Shilen price increase coming...

[jdh47]

I'm not surprised that Shilen is going up in price. I figure all barrel makers will at some point if they haven't already. Steel is more expensive and they all use pretty much the same stuff.

 

[jackieschmidt]

I'm not surprised that Shilen is going up in price. I figure all barrel makers will at some point if they haven't already. Steel is more expensive and they all use pretty much the same stuff.

Everything has gone up. Especially tooling and abrasives.

 

[KMW 1954]

It's all about profit margins. The circle of life! Our incomes can only fall behind so far before we all demand a pay increase.

Oil futures on the other hand is a whole different story!

 

[Bainbridge Varminter]

Love em. Just got this one in recently. Also running a Shilen 26" on one of my Savage .223s. All have worked out to sub 1/4 moa. Whatta Hobby!

View attachment 1754642

Assuming you've sent the dummy rounds in before for them to throat the barrel to before? How has this worked out for you? Considering doing the same thing except 257 Wby Mag.

Thanks,

Mike

 

[J.d. Popkes]

Everything has gone up. Especially tooling and abrasives.

The bullets,(Berger) have gone up 40% since I last bought them about 7 years back. Nothing gets cheaper. Dollars buy less year over year.

33¢ Berger’s in 6mm 108, now that’s the 22 cal price. If you’re lucky…….

20 years ago I made a third less, and seems like I had more money

 

[KMW 1954]

20 years ago I made a third less, and seems like I had more money

In 1970 when I started my first regular job with a paycheck minimum wage was $1.60

 

[NF1E]

Assuming you've sent the dummy rounds in before for them to throat the barrel to before? How has this worked out for you? Considering doing the same thing except 257 Wby Mag.

Thanks,

Mike

Top shelf. Hard to beat perfection. Whatta Hobby!

 

[X-Caveman]

Everything has gone up. Especially tooling and abrasives.

the dirtiest words at our shop: health insurance! for a few of our older guys, the 80% we pay equates to $8/ hr if they work 40/ week, 52/ year. it’s outrageous & not even a good plan. goes up 10-15% at each renewal. completely unsustainable.

 

[urbanrifleman]

completely unsustainable.

Honestly Caveman, this whole wacky insane asylum is wholly unsustainable.

 

[SKWERLZ]

Who is shooting shilen these days

I’ve got a few Shilens now.
I like them when I don’t want to pony up for a brux, Krieger or bartlein on a project but still want a reasonable expectation of accuracy.
I’ve had quite a few Shilens over the last 20 years.

 

[SKWERLZ]

Jim's price was probably set due to quantity purchases. Us old Savage
guy's always gave Jim the first heads up over on the old Savage forums,
and I do mean a lot.

I’ve bought about half a dozen 260 Shilen prefits from old Jim and new Jim for my savage.

Never any complaints.

 

[nakneker]

I had a Shilen years ago, very accurate barrel but it was a difficult barrel to get clean. Reading through this thread I don’t see anyone mentioning that, probably a one off.

 

[FrankG]

Their quality has always been excellent. Tony Boyer shot Shilen exclusively.

No he didn't!

 

[Tommie]

No he didn't!

I was already corrected about that statement. Thanks Frank.

 

[FrankG]

Curious where their stainless originates...

Doesn't necessarily matter. Raw material costs going up, tariff's, labor rate etc... it's all effecting the cost of material. It effects domestic and overseas material costs.

There is a base price on the material but until the day of shipping your higher grades of raw material that goes into the steel because it is traded on the stock exchange... your material surcharges for things like Nickel, Copper etc... don't get factored in until the day of shipment. So we don't know until the day it leaves the mill the final cost on the material due to material surcharges from the stock market.

Last year alone... we seen two 50% increases on cost of material.

Also factor in mill lead times. During covid alone our lead times went from 5 months to 14 months. So that also forces us to try and look out further ahead planning wise for our material and have more material on order to cover those lead times and carry more on the floor etc.. that brings a cost as well.

Later, Frank
Bartlein Barrels

 

[kelbro]

Doesn't necessarily matter. Raw material costs going up, tariff's, labor rate etc... it's all effecting the cost of material. It effects domestic and overseas material costs.

There is a base price on the material but until the day of shipping your higher grades of raw material that goes into the steel because it is traded on the stock exchange... your material surcharges for things like Nickel, Copper etc... don't get factored in until the day of shipment. So we don't know until the day it leaves the mill the final cost on the material due to material surcharges from the stock market.

Last year alone... we seen two 50% increases on cost of material.

Also factor in mill lead times. During covid alone our lead times went from 5 months to 14 months. So that also forces us to try and look out further ahead planning wise for our material and have more material on order to cover those lead times and carry more on the floor etc.. that brings a cost as well.

Later, Frank
Bartlein Barrels

Thanks Frank. My concern is how tariffs are impacting stainless. We sourced aluminum alloys from multiple global suppliers. The countries that were not tariffed raised their prices so we did not see any price benefits from distributed sourcing. Didn't know if stainless had the same issues.

 

[Turkeytider]

I had a Shilen years ago, very accurate barrel but it was a difficult barrel to get clean. Reading through this thread I don’t see anyone mentioning that, probably a one off.

That’s interesting. I have two Shilen barrels, both clean up really quickly. Then again, when it comes to what shooters think of as “ clean “, that appears to vary from shooter to shooter!

 

[jelenko]

Since I've been using a Teslong, I've gone through 18-20 barrels.
3 of them cleaned up really easily. Easily means just brushing would get almost all of the hard carbon out. I was thinking 'I got to get more of these'.
When I bought exactly the same barrel from the same supplier, it didn't clean up as easily - i.e., it was just like all the other barrel.

 

[Canuckienns]

Just getting ready to order my 6th Shilen barrel in 6 Dasher a prefit. I have picked up a few bowling trophies over the last five years. Shoots better than me.

 

[jackieschmidt]

the dirtiest words at our shop: health insurance! for a few of our older guys, the 80% we pay equates to $8/ hr if they work 40/ week, 52/ year. it’s outrageous & not even a good plan. goes up 10-15% at each renewal. completely unsustainable.

Ain’t that the truth.
In order to keep good men, we have to offer a benefit package that includes health insurance for the employee and his spouse if the spouse does not have an alternate plan.
Just like you said, they keep going up at a rate that is three times the national inflation rate.

We get great coverage, there are no complaints there. But we can only absorb so much of that cost into the billing rate.

Most people who do not own and run a business have no idea what it takes to just open the doors and turn on the lights every day.