I had the chance to watch the show on demand this evening.

I really wonder where the producers of these shows find these people. My guess is that the actual gunsmiths had better things to be doing. I laughed at the premise of the challenge. “Build a coach gun”. To me that means take a perfectly good shotgun and cut the barrels down. And they were not very specific about the parameters of the “build”.

I am sure the one team builds nice ARs, but working with wood or doing much of anything by hand was completely out of their wheelhouse.

The Parker that was shoehorned together on the show by the ofher team is a perfect answer to the question of frame sizes being interchangeable or not. They took a set of 10g barrels (presumably 3 frame) and put them on a 12g frame and based on the size difference of the breech, i suspect it was a 1 frame that they put those barrels on. You could see when misfired during testing that the primer hit was way over on the inside edge of the primer. And the gun kept on misfiring.

And i wont even comment on fit and finish. But, they had a week, what would anyone expect?

And I wonder who did the homework that turned up the “fact” that Parker Brothers was established in 1832.

Overall the program was a little of an embarrassment to the trade, but i guess it is par for the course on these things.

Mr. T., the only person involved in the show that knows which end the shot comes out, seemed to be a bit embarrassed by the production. He should have been the director. Then it may have been way more entertaining. I wonder who came up with the "weeping apprentice" feature?

I watched with great anticipation, only to be disappointed, particularly what they did to the Parker, total incompetence IMO. Surprised to see Doug Turnbul would actually engage in it.

Was that the one crying after he almost lost his hand in the chop saw?

There is no crying in gunsmithing!!! WOW I watched it on demand and repeatedly found my self mumbling WTF are they thinking. I don't like the concept but given the challenge and a potential $10k .... get a working Hammergun cut the barrels and spend the rest of the time on the stock. These guys made it as hard as you could.

I'll second this. I don't have the channel yet but was fortunate to catch a few episodes of "Aerial America" recently. It's a fantastic show narrated well and the production is stunning.

I'm looking forward to the shows Marty mentioned.

Richard Flanders: being an alaska guy, I'd like your take on the show Mountain Men, if you've seen it of course? We enjoy that show and I'm kind of partial to the old fella' Tom in Montana. He's got a Shorthair and lets her tag along and help him in the field, provided there's no obvious danger in having her there..how bad could he be?

I'm sure the show's got some fluff (MM) but the guy Marty that flies in to Alaska by himself is reported to be the real deal. And in fact, pretty well respected by many.

I would like to see more of Bucky Winkley, who has the lowest number, still operating, Alaska Guide's License.
I first met Bucky in about '62 or '63. He also lived in Danvers, MA and we were introduced by a mutual friend. Bucky was about 21 or 22 then and he would go to various sportsmen's clubs putting on a movie and slide show and I would go along to help set up and break down. As young as he was I was even younger and I learned a lot from him. I still have some of the things he gave me - a couple of pen & ink drawings he did of Dall rams and big brown bears - he was an excellent artist!

https://www.adn.com/49th-estate-real...ge/2014/05/01/



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Dean

Enjoyed the clip! I have been so fortunate to get to spend just a little bit of time up there and met some wonderful self sufficient people much like your friend.

that was a good clip what a life these guys have lived...charlie

That show is a pretty good abject lesson for why you want your parker worked on by a true gunsmith as opposed to a guy with some tools who likes working on guns....

And I can typically give reality show people a break as they need the promotion for their business and trying to get their name out there, but Doug Turnbull is not one of those people and I can't believe he let himself be associated with this joke of a production.