USFA replica '58
Clearly, the USFA boys know how to make a piece of work that appeals to the well heeled seeker of replica steel. The price point they choose for their merchandise seems to be directed to the "gotta-have-it" guy whose budget won't allow a guild gun, but doesn't find him in the big box mailorder catalogs, either.
How many of these guns are actually going to be shot enough by seriously competent marksmen to prove how really good they are seems questionable - to me, anyway.
The case with the Feinwerkbau Rogers & Spencer and the very special Italian made '58 Hege "Maximum" is quite different. In the European marketplace, you can buy the equivalent gun in wall hanger aestheics for a pretty penny, alright. And it's a really wonderful bit of workmanship. But when you go to buy the ones that shoot, and that is to say the one's you would expect to wind a class at the MLIAC, you will pay about three times as much. There's about as much reason to own one of these and keep it in a cabinet as there is for owning a field-trial blood pointer to take for walks on a leash. The folks that buy them do so because they shoot them, seriously, and a lot.
Now, do the match grade Hege's shoot into 1/3 the group size of their aesthetic twins? Likely, not. It would take a careful expert quite a long time with a Ransom rest to even give a competent estimate of marginal benefit. What we all know is that different folks have different definitions of what constitutes great shooting, even in the 97th percentile crowd that can really know the difference.
The point is that you will pay about the same for one of the Euro match guns (
http://www.vorderlader.com/vorderlader/perkussionsrevolver.html for example) as USFA seems to be getting for its '58. The '58 Maximum and R&S will set you back around €1000 or about $1500 USD. And these are proven, very proven guns. Just like if you shoot air- or free- pistol, you're not going to find what you need at Walmart or Bass Pro Shop.
Will someone make the world medalist grade shooting a USFA replica? Well, unless USFA wants to sponsor a squad of world class marksmen, we won't know. And USFA has enough of a market without doing that. That's why you won't see them staking anything on performance.
Now, if you want to know just how good
you can be shooting a percussion revolver on this side of the big water and
you're not committed to the byzantine foolishness of handicapping for the sake of looking like something in a Matthew Brady print,
you can sure find out. Just get a Ruger Old Army and that's not just us tooting the horn. The why of it ought to be obvious to even the casual observer. What went into into making a ROA, even the ones made after 4:30 on Thursdays, is head and shoulders better suited to pure accuracy precision and the logistics of high scores or small groups in the real world of hands and eyes than anything but the match grade Europeans. And with precious little work, a tuned ROA will shoot better, really. That's that.
If you're not planning on taking a gun to Adelaide in August, save your chips for Swiss powder and good lead. The ROA wins the day here, hands down. Not just us talking, either, but we believe in X's, steel rams knocked over, and hogs that don't take extra steps, and guns that don't give up after the first thousand rounds. I doubt we'll ever know that USFA's lovely, pricey gun can live up to that. If you aren't concerned about such things, well there are a lot of shiny historic replicas that go bang for less money and trouble, and that's okay if that's what you want.
That's what I know, anyway.
Wisent
classicballistx.com
