I went into the market for a specific type of weapon back in 2000; 1/2 stock, .54 cal, flinter, minimum brass and browned ... well as much as possible.
I came up with 2 weapons that year in the DGW catalogue; The Mortimer and the 1803 Harpers ferry.
At the time, the 1803 was $100 cheaper at $650. But the deciding factor was DGW was straight forward about how intricate the lock was in the Mortimer. In my experience, intricate = too many possible screw ups/ breakage.
The 1803 was sturdier ( by vicarious reports) AND a stone less.
My only mistake was waiting on the purchase; it WAS $650... untill the Lewis n Clark Bicentenial... Now it's $1000 unless you get it post xmas sale for usually $800 or so. I even missed that 2 years ago by 4 days. BUT? I still got it and have NO regrets aside from timeline.
I still want to do early fur trade and or F&I war, but this weapon is considerably out of those timeline where as the Mortimer is apparently spot on.