. If that happens i will be available 5 days a week from morning till night. now give a guy a break, let me get on with some jobs and catch up on emails, paperwork and rifles.
Regards Pete
