i dont know Simon .
i think most certainly you cant make a silk purse from a sows ear . But you sure can make a dam nice sows ear purse . In fact , nice enough that someone wanting a silk purse would look twice at the sows ear . Lol .
Through the years I have done a number of sitting fox projects for folks .
Myself , I have never been complete happy with the quality . Though I must say also , that I have never been completely un happy .
The one im waiting on that I mentioned above im not totally miffed at , just yet . Even though its just the stock and barrel
A couple gave me fits ,and sleepless nights ,of that there is no doubt ..
But honestly as Nessy said : there are pro’sand cons .
Its that way no mater where you go . Its simply the nature of the beast when ever your working with something , someone else has started . It something that must be dealt with whenever you cant aford or know how to do it yourself .
IMO best bang for the buck , comes down to the Buck and knowledge added to what a person is looking for .
For some the knowledge is the issue .
If I had only 750 to spend and wanted a VERY high end piece . I guarantee you I could build a rifle for less then that . But I would have hours upon hours into it . So whats my labor worth ?
I can take a cheep CVA bobcat and for 350.00 turn it into something that will stand right next to semi customs as well as customs . Past being told what it was , No one would know .
Will they ever be anything but a CVA . No . I know that as does the customer .
Quality is , what quality is . There simply is no way around it .
One way or another we pay for that quality . Be it in our labor or in the materials we chose to use .
Thus sometimes , the best bang for the buck may not be any of the places we spoke about here .
Its basically just as you say Simon .
Lets mix this up alittle bit .
Lets say a person with 0 knowledge of these rifles , wood working , metal finishing .
Basicly know knowledge at all ..
Now lets say they want
OHHHHh
A NW trade gun , but only has 750 to spend .
There are any number of places that can provide the parts in any number of degrees of quality ..
But lets say we have a standard .
Davis lock , simple trigger , plain walnut stock, shaped and inlet , barrel by Colerain or Green mountain
Rest of the hardware is simple and cheep ..
Parts alone your into it maybe 500-550 .
That person dives in. they are all smiles because they saved 200 bucks .
Lets say the only spend 40 hours working on it . What they just did was eat up that 200.00 very quickly . the result is they have something that while being worth something to them , frankly isn’t worth more then the sum of the parts .
But for another 50 bucks " around 800" they could have had all that work done for them so as that all that was left was the finishing of the stock .
OR for another 150 had the trade gun completely finished by someone with knowledge . Thus the piece is worth more then the sum of the parts .
So in the above case , would not the best bang for the buck be any of what we have spoken about ? . I would think so if we looked at this as a pure monetary question.
IMO there can never be a price placed on knowledge . One can only get a return from knowledge .
So lets look at the above person again .
Same scenario. But this time the person is willing to opt for gaining knowledge . Time is not a factor because the knowledge learned offsets that .
The person spends 100 of the saved 200 on books that will teach him how to do the job correctly . isn’t afraid to ask questions .
Slowly takes his time . Buys a blank over a pre-carve . No more tools are needed because he will need the very same tools needed for the pre-carve .
Now he may still end up with something not worth more then the sum of the parts .
BUT he has learned and thus at the same time as gaining the pride of doing it himself . He has also gained a greater knowledge and thus a greater return on his investment .
So maybe we are looking at this from the wrong angle here .
There are simply many , many different places to get parts from . Most all sell the same parts from the same makers .
When I last talked with Ray Franks , he told me he was now using davis locks not the cheeper imports , his barrels unless special ordered were from GM .
So whats left ?
The Stocks .
Basicly in so many words level of correctness for the chosen product . Quality and level of inletting , if chosen . Not a whole lot more .
that’s the kicker here and IMO is the only thing that really differs between all the suppliers that have been sugested
