The only winning combination is practice, practice and more practice...Those top shooters can pick up any solid 1 MOA rifle and whoop my ass. It ain't because of the action, stock, barrel, or trigger. Buy one or build one and shoot the crap out of it. PRS is not as much of an equipment race as people think, but it can cost you more if you make it one, both in the pocket book and in your scores.
Custom Rifle Prices
- Thread starter 300_whisper
- Start date
moondog
Gold $$ Contributor
Couldn't agree more with 22DASHER.
last year at a PMS ELR match in Wyoming,
one of the guys left his ammo at home.
He was shooting a Dasher as were 3 of my buddies. After giving him all our extras, different loads, different bullets, he placed top three, may have been 2nd. Indian, not the arrow.
last year at a PMS ELR match in Wyoming,
one of the guys left his ammo at home.
He was shooting a Dasher as were 3 of my buddies. After giving him all our extras, different loads, different bullets, he placed top three, may have been 2nd. Indian, not the arrow.
rkittine
Gold $$ Contributor
All my custom built rifles are capable of better scores than I can shoot out of them, but if they were not high quality and accurate, my inability would be magnified. At least in theory a 1 MOA rifle is only going to shoot 1" at 100 yards if you shoot it perfectly, read the wind right etc.
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What Rkittine says, for comp,(bipod) shooting had a CZ.308, pillar bedded.
Got stuk at max 224 points, friend of mine let me shoot his 30br bat machine, 247(of250) at a match.
I am from europe so all major parts have to be imported, did that all myself except the barrel.
Onley my gunsmith had to do is order a barrel (german), and put all together.
Safed me allot of money. I know some custom guns in europe break the 6k Euro barrier.
Mine bit over 4k.
If youre gun is 1MOA and youre a 0.5MOA shooter, you shoot 1.5MOA.
My new gun shoots like a laser, no bull is my bad.
Time for training
much regards Johan
Got stuk at max 224 points, friend of mine let me shoot his 30br bat machine, 247(of250) at a match.
I am from europe so all major parts have to be imported, did that all myself except the barrel.
Onley my gunsmith had to do is order a barrel (german), and put all together.
Safed me allot of money. I know some custom guns in europe break the 6k Euro barrier.
Mine bit over 4k.
If youre gun is 1MOA and youre a 0.5MOA shooter, you shoot 1.5MOA.
My new gun shoots like a laser, no bull is my bad.
Time for training
much regards Johan
GT Accuracy
Site $$ Sponsor
I used to have this same concern when I was ordering my first custom rifles back in the early 2000’s. I didn’t understand where the costs came from. Then I got in the industry. Fast forward nearly 20 years and here are a few tid bits you should consider....not that you will but you should.
As shooters get better and better, loading more and more consistent, and wind calling more like second nature, prices will go up...A LOT. If you ask around the more accuracy minded disciplines you’ll find that many order 5-20 barrels, have them all chambered and cherry pick the best. After that they sell them as like new, low round count and just eat the chamber fee, or most of it. They do get the cost of the barrel out of it, though. Lots of shooters would want a barrel from smith X, which normally costs $800 for $550. They get a deal, the top end shooter gets the next barrel free and most of the chambering costs.
As you stack that work load on the best shops, wait times grow, costs go up, and favorites are established. It’s a sad truth but it happens all the time.
- Does your smith / shop carry at least 1M in insurance. Things go wrong, we are all human, guns are just mechanical machines, you should protect yourself. I have seen head space gauges be +/- .004 as per SAAMi requirements. However, imagine if you have one smith chamber and his is -.004, then the next one does +.004 and fudges a little an makes it .006 by accident. Doesn’t test the headspace on a round and you have a .010 or more difference. Things get dangerous. We saw that in the our shop on a rifle a client brought in for consignment. .022 head space. It was a bomb with the wrong ammo.
- Most top end smiths in the commercial industry are shipping overseas. That’s a FFL 7 and a iTar bill of 2500 a year. Should be considered as a cost that is shared by all customers.
- Knowledge - this can be a huge one if you have or need something obscure done quickly.
