Industry Shortcoming...

[bar68]

Posted July 28, 2011 08:32 AM July 28, 2011 08:32 AM I have a grievance with the firearms industry as a whole. I decided that I wanted a custom 1911 with a special serial number to hand down to my nephew whom loves to go shooting with me. There are a lot of custom shops that specialize in 1911's so I thought this would be an easy undertaking.

I called/e-mailed 15 high-end shops and Novak, DoubleStar, Nighthawk, Wilson Combat, Les Baer, STI, Kimber, Springfield Armory, S&W don't offer this option. These are guns that run from $1,000 all the way to over $5,000 but you still can't get something that simple.

Uselton, Dan Wesson, Ed Brown, Clark, Cyl & Slide, Pistol Dynamics do offer this option. Uselton don't use forged frames (I know some peole don't think they are necessary but for over $2500 I think you should expect more). Dan Wesson does on there current models which says a lot for them. Pistol Dynamics don't do Stainless. Ed Brown, Clark and Cyl & Slide are all very flexible and some of their custom guns are less than the customs that don't offer this.

I just feel that in this economy business's should want to make sales and be more flexible. I guess why it upsets me is that when I bought a new pick-up truck in 2006 I ended up buying a Nissan Titan because I could get the option combination I wanted from the big because of the way they package them. Now people give me grief because if my foreign truck. Thanks for the opportunity to vent and I welcome any comments.

 

[rvb]

You could have someone build the gun.
I believe STI and caspian offer custom #s on frames.

-rvb

 

[bar68]

STI only does custom serial numbers on two models of their 2011 line.

I got the idea for the whole thing when I seen an ad for the Caspian frame with the diamond plate on it. I talked to one gunsmith and he won't use Caspian. He told me that he only uses Wilson frames so I called them and they said that they are too busy so they stopped doing custom serial numbers.

I believe that I am going to go with Ed Brown since most of the other custom shops use a lot of his parts anyhow.

 

[Indy_Guy_77]

I'd imagine that for bookkeeping / logistics reasons, custom serial numbers are probably a pain in the butt?

You'd think, though, that for a LOW volume custom maker, it wouldn't be a problem.

Who knows the real reasons, though. It may very well have to do with production ahead of time vs. how they report / get approval from BATFE regarding the manufactured firearms, etc. Or combinations of all the above + stuff we have no idea about.

-J-

 

[trophyhunter]

Thank regulation and oversight for that, god forbid the ATF not be able to go right to the next sequential number in production if / when they do an audit of a manufactures books for production and distribution. Lazy federal .gov employee getting annoyed by having to do a little more work starts looking even harder for a simple scrivener's error scenario. Those people don't play nice with licensed entities in manufacturing and the dealer world when it comes to their paperwork and records keeping.

Non sequential serial numbers = equals more time spent during an audit to satisfy those blood suckers looking for any reason to find fault.

An Ed Brown one off with a custom serial number sure would be a nice heirloom to pass down.

 

[bar68]

All I have to do now is sell a kidney or another body part for the $2700 and place the order.

 

[zqdime]

why would you want a custom serial number in the first place? If you want something to pass down just have it custom engraved. I wouldn't get mad at custom shops because they won't deviate from their sequential serial numbers.

 

[Yukon227]

I understand the serial number thing, my friend built a 1919 and the serial number is his birth date. Pretty cool really