Question: selecting first gun

[Beathard]

I do a lot of SASS shoots. 90% of them want their name, as JJ said, engravef on the backstrap. The key pain is they want the cuts trough the finish. Not a good idea.

 

[Charlie]

Cuts trough the finish ?

I would think all cuts would be thru the finish, (original surface of gun)

 

[JJ Roberts]

Charlie,Gun engraver don't cut thru bluing,browning or color case,all gun must be strip of the finish and hand polished no buffing.If you went to a SASS event with jewelry or clothing you would make money.I found SASS events to be a fashion show. J.J.

 

[Ed Westerly]

As you can see by my outfit, I am a SASS member. Have been since 1998. I have engraved for SASS members, and there is some money to be made there, but only at the largest shoots and only if you are engraving right there in front of them. They don't like to relinquish their guns for very long! As others have stated, the bigest call is for aliases on handgun backstraps. Second would be jewelery, followed by knifes (bowie, mostly). I have sat for days at shoots with no takers, and that was when I charged $25.00 for a backstrap alias, when other engravers were charging $40.00. There are a few engravers who do well at these shoots, but only a few.
By the way, the vast majority of cowboy action shooters do NOT use cap and ball pistols. This is a very small subset in the game.

 

[Dulltool]

I do see a lot of C&B converted to center fire.

 

[Ed Westerly]

Must be because you are in a different part of the country, because down here there are far more SAAs and Vaqueros.

 

[billrice@charter.net]

I am working with some gun blueing products trying to figure out how to do a minor blueing removal on the backstrap so it can be engraved. I am playing with a product called blue wonder. Any help would be appreciated I have no problem setting out at the Cowboy Sharp Shooter Annual get together to get $ 25 - $ 45 Engraving jobs on their guns and knives. I am going to by a C/B gun to get started on I also want to show up at their show in August of 2013 with something to show them that I can do the work. They already like what I can do on knives and jewelry. This is a very low cost show for me. Their Annual Shoot out in August is 8 miles from my house and they are not going to charge me to setup a booth. So it is three days of being around something I grew up with. I still remember when I was about 4 years old watching my dad do some quick drawing when the gun went off and he shoot through the front window ( he never did that again infact he would not let us touch a gun until we went through out NRA training ) WE moved to Arizona and I grew up with cowboys. Tucson is the only town that I know of that schools shut down for Rodeo Day.
This has been a good thread for me So I want to thank all of you for this info.