WestKentucky
Member
The masses have taken to reality tv and have shown that it can be cheap to produce and still be a hit. Why would they not make a firearms version?
Why no gun version of "Forged In Fire"
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beeenbag
Member
I feel like the level of skill and equipment to make knives are far less than to make a firearm.
Hokie_PhD
Member
The closest thing I’ve seen is Top Shot. A reality show that’s basically Survivor but with people shooting different guns.
OP
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WestKentucky
Member
Agreed, but they could use the same concept. Rather than do a complete build, maybe they could start with identical guns and build them to a customer's vague request, then for the final challenge of the episode be sent home for a week to do their best on more intricate build. Say they start with 3 guys and do a mild custom job... let's just say they get a stock Ruger 1911 and the customer wants custom grips, trigger and action work. They have time to rip into the guns, clean up burrs, work the trigger, and do something to the grips. Any extra time could be used on slide serrations or something to give it visual appeal. Then some professional shooter tries them all out and kicks one guy off.
Then they get sent home to build something different...lets just say they are to build a rifle for 500-1000 yard competition, or a double action revolver for back woods survival etc... Then run the guns hard to test it for the purposes it was built for.
Then they get sent home to build something different...lets just say they are to build a rifle for 500-1000 yard competition, or a double action revolver for back woods survival etc... Then run the guns hard to test it for the purposes it was built for.
Sistema1927
Member
They could film it at the Khyber Pass.
beeenbag
Member
That would be an interesting show for sure. I don't see it happening simply because they would be modifying firearms and possibly compromising function. Liability would be fairly high.
Discovery got burned a couple times on gun making shows, doubt they are hungry for another.
Top Shot was fun until it became a soap opera.
Top Shot was fun until it became a soap opera.
Because the media doesn't like real firearms handled by ordinary people. Those are evil. Prop guns, handled by actors, are apparently OK.
There already was a version with guns.
Son of a Gun (starring the child molester) would go like this:
1. Client would come in a request a build (sometimes reasonable more often something like a 20mm on a pickup).
2. Client would come in on Monday and say he needed the gun by Thursday. Will would always take the job. He'd stomp into the shop, demand everyone's attention and tell them what they had to do with two days to do it.
3. The staff would build the gun working 24/7. Wednesday night (it had to be ready the next morning) the staff would be working out the bugs and Will would walk in and say he would show them how to do this.
4. In the morning they'd go to the range, shoot explosive targets attached to drums of gasoline and whoop and holler in amazement. The client would pay a stupid price for the job.
The pattern of drama could only be repeated so many times before it was boring. Without the drama the entire show was boring.
They tried this formula with other shows and none of them lasted.
Son of a Gun (starring the child molester) would go like this:
1. Client would come in a request a build (sometimes reasonable more often something like a 20mm on a pickup).
2. Client would come in on Monday and say he needed the gun by Thursday. Will would always take the job. He'd stomp into the shop, demand everyone's attention and tell them what they had to do with two days to do it.
3. The staff would build the gun working 24/7. Wednesday night (it had to be ready the next morning) the staff would be working out the bugs and Will would walk in and say he would show them how to do this.
4. In the morning they'd go to the range, shoot explosive targets attached to drums of gasoline and whoop and holler in amazement. The client would pay a stupid price for the job.
The pattern of drama could only be repeated so many times before it was boring. Without the drama the entire show was boring.
They tried this formula with other shows and none of them lasted.
Demi-human
maybe likes firearms a little bit…
I am boring.
Could I have a similar show to that, without the drama? I don't need anymore drama, just an informative and interesting show that eases my guilt about getting off my feet at the end of the day.
I could also do without the fake deadlines and the child molestation, a lot.
Could I have a similar show to that, without the drama? I don't need anymore drama, just an informative and interesting show that eases my guilt about getting off my feet at the end of the day.
I could also do without the fake deadlines and the child molestation, a lot.
MedWheeler
Member
GRIZ22 pretty much nailed it.
Carl N. Brown
Member
Forged in Fire: three blacksmiths are given scrap metal and assigned to replicate an iconic knife or sword design within a time limit.
As I recall from the Foxfire books, frontier gunsmithing was an artisan endeavor like crafting silverware or furniture. Hardly the stuff of TV drama.
Welding a Damascus shotgun or musket barrel from a bucket of horseshoe nails might be an interesting challenge. To a gun history buff.
As I recall from the Foxfire books, frontier gunsmithing was an artisan endeavor like crafting silverware or furniture. Hardly the stuff of TV drama.
Welding a Damascus shotgun or musket barrel from a bucket of horseshoe nails might be an interesting challenge. To a gun history buff.
OP
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WestKentucky
Member
This was in no way what I was thinking about. That show was just a drama about the ins and outs of a single shop, like the one in Alaska, or the Gunsmoke one. I would like to see something competitive to see who can put out the best work. I honestly don't see how they could take any of the guys from Forged in Fire and make a show about their shop either without focusing on the drama. Maybe those guys wouldn't be repeat felony offenders though like the tv gunsmith folks seem to be.
