The cost of firearms and shooting has continually risen over the years. There are many classes of firearm from the least expensive to the most expensive. Even the (factory) gun manufactures offer different levels of firearms. What are the differences out there. The less expensive guns have cast, stamped, mass produced metal parts made of the least expensive materials. The stocks are of birch, popular, and injected or roto-molded materials.
The second layer of (factory) firearms are intrution molded, then machined, forged, or machined to production specs, the secondary parts may be stamped or production machined, the stocks may or may not be of a higher quality wood an or molded plastic or fiberglass.
The barrels for both the aformentioned levels of fireararms usually are button/broached, hammer forged, or cut rifled. The materials, attention to detail, gun drilling, reaming and final barrel lapping are minimal at least.
There are folks who wish to modifiy factory actions by correcting defects and defencies and adding after market parts to make them perform at a level above their original manufacture specs. This usually means truing an action, adding a precision ground lug, replacing the trigger, barrel, and stock with aftermarket improvements. The cost of modifing a factory rifle may exceed the cost of building a lessor expensive custom rifle. Getting a donor action often requires purchasing an entire rifle with many parts you will not use and have little resale value.
There are folks who decide to build their dream rifle from the ground up. This usually means a custom action costing from $850-$ 2000.00, a custom barrel costing from $300- $600, a custom trigger, costing $150-$600, custom stock costing from $450-$2000, custom botom metal and magazines. The we have the cost of custom fitting and chambering the barrel, the fitting of the action to the stock, pillar and or glass bedding the stock, installing muzzle brakes and sights. Custom finishes and treaments can be added.
The custom Target rifle usually cost $3000-$6000 to build. The custom hunting rifle usually cost $3000-$5000 to build.
This post should give the person desiring to modify or build a custom rifle some idea of what they are looking at in cost. Recently I had a customer who sat down for two hours and planned out a rifle. He was told the cost of the parts would be approximately $2,900. He had a stroke when the finished rifle cost $3,600.00. He was over 30 years old and a successful business man, one would expect he would know what he was doing. He had worked in a gunshop in Montana for several years. He was told to look on the internet and see what options he wanted on his rifle. It was like he expected me to build his rifle for no labor, tool, machine cost and sales tax. I looked at several of my peers rifle prices and my rifle(s) fell right in line with their fees for simular rifles.
Nat Lambeth
The second layer of (factory) firearms are intrution molded, then machined, forged, or machined to production specs, the secondary parts may be stamped or production machined, the stocks may or may not be of a higher quality wood an or molded plastic or fiberglass.
The barrels for both the aformentioned levels of fireararms usually are button/broached, hammer forged, or cut rifled. The materials, attention to detail, gun drilling, reaming and final barrel lapping are minimal at least.
There are folks who wish to modifiy factory actions by correcting defects and defencies and adding after market parts to make them perform at a level above their original manufacture specs. This usually means truing an action, adding a precision ground lug, replacing the trigger, barrel, and stock with aftermarket improvements. The cost of modifing a factory rifle may exceed the cost of building a lessor expensive custom rifle. Getting a donor action often requires purchasing an entire rifle with many parts you will not use and have little resale value.
There are folks who decide to build their dream rifle from the ground up. This usually means a custom action costing from $850-$ 2000.00, a custom barrel costing from $300- $600, a custom trigger, costing $150-$600, custom stock costing from $450-$2000, custom botom metal and magazines. The we have the cost of custom fitting and chambering the barrel, the fitting of the action to the stock, pillar and or glass bedding the stock, installing muzzle brakes and sights. Custom finishes and treaments can be added.
The custom Target rifle usually cost $3000-$6000 to build. The custom hunting rifle usually cost $3000-$5000 to build.
This post should give the person desiring to modify or build a custom rifle some idea of what they are looking at in cost. Recently I had a customer who sat down for two hours and planned out a rifle. He was told the cost of the parts would be approximately $2,900. He had a stroke when the finished rifle cost $3,600.00. He was over 30 years old and a successful business man, one would expect he would know what he was doing. He had worked in a gunshop in Montana for several years. He was told to look on the internet and see what options he wanted on his rifle. It was like he expected me to build his rifle for no labor, tool, machine cost and sales tax. I looked at several of my peers rifle prices and my rifle(s) fell right in line with their fees for simular rifles.
Nat Lambeth
