[Jeff Higgins]

As the price climbs, so does the level of hand work employed to make the gun. At the very top end of the scale, for both rifles and shotguns, they are made entirely by hand.

Years ago Jim Carmichael wrote about a visit from a gunsmith that worked for Holland and Holland. He took him on a tour of quite a few American "custom" rifle "makers". Of course these guys are nothing of the kind; they would more accurately be described as rifle "tuners". They use commercial actions, triggers, barrels, stocks (some do make their own stocks, but they are the exception) and assemble them into a rifle. The custom shotgun folks are less prevelant, and only really re-stock or engrave.

When Carmichael asked this guy what he thought of the finist in American custom gunsmiths, he scoffed in that oh-so-British fashion. "A real man makes a gun from a block of steel, with a file."

That is what you are paying for in the really high-end guns and rifles. They do, quite literally, file the individual parts from a block of steel, by hand. They hand fit them to one another. The stocks are hand rasped to shape. You may even make several trips to the gun maker and test fit it, and even shoot it "in the white" before it is finished. Every rifle and gun is an individual. They are made with such precision, however, that individual parts interchange.

Does all of this result in a "better" rifle or gun? Past a certain point, not really. The ones that are still machine made for the most part, then hand fitted, are probably the best available. These are the rifles and guns that approach or exceed roughly the $10k range (new; we're not even getting into collectables). You do see a noticable improvement in function, durability, and beauty at this price range. Beyond that you get into the realm of very rapidly diminishing returns.

There are, of course, rifles and guns at these prices that are more "show" than "go". Many average, or less than average examples are engraved or stocked in expensive wood, driving their prices up. Many see these as "quality" rifles and guns just because they are pretty. Many are not. But, alas, many fall for the embelishments because it makes it more obvious what was spent on them, and it impresses more people. It impresses their friends that don't know much about guns.

One of the most impressive guns I have ever held in my hands was a plain-Jane Perazzi single barrel trap gun. No engraving, kind of nice (but not by any means AAA or exhibition grade wood), but it locked up like a bank vault. After it had had over 100,000 round fired through it in trap competition in the prior couple of decades. My buddy spent over$10k on it. Most folks that saw it and didn't know what it was equated it to the single shot H&R goose gun they started hunting with as a kid. Most folks would wonder why a guy would spend that on a single shot; why he wouldn't get an 870 or 1100 for 1/20th the cost. It was obvious to him; the Perazzi was actually cheaper. He would have worn out far more than 20 Remingtons in that amount of shooting. That is what he was paying for.