Am I just cheap or are gun kits expensive?

[Busyhands94]

This generation is hard on this country boy. Luckily I've been able to work for guns, and that's a mighty pleasant situation. I split and stacked a few cords of firewood for my uncle and he gave me an old Marlin 336 is .30-30. No plastic or anything.

I too feel sorry for this generation, and I'm in it. Most my peers that shoot are interested in .300 Win mags and 5.56's. Nobody my age prefers a good old .38, .32 or .30-augh. Let alone blackpowder firearms.

 

[Drakos]

I have been a lurker for a while...Great forum!

What I do not understand is why does a Kentucky pistol kit cost as much, if not more, than a finished BP revolver?

There is less metal, the parts are much simpler and the wood and metal components are unfinished.

Just seems odd...

 

[goon]

The kits look like a horrible deal to me too. If I wanted a personalized muzzleloader, I think I'd just buy a complete gun that needed some TLC and refinish it.

 

[StrawHat]

Some folks confuse the "kits" available from Track of the Wolf, the Log Cabin and other top sutlers with the stuff available from CVA, Navy Arms and such. They are miles apart! I can easily spend the cost of a revolver on just the barrel alone from a good sutler. More for the barrel than for a whole kit from one of the others. It just depends on what you will be satisfied with for an outcome and how you want to spend your money.

 

[goon]

Strawhat - I'm talking about something like a Lyman kit for a percussion or flintlock rifle. They're not that much cheaper than an assembled gun in my area.

Now the kits offered for things like Long Land Bess from Track of the Wolf or from the Rifle Shoppe, those are different animals entirely.

 

[BowerR64]

Some folks confuse the "kits" available from Track of the Wolf, the Log Cabin and other top sutlers with the stuff available from CVA, Navy Arms and such. They are miles apart! I can easily spend the cost of a revolver on just the barrel alone from a good sutler. More for the barrel than for a whole kit from one of the others. It just depends on what you will be satisfied with for an outcome and how you want to spend your money.

Do these kits that you like or have built have the printing stamped all over the gun to claim its still their gun?

 

[dprice3844444]

Am I just cheap or are gun kits expensive?

both

 

[StrawHat]

Do these kits that you like or have built have the printing stamped all over the gun to claim its still their gun?

The barrel are marked with the name of the maker, other than that, I stampo my mark on them and the date.

Other builders have different methods of marking their pieces.

 

[BowerR64]

The barrel are marked with the name of the maker, other than that, I stampo my mark on them and the date.

Other builders have different methods of marking their pieces.

Do any of them offer a kit that isnt littered with stuff on the top or sides?

I just got one locally it looks alot like a kit but it doesnt have anything stamped on it sept the proof marks on the cylinder and i like it alot.

It doesnt appear to have been defarbed either because it wasnt ever finished. It looks like a raw steel gun put together then left to tarnish.

 

[grter]

"Am I just cheap or are gun kits expensive?"

No you are smart enough to see something is wrong.



Spare me the twinkle eyed facination of building it yourself.

Kits with custom parts and top quality hardware are great and a whole other story as far as I am concerned.

Crappy kits that cost almost as much as fully finished ones are a rip off and a total waste of something one can't get back, their precious time.

You might as well buy a fully finished one and improve it even more. I suspect unless you are planning on drastic alterations to original design you will get a whole lot of a better end product.

If you are going to sell me rejects from your junk bin and make me work my butt off to build something decent from them I expect a very good discount.

I don't see why these people feel like you owe them something more because you have the skills to do it.

The whole idea of kits besides the joy of building it (yeah right then buy a used junker and rebuild it. The parts are probably better too) is to pay for it with your time (precious) and labor.

If you happen to enjoy the work great but you shouldn't have to pay rip off prices because you do and the sellers feel they can.

That is my opinion on this topic.

 

[Palehorseman]

Pistol made for daughter several years back, came as a parts kit with quality parts and assembled very easily








With a little work on a used muzzleloader, they can be customized to give a unique look and feel

TC Hawken flinter picked up used at LGS, someone had put on a great shooting 32” .45 Orion barrel on it. Put on a hooded bead front sight and dovetailed in a fixed rear sight, played with the stock brass fore end, removed spur on trigger guard and refinished old style nicely figured walnut stock with pure tung oil.