colin b.

I don't like writing negative reviews, especially of small businesses, but I felt this necessary so that others avoid my mistake. Unfortunately for me, I did not read the many negative reviews of their recent work, nor did I see the dismissive responses to their concerns. I brought two guns in last week to get night sights installed at a premium price of $70.36 each. Night sights were new in the factory packaging and the guns I brought in are both used but well cared for as they are rarely fired despite being close to 25 years old. When I picked both guns up this afternoon, both had fresh scratch marks along the rear of the slide, located in the same place on each gun. These marks looked as if the slides had been secured improperly in a sight pushing tool which marred the finish. They also showed smaller non-linear scratches towards the front of the gun as well as on the brand-new sights that looked like they were caused by a small tool or improper storage. When I brought this up to the kind lady at the front, both of the other gunsmiths looked them over, noting that the finishes are not easy to touch up and then disappeared in the back. I was then told that I needed to wait for Brian, the owner to see what could be done. After briefly looking at my guns and then stepping to the back, Brian quickly returned and was adamant that neither his tools nor gunsmiths would have caused the scratches. When I asked him if he found it suspicious that the marks on both guns were in the same places, he reiterated that they were not caused by his sight tool as it is padded with felt. I also asked him about the scratches on the sights themselves that came brand new in the sealed packaging and the other places on the guns and again he said his gunsmiths would not have made them. He did take one of the guns to the back to rub oil on the finish which did minimize the scratches somewhat but did not completely remove them. After briefly going back and forth about who was responsible for the scratches, I left, genuinely in shock that a gunsmith could screw up something as simple as a sight installation. When I returned home and stopped seeing red, I also found that the front sight on one of the guns is bent and will need to be adjusted or repaired by a competent gunsmith. I remembered that he mentioned that his shop should start taking pictures of guns that they take into the shop to prevent this sort of thing, and that's when I remembered I had recent pictures of both guns that I had taken for my insurance company. I've included one series below that shows the finish was still present on the rear of my Glock's slide. Since I was told that there was no way they could have made the scratches, I will let the readers of this review decide whether or not to give this shop your business. Yes, one of the guns had scratches from holster wear which are on the front of the slide and not the rear. The other gun's slide was flawless, including the rear of the firearm where the new scratches were. To be clear, I never once asked for anything free, discounted or refinished (which I would not have accepted anyway as I keep my guns factory spec.) I just wanted Lohman's to admit and apologize for damaging my firearms that were in their care. TL:DL- This shop can't be trusted to own up to their mistakes, so take your guns elsewhere. I was told by the owner that I should trust them as they routinely have $10-20k guns in the shop, but I wouldn't trust them even with a Hi-Point.

Avoid at all costs. As a business owner, I couldn't imagine a worse experience in my 45 years than my experience with Brian Lohman and Lohman Gunsmiths. I brought my wood stock Remington 700 to have pillars added and the action bedded in epoxy. This was a brand new rifle and not an antique, etc. I specifically asked Oliver and the gunsmith (didn't get his name) to bed the action and stop 1" in front of the recoil lug, as this is customary for Rem. 700's and is "the way" the industry does these bedding jobs to ensure the barrel is 100% free-floated. We visited for 30+ minutes about the job and I made sure we were on the same page for scope of work. They both agreed with the work. They quoted $470 for the work and I agreed to the price, without question. Is $470 a fair price? Probably too high, but I thought paying the premium would deliver an exceptional job. They require 50% down payment to be paid before they will start any work. I paid before I left the shop and was quoted a 2 week turn-around. I went back 3 weeks later to find out that they had not started on the gun and were waiting on pillars to come in. The pillars are an in stock item at Brownells, etc. and I don't think they ever ordered them. Either way, the communication could have been made from Lohman's to me that they needed more time. Another two weeks later and I went to pick up the gun...In hindsight, I should have thoroughly inspected it before paying the balance and taking the gun home. Oliver did take it apart to quickly show me the work, at which I immediately pointed out that they epoxy bedded the entire barrel and did not stop at the recoil lug! The barrel is not free-floated - this is exactly the opposite of the service I asked them to do! I told Oliver that if the gun shot well, I'd be OK as all I really wanted was the accuracy to be improved (hence the bedding of the action and the pillars). When I got home, I inspected in greater detail and discovered that the action screws were stripped, the release agent wasn't cleaned from the gun, the epoxy overflowed onto the wood and wasn't cleaned up, and the wood stock was damaged from their work. The bedding and pillar work were exceptionally poor quality - see the attached pictures. Lohman and Oliver quoted a "30 day warranty - go shoot the gun and let us know if there are any issues and we'll take care of them for you". I can't shoot the gun as the action screws are stripped! I called Lohman and spoke with Oliver and asked that Brian Lohman call me to discuss. As a business owner, I can relate when the service and/or product is not as good as the customer wants and I wanted to talk to Brian directly. My expectations were that he would agree that the product and service were not acceptable and they would make it right and/or refund. After repeated voicemails missing each other, I spoke to Oliver and he relayed that Brian's decision was: 1. The stripped action screws weren't their fault and I needed to pay ANOTHER $216.50 to get them fixed. 2. The pillar & action bedding were done perfectly and didn't need any repairs/rework. 3. It's not their problem that they completely ruined the wood stock by epoxy bedding the entire rifle stock even though I hired them to stop 1" in front of the recoil lug. Whether or not they or I damaged the a threads is of point of contention, but it's a 10 minute job for them with equipment and tools they already have in house. The idea that they refuse to help at all, considering the complete fail on the original project, is difficult to understand. $216.50 is an absolute slap in the face when it shouldn't take $20 worth of time or equipment to re-tap the threads. It gets worse. In addition, they stated the ONLY way I could get my rifle back (mind you, there is a $1,500 scope attached to it, the gun is presumably worth $1,000 when new, and it's stored in a $250 case that they also have) is if I came with CASH to pay the $470 so they could credit my Amex credit card as they are now fearful I'd cancel the payment from Amex (made months ago on the first 50% and 3 weeks ago on the remainder). This is of course a violation of Amex's merchant agreements, but I doubt they care about that part either. Long story short, they do bad work and are dishonest human beings. This life lesson cost me $470 in cash + a new stock for the gun + another gunsmith to fix the action screws. $1,000 "all-in" to write this review to save you from the same headache. AVOID AT ALL COSTS AND OPTIONS!!!

