Hi Turfman;
I just finished building my first rifle, an Early Lancaster from Pecatonica. I've owned a couple of Thompson Centers, but never had a "period correct" rifle till now.
It turned out beautiful. A couple of folks have offered to buy it from me already... one guy, a local doctor, told me to name the price!
Anyway, I don't think that Pecatonica is a real large retailer; I think that they make some stocks and sell them wholesale to some of the other muzzleloader supply outfits. Some of what you buy from the others may just be Pecatonica's work anyway; (I'm not positive of this, so don't quote me.)
They are a bit hard to get through to on the phone, since they're working in their shop most of the time. They are wonderful people once you do connect though. As near as I can tell, they might be a two man operation. Every time I talk with them, I either talk to Dick Greensides, the owner, or else I talk to Jeff. They're both great.
They sell 4 grades of wood. I got the second grade for my rifle, and I'll tell you that it's as nice as the rifles that some of my smokepoling buddies paid a whole lot more for. Pecatonica sells their Grade 2 stocks for $100. That's 98% shaped. They pre-inlet for another $42.50. They cut for sights, underlugs, and the buttplate very reasonable also.
My Early Lancaster came in at about $530 for everything, parts, labor, and shipping. That's preinlet, sights, underlugs, buttplate cut. Triggerguard preinlet. Excellent wood, and excellent quality at a very reasonable cost.
I couldn't recommend them any better.
If you want to ask me any particulars, off-group is fine.
Jerry in PA.
