I too like plain flintlock rifles. I think that to some degree we over embellish the guns made today. I have to believe that the vast majority of guns made 200 years ago we rather plain because that is all the buyer could afford. I'm looking for a BUILDER that will make a nice plain but quality rifle. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks
Don't assume that people didn't have any money in colonial America.
One of the things that startled the soldiers, both British and Hessian, sent over to suppress the Revolution was just how prosperous the average colonial farmer seemed to be. Being used to European-style revolts of starving peasantry, they couldn't figure out why people who were obviously doing so well, with plenty of food and land, would seek to rebel, and came to the conclusion that the colonists were the most spoiled and ungrateful people who had ever lived!
The colonies had real problems with cash flow due to the lack of hard currency in circulation, which made paying for certain things (like Government-required stamps) difficult, but that doesn't mean that they were poor
per se, and the local gunsmith was one guy that could be paid in bushels of corn or cured hams instead of coin, though I imagine at some point he had to acquire coin to pay for European-made parts. However, the parts of a gun that had to be imported from overseas - the lock and barrel - were present on every gun, and the extra bit brass and the labor to create a fancy gun may not have been as expensive in terms of opportunity cost as the nominal cost might indicate - i.e., "10 dollars" more for carving and an engraved patchbox might sound unthrifty, but if that ten dollar cost can be payed in surplus corn and hams that I can't eat, store indefinitely, or trade for their theoretical value without a lot of trouble (because all my neighbors also have corn and hams and the local general store, as a consequence, isn't offering much in trade for corn and hams), then I have got ten dollars in value for them and the gunsmith has enough to feed his teenage boring-machine-power-source.
