Originally Posted By: knockemdownOriginally Posted By: WSMBUCKBut like i have said before you cant get any of those for the price of a standard price upper, which is one of the goals Ritch and Paul was going for here, being able to offer everyone a wildcat caliber without the cost of $150 dies and $1000+ uppers.
Custom dies are custom dies, they cost what they cost. To think one set of custom dies will be any cheaper than another would imply that the overall quality is not on par.
That point also goes hand in hand with the price of custom barrels. The cost of custom tubes are pretty much a DIRECT correlation to their quality. Like the old saying, you get what you pay for. If $120 dollar barrels shot like $350 barrels, they'd COST $350 too.
Then one needs to factor in gunsmith WORK. Merely assembling an upper is no big deal. The average shooter with a few tools can assemble a complete upper easy enough. A few hours time in the garage & you got something to shoot!
However, the WORK a of reputable gunsmith takes specialized tools & the 'know how' to use them.
Truing receivers, cutting custom chambers, threading barrels, profiling & fluting barrels, installing brakes, bead blasting & finish work etc. are just some of the tasks a competent gunsmith performs. And usually a smith's lead time is a direct correlation to the quality of their work. After all, the shooters waiting patiently on line for months on their build MUST have a good reason to, don't ya think???
Just some more things to consider when one attempts to compare a $500 upper to one twice the price. Obviously, the time & care taken to build each is not equal. Nor is the quality of the components in the build, or extra finish work involved to complete it...
Fact of the matter is, that both are probably worth EXACTLY what ya paid for 'em...
This is not meant to slam the 'do it yourself-ers' out there, you have my respect!
On the other hand & as stated above, there are very valid reasons why custom guns cost what they do.
And very valid reasons for why a basic upper assembly job can be done 'on the cheap'.
I can admire & use both to get the 'job done'. But I'd not go so far as to compare one to the other...
That makes perfect sense. What I would like to see is since Black Hole Weaponry and New Frontier Armory are working together on this project, they may be able to get the caliber ironed out, produce some quality barrels and then assemble a quality rifle/upper. This seems to be what happened with their 6x45 project. They offered a quality product at an affordable price and made many guys here very happy!