doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com RBL Checkering/Engraving

I may have been a little high in my pricing of a blank of Claro Walnut. But to have it checkered by hand, it will easily cost in the $2000.00 range. English Walnut and Turkish Walnut will cost you a lot more. But the point I was trying to make was when they came out, I considered ordering one and I had to decide if I wanted to pay that much for a new gun. I won't degrade them or say how great they must be because I have never used one. But I had to decide if I wanted a new gun that was $500.00 over the price of a Gold Label. Are they $500.00 better? If they are, then that is what one should expect. Or are they X amount of dollars better than the new guns that are coming out today? I don't know. That is why some of us didn't want to take the chance.

Since it was my comments that likely triggered this debate, I'll put my 2 cents in as to how I saw the wood issue that finally caused my decision.

This gun was ordered with a $700 option, above the base price, for "exhibition Turkish".



This is the closest example of a Turkish blank I could find to match from Hunterbid.com . It's not a perfect match, but I think it is very close in grade. It has the color and figure fairly close. Debateable, yes. But splitting hairs I think you'll all agree. Both the RBL wood and the Hunterbid wood have little if any black line marbling and have similar color/figure/fiddleback/wavyness.







Well that blank is a $240 "Flash Buy" blank. http://hunterbid.com/cgi-bin/woodauction/Auction/XcAPViewItem.asp?ID=3881


For $700 or less at Hunterbid, you can have much nicer wood. Remember, you are buying retail at Hunterbid, so it should be at least a fair comparison IMO. Wood blank vs. upgrade option.
http://hunterbid.com/cgi-bin/woodauction/Auction/XcAPViewItem.asp?ID=3711

http://hunterbid.com/cgi-bin/woodauction/Auction/XcAPViewItem.asp?ID=3710

http://hunterbid.com/cgi-bin/woodauction/Auction/XcAPViewItem.asp?ID=3988

http://hunterbid.com/cgi-bin/woodauction/Auction/XcAPViewItem.asp?ID=3709

http://hunterbid.com/cgi-bin/woodauction/Auction/XcAPViewItem.asp?ID=3765

http://hunterbid.com/cgi-bin/woodauction/Auction/XcAPViewItem.asp?ID=3871

http://hunterbid.com/cgi-bin/woodauction/Auction/XcAPViewItem.asp?ID=3932

JMO, but when the RBLs are built as advertised, shown, and like Mark's, they are worth every bit of their price. My concern was quality related then the wood issue on top. Quality issues are typically variables e.g. you get some good ones and some bad ones. I don't want a bad one nor one with lower grade Turkish or whatever species wood. CSM showed me they were inconsistant in quality. BTW, my order was $4,000.00 with my options. I expected the checkering and engraving to look at least as good as my $2400 Citori 525 Sporting.

This is what I expected

Tough to make that kind of comparison with two decidedly different marketing plans. Connecticut Shotgun is the manufacturer, distributor, and retailer of the RBL,
as well as most of the other guns they produce. They get to keep ALL the profit, rather than allowing distributors and dealers to figure in their cut as is done with Ruger. I suspect that if C.S.M.C. employed a more conventional distribution/sales network, the price of the RBL to the customer would be 40-50% higher.

Until the shutdown of production, Ruger probably sold the GL to distributors for somewhere in the $1200-1300 range. Even now with the new MSRP of $2650 for the GL, and if production ever resumes; Ruger will probably be getting around $1800 from the distributors, and that's with a reasonable profit factored in.

Gotta wonder what Remington pays Tony to make a $49,000 Parker.

If Chuck's RBL example was purchased as exhibition grade, then I have to agree with Chuck. His show-and-tell example is hard to disagree with....Did the owner of the referenced RBL complain to CSM about the lower grade wood on the gun?...

Oops, I mistated what the hunterbid blank was. It must have been subliminal. That $240 blank is a Claro blank not Turkish. I didn't intend that comparision but it upholds my first reaction to the wood on the RBL. Heck I didnt' realize Murat (Hunterbid.com) sold and Claro. But there it is, the closest match I could find an it's Claro.

Doug,
Yes.

It looks to me like the barrel engraving on Mark's gun covers more area, and it's crisper looking than that in posted pictures of a more recent gun. I like Mark's just fine, but am afraid they've gone to a cheaper process now. Mine was ordered in Dec. 05, so I've got some time left to debate with myself about this.

Chuck-
What was CSM's response to his wood grade complaints?

Doug,
Secondhand to me was that Lou said it was indeed Turkish and "exhibition" grade.

In my e-mail recieved from Mr. Galazan he explained that some customers did not receive the proper grade of wood they paid for. He said he offered to have it restocked, or refund the differance. It might worth it to call CSMC.