Kelbly's quit making rifle stocks due to the fact that a 800.00 dollar (BR Stock) to 1500.00 (F-Class Stock) carbon fiber/fiberglass stock is not a money maker. We would need to charge 2000.00 to 3500.00 per stock before bedding actions to make money with the way we made stocks here on the old 1970's technology Lee Six process. We had over 8 - 10 hours of hand time in making the stocks to get them as good as we made them. The price for materials has gone through the roof and we had to buy about five years worth of material at one time to get a deal that still was about five times what materials cost us in 2018.
Sorry to say just making stocks for BR, today there just is not a market there. Walking the line at this years Super Shoot and I would venture to say that 90% of the rifles on the line were over ten years old. In 1990 our business was 90% BR shooting, today less than 5%. That market is dead with so many used BR rifles for sale for less than half the price of new rifles and they shoot just as well when properly tuned.
Not to point any fingers, but its my belief that mandatory minimum wage hikes and the Dem-panic is what truly pushed the price of goods through the roof, add in the lack of people willing to work to provide services to make products is what's giving us our inflated economy.
Businesses started analyzing thier margins and determined which service are more profitable and which wasn't, with the latter being dropped to a very minimum if not entirely.
Gunsmithing is no exception, I know a few gunsmiths that quit taking on new customers, focusing solely on existing client base but specializing in where they make thier highest margins "barrels" and chambering, action timing, and fire controls.
Now those consumable barrels can run as much as $850-$900 depending on who's doing the work, with customers having 2 or more done at a time,
"I get it" its good wages for precise work.
Which brings me to inlets and bedding, if a gunsmith is making $125-$150 an hour chambering barrels, they sure don't want to be inleting stocks for half that wage when they have a rack full of barrels they want to concentrate on for maximum profit versus hours worked.
Again, "I get it."
The part I don't get is sometimes we have to do operations for less as a cost of doing business and try to make up the differences in volume. This is something I do on the day-to-day from my autobody background.
Example, dealerships run as high as $150 hour to work on a specific make and model whereas a body shop works on all makes and models for a third of the door rate, leaving profit margins thin yet still providing a service to the customer, and staying in business.
Coming back to the very small part I play in building a rife "finishing stocks" if I charged $50 hour it would cost $750-$1000 per unit for the hours worked project dependent of course, but I probably wouldn't have a lot to do. Lol
Anyhow this is a long winded explanation of my view just to say, if a stock is going to cost $2000-$3500 to the end user so be it.
The stock will last a lifetime of service, where the consumable barrels only last a season.
-Al
