The History Channel now

[B. Dudley]

Ok... Late last summer I got an email from the owner of some gunsmithing business out in CA. He was looking for a ton of parts for a Parker hammer gun. When we had the chance to talk on the phone, he told me that his shop was going to be filming a pilot episode for a gunsmithing show in which they had ONE WEEK to completely restore a firearm. Restocking, metal finishing and all!

He chose a Parker hammer gun for two reasons, it was the only old double that he had hanging around the shop that was from a maker that he figured he could get parts for, and the producers of the show wanted to showcase the work as more of an art and craft with using an older classic gun. I immediately told him that their "Art and Craft" position was in direct contradiction to their 1 week timeline. He acknowledged that and said that he managed to convince them to allow some camera trickery like on the baking shows where you put the pan in the oven and then pull out a finished one from another oven. But he knew that would only get him so far and that his back was still against the wall.

He went on about how his shop was perfect because all of his guys were characters and would be great for TV.

I expressed to him that I was surprised that he would agree to such a thing since you cannot even get a proper finish on a stock in 1 week, let along make the stock and everything else in that timeframe. And that he could potentially be doing his business harm to anyone who knew any better if the results were any less than excellent. He said he knew, but that he was a small shop with a lot of overhead and that he needed the exposure and publicity.

I asked him what the purpose of the show was to be, like an 'American Chopper' type show that followed his shop specifically or something different. He described it that it was intended to be more of a competition format between different shops or something.

Anyway... I just shook my head, and sold him all the parts he needed and express overnighted them to him because he needed them asap. I never heard anything else about it in follow-up.