- Multi Services. Shops that offer stock work, metal work, load development, etc are always more money. Nice thing about them is you get everything in one place and only have one person to look to if something doesn’t pan out. There is no finger pointing.
- Machines and tooling. Some people will not agree with this next point, however, you are only as good as the smith (and his tools are). If you’re competing against guys who have guns tune to the thou and yours is .0001, all other things being equal, you’ll pull ahead. Now imagine the smiths that verify chambers without using range rods but do use .000050 (50 millionth indicators). And get this, you need several at this sensitivity b/c they break easier. Constant trips back to NE Tool and Certification for new parts and testing. I personally have nearly 4K in indicators. It just gets exponentially better, and thus more expensive b/c of the price of these tools. Sure, Tony Boyer can whoop most butts with a Ruger American with factory ammo, but if you put Tony up against another HoF’er, say Lester Bruno, it’s not a competition. Better, straighter, truer guns will always win, with everything else being equal.
- Salary expectation. What should a gunsmith make? 50 an hour, 100? IF you consider 3 hrs to chamber, 1 hr to crown, 30 min to polish barrel, 45 to polish action, 1 hr to inlet, 1 hour to bed, 1 hour to clean up bedding after it’s done, 15 coats of clear on a wood stock (say 5 hrs with sanding), That is 13.5 hours to build - $1350 for salary. Tack on $100 for iTar, mayabe, and $200 for insurance...you’re at $1650. Add on your parts, say 3k and you have a $4600.00 gun. Right where most top end shops are putting their wares out at.
As shooters get better and better, loading more and more consistent, and wind calling more like second nature, prices will go up...A LOT. If you ask around the more accuracy minded disciplines you’ll find that many order 5-20 barrels, have them all chambered and cherry pick the best. After that they sell them as like new, low round count and just eat the chamber fee, or most of it. They do get the cost of the barrel out of it, though. Lots of shooters would want a barrel from smith X, which normally costs $800 for $550. They get a deal, the top end shooter gets the next barrel free and most of the chambering costs.
As you stack that work load on the best shops, wait times grow, costs go up, and favorites are established. It’s a sad truth but it happens all the time.
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First, I would not get too caught up in the builder, yes I know some are better. But if you have followed that rifle blog, top smiths in PRS has been a revolving door, flavor of the yr IMO.
Yes you are right, one builder or co sets the bar, it's that way with everything in our life. I shouldn't say this, but I think the cost of AI rifles may be part of this.
As one gun builder posted, it is one thing to build a rifle to set world records in BR, another to bang 1 1/2-2 moa size plate. You look at most PRS competitors, you see a lot of machined chassis, or Manners with mini's, this eliminates a lot of stock work, so time and labor saved, the initial cost may not even be so high. I'm not a chassis guy, but those MPA chassis for 900 are sweet if you can shoot one.
You accumulate the parts you want, find a smith in your price range, roll with it. I used to flute barrels if I thought I could get 2 yrs from the barrel, that's out the door today, I still have them painted, but that can save 200 too.
I wouldn't overthink this, most custom builds will shoot 1/4" if you pay attn to detail in load development. 3 shots, maybe not 5.
You said SH is not for you, but moondoggie was right, a lot of shiny squirrels have been seen.
@Greg Taylor eye opening post. Thanks a lot. Really puts things into perspective.
@Milo 2.0 agreed. At my first comp, guys were shooting $6k AIs and others were shooting ruger americans with after market bottom metal and mags. It’s all in how you shoot. Learning a lot. Thanks again.
@Milo 2.0 agreed. At my first comp, guys were shooting $6k AIs and others were shooting ruger americans with after market bottom metal and mags. It’s all in how you shoot. Learning a lot. Thanks again.
Long Range Shooting and ELR and PRS have got really popular and it (Higher Prices) shows in the demand for good stuff. And the Covid brought out new reloaders to compound the other high components problems.
From what I hear, the price of tea in China has skyrocketed. Lol
Im still around. I got a custom rifle for about $3k on the forum. I just need to start an ammo price thread now. Lol
I got sucked into this one and the five year old graphite thread!
Note to Self: Pay Attention Man!
Im still here and just to show this thread didn’t fall on def ears I got this. Just need a bipod and a silencer.
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