doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Please Beware of Macon Gunstocks

One particular gun that I had the unpleasure experience of dealing with was a Baker Batavia Leader. The buttstock was purchased from Macon's already made inventory, but the forend had to be sent to them for duplication.

Both pieces were unusable. The lower tang of the buttstock was about 1/8" oversized and no amount of bedding would make it look right. And the forend that they supposably duplicated had good inletting, but the bottom of the iron hung off the wood about 1/4"! No way did they duplicate the original.

From May of 2010

Wow, if a year in is "just beginning" then indeed I have truly lost.

Yeah, kinda wish I'd seen this earlier. I swear I did some due dilly before sending my 425 off to Macon but obviously was not good enough.

While on the topic, a few things that anyone should remember when working with semi-inletted stocks is that all guns are different. Lower quality guns that were more machine made have better luck in the one stock fits most principle. Stevens and Crescent guns are good examples of this. Higher quality guns such as Parkers, Fox, LC Smith, etc... will have less uniformity becasue they are hand fitted and finished with a lot a variation sometimes.

With the later, it is always best to have your semi-inletted stock made from your original if possible. Or have your action compared against the the pattern to be used.

Another thing is that you may not know what you are getting for drop dimentions with an off the shelf duplication.

And the biggest point, semi-inlets are often advertised as 95% completed. But that is usually an overstatement. Depending on the gun it still takes a lot of time and work to get an action fitted and then all the surface work is needed after that. A drop in fit should never be expected.

In my case I sent them the complete gun with the original (cracked at the wrist) stock,still attached to the gun, to be duplicated and paid for a complete finished/checkered stock to dimensions I specifie.
They obviouisly tried to get by with a "one size" reproduction blank,that proved woefully undersized......The discussion(excuses) was humourous in looking back at it.....

The exact same scenario here. I sent them original butt stock and fore end.

In retrospect, I should have known better. How could a legitimate stock duplicating company not have a Browning 425 form on hand?!

Too often people have expectations that are much greater than a duplicator, man or machine, can meet. Time, quality and price are hard to get all in the same place. If you want it fast and cheap do not be surprised if it is not that good. A duplicator is only as good as the pattern and the operator and some stocks are a real pain in the butt to cut. Most semi inlet stocks are 90%, a few might be 95%. But it seems like too many really want 99% for 90% prices. It is not going to happen.

I bought my own duplicator, a Gemni, spent a lot of time and money upgrading it and learned the hard way. It is a lot easier on the video than in real life. One minor slip up, one little area on the pattern with a blemish, one soft or extra hard grain area in the blank, one hidden hollow burl and hours of work is ruined. Half of the battle is in having a clean, solid pattern that is well mounted in the machine the other is experience. If you cut a few hundred stocks you will learn all the tricks needed but there is no shortcut to experience. If you do not believe me I have a few ruined semi inlet blanks you can look over.

Gun stock duplication is a for profit job. Time is money and it will take three hours or more to cut a blank, add another to mount it correctly and to prep the blank. Figure four to five hours for custom jobs maybe less for a in house pattern. Man and machine should be worth $75.00-100.00 an hour. So most semi inlet stocks are made on a multiple spindle machine. That is why many duplicators do not want custom work. It just does not pay enough. It only pays to run multiple blanks at a time. That or you end up getting about ten dollars an hour for man and machine. That does not even pay for sharpening the cutters. If you like to try there are always a few Terrco duplicators on Ebay.

So if you send a stock to a duplicator that is not a standard item for the duplicator you are rolling the dice. Better to pay $300-500 for a 99% blank than $100 for 90-95% blank and hope for the best. If you can afford it my advise is to get the best duplication you can afford not the cheapest. Plus a 99% job will take you a tenth the time to fit and finish and your time must be worth something.

KY Jon,

At 75 USD an hour, the rate is higher than a top Italian engraver charges for his work. Note that engravers go to art school for a couple of years and then an engraving apprenticeship for a few more years.

It is hard to see how stock duplicating could be calculated at the same or higher cost. At the rate of 75 USD per hour, assuming full 8 hour days, a duplicator would gross over 140 thou per year.

Have you priced ANY work being done today by a qualified craftsman? Plumber -$85+hr, Electrician -$85+hr, Car Mechanic $85++hr etc. etc.. Plus alot of investment/risk buying a high dollar piece of equipment required to do this work. It took me 5 years worth of apprenticeship and several more years of experience to become a Master Craftsman in my trade. Already had the college degree (4 more years invested) and a tremendous ammount of money in tools and overhead is required to operate effectivly. (IMO)If the duplicating is done properly, I don't think $75hr is unrealistic.