Recently I've made two posts about buying my first flintlock rifle from a local seller. Last week the seller fell ill and passed away yesterday. His son wanted me to look over the rifles and see if I still wanted to buy one. Yesterday I and
@SmoothboreMurph looked over the rifles but the seller hiked the prices of the 3 rifles I was interested in up. Today I asked a local gun store owner who
@SmoothboreMurph recommended due to his experience with Muzzleloaders (He has been in the Muzzleloading business since 1982) to come and take a look at these rifles with the seller's permission. While I was at work I received a message from another user who is a friend of Mike Roby and has his rifles for sale on Gunbroker. I noticed that all the information I was given about these 3 for sale rifles was the exact same as this user's Gunbroker posts. (That information can be found in my latest post in the Flintlock Rifles subforum). Upon arriving at the seller's residence the gun store owner looked over each rifle and determined they were not works of Mike Roby and rather that they were kit rifles from the late 1980s to early 1990s or were custom works made by a builder or by a commercial gunsmith. The .50 cal "Mike Roby engraved" Lancaster rifle was said to have a Getz barrel but actually was a Douglas and there were no markings left by Mike Roby anywhere on the rifle. The .40 and .45 were both kit rifles as well. The seller wanted $5,000 for his "Mike Roby" .50, $3,300 for his "Mike Roby" .40 and $3,700 for his "Mike Roby" .45 rifle. He is aware of this forum and Gunbroker and has plans to sell his rifles on both platforms. He is using
@AZ Muzzleloaders gunbroker information for his rifles which these measurements to not match his rifles at all. I figured I would let all forum users know in case he does advertise them here. He is using someone else's information and property to sell his own for inflated prices. Another note is that he said the rifles all were capable of firing however the .50 cal rifle doesn't have a working lock. I don't want to slander anyone but I was almost fooled into spending money on nothing short of a pipe rifle and I don't want anyone else to be fooled either. I don't think it is ethical to steal someone's information to make a profit or make false claims about a rifle and take someone's money from them and in return give them scrap.