Absolutely true. I attempted to make a go as a gunsmith back in the 90’s when double guns were experiencing a new swell of popularity. I specialized in action/ejector repairs, wood repair, stocking, and rust blue. What I found was there was plenty of work but few who wanted to pay fairly for that work. Take for example rejoining barrels. At that time, I would remove the ribs, clean the rust, polish the barrels, re- lay the ribs, and reblue the barrels, ensure no point of impact change, and if I asked more than $500 I wouldn’t get the work. The picture is a full days work of handmade main springs for sidelock shotguns. Each one fashioned from a plane stick of carbon steel by files and sand paper. Then hardened, which I had done by a heat treat specialist who had a minimum charge for oven time. Yes, I can harden one myself but after you spend two hours shaping a spring the last thing you want is to find out it isn’t a spring. I had people about stroke when I asked $100 to make and fit a new spring in their $10000 shotgun.
I did have several reliable customers but they were mostly older gentleman who collected and shot those guns, but no where near enough of them to provide enough work for a living. After I gave it up I still took on their projects as personal favors but all of them have gone on to their reward. Now I don’t see anything close to enough demand for a talented young person starting out, not in fine guns, and there’s a big difference between building AR’s and custom work on classic doubles.
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