Buying from the trade has been going on from the early days. It is not something new in the gun trade. With the top four or five you are buying name first and rest easy that the quality is there no matter who made the parts. You do not risk a reputation that took a hundred years to build by cutting corners or going to the cheapest bidder.

I would like to know how many Birmingham gun builders there were and bet that a handful made the vast majority of the guns we see today. And I am sure that even these few sent out for work as needed. At least in box locks, most I suspect were sold with a name engraved on the side but that seller did very little real work on the gun. Maybe a little finishing, or sending out for engraving and then finishing in or out of house. I do not care. Buy the gun not the name.

Car makers out source parts all the time. Do you think Ford or GM makes all the bearings or gaskets that they use? No they buy them from the trade. Do you think that computer makers build their own chips. No they buy them from the trade. Even gun makers who have real factories will buy parts in semi finished state or finished state when ever it makes sense for them to do so. Buy the gun not the name has never been better advice.