out here you never know what the weathers going to do . might be sunny and 70 deg one minute , raining the next , then blowing snow shortly there after .
learn to take care of your flintlock and it will not let you down . neglect it and you will a nice looking club .
As to quality , I would also put Pedersoli at the top of the list . But frankly that doesn’t say much .
Their quality guns , any more can cost as much as a lower end semi custom piece .
If you drop down to say the Hatfield , Blue Ridge…… type rifle , well then its frankly a role of the dice and you can run into bad locks , bad barrels , cracked stocks .
Costs for the repair parts are just as much or more then quality US parts . Case in point . The lock for a Blue Ridge , cost as much or more then one of Jim Chambers locks when frankly it should be much less .
Barrels are the same . You could buy a Rice , Getz , Colerain or GM for the cost of a Pedersoli barrel .
Never mind that if the stock splits , replacing its going to cost you more then a complete parts set for a semi custom rifle .
Set down some time and add up the parts cost for that 3-400 dollar rifle and you will find real quick that you could have a very nice custom gun made for the parts cost .
In the end , buy the best you can afford . Even if you end up with say a CVA or Traditions . Consider replacing the lock as an up grade . You wont regret it
That or you look down the bores and they are rusted up pretty good and have a high price tag.