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Nighthawk custom work

Dogs&Guns

⚠️ New Member | No Deposits ☢️
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Has anyone had Nighthawk custom shop do any work on a none nighthawk 1911 done and if so how did it work out for you.

I have a 1991 Colt combat elite that has the usual scratches and is not shooting as well as it did 35 years ago. I am thinking about having nighthawk redo the finish, match grade barrel and tigger job as well as their reliability up grades and new sights. Their quote is $2100 for all of it , which for the quality of work I am expecting / assuming I am willing to pay.

Thanks in advance
 
Make sure they will actually ship it back to you.
Many out-of-state gun companies are abandoning direct shipping to CA with the new laws this year.
If your gun is off-roster and they require it to go back to an FFL, you won't be able to DROS it.
If they require FFL transfer, find an FFL who will log it into their gunsmithing book and then send it out to Nighthawk so they can log it back into their gunsmithing book and return it to you without DROS upon it's return.
Or find someone inside CA (like me) to do the work.
 
Make sure they will actually ship it back to you.
Many out-of-state gun companies are abandoning direct shipping to CA with the new laws this year.
If your gun is off-roster and they require it to go back to an FFL, you won't be able to DROS it.
If they require FFL transfer, find an FFL who will log it into their gunsmithing book and then send it out to Nighthawk so they can log it back into their gunsmithing book and return it to you without DROS upon it's return.
Or find someone inside CA (like me) to do the work.
Good advise thank you will do
 
Make sure they will actually ship it back to you.
Many out-of-state gun companies are abandoning direct shipping to CA with the new laws this year.
If your gun is off-roster and they require it to go back to an FFL, you won't be able to DROS it.
If they require FFL transfer, find an FFL who will log it into their gunsmithing book and then send it out to Nighthawk so they can log it back into their gunsmithing book and return it to you without DROS upon it's return.
Or find someone inside CA (like me) to do the work.
You do 1911 work?
 
Just ask them if they can ship directly back to your house if you do and if they will.. Yes some companies now wont ship back to cali, which is wild. NH has great work though, I would call them and as long as they ship- go with them
 
Make sure they will actually ship it back to you.
Many out-of-state gun companies are abandoning direct shipping to CA with the new laws this year.
If your gun is off-roster and they require it to go back to an FFL, you won't be able to DROS it.
If they require FFL transfer, find an FFL who will log it into their gunsmithing book and then send it out to Nighthawk so they can log it back into their gunsmithing book and return it to you without DROS upon it's return.
Or find someone inside CA (like me) to do the work.
If he already owns it he wouldn’t need to dros it.
 
I sent an e-mail to nighthawk and asked about turn around time and shipping. They said it would need to go through an FFL and recommended "Ship my gun" seems like a very simple process through a local FFL for around $45. The problem now is do I want to wait the 6 to 8 months for them to do the work or look for someone local to me that I can trust to do the refinishing part, the rest of the work I think any reliable gunsmith can do without any issues.

Thanks for your responses
Guy
 
If he already owns it he wouldn’t need to dros it.
That depends...

If he ships it to nighthawk himself and then nighthawk ships it back to an FFL, how does that recieving FFL know he already owns it?
The FFL will log it in like it's a transfer and then it will have to DROS.
Off-Roster will stop the DROS.

That's why I said he should use an FFL to ship it to nighthawk so it would go into the gunsmithing book instead of the sales book.
Bouncing it through the gunsmithing book makes it so it does not need to DROS since it came INTO the gunsmithing book from him and can go right back out of the gunsmithing book as a return.
 
I sent an e-mail to nighthawk and asked about turn around time and shipping.
They said it would need to go through an FFL and recommended "Ship my gun" seems like a very simple process through a local FFL for around $45.
The problem now is do I want to wait the 6 to 8 months for them to do the work or look for someone local to me that I can trust to do the refinishing part, the rest of the work I think any reliable gunsmith can do without any issues.
Ship-my-guns is not an FFL that you can pickup from.
Ship-my-guns is a way that you can send the gun to nighthawk, but then nighthawk will send the gun back to an FFL near you and you will be in the situation outlined above.

If you are in los angeles, I can do the barrel and trigger work in a day once you have all the new parts you want fitted.
I do glassbead for stainless parts or parkerizing for chromoly parts.
I can refer you to my cerakote guy that will often be less than a week turnaround on the finishing if you want color.
 
That depends...

If he ships it to nighthawk himself and then nighthawk ships it back to an FFL, how does that recieving FFL know he already owns it?
The FFL will log it in like it's a transfer and then it will have to DROS.
Off-Roster will stop the DROS.

That's why I said he should use an FFL to ship it to nighthawk so it would go into the gunsmithing book instead of the sales book.
Bouncing it through the gunsmithing book makes it so it does not need to DROS since it came INTO the gunsmithing book from him and can go right back out of the gunsmithing book as a return.
He does have to use a FFL to ship it out. And receive it.
 
Looking at the ship my gun website they set it up for you to use a local FFL in their network to ship it. I assume I would tell nighthawk to ship it back to them and pay whatever. Any way I am wondering why I even looked into using nighthawk to begin with there are some good gunsmiths in Socal area. I can live with the cosmetics just find the idiot scratches embarrassing. It was my first 1911 their just part of the learning curve. I will DM you sometime over the weekend and we can talk some more about locations and best parts for me to use.

Thank you
Guy
 
Has anyone had Nighthawk custom shop do any work on a none nighthawk 1911 done and if so how did it work out for you.

I have a 1991 Colt combat elite that has the usual scratches and is not shooting as well as it did 35 years ago. I am thinking about having nighthawk redo the finish, match grade barrel and tigger job as well as their reliability up grades and new sights. Their quote is $2100 for all of it , which for the quality of work I am expecting / assuming I am willing to pay.

Thanks in advance
Talk to Bob Reeves. They redid my Colt Lightweight Commander. It came out awesome.
 
How long did it take for them to do it ? also what did you do for shipping
I didn't want them to have the gun a long time so I asked Bob to email me when my time came up. Request a shipping label from them and drop it off at UPS or Fed X can't remember which. They also bobed the frame on my Talon II and refinished the frame.
 
I’m in the process of sending my GRP recon in to have an iOS cut. Still waiting on pricing and leadtime.
 
If anyone is curious, I’ve done this twice this year and a couple other times over the past 5/6 years. A couple with shipmygun and the rest with Bob Reeves sending me a prepaid label.

For the 2 this year I got one back already, shipped directly to my house. I used SMG for that one. Still waiting for the other but the work was more intensive there. You don’t need to go through an FFL since SMG/Nighthawk is the FFL.

Pic attached of the gun that just came back from being refinished, sights replaced, and function checked. Took about 3.5 months from when I sent it in.
 

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