It sounds like we have the classic "collectors vs. users" argument going here. When I think of my battery, the user guns are mostly a rather homely lot. The two collector pieces I have both had been fired before I got them and I have used them a very little, and then not in the field. The wife of a friend had me help her find him a hunting rifle to replace the upper grade Browning he had been using. He would carry the Browning into the woods in a case and then fret the rest of the day that he might get a scratch on it. I happened on a Remington 78 that had been sent back to the factory and was being sold very cheaply at a Kmart in the area. That gun became his go-to rifle and he was much happier with it than he had been with the Browning.
One of my collector pieces is a Model 94 Crazy Horse commemorative. It is in .38-55, an old and revered caliber that has a lot of potential when cranked up. It was put together by the factory, but not tuned, as they probably figured it would disappear into a gun safe and never even have the action worked, much less fired. It would not even feed the factory rounds, and I had to send it back to get it worked on. When it came back, it worked just a good 94 should.
Graybeard is on the beam about the factory making money on the gun. The disadvantage is that limited runs would inevitably be collectors and a new generation of users could not emerge as all the guns would be locked up and too expensive to shoot. Modern manufacturing techniques could cut down on the hand-fitting costs. I have a Virginian Dragoon that is one of the most accurate single-actions I have ever fired. The trigger is so light, I am not sure about trying to use it with cold fingers. The business plan was to have such tight tolerances that factory fitting would be unnecessary. The fit and finish on my is excellent, so they got it figured out and it can be done.
