Colorado School of Trades Question

[Ranger]

I ordered a nice quad rail hand guard for my A2 and got it in yesterday, it's a really nice quality piece of furniture. Anyway, I was expecting to just take off my hand guard and slap this guy on, but the instructions were clear about having a gunsmith do it (messing with the gas tube, removing the front sight, all that). Since I'm not a smith and I don't want to void the warranty on the handguard, I figured I better find a smith.

So I called GMG and asked if there was a smith on duty there and they referred me to Bass Pro Shops - I told them I thought this was a pretty simple smith task and Bass is WAAAAAAY far a way for me so they recommended I stop by Colorado School of Trades, that they would probably love to do this for me and pretty cheap since it's good training for their students.

The question I have is if anyone has ever had the school do anything for them. GMG said just to stop by, don't call, but that seems odd for me to show up at a school with my A2, burst into a classroom (presumably) and ask them to help me out.

By the way, it's pretty tough to find a quality railed handguard for a rifle length barrel!

[cowboykjohnson]

Had a guy I met on here going to the school do stuff for me. I never dropped anything off to the school, but we left a bunch of weapons with him and he would take them in for the work. The only cost we paid was for blueing and parkerizing chemicals and the work was pretty good.

[Ranger]

Well, if it does work out like GMG says, it would be nice to have it outfitted before I head to the hills this weekend.

[BadShot]

Talk to Rob over at Bowers Tactical (they are in DTC)... he can knock that out for you for a fair price and generally do it very quickly.

What type of difficulty did you have finding a "quality" rail for a rifle length weapon? I can think of about 5 manufacturers off the top of my head that are not only quality but highly available. Just curious what issues you were running in to.

[Ranger]

Talk to Rob over at Bowers Tactical (they are in DTC)... he can knock that out for you for a fair price and generally do it very quickly.

What type of difficulty did you have finding a "quality" rail for a rifle length weapon? I can think of about 5 manufacturers off the top of my head that are not only quality but highly available. Just curious what issues you were running in to.

Thanks, I'll give Rob a shout.

I just had a lot of problems finding them in 12" just to start with - add to that I wanted it in OD - just made it harder. Easier in black, or easier in any color for shorter barrels.

I found a few I liked in black but didn't want to shell out $500+ for them, I ended up with a nice quality quad for $225 in OD.

[gnihcraes]

School of trades has been great in the past for work I've had done there. Most of the schooling happens afternoon and evening I believe - when people are off their regular jobs. They have a reception type of office you can drop off the guns with them. Check on the time frame though, it might be 90 days on work done there.

[BPTactical]

Sent you a PM Ranger