About forty years ago, my dad gave me a copy of "Advanced Gunsmithing", by W.F. Vickery, who was a gunsmith in Boise, Idaho. The book was printed in 1940. Inside the front cover, Dad had written a note; this note addresses the original topic, sort of.
He wrote: "W.F. (Wayne) Vickery was a customer of my father, Henry D. Leeper, in his automotive shop on 12th St. in Boise, Idaho.
In about 1941, Wayne re-barrelled my first high power rifle, a Model 93 7x57 Mauser. The barrel was a new Remington barrel. The total, which included the fitting and chambering of the barrel, altering the bolt handle, and supplying and installing a new Lyman receiver sight, came to 25.00".
To put things in perspective, I always like to try and equate costs with how much work a common laborer, would have to perform to afford a given item. At that time a hundred bucks a month was damn good wages so that work, including parts, cost Dad about a week's wages, or a little more. WH