My frustration with the word "custom".

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My biggest takeaway is that unless you are a well known gunsmith, a "custom" rifle that you have assembled yourself is going to be worth less than the sum total of the individual components.
Which then asks the question....If I were the Best known gunsmith and I now do what is now readily available to all.....I buy the same barrel from a supplier that you can, the same stock that you can, same trigger and same action and put in the same 4 BOLTS....DO I NOW CALL IT CUSTOM? If however....my own qualification here I guess....just me....the only difference comes when I true the action, square the bolt face, machine the chamber and adjust the headspace to perfection...then I believe CUSTOM WORK has been performed. Good Lord... I think the original question in its intent was true....folks doing it at home are just playing with a FOUR PIECE...unless you count the FOUR BOLTS ( trigger 2, stock two) LEGO SET. It offends me and is an offence to true gunsmiths to says I just Built a new custom rifle doing it this way. Baking a cake is more work!
 
To tell you the truth, it doesn't really matter to me. I talk to the seller if I see a rifle I like, he tells me all about it. If the price is right for what I'm wanting then I buy it.
I do the exact thing! It only matters to me as a contractor and professional in my own fields when credit is taken from in this case a true gunsmith to an at the table assembler...it would be the same if I were a home builder and someone said ......look at my new custom home...and he moved a two piece double wide trailer, onto the someone else poured basement and he attached the front stairs himself( had to get it to four pieces...lmao)...p.s. He used 4 bolts...to hold the stairs on... personally..I would use 6...
 
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Reputation in gunsmithing is everything and worth more money.
If Lego Builder Bob puts together a rifle and has it up for sale on here and RBros rifles or any other reputable gun builder puts a rifle up for sale but is $500- $1000 more.....I know for sure which one I'm buying. I don't know Lego Builder Bob.
 
OP: Long ago "Custom" came to mean to me "Mangled by the finest pipe wrench wielding chimps that money can import. "

I feel the same way about "Blueprinted" and "Restored". The first has no agreed upon definition and is meaningless. The second is used by the lazy trying to dress up "rebuilt" or "refinnished" to make it seem like more than it is. At least the folks who use "restomod" are trying to be truthful about what work has been performed.
 
OP: Long ago "Custom" came to mean to me "Mangled by the finest pipe wrench wielding chimps that money can import. "

I feel the same way about "Blueprinted" and "Restored". The first has no agreed upon definition and is meaningless. The second is used by the lazy trying to dress up "rebuilt" or "refinnished" to make it seem like more than it is. At least the folks who use "restomod" are trying to be truthful about what work has been performed.
IMHO Buleprinted has a specific defninition: It is built to the exact specifications and tolerances (or no tolerance) as the orginal designer put in the original design. I have blueprinted car engines many times - and there is lot of work to get parts or modify parts to exact spcification. Same for a firearm. Read up on "Family Porsche" - a Porsche built to exact specification for a memeber of the Porschefamily.. Custom on the other hand is different - it is something new built from the ground up or modified to a one of a kind. Restomod is more of a cleaned up original something with different parts added - such as '57 Nomad wagon with a later model Corvette engine.
 
A custom gun is one with custom engraving (by hand), inlays, and very fancy wood. All made to the purchasers specs. It shoots as good as it looks.
Parts from a catalog assembled is a project.

Tarponhead, I respectfully disagree. As seen in 10 pages of posts, it is "in the eye of the beholder"!

A custom gun could be exactly as you described, but totally useless as a "gun" if the bore were sealed with molten steel. You described a beautiful firearm, near useless in a real world hunting scenario.....unless you won yesterday's lotto. On the flip-side, a purely utility (SS, Synthetic Stock, ect.,ect.) if made from the ground up by a credible gunsmith, to very tight, accurate tolerances....is still a custom firearm.

Some people view the Mona Lisa a work of art......I wouldn't want it in my home! memtb
 
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I agree. But, what about if a guy takes a stock and uses an airbrush to lay a work of art onto it and then seals the whole thing with automotive clear coat? Still technically spray painted a stock.

I guess to me it's the difference in skill level and overall quality of the finished product. Just kind of stuck me as ironic that some of the most amazing stocks I've ever seen are "spray painted", just with a high dollar spray applier. And an infinite amount more skill.
Yeah I know what you mean, I was referencing the original post that mentioned "someone rattle canning a stock" ... certainly there are many ways to paint / dip a stock and each different way (and the quality of the finished work as you said) would hold a different value.
 
It's about perspective. The definitions of these terms need to be agreed upon. Even the sinking of the Titanic was a miracle to the lobsters on board.
Cest la vie. Does it matter really? Not in the grand scheme of things.
Only if they seller is charging "Custom Rifle" prices for a less than truly custom built rifle, then IMHO it does matter.
To most well informed firearm owners the term "Custom" means all or nearly all of a firearms major components or parts are top grade made to much higher tolerances and QC than those used in mass produced factory rifles and the parts and components are hand fitted and hand assembled.
The had fitting and hand assembling is again IMHO where the real cost differences are incurred.
Firearms made of a combination of standard quality factory mass produced parts and top quality parts I would imagine fall under the heading of semi-custom.
 
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