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I have a neighbor who has an heirloom 1911. He wants to take it someone in houston for "professional" cleaning and and a performance check. I thought about offering to check it out, but this is the sort of guy who is really going to want someone who does this full time, he's a bit quirky. Any recommendations for a shop? Goes Gander, bass pro, academy, etc offer this service? Any idea what ballpark the costs are? He's also pretty frugal.

Ed Vandenberg. 281.480.3180.

He also does custom work on 1911s.

If he takes it to ANY of the big box stores he runs the chance of having "part-time teenager" clean his gun and ruin the value. Have him find a competent 'smith and pay the extra, it will cost less in the end.

JustaPhule wrote:If he takes it to ANY of the big box stores he runs the chance of having "part-time teenager" clean his gun and ruin the value. Have him find a competent 'smith and pay the extra, it will cost less in the end.

I totally agree. It appears your friend if not very knowledgeable about guns & wants to be extra careful to hand it over to an expert. This gun must be very important to him, and I understand.

Take it to a certified, full time gunsmith, and NOT to a big box store.

A little far but Paul Hubbard in Conroe. Expert on 1911s and has worked on a bunch of antique ones. (936) 788-3986. Let him know Greg White gave you his number.

Thanks for those leads guys. Checked them out and they sound perfect.

I personally was extremely un-impressed with Ed Vandenberg. I took him an AR style rifle with an accuracy problem. I drove from Sugar Land to him in Clear Lake area with an appointment and he didn't spend ten seconds looking at my rifle before he knew he had it fixed, then handed it back to me. I asked him what he wanted for his time and he said forget it, bring me something to work on next time. I told him I though it had a bad barrel on it he assured me it was fixed. I ended up having to get a new barrel installed by another gunsmith b/c it had a defective barrel. I just didn't appreciate the lack of attention Vandenberg gave my case. Or the time I wasted going to see him.