List of Kit Makers?

[Tim Crosby]

 Isn't this what your looking for?  https://americanlongrifles.org/Web_links_frame.htm

[DavidC]

It is, in a way, but it's 12 years old and not very modular in the sense that it only lists the big boys that google typically can locate.

How is that list updated? Is there anyway to make it so other members can update it?

I would like to help. My idea is basically an area focused wiki article in function, or a Google shared document. I'd like something just about anyone can edit yet also something that can be backed up in case something (or someone) happens.

I would also state here I would not publish any personal contact info unless it were already readily available at a business website or equivalent.

[Mike Brooks]

If a skill disappears on such a scale it was a failure of installment in the next generation.

Mike, Google is not showing me that polish fellow and his high quality wheellocks. Maybe I'm not motivating it correctly.

I don't see a list of suppliers being an issue so long as people were satisfied with updates not being immediate. It makes it easier to support an artisan if you can find him with more than 2 degrees of separation.

He might  have croaked.
I remember back way before Algore invented the internet.  Some how I managed to not only source all the parts I needed but actually made a full-time living making guns . So, I often wonder these days if the internet has been a  step forward or a step back.

[Ezra]

So, I often wonder these days if the internet has been a  step forward or a step back.

We, as a society and species are proceeding (?) through extensive deevolution.  "Social" media, is, IMO, anti-social.  Just the tip of the iceberg.

Ez

[DavidC]

I think a full time living making guns today is impossible unless you were already established years ago or your spouse is pulling in some nice income.

Like that "Mountain Men" fellow from the history channel who, with his airplane, snowmobile, and airplane delivered pancake mix and toilet paper, managed to make 15k$ after 8 months in the wilderness. Might as well have used that airplane to deliver pizzas... 

[Mike Brooks]

15K ain't bad. All depends on what level of existence you're used to. You drive 10 to 15 year old cars all of your life, grow a large garden so you don't starve. I haven't had a vacation since the mid 90s.

[WadePatton]

Most folks cannot stand to live as cheaply as I have for far too long. Selling a few guns may be a great boon to my economy, but JOB work has confounded my free time!  The money is great (slight compared to others, but relative to broke-is supreme) the lack of free time sucks. Today off for storms, so now I go work on fence.

And yes DEVO is upon us. We are drowning in an overload of information (which you'd think would be good-lots of information, trouble is too much of that info is psuedo-science and politics which are used purely to manipulate others for cash and influence).


BACK to the subject of the thread.

Anyone considering a "kit" should read at least three or four old threads on "kit problems".  You'll have to look them up, but I'll give you a head start. Here's one from not too far back:

https://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=68930.0;topicseen

[Dennis Glazener]

It was almost a full time job to maintain.  There was no forum type software available and I had to hand code every entry.  To establish such a listing today would still be tons of work to maintain, even with the software available now.

Sure, that sounds like it was work,but creating a stickied thread with a list of merchants that is updated with user recommendations as they come in and having them removed as users report them defunct is hardly comparable.

Does this idea seem like it has merit? Try to picture yourself as under 5 years into this hobby and still a full time working and family man without the same time you old  pensioners have at your disposal 

DavidC,
Evidently you think us old guys have nothing to do but sit back and look for something to do. There are many retired members here that have far more to do than I but I can assure you I have less free time now than when I worked a full time job and I worked at least a 60 hr week then came home and took care of things around home.

IF we try something like what you are talking about it will have to be done by members AND it will need to by done with existing software. We will mull this over and see what can be done that doesn't end up being a mess.
Dennis

[DavidC]

To be old now means to have lived when inflation hadn't yet destroyed the value of labour.

Don't most kits have options for how much work has been done? Sitting Fox has been good for guns with partially inlet stocks and leaving out things like the side plate or barrel channel for you.

Dennis, anyway to do something as simple as a shared document approved editors can change? There is a subreddit for scotch or whiskey in general that has a shared list of thousands of reviews that is user managed yet surprisingly organized and user friendly. I'll try to track it down as an example. My point here is that we can spread the workload out a great deal.

