As I see some of the prices mentioned for parts and labor I wish I could charge that and sleep at night. I've built several turn key rifles with optics ( Nightforce, Leupold, Sightron, etc.) and my most expensive one was a little over $4000. I see several rifles today that are $5 - $6 K or more and no optics. ***!? I'm not sure how much other smiths check out other smiths websites, but I do to make sure my prices I feel are fair, are similar to other smiths that do similar work as me, and to see who's gauging. I can tell you from over hundreds of custom builds that I've done since 2003, when I get the question "how much does a custom rifle cost"? The answer is never the same. On average with a custom action, Brux barrel blank, PTG bottom metal, Mcmillan stock, misc. little parts and all the labor involved you'll spend about $2800 on average for one of my custom builds. Sometimes more, sometimes less depending on components. I have a full price list on my website that if you know what needs to be done to have a custom rifle built you can add all the charges up and get a **** close total cost of labor, then add in the parts. As a smith I'm eligible for some dealer pricing. Do I make money on some parts?, hell yes. It's not much, but as written before we as smiths don't do this to get rich, we do this because we love to do what we do, or at least we should. Some companies that supply us with custom parts don't offer dealer pricing, (I won't mention any names) This is really tough as I have to spend the time to order the parts, receive the parts, inventory them and quality check them and all this to not make one single dollar. It may not sound like much but figure 5-7 minutes total to place the order, then 5-7 minutes to unpack and inventory. That's 10-15 minutes at least of lost time and anywhere from a $5 to $40 in shipping. Figure that a couple times a week and it starts to add up to lost time and money Thankfully some mfg's give us dealer pricing and this offsets the lost time we have to order parts, take phone calls and answer e-mails. I've always itemized my invoices so the constomer can see what each item cost and how much labor was to perform a specific task. I've tried a few different pricing ways in the past and because this is all custom work and normally not a standard a package deal I keep coming back to the itemized price list. It makes life easier for me and the customer can see exactly what their being charged for. As your original post stated you were looking at prices that started at $3500. Check out my build reputation here and on other sites of the quality of work I do and the customer service I give, then shoot me an e-mail or give me a call and I'd be more than happy to work with you on getting you the perfect custom rifle for a fair price.
