Hey Guys,
With a bit of reluctance, I'll give my thoughts on the subject...
There are lots of different approaches to muzzleloading building and that's a good thing. There are so many different styles, designs, methods etc. and I find many to be appealing. I've never really understood why some have such narrow, strong opinions of what is good, bad, acceptable, beautiful etc. I find a top of the line French, Louis the XIV fowling piece by Monte Mandarino to be amazing, but at the same time, absolutely love the work and style Hershel House has developed. I admire the hand made rifles from Williamsburg, but also love the fine rifles produced by John Bivins using more modern techniques. I think strong, defensive responses often have their roots at some sort of insecurity.
Another point regarding using technology on longrifles (investment casting, modern gun barrel manufacturing, pantograph gun stock duplicators, cnc stock making etc.) is that the vast majority of people with an interest, do not have the ability, means or perhaps desire to build using traditional methods. I have been around "traditional" gunbuilding for quite some time, taken a number of classes, taught many, many more and the truth of the matter is that few have the ability to work in this manner. It's beyond what most can be do. Building a longrifle is hard, time consuming and difficult work.
I think that many of those who favor working from a blank could benefit from experience with carefully designed and produced pre-shaped stocks. I see some work where individuals don't really grasp the flavor of good design and workmanship and could really benefit from working with carefully produced kits. Personally, I put all I have into my kit design and execution. Years of hard work and knowledge have become easily accessible.
As has been mentioned, CNC is great for making many copies of one design. It will never replace custom gunbuilding. I can assure you developing a cnc stock making process is orders of magnitude more difficult than building a rifle by hand. But when it's developed, it will produce a fantastic product with incredible repeatability. You can be sure, if someone can't make a fine rifle by hand, they will have little to no chance of making them with technology. This is the same old story with muzzleloading parts. Many producers are not highly skilled gunbuilders. As a result, many of the commercially available parts are poor quality with lots of issues. Historically, the producers who make the best commercial parts have also been some of the best custom gun builders. This applies to locks, stocks or whatever.
Finally, this is progress. A few have strong feelings about the process used to make a rifle, but for most, the final product is what counts. What technology does is puts a better product in the hands of more people. Progress, try to stop it... You might not like the idea of it, but it's pretty much guaranteed to happen.
From a personal perspective, we have big goals with regards to technology and muzzleloading. For too long, quality has been an issue. Low standards have become acceptable. We want to do all I can to move things forward and help traditional muzzleloading grow. A win, win situation for everyone involved.
All the best,
Jim
