Something else to remember is that each manufacture has their own idea of what IN THE WHITE is .
It used to be that an in the white gun was just that .
Everything would be inlet and screwed on . The stocks would be taken down to proper shape and sanded to just before the point of where one could start carving or staining . Some even to the point all that was left was for the person to start the stock finish . Normally the locks barrels and hardware also needed cleaned up ..
Recently though I have began to see more and more that are being left with a lot of stock shaping needing done and in some cases a whole lot of work being needed on the metal parts being left for the customer to do . While they are still shoot able , IMO theses were very much just completely inlet and drilled guns . Something like what you would get with a production kit rifle .
I recently saw a trade gun that a fella showed me he had purchased IN THE WHITE.
It was from a better known company so I expected to see this rifle in the final stages of completion . I was very surprised to see it was not .
So do your research . Ask at what stage of completing the rifle is at .
I would also agree with steve here that a true poor boy is just that . The guns were made as cheep as they could possibly be made . Often times with no Trigger guards or buttplate Or these were made of wood . Often times also there would be no side plates.
There would also be no entry thimble fro the RR , no nose cap and most times only 1 or 2 very simple RR pipes / thimbles . No inlay work at all , no carving
Today however it has came to be a rifle that is normally mounted with iron hardware but with no entry thimble or nose cap .
The Trigger guards are also normally on top of the stocks and not recessed .
Now there is some debate historically as to IF a poorer rifle would have iron or brass hardware as most certainly there are different levels of the so called poor boy rifles .
My take is that IF iron was used , it would be very simple plate iron work that could be bent to make parts .
There is a lot more work in forging nice components then there was in casting say brass .
For forging it takes a some what knowledgeable person . Where with casing , it only take one to over see the work .
Ever heard the saying ;” go pound sand”
Well this stems from the process of founding . The sand is packed / pounded around the moulds using a packer to produce a cavity for duplicating the casting .
This was very much a novice job inside the foundry . A person would be sent to pound sand .
The end result is an item that takes much less time , experience and man power to produce .
The other side of the coin though is that we have an item that is shinny and gold . Thus it has a richer appearance.
While the item isn’t true gold , we have a mentality that gold is worth more then silver and this plays a part often times in what we feel is worth more when comparing a simple rifle mounted with polished brass or a simple rifle mounted with polished forged iron . But in reality which took more time to build ? The components in brass or the ones of iron ?
We see this still today . If you look at the cost of castings . Brass is most times more then the same part in cast steel , even though to cast steel you need a higher temperature taking more time to reach , thus a higher foundry cost . So you can see the BLING , BLING factor playing a part
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So when you say POOR BOY what level of poor are you looking for .
Very low and basic and the bear minimums or simple , basic and whats considered cheaper
Thus you can have a poor boy that’s as steve has said OR you can have a poor boy that still has a trgger guard made of iron yet no side plate , a butt plate of wood , no nose cap and no entry thimble . No carving and no inlay work, just a simple basic cost cutting rifle that’s on the cheeper side concerning gunsmith time
