Unknown smith

S

starvin

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Super GunNutz
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I’m at a stage where few factory offerings interest me much anymore and am indulging in the odd custom rifle. I like the classic stocked blued walnut rifles of 20-40 years ago.
How much does the builders influence have on you’re perception of value? A lot of this info is lost to time.
My fear is always that an unknown smith means he wasn’t happy with something on the rifle and doesn’t want to be associated.
 
If by influence, you mean "reputation", and if by "perception of value", you mean what I'm willing to spend, then a builder's influence has a great influence on my perception of value. I expect to pay more for a builder with a high reputation as the higher prices likely reflect customer satisfaction (and demand).

If this is not what you meant, then I perhaps more elaboration is needed - It seems like information that would allow members to better help you, is missing (i.e. I'm having a hard time connecting your fear with the relationship between a builder's influence and your perception of value - if you don't even know the smith, then you can't ascertain the builder's influence/reputation, and if you can't ascertain the builder's "influence", then the question you might be asking is what is my perception of value if I don't know the builder (and therefore his "influence". If that is the question, my perception of value will be determined by the quality of the gun in front of me, and more importantly, what it does when fired.
 
You can see quality work and I wouldn't care if it was associated with a brand name guy or not. How it shoots is the test which you cannot be guaranteed regardless of who put it together.
 
Even before you shoot the rifle you can see the difference between quality and shoddy work... I have owned both, the many of the primo builds are still here, some were so bad that they had to be pieced up for parts. The sad fact is that many of the true master smith's are aging and or are gone... there are a few younger smith's that are recognizing the void and growing into it... you will hear their names bantered about more and more in the coming years
 
Buckmastr said:
How much is a name worth to you, all else the same?
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Holland and Holland vs Stevens. A well known and respected smith is worth more than a parts assembler of no name. Check out his work and parts used. I had a unknown maker rifle, the resale was hard. Even with it being a nice piece people saw it as a “pig in a poke”.
 
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I have several custom pieces that I am very pleased with. Builders have varied, but their reputation preceeds them.

I got stung once by a local "smith", and of course, he went out of business. I believe he has passed away now.

Leeper, Guntech, Dave Jennings, Corlanes, and a couple of others have all built quality shooters for me.

An unknown smith has it's own implications. Buy with caution. Dave.
 
Anything is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it, at any given time.
Quality is just that. It's easy to see if one knows what to look for.
If the components are good, and the workmanship is good, and it shoots good, then it doesn't really matter who put it together?
Trick moves are fairly easy to come by...
R.
 
I expect a custom rifle to shoot quite well, but I have had some pretty shytey builds shoot well and I would not even consider keeping them around... fit and finish and craftsmanship are important to me... I love guns and consider them to be functional art.
 
Is a sign of the times, I guess - ideally the rifle looks great and functions similarly. So I get 3/4" 5 shot groups from a 338 Win Mag. My son gets 2" groups with same rifle and same ammo box. Is a bit of a wild card about the "customer" - and most "customers" do not want to wear that burden - want to place it on somebody else. So, to OP - for me a rifle needs to shoot - for others, is to show off to friends. Take your pick. I prefer the 3/4" 5 shot group at 100 yards 338 Win Mag. And would be a "plus" if it also looked nice. If it shoots well, I do not care who built it - not considering to sell it anyways.
 
Potashminer said:
Is a sign of the times, I guess - ideally the rifle looks great and functions similarly. So I get 3/4" 5 shot groups from a 338 Win Mag. My son gets 2" groups with same rifle and same ammo box. Is a bit of a wild card about the "customer" - and most "customers" do not want to wear that burden - want to place it on somebody else. So, to OP - for me a rifle needs to shoot - for others, is to show off to friends. Take your pick. I prefer the 3/4" 5 shot group at 100 yards 338 Win Mag. And would be a "plus" if it also looked nice. If it shoots well, I do not care who built it - not considering to sell it anyways.
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Again, why are these to requirements mutually exclusive? I’ve never found them to be. And we aren’t necessarily talking about pretty.
 
Custom rifles are like custom cars, you never get close to what it cost to have built.

Factory high end rifles go up in value if kept in good condition. Look at what a new sako TRG costs today vs what retail was on that same new rifle 20 years ago
 
Today, most gunsmiths do mark the barrel with their insignia, yester years, not so much. If you located an unmarked custom rifle, I would inspect it thoroughly, or at least have a person with experience to inspect it for you.
Currently, I have 4 custom rifles. They were built to my personal specifications (especially the barrel), along with advice from the gun smith. I really have no complaints about any of my custom rifles, the gun smith always accomplished what I requested, just sometimes is takes longer to complete than expected.
Many good gunsmiths here in Alberta and B.C. Don't hesitate to make inquiries to have one built in one of these two provinces.
 
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What gunsmith would put his mark on a gun that looks like this:

Circle with GXG in it. I seen a nice Browning Safari on another site come up but it appeared to be reamed out with that mark beside the area where the original cartridge was scratched out. I believe it was a factory 300 H&H and reamed out to 300 win mag.. I'd like to ream out all the people and smiths that reamed out all the 300 H&H Brownings to 300 Weatherby and 300 Win Mag!
 
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