Doegirl - you can go back to "oopling." I just checked Blackpowder Products, Inc. a.k.a. BPI and Tradition's Rifle is NOT listed as one of their companies. Frontier Gander would be correct and I was mistaken. I must have been fooled by their Spanish made barrels. The same in appearance as those on my CVA rifles as well. Iwas under the impression they were part of the BPIfamily from pastdiscussions, but perhaps the conversation centered on the barrel maker.

Personally I own two Tradition's Traditional rifles, a Woodsman Hawkins and a Pioneer. I sold a third one I had which was a Panther to a friend for his son. All of them are .50 caliber and percussion ignition. All of them (now are) very dependable. Each one of them only had minor problems. The Woodsman would not fire caps consistently. That was fixed. The Pioneer developed a crack in the stock. Traditions advised me they no longer made that rifle so they could not fix it and advised me to glue the crack. I was not pleased with that response at all.The Panther had a ramrod problem which I fixed with a shim.

As Frontier Gander said, "And a rifle is only going to last a long time in the hands of a person that takes proper care of it." Although the Pioneer's stocked cracked, I feel was not my fault. Yet their customer service failed to take care of that problem. I guess they had a valid excuse.

On the other hand I cracked the stock on one on my Renegades made by T/C. I sent the rifle back to them, they replaced the stock and fitted the barrel, and lock to the new stock, free of charge. Even though the rifle was over 15 years old. Now that was what I called customer service.

I also bought but never kept two Tradition's inline rifles.They were an E-bolt if memory serves me. One of them would not cock, and the other would just go off when it felt like it. Both were returned. I got a T/C Black Diamond XR to replace them. That rifle is still going strong.

Soyou do not have to avoid that brand of rifle if you so wish. Although I feel there are better rifles out there. Again, personal opinion on my part.