This thread hits close to home because this is my world. I build custom bolt guns. And it is a very strange place to be, when you look at the skills required compared to what things cost. But years ago we were everything to everybody. You bring in a gun project, we'd take it on. I can repair it, and make parts for pretty much anything. Developed a great reputation. But you know what? The shop was going broke and would have closed years ago if we hadn't made the decision to specialize. So we look at it and decide what to do that will make money. I can blueprint a Remington 700, fit a barrel to it, install a brake, pillar bed it in a day. Tomorrow I break it out of the bedding, clean that up, Cerakote it, assemble everything, and I have made $1000 in labor for a little less than two days. And people are lining up for these rifles, with the average wait time being nine months. Or I could carve a nice stock from a blank, cut out a barrel with an integral quarter rib sight and barrel band. Build a super nice rifle somebody would be proud to own. By the time it's done I might have 300 hours labor in it, that I could bill at maybe $3000. Or I could spend a day making a leaf spring for your old shotgun, and charge you $50. Either way I go broke fast. It's not that this stuff isn't possible to do, it's just that it would be stupid to do it.
My big love is nice muzzleloader rifles in the English style. My heros are Steve Zinn and Colin Stolzer, somehow those guys can build rifles like that and still survive, but I haven't figured out how to do that yet. So I'll be content to make what I enjoy in my free time and give the customers what they want and are willing to pay for in order to keep the rent paid and the lights on.