Finished a Rifle

[Otter]

Mark,

I ain't no knowledgeable judge, but I think the rifle is outstanding. Since I know you are now disappointed and ashamed to have it in your possession, you can send it to me and I will make sure you never have to embarrass yourself by being seen with it again  .

[rsells]

Mark,
Personally, I like the rifle a bunch.  Great job.  Where did you get the trigger guard and butt plate? Keep up the good work.
                                                                                              Roger Sells

[eseabee1]

very nice work hope to be at that level someday

[Tom Currie]

She's  a beauty Mark. Well done.

[Ken G]

Mark,
Glad to see you back posting and working on gun building again.  I think the rifle looks great!  Unless you built it specificly to be judged I wouldn't worry about how it was judged. 
Ken

[Mark Elliott]

Ken,

I actually made the gun for practice.  So, I guess I really shouldn't have expected much.  That is why I took it for judging.   I was just not sure the criticisms I received  were valid.   I intend to build two really good (hopefully) versions, one for my brother and one for myself.  I have two particularly exceptional pieces of wood to use for the purpose.   I just need to make sure that I am on the right track.

Mark E.

[Mark Elliott]

Otter,

You should know that I can tolerate a considerable amount of disappointment and shame 

Also, you are certainly right that getting old is not for sissies!


Mark E.

[Ed Wenger]

Hey Mark...  Great to hear from you and thanks for the pics!  I saw your rifle at Dixon's (didn't know it was yours) and thought it to be very well done.  I admit, I thought the carving was a little rough, but taken in totality, the first thing that came to my mind was exactly what you mentioned, a rifle done in a "workman like manner".  That's meant as a compliment and I think you're certainly "on track".  Glad to hear your doing better and look forward to seeing more of your work.

       Ed

[VP]

Mark,
 As you can tell from the number of posts you did a great job and I add my compliments along with the others.

Van

[KLMoors]

Wow, that must have been a tough bunch of judges. Very nice rifle.

[ironwolf]

Great job Mark.  Maybe overdone?

 Kevin

[Don Getz]

I have been attending Dixon's fair since the beginning, every year, with the exception of a few times when I was waylaid
by daughters getting married, body parts failing, etc.     During all these years I have never entered a gun inito the judging competition.  Not that I was afraid of how much they would knock it down, I just didn't care to do it.  Several things can happen to an individual after having his gun judged there.   I have seen a guy get best gun in the show with
Ted Cash thimbles, right out of the bag.  I have seen guys get great scores and it went to their head, suddenly their
prices jumped, however, they were still making the same grade gun.  By the same token, you could get a lousy score and
feel downtrodden, and maybe even take up golf.  I remember when the late Ron Ehlert entered a fabulous Jager rifle,
carved, engraved, fantastic gun......it did not score well with the judges.....it didn't fall within the realm of a Pennsylvania
gun.   Acer, bear that in mind when you enter your life's work.   Before I would enter a gun into judging, I would rather take it to a Bill Shipman, Allen Martin, Mark Wheland, Brad Emig and ask them for a critique....ask them "where can I improve, or what would you have done differently?"   Nontheless, I think the Judging portion of the gunmakers fair is a
great thing, people work from year to year, trying to improve their work and get a better score, and, after all, that is the
basic purpose of the Gunmakers Fair.   I think we all would agree, Chuck Dixon has sure created a fantastic thing for gun
builders, unlike anything else in the world......thanks, Chuck............................Don

[Berks Liberty]

Don,

Very well said!

Jason

[J. Talbert]

Don,

 I think you summed up my thoughts also, better than I could.

(Which is not necessarily hard to do.  )

Jeff

[Dr. Tim-Boone]

Welcome back Mark!  If that is a practice gun......I will start getting prepared to see the two "good" guns when they are finished.  I think I better order O2

[Mark Elliott]

Other than needing to pay more attention to sharpening my gravers and chisels, I have decided that I just didn't finish this gun well enough.  I left it way too rough.  It looked a lot better before I stained and finished it.   I thought that I was matching the workmanship on the originals, but I saw one of the originals again at the Winterthur as well as an exquisite Issac Haines.   Even allowing for wear, they were finished better.   I just need to step up my work another level beyond workman like.

Other than that,  does anybody see a problem with my transitions?   The Dixon judges had a real problem with them.   The said that they didn't flow well enough.  The upper to lower forearm transition on my rifle is actually much smoother than the original it is based upon.   The original transition is very abrupt, but I was afraid to make it that way fearing criticism.   

Thanks,

Mark E.

[John SMOthermon]

Very nice work