Madcap_Magician
Member
Well, several reasons. One is that while high-end knifemaking is just as complicated as high-end gunmaking, the bar to entry is lower with knifemaking, and a lot more people are doing it, so there are more potential competitors. You need a machine shop for gunmaking. You can make knives with hand tools alone, and really make knives with less than $100 worth of homemade equipment from a junkyard. Can't do that with guns.
Also with guns you can't make them totally from scratch (in anything approximating a useful timeline for a TV show), whereas it is entirely possible to do so with knives.
And don't underestimate the fact that forging is a visually interesting process. Gunmaking is largely machining and hand filing, which is also done with knifemaking, but is the least interesting part from a visual perspective.
Also with guns you can't make them totally from scratch (in anything approximating a useful timeline for a TV show), whereas it is entirely possible to do so with knives.
And don't underestimate the fact that forging is a visually interesting process. Gunmaking is largely machining and hand filing, which is also done with knifemaking, but is the least interesting part from a visual perspective.
chicharrones
needs more ammo
I like Forged in Fire. The first two rounds have a time limit of 3 or 4 hours each round and then the last two competitors get a week at home to build something more awesome.
I don't know how the first two rounds could be done building firearms from scratch, keeping it in that short of a time frame and also be interesting to the viewer.
With Forged in Fire, it's like a competitive cooking show. Everyone seems to be frantically working in their area using hammers, grinders, etc. Plus, the testing of the finished blades is very visual with cutting animal flesh, straps, wood, pipes, etc.
If there were a gun version, it would take a ton more time and I think a lot more of the work would be edited out in each TV episode compared to Forged in Fire.
I don't know how the first two rounds could be done building firearms from scratch, keeping it in that short of a time frame and also be interesting to the viewer.
With Forged in Fire, it's like a competitive cooking show. Everyone seems to be frantically working in their area using hammers, grinders, etc. Plus, the testing of the finished blades is very visual with cutting animal flesh, straps, wood, pipes, etc.
If there were a gun version, it would take a ton more time and I think a lot more of the work would be edited out in each TV episode compared to Forged in Fire.
So Doug takes your custom gun and shoots a salmon and says: Your gun will kill!
Also, watching some blow up would be amusing!
Seriously, I agree that GRIZ22 had it. Most of the personality based shows with families and gun shops have been collections of less than desirable folks.
Also, watching some blow up would be amusing!
Seriously, I agree that GRIZ22 had it. Most of the personality based shows with families and gun shops have been collections of less than desirable folks.
chicharrones
needs more ammo
Jim Watson
Member
Check out Fire and Iron. It is a little too folksy and hillbilly for me, but depicts a handtool gunsmith assembling muzzleloaders. Note that it does not say anything about the origin of the locks and barrels, but he is a good stocker.
Hokie_PhD
Member
How interesting do you think this would be to most people?
I get tired with Forged In Fire and many of the car shows after awhile as they all blur together after a bit.
Personally, I'd like to see something new and different. Unfortunately the networks don't want that, they want the same as they don't want to risk the expense of truly new shows.
It would be impossible to start from raw materials and make an interesting TV show about machining.
NeuseRvrRat
Member
I tried to watch Forged in Fire once. All of the dudes heat treated their knives, but never tempered them. Why anyone would want to watch a gun version of that derpfest is beyond me. TV rots the brain anyhow. Go read something.
MidRoad
Member
https://www.google.com/amp/s/mobile.nytimes.com/2017/12/02/nyregion/fire-upstate-new-york.amp.html
This is why....people do stupid stuff because they see it on tv. This happened 10 minutes from me. Destroyed a million dollar firetruck from he neighboring city (from our city's FD) when the wind changed. Can't fix stupid I guess.
This is why....people do stupid stuff because they see it on tv. This happened 10 minutes from me. Destroyed a million dollar firetruck from he neighboring city (from our city's FD) when the wind changed. Can't fix stupid I guess.
CoalTrain49
Member
I was in a small town in northern NM where I overheard a conversation in a blacksmiths shop about the show Forged in Fire. The general consensus was it was scripted and about as real life as an episode of Star Trek. One of the guys was the owner of the shop and had hundreds of pieces of iron work including some pretty nice knives hammered out of cotton gin spindles, rail road spikes and mower blades. Although I've never seen the show FnF (I don't have a sat link or cable) this is probably as close to reality as it gets.
Watching the process of building a gun today would be about as interesting as watching GM build a Cadillac.
Wild Alaska isn't so much a gunshop show as a dry sitcom about people working at a gunshop in Alaska.
entropy
Member
Because guns can explode and cause injury and death when assembled under unrealistic time constraints using what ever materials and tools the idiot producers think of like in Forged in Fire.
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