After reading the post on purchasing a double, I followed the link to kebco and found base models in the 9.3x74R to be a little more than half the price of a similiar rifle chamber in nitro calibers. Why is that? A difference in manufacturing process and materials, or just keeping the true DGR to the little bit more wealthy than me right now crowd. I know I did not specify a manufacturer because I base my observation off of the Chapius model and the Merkel models. Some price comparisons were done on GunsInternational and Cabelas. Thank you in advance for any and all information provided.

I think this has been discussed a bit. I'm no expert, but it seems to be demand related in accordance with calibre. I think there is no difference in work or matterial involved.

Brett

quote:

Originally posted by Brett Adam Barringer:
I think this has been discussed a bit. I'm no expert, but it seems to be demand related in accordance with calibre. I think there is no difference in work or matterial involved.

Brett

The above is correct partly! It is true that the models made for the Big stopping calibers are different from the ones made for hunting things like deer, and the cats, but a couple being legal for more dangerous game. Since the models made for true stoppers have a limited customer base, they sell far fewer units in those models, so than cost of production to how long they must be kept before someon buys them, is a great factor in the retail price. The rifle which are usually smaller, and are more conducive to smaller chamberings, being topped out at the 9.3 level, and down to the very common chamberings will sell twenty times as many units as the stoppers do, hince the price difference per unit made.

The skill in makeing them is the same for both large, and small units, but one simply has a bigger market base than the other.

Any product that has less customer base, and must be held in stock longer will have a larger price than a similer unit that has a large customer base, and flows off their shelves quickly, can be sold cheaper, depending on volume sales!

In any event the 9.3X74R rifles are a real bargain in the S/S double rifle field. Howevr so are the larger entry level stoppers, at even higher prices.

I have a 140E, 9.3X74R Merkel double rifle, and a 140-2 Safari 470NE Merkel, and both were bargains, and I wouldn't sell either for less than the other.

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MacD37 get into education. A description like that would save our economics department hours of class lecture time. With your agreeance I will pirate some of it, to pass along to my students, but will change the word gun for grain, seed, tractor.

Thank you both for enlightening me about the matter as to the difference in cost of "similiar" rifles. I am still drooling hoping the government will decide to pay me a little better so I can afford one in under 2 years of penny pinching.

Totally unrelated, but I'll chime in & possibly open up a can of worms: I retired from Dow Chemical Co. too early, so I got a teaching certificate to do a little substitute teaching to give me something to do (I only did it for two years). My comment: Teachers definitely DO NOT get paid enough. I couldn't have lasted 33 years as a teacher - God bless them.

Originally posted by Mac

quote:

Any product that has less customer base, and must be held in stock longer will have a larger price than a similer unit that has a large customer base, and flows off their shelves quickly, can be sold cheaper, depending on volume sales!

This hits home real hard everytime I buy a part for my Supercub. And of course the cost is passed along to the hunters. Now we see why hunting is so expensive, Especially if your doing it with a double rifle.

Mac makes a great point. Several years ago Dell considered computer components to lose 1% of their value PER WEEK. They could purchase parts and have them back out the door as products in 3 weeks on average vs 10-12 for HP, a massive 7-9% pricing advantage all else being equal.

Double rifles don't erode much value, but it still has to make it tough for companies like Merkel and Chapuis to make guns on spec that might not sell for a year or more. That's a lot of labor and material cost to pay interest on and it has to be recouped somewhere.

Many years ago when I flew helicopters in the Army I used two different type of night vision goggles depending on the type of helmet I wore and aircraft I was flying. Both had the same plastic attaching mount, except on one it was located one inch to the left instead of being centered. Everything else, including all of the electronics, was EXACTLY the same. That type was specific to a single type of aircraft, a very small market. The first type was $7k, the second was exactly TWICE as much, down to the penny, due to the much smaller volume.

quote:

Originally posted by bkhall:
MacD37 get into education. A description like that would save our economics department hours of class lecture time.

Most lectures are ten minutes of good information and the rest fluff

quote:

Originally posted by bkhall:
MacD37 get into education. A description like that would save our economics department hours of class lecture time. With your agreeance I will pirate some of it, to pass along to my students, but will change the word gun for grain, seed, tractor.

Thank you both for enlightening me about the matter as to the difference in cost of "similiar" rifles. I am still drooling hoping the government will decide to pay me a little better so I can afford one in under 2 years of penny pinching.

You certainly may use anything I write that is not specifically posted as "COPY RIGHTED"!