No, what you do with any new guy is to encourage him to test fire as many guns as he can, before making a choice for the cheapest thing he can buy.
I started with a cheap import that was a POS. I spent many hours fixing that gun to turn it into a shooters.
I used that experience to learn how to tune Percussion locks, and later " bartered" my knowledge to a new friend who knew all about tuning flintlocks, but had never worked on a Percussion lock, to get him to teach me how to tune flintlocks.
When he learned how similar it was to work on, and "fix " percussion locks, and when I learned how similar it was to work on, and "fix" flintlocks, we both had a huge Laugh at each other :blah: :rotf: :idunno: We became fast friends to the day he died. In fact, I was the last person he talked to before his untimely death.
( He died of a Multiple Sclerosis Seizure.)
As Mike Brooks has often said here, what you can afford is very relative. He has built his collection of guns over the years with very little money to spend. He has sold guns from his collection to finance the purchase of something better. There are lots of ways for people who are on fixed incomes, or who don't earn a lot of money to save up the money to invest in a well made gun.
Because I "fixed" my cheap gun and made a shooter out of it, and because I won enough matches with it at the club for others to take notice, when I wanted to sell the gun to finance my New, Semi-custom made rifle, I found a ready buyer who was willing to pay my asking price. She bought the gun for $25.00 less than what I paid for it. I threw in some gear to sweeten the deal- and get rid of stuff for which I had no other use. I received an invaluable education on how only how to choose the guns I buy more wisely, but also how to fix the cheap guns so they can be shot reliably.
Not every buyer is that stubborn, or as courageous to fail, by trying to fix the cheap junk he buys. If you are not willing to fail, you will never learn anything new, nor succeed, once in awhile, in making a silk purse out of a sow's ear. I am always willing to help someone LEARN how to fix his guns to make them shoot. But, not everyone is so inclined. The others would be much better served by suggesting they save their money for awhile( delayed gratification) and buy a more expensive, but better made gun, IMHO.
I have NO problem with people buying Traditions guns, PROVIDED, that they understand the design problems with the guns, and either correct them themselves, have others do it for them, or learn to live with the problems. Too many people today are just as silly as we were 60+ years ago, as kids, watching Davy Crockett, on TV. They think all they have to do is buy a gun that looks like what they see on TV, and then just shoot it. They are so often horrified to find out that the gun won't fire, or at least won't fire reliably.
OHIO Ramrod, is merely trying to do you new shooters a favor. He doesn't deserve The attacks made on him. Yes, we hear reports here all the time that someone has purchased a Traditions rifle and its shoots just fine. We wait to see HOW LONG IT SHOOTS JUST FINE. Even a blind squirrel finds a nut sometimes. :hmm: :thumbsup:
