The town I grew up in had a curious shop, one that just kept growing. A fair number of locals went in and out and earned a better than average (for the area and time) wage. They were machinists and the shop had machie tools. Truck loads of metals came in and wrapped packages went out. The owner periodically hopped into his Cessna 310 and flew off for awhile. When he came back, he usually had more work. The shop was called Detroit Tool; curious name since we were nowhere near Detroit. It made automobile dies. Who knew what that was, but it was good for the local economy, that was for sure. I agree that this has parallels in many trades, English guns included.

If you look at strong drink and an "industry" and "moonshinin'" as the cottage part of the industry, you have a parallel.

LG, I think you underestimate the prevelence of boxlocks in Brit shooting. Move down the social ranks a notch or two and, I think, you will find boxlocks aplenty being shot a lot. Keep in mind that there were a lot of social circles of varying levels of income. Shooting was not just one thing with one set of rules. Were this not true, we would not see all the graded sidelocks and boxlocks that have rather obviously had a serious shooting life.