Ryan W.

BE VERY CAREFUL LEAVING A DEPOSIT WITH THESE PEOPLE! I have been a repeat customer of this company over the last few years so it's unfortunate they've chose to end a professional relationship in this manner. I dropped off my Walther P99 gen 1 to have a threaded barrel fitted. Maybe a 20 minute job. They gave me a 2 week estimate and took a $81 deposit. I've had no issues with them in the past so I had no problem leaving a deposit. BIG MISTAKE! After 3 weeks of waiting with no phone call that my job was completed I decided to call for an update. They proceeded to tell me their gunsmith was out sick and it would be another 2 WEEKS before I could expect my gunsmith work to be completed. ZERO communication was made to inform me that there would be a estimated 3 week delay in service. I told them I was coming to pick up my handgun and take it elsewhere. They informed me they would not be refunding my $81 deposit, even in this circumstance where they have failed on their end to update customers of extended completion estimates. Make note, they did NOTHING to my handgun for over 3 WEEKS and still entitled themselves to my $81 deposit. I told the front desk girl I will be leaving an appropriate review based on their piss poor customer service and she obviously valued my $81 deposit more then their integrity as a business. You've been a huge disappointment Lohman and will be missing out on hundreds of dollars of business I would have brought you in the future.

I do not leaving negative reviews, but I am left with no alternative as I cannot get them to respond. I have sent them text messages, called and left voicemails, messaged them via their website and they haven't responded in over 40 days. I also drove by and no one answered the locked door during business hours. I brought a gun there over a year ago and they still haven't completed it. I finally got ahold of them in early October and was informed that the gun would be ready by the end of October. I was also informed the Mr. Lohman would call me very soon. Every since COVID came and went, customer service has fallen to the wayside. I would be very careful when choosing a gunsmith. Especially, when they cannot return phone calls, text messages and emails.

Hammer and chisel blacksmiths from the 1800's, not gunsmiths. See the pics below and blow them up, the first 2 pics on the left and the part on the right is the sample I gave them to duplicate and was told they would be duplicated on a CNC machine the three on the left is the garbage they made, the holes are all in the wrong place also made them to short so they welded another piece to it. And they scratched up a brand new gun and said it came in that way. WARNING DO NOT TAKE ANYTHING HERE! If you do you must use a credit card to get you money back as I did 100% refund after Chase viewed the pics I sent them, screw you Brian Lohman for lying in your response, saying the gun came in scratched when you never saw it until the day I picked it up the second time your company could not get anything right! They tell you everything you want to hear when dropping off a job and paying half down and then you get the crap in the pics that does NOT WORK, it's crap there is no way it works even if it's just the hole in the wrong place Mr. LoMan! Thanks for the refund I ask for and you said no, but Chase said yes. Also you can't do a post unless you give at least one star, I would have given ZERO stars if I could have. This place is like Joe Biden, less than ZERO stars! Go to Google and put in, (lohman gunsmithing reviews) go to Jim on the right side of the page to see owner's response to this he is a real peace of work!

Well, I must say that Brian and crew has changed my mind from my previous negative review. I must say the final product is what I wanted them to build for me. Not only is the rifle a thing of beauty but it flat out shoots great. Brian has instituted some major changes in regards to communication between the gunsmiths and the customer so what happened to me will not happen again. I will be bringing more work to this gunsmith in the future. Thanks again Lohman Gunsmiths for my beautiful rifle.

Mike M.

I saw an ad in the newspaper about this business and since I needed some gunsmithing and it is located in my part of town I went by. The gunsmith's name is Brian and he was very helpful with my needs. He also turned around my pistol sooner than promised and at a very fair and reasonable rate. I will return. This place specializes in selling all of the components that hand loaders need along with also carrying factory ammo of all types. The prices I saw were reasonable.