Rants are good, I go on rants fairly often. Mention gun control and I will go on a rant, actually I could rant on about quite a few things. But let’s take a little perspective on this rant in particular. I am sure this forum is like many that have people who come from many different areas and talents. Here the common thread is long rifles both percussion and flint but also shooting, the assorted components to shoot them; bags, horns, black powder, balls and conicals, flints, percussion caps, clothing, classes, books, videos, etc. I would guess most here are interested in building rifles but there is probably as many that are interested in shooting too. I am probably correct in assuming that most builders are shooters too but would it be an equal assumption that there are many shooters that are not builders? I agree that its important not to discourage people and that if they want to pursue something like building rifles that they shouldn't be discouraged by their first try. The more you do something, for most, the better you get. But everyone has their reasons for why or why not do something like building guns. In some cases its money or a suitable shop space or it could be time; family or work?
As an example not gun related is when I was a kid I was one that couldn't whistle I couldn't even make a sound other than air. I had friends that did it just like that! I figured I just couldn't do it and left it that way. Many, many years later, I was raising sheep and working with sheepdogs. It was easy to work a dog close verbally but get any kind of distant away and forget it especially in a wind. Working a distant away required using a whistle to command the dog. So I bought a whistle and used it for a while but after a few years of working dogs and competing in border collies trials I saw that many of the top trialers used their fingers to whistles. Finger whistling was a different sound than what you could get from a manufactured whistle whether plastic or metal. I tried to duplicate the sound by using heavy brass plate to machine a whistle and it came close to the sound as anything that was then available. They were so close to the sound that I got quite a few requests for them and eventually sold them all over the world (last count 27 countries including the Falkland Islands). While going to trials, machining whistles and such I learned the process of how the sound was made and practiced finger whistling myself. Eventually I learned to finger whistle. The point of this example is it was a process of learning through need or wish and the process took years. As a kid I didn't care if I could do it so never gave it a real effort. As an adult running sheep and dogs I needed to learn how to whistle and to start to do it I used a manufactured whistle. But the interest in whistling and how it works on dogs brought me back to finger whistling again and the desire to learn how to do it gave me the willingness to try.
So isn't that process similar to gun building? It’s a process and people come into it from various avenues. I for one can say that the only rifle I built was a kit many years ago. My interest in this forum is probably more from the history associated with long rifles and black powder shooting. I have shot black powder for well over 45 years and all sorts of guns flint, percussion, cartridge, and those mostly original. In the last 6 years I had three plains rifles commissioned and have received two of them completely finished. I wanted to use and hunt with them and I knew the person I had make them could make them exactly as I wanted them. And build them to a level that would match historical examples. My desire was to have them to use. Only lately have I been interested in building long rifles but a lot has changed since that kit I built, I own a house, I have shop space, I make more money, and I have more time, the advantage of older age I guess. My next first rifle will be another kit probably a Kibler SMR in a small caliber but its been a process to get here a process that I am sure many are traveling for various reasons. I apologize for the long “rant”
Rob
