Fair enough, but judge a gun fully on its merits.
The later Elsies (especially in the lower grades) were cookie-cutter and mass-produced, as were all the American entry-level guns (especially after 1913 - when import tariffs on cheap foreign guns were dropped). Accordingly, they had issues associated with those early automated processes (one of them clearly being problems with stock-cracking). The very early guns (certainly pre-1900, with the Syracuse and the "transitional" Fulton guns being even more-so) were almost completely hand-made (in an artisanal process much-like what the Brits still use today [when they aren't using CNC machines]). As you would expect, these early guns were much better in every possible aspect (art, materials, fit & finish, & function). The numbers produced were very low (extremely low when compared to post-1913 production) and they are not "commonly" encountered. Until lately, good information about them was limited to basically one book (Brophy's) and a few resident experts (who weren't all that forthcoming with information either). I've been a gun-guy all my life and I knew almost nothing about the earlier guns. If you do happen to encounter one (and it's healthy) they normally command a fairly high price, and for good reason.
Last edited by Lloyd3; 04/20/24 11:30 AM.
