Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Insults to the old Cusotm Gun Makers

Hey, Phil, did you ever break, or have go bad, one of those little 2.5X Leupolds ?
Is that your " never has failed to stop" big bear rifle ? E

My response is a little long, but you like to read gun related stuff, right?

There are at least two things that have happened to the creation and modification of rifles.

First, there are very few gunsmiths left in the world, period. By definition, a gunsmith was someone who worked with metal. He was the fellow who could forge, shape and bend it and create a workable firearm. He rarely worked with wood. That was someone else.

So what happened to gunsmiths? That's easy, progress made them redundant. The need to sweat over a forge, or use hand tools to shape and bend metal, was virtually eliminated by the machine age. Even before CAD software and modern CNC tooling, machines were invented which guaranteed more precise control and efficient production than what a gunsmith could manage in his shop. There is still a need to hand fit certain parts during final assembly, but compared to making a whole rifle from scratch, there is much less of a requirement.

Most of the improvements to manufacturing came from the world wars. When you have to quickly produce millions of rifles, techniques and equipment were developed that made firearms more reliable, more accurate, easier and quicker to assemble.

Firearms have always been made from parts. In days of yore, gunsmiths made all the metal parts and assembled them, creating the mechanism. That was fitted to a wooden stock. But these days, there are better, cheaper and more efficient ways to make metal parts than by banging on steel with a hammer. That's why gunsmiths, cousins to the blacksmith, went out of business. Progress made their job redundant.

But there's this next bit. It has more to do with the thread itself.

I'm talking about the holder. You know, the stock. Some gunsmiths could make them, but more often than not, the wood came from another fellow who had the talent 'to work in wood'. This is part of gun making that has also changed for the better.

Making a stock is really what most people consider to be the gunsmith's art. It isn't, but because you hold the stock and look at it, the stock leaves the greatest impression. That said, it's that creation of the stock itself, not the material used, that takes talent.

Working with different materials to make stocks takes skill. Custom stock makers who work with polymers still need to sand and layer and colour and fit the stock to the mechanism. At first blush, it might seem easier than carving wood, but it's not. Don't get too hung up on the fact that synthetics have supplanted wood.

Wood was used for a long time because there was a lot of it around, and it was free for the taking. It was also easy to work with. Really, wood was 'the plastic' of days gone by. Or maybe plastic is the new wood of today.

Stock makers also discovered that some woods were better than others, and priced accordingly. Some woods took staining better. Some could be more easily shaped, but were still hardy. Stock making was an art, all on its own. That art hasn't disappeared though. It's adapted.

Time marches on. These days, wood has become less common and more expensive. Progress made synthetics affordable to use and a vastly superior platform onto which to mount the mechanism.

There can be no reasonable argument supporting the use of wood in firearms other than beauty. I am not suggesting that attractive stocks aren't important, but it is an individual thing. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Do you want good looks or a stronger, more accurate platform? Its your choice.

For those of you that remember when all rifle stocks were made of wood, you will also remember the grades of wood that were offered. Plain, uncheckered stocks were cheaper than fancy scrolling and hand cut checkering. Cheaper wood like birch or maple, was used on the eco-guns.

Then, there were the rifles that featured one of the various types of walnut, crafted by a 'custom' stock maker - a woodworker who made gun stocks, not high end furniture. His talents were apart from that of the gunsmith. The two performed different functions, related, but separate.

Today's stock makers aren't just squeezing out plastic. Certainly, you can buy stocks that way. The cheaper rifles use less expensive polymers and production methods, just like when they used cheap birch stocks, but 'custom stock makers' still exist. Only the material has changed. The talent required to join polymer and steel is just as important as it was years ago, mating the steel to wood.

While Bubba might be spray painting leaf patterns on his rifle and calling it custom, that has always been going on. Hacking up factory wood stocks, or cutting down old surplus military rifles is still done. Bubba also does it to today's polymer stocks.

Some people just go out and buy an after market stock. It still may need fitting or staining, just like the old, aftermarket wooden ones, but it's custom to them. They made it to order, and that's custom - just not custom for you.

And last, but not least, there are regular Joes who make their own stocks out of 'the maple tree that blew over in the storm a couple of years ago'. It's custom, but may not be properly fitted, or even pretty.

Rifles are better made than they were thirty or forty years ago. Machine techniques have improved. Metallurgy and forming is better than in the past. Most stocks are synthetic now; the platforms into which the rifle sits have improved.

It's just that, for off the shelf rifles, plastic isn't as appealing to the eye.

I don't like how you referred to Phil as "Bubba", other than that great post...

Once upon a time, I wrote something called, "There's a Lot of Bubba in All of Us". The gist of it was,we all want to customise our rifles, but few people have the necessary skills. That never stopped them from trying though. I felt sorry for guys whose names were actually Bubba, so I don't use it much anymore. Ocassionally though, it slips out.

Kind of like being called a fudd, but probably worse, because no one names their child "Fudd". Mind you, it sounds like a possible story idea.

Phil's a Bubba. Most of us are.

JB,
Do you have some idea as to what decade a factory barreled action dropped into a synthetic stock went from a practical home shop answer to bad weather and became so called "Custom Rifles"?
Painted plastic stocks and expensive scopes on factory rifles wasn't "custom" when I was growing up in the '60s and '70s.
On top of that, the first synthetic stocks I saw were jeered at by magazine writers as cheap and gauche.
Now we have people dropping Remchesters into Mcplastic stocks and showing us their "custom" that I can duplicate in a few minutes with no skill. Product of our instant gratification seeking population?

Edit: I'll grant there are advantages to synthetic stocks. That still doesn't come near the wonderful skill and artistry of true custom gunsmiths that create rather than just screw aftermarket parts together.

'Custom made' is a rifle made to the customer's specifications. It doesn't have to be blued or trued. The original barrel, stock or other parts can remain or be replaced. . . .
Custom built rifles always have features that you want or need, but these features may be no good for future owners. If that is the case, your custom rifle might have no more value than an off the shelf firearm. To be frank, your custom rifle won't be custom to the next user.

My mother always told me that if the shoe fit, wear it...

Unfortunately, my shoe normally fits my mouth best.