Custom builders

[Mike Brooks]

Yep, for $2500 you can get a pretty nice custom gun. :thumbsup:

 

[Russ T Frizzen]

That seems like sound advice to me! I keep thinking of one of those early Virginia rifles you built with the real dark finish. Sweet.

 

[B Shipman]

Hey Bob, Mike is right. You can get a really cool S. Mtn. rifle for $2500 even from a top builder. And Mike is a top builder. Few people get that perfecly functional but old used look like he does.The answer is a no brainer. Simply go to the  muzzleloading links page on this forum. Look at the peoples work and inquire. There are good amateurs and top builders. Remember that some guys build their guns "new", some darken the recesses and tarnish things to subdue the new look and some go totally well used. Don't be dismayed if you don't see any Mtn. rifles. Most post fancy stuff to show what they can do. Most like to make a simpler rifle once in a while. It's good for the soul.As has been stated, custom rifles hold their value and over time increase in value. The best stuff increases more. And the amount of fancy, by itself, has nothing to do with it. It's how good the fancy is.In addition, look a the Contemporary Longrifles site at www. longrifles.ws., www. americanlongrifles.com , "items for sale" and "gunbuilding". Go to www.contemorarymakers.blogspot.com and file back for months. Find something you really like and inquire here if they have a website.

Have fun. Bill

 

[Russ T Frizzen]

The thing that can't be easily quantified is the feeling one of these custom guns gives its owner. Long after the cost is forgotten, the pride of ownership and sense that one is holding something that will become a family heirloom one day endures.

There is an elegant, almost lyrical quality to these long guns that no other firearm has ever achieved. And this holds true even for the simplest mountain rifle--plain, yet graceful and alive in one's hands.

Yet you can carry it with you in a dark forest or bright sunlit meadow, and it will shoot true and feed you and your family if you do your part. All it asks is a bit of care and cleaning. And its value will rise with the passing of time. Both as a family treasure and in the sense of a monetary investment.

I know of no other investment that one can make for so small an outlay that will give back so much for so long.

 

[Bob J]

Roger Sells of Monterrey, TN builds very fine southern/Tennessee rifles. I have two flintlocks he built, a walnut-stocked .36 and an extra-curly maple .54. My third Sells rifle is being built now; a .62 jaeger. Roger's work has been featured on www.contemporarymakers.blogspot.com and on the television show, "Tennessee Crossroads".

 

[bstarkey]

The thing that can't be easily quantified is the feeling one of these custom guns gives its owner. Long after the cost is forgotten, the pride of ownership and sense that one is holding something that will become a family heirloom one day endures.

Well said.

Thanks guys you've given me plenty of option to consider....now I just have to make a decision.

Bob