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Stoney for the length of time to build a flintlock or percussion gun of "museum grade" (that term means nothing, I have seen more crap than anything special in the archives of some pretty good museums). Kit Revenger (English Armor) on a bet built a matchlock in 16 hours at Ft. deChartre in IL starting with a blank piece of walnut. What tickled me was he used a tomahawk to shape the stock, then went to a hoof rasp for final shaping. He had it assembled in less than 15 hours and we got to shoot the gun on the 16th hour.
Oh, $500K is not a mansion anymore Stoney, that's the cost of a middle class home in the Rocky Mountains. My new home is over $650K without landscaping or garden shed (add another 75K) and it's one of the lower cost homes here with the model being listed at 1.2 million.
Cost of heavy equipment seems no matter what it is the monthly payment isn't bad I have a nephew just out of college got a new CAT track hoe and trailer that was over $175K. He's busy with the building here, makes his payments and feeds a family with a little going into saving. So that's not a big deal, just need to work the equipment to make the payments.
For what they do is not their call. I talked to Tom at Bridger a few years ago after the tourists had left and he told me at this point in his life he tired of trying to correct what these producers want, just takes the pay check and runs. I have known the Oar brothers since the late 70's or early 80's when they were still bull riding and Tom was a World Class bull rider (would see them at Cody Rodeo Days every year). It's all about getting a paycheck on any of these programs.
I know of three late original Samuel Hawken rifles that show signs of blued barrels and locks Pete. Doc White just had Carl Walker build a reproduction of one of these rifles for a client of GRRW.CA.
Guys most of these characters we see on these programs make over $50K plus per show. I saw the in the paper the blonde on that program "The Big Bang Theory" makes well over $500K per show. For that kind of money we would all jump through hoops if told too then run to the bank.
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