[Tim Crosby]

 Take a look at here, there may be some other links that would be helpful:

   https://americanlongrifles.org/

[oldtravler61]

  Well these kind of posts bug me.  One thing I learned when I first joined ALR. You got to apply yourself.  You want good advice. Well you got to earn it so to speak. So I asked about in letting a barrel.
 I had No idea at the time how to build a gun from scratch. I bought a stock, barrel an lock from a guy. The barrel was a Getts 54 swamped 46 inch. L-R lock.
 So I asked a question. Never forget Mike Brooks answer. Buy a book an remove some wood... Could of well you know hurt him...lol
 But it was the best advice I got.!! Barrel took time but it came out great.
 What I'm getting at is we have to apply ourselves. Where's the challenge if everything is handed to you..?
 Oldtravler
 

[WadePatton]

  Well these kind of posts bug me.  One thing I learned when I first joined ALR. You got to apply yourself.  You want good advice. Well you got to earn it so to speak. So I asked about in letting a barrel.
 I had No idea at the time how to build a gun from scratch. I bought a stock, barrel an lock from a guy. The barrel was a Getts 54 swamped 46 inch. L-R lock.
 So I asked a question. Never forget Mike Brooks answer. Buy a book an remove some wood... Could of well you know hurt him...lol
 But it was the best advice I got.!! Barrel took time but it came out great.
 What I'm getting at is we have to apply ourselves. Where's the challenge if everything is handed to you..?
 Oldtravler

Good story.
I too gave up on getting a proper kit, heard the kit fixing horror stories, AND did find a well-seasoned longrifle builder within an hours drive. So I bought a pile of parts, and barrel, and a blank--then I hacked and screwed and pinned that thing together-with a handful of trips down to John's. Made many tweaks to the lock, screwed up the forestock a little (but will never again), learned how to fix miss-drilled holes in wood, and made a beast of a gun and slapped some finish on it. 

Those who know longrifles see it for what it is, and the interested bystanders gawk in awe of the great wood and craftsmanship (not really) and the old-fashionedness of it all. I have a few more started, and never really expect to purchase a kit now-but there are some possibilities.

At least now I know I don't need to buy a kit. I can get along just fine without, and now I know what is "acceptable" and what is not if I ever do purchase a pre-carved stock.

[Bob Roller]

What I would like is a rifle topical of southern Ohio along the river, my fokes came from Pennsylvania to Virginia (West Virginia) to Kentucky to Southern Ohio stopping in Portsmouth, Ohio about 120 miles east of Cincinnati up the river. 

What I am looking at is the Kibler as it looks the easiest to finish and it sounds like it will shoot good. 

Is there a maker out there that makes a flit rifle more in the style I would like that isn't going to cost like a new Porsche?

IF it's made of good quality parts there is no way it will be really cheap.Low end parts do NOT make anything but low end guns.
Sorta goes to my analogy of Ford Pintos and Lincoln Town Cars.
  Some of the production rifles in the past were referred to a "Brass and Pine"rifles.I never saw one win a match no matter who was shooting it.A caplock rifle can stand short cuts in the lock but a flintlock can't and trying to make a quality lock from something never intended for that market is not possible unless the internal mechanism is replaced.Guns are like cars,some low end and some high end.
Bob Roller

[warren5421]

Bob I know you get what you pay for.  I'm 76 so been there done that a few times.  I don't want to pay several thousands for a play toy but do know you have to pay more than $400-$500 for a good gun.  I know the style of the gun and who makes it determines the price.  A good new guy can't get as much for his name as a old maker can.  This form has the best info that I have found.

[mgbruch]

The Contemporary Longrifle Association website had a list of artisans. It may be worth a look.

[godutch]

  I had little chuckle to myself reading thru this post about lists etc. only because (for whatever reason) as I read thru I was thinking about yrs. ago when we got our info. by sending a dollar bill in and envelope with a note attached, or maybe you sent stamps, to get a catalogue, pamphlet, or some type of info. SASE (self addressed stamped envelope) was a common way also. You sent what they asked to see if what they had and waited for the mail. I think back then, in the mid to late '60's the Dixie catalogue cost 3-5 bucks. I'll have to got check, I still have one from '67 that I built my first gun from. My O My, how things have changed.