That's what he says to get you within clubbing range. ::
"Buyer Protection" is very heavily dependant on buyer preperation, homework and expectations. With a custom gun you're buying maybe $500 to $700 in parts and the rest is "art". Hard to put a price on art. Hard to say whether one man's art is another's trash. I look at what my state paid a million dollars for at our local governmental plaza and I could have picked up the same thing at a local heavy metal recycling yard for $1,500, tops. Rusty steel girders in a pile.
Anyway, I would STRONGLY encourage several conversations with your prospective gunsmith. Pictures, drawings, copies out of books, whatever it takes. When I started my last project I kept a binder of that flinter and started with a specific rifle in my mind, and I made sure it was in his mind the same way. Communication is a difficult thing.
During this process (before the parts are ordered but not necessarily before a retainer is sent, or at least a proce list/catalog is purchased) you should pay great attention to how responsive the smith is to you. Calls returned, e-mails sent (images of current projects, past projects, references, check him out on CLA, etc.). Gunsmiths are busy. Until he/she(?) knows whether you're just another chain jerker or a serious customer you may get a bums rush, but it's a bad sign if you put down 30% and don't hear a peep thereafter.
KNOW AHEAD OF TIME WHAT YOU WANT THIS GUN TO BE!!! Some people confuse "in the white" with "highly poilshed and you could blue this without further effort except to dismount the metal". Some smiths just love to artificially age a firelock. What does that mean? Do you want a gun that looks like it was used to lever log skids in rocky soil, or just maybe handled well so the wood is shiney in spots. Know this ahead of time!
Does your smith offer an inspection period with a full refund for return? If it's a full blown custom that may be asking a lot - your barrel, lock and choice of wood that perhaps no other person in the world would have chosen, but some still make that pledge.
If you supply the lock and barrel (excise tax, don't cha know) and he commits outrageous crimes upon them in your opinion what is your recourse?
I know of a couple gunsmiths who will do a 100% in-house rifle for you, forged iron barrel and lock, the works. One even cuts the wood from his own trees. But you're up into five figures now.
My flinter was a committee gun. John Donelson was the smith, Jim Chambers did the lock (via Tip Curtis . . . well, Jim C. may have had his elves involved), L.C. Rice did the barrel and Fred Miller inlet the barrel channel. I had four references for each of them regarding the others by the time I was done and got to talk to a group of fine gentlemen. :front:
And she shoots. That is the one quality I couldn't "know" ahead of time and had to trust to the combined talents and reputations of all.
25 and 50 yards, resting elbows on knees w/butt on the ground.
