My satisfaction overall from gunsmith work has only been fair overall. King’s Gunworks in Glendale, CA (long gone) did an excellent job of reducing the trigger reach (shorting the stock) of my Winchester o/u shotgun and installing the Pachmayr recoil pad. Pachmayr like King’s did custom work and they are gone as well. King’s work on my Colt Gold Cup series 70 is IMO only fair. The actual work is good but they will only do work that fits their pattern like a semi production process. I would assume this unless I know better of any smith.
Gunsmith work I’ve had done was about two decades ago and since then most shops, stores and ranges in my area have vanished. I would imagine getting good/acceptable work done today will be much more difficult. From what I’ve gathered here under TFL and elsewhere the gunsmithing occupation is dismal. The only probable way of making a living for most would be to do machining for other entities with gunsmithing as a sideline.
First pic is a side view of my Colt GC. King’s squared & checkered the trigger guard, additional checkering on the front & back straps of the grip and hard chromed the receiver. There’s a tinny area at the very tip sharp corner of the frame near the grip safety that has no chrome. Fairly minor but I notice because I had the work done. King’s drop in parts that I installed are the short aluminum trigger, enlarge mag (magazine) release and stainless grip safety. Stainless grip screws are King’s, I think, and polished with a Dremel. King’s parts entity was probably closed, not sold to any entity. IMO they were excellent parts.
Second pic is of the front grip strap area, top view, of the frame. Uneven vertical grooves are original on the Colt GC. I specifically said to make these vertical grooves symmetrical but they never did and just added their touch of horizontal grooves. This is what I mean by “semi production”, they only do things their way. I would have made the vertical grooves symmetrical myself had I known they wouldn’t do it.
Third pic is of the mag well with mag installed. The well was beveled using various files and a Dremel. I think many here on TFL are Dremel fans.
Mag is, I think, a LAKA stainless with a long anti-tilt follower. Most likely not made anymore.