SAN 511 .50cal

[zZ_denis]

There are two factors involved. You've touched on one, cost of production.
The second is cost of production facilities.

If you have a factory running at 100% capacity, retasking it to make a second product begins with the expectation that at minimum, the second product will result in a profit at least as great as the primary product.

When you have idle capacity, filling it with anything that brings a profit and amortizes the cost of tooling makes sense. When you don't, you don't cut your bottom line.

Sadly, i agree. If i was a manufacturer, i'd rather make 100 rifles per year and sell them at 3000% profit than producing 2000 rifles instead and only selling them at 150% profit. Same money, less hassle. This seems to be the idea of .50 BMG rifle manufacturers.

If your factory is running at 100% capacity, why expand that capacity (i.e. purchase more machines) and thus sell more product, if you can just increase the price of the product and make the same profit? There seem to be enough people who are OK with overpaying 3000% for something to let them get away with it.

I'd be scared to shoot that thing, any 50 bmg better be made from the best material or I am not getting behind it.

Another common myth. There is nothing uniquely scary about .50bmg. It operates at lower pressure (55k psi) than most common hunting calibers. There is a ton of sub $500 hunting rifles firing higher pressure cartridges. Are you scared to shoot them also?
.50BMG does not require ANY design changes or better materials than any common bolt gun. It just needs to be scaled up, proportionally to the cartridge size (i.e. more metal in critical parts).

[HeavyT]

Ive got a question, why the ##### do these things cost so must?? Like whos gonna buy them a ret*rd!! Same, basically, materials as other rifles and quality! Quality control only gets so good. Yes they are chambered in a heavy round and have tolerances for such but really? 15 G's?????

How 'bout BECAUSE THEY CAN, charge that amount...of course economy of scale, production volumes blah blah blah play into it, but c'mon, it's a Swiss 50, no need to get your panties all bunched up.

[Silverback]

On a topic other than price, is it just me or does the barrel look short on this rifle?

[boomboy]

On a topic other than price, is it just me or does the barrel look short on this rifle?

looks to be around 22" to me, then again I'm just estimating

[genevaroth]

15k is complete crap. Scale has nothing to do with it. just look at all the barrel and bolt makers in utah and montana, out of a single bay warehouse. All this is huge 50 cal markup, maybe not from the retailer. Even if they are a single product manufacturer, then the market is ripe for a 50 manufacturer that can come in at under $875. They are just using the old pricing tactic of what the market can bear model, not the gain market share model. Which is what manufacturers should be doing.

[P90Puma]

= Even if they are a single product manufacturer, then the market is ripe for a 50 manufacturer that can come in at under $875.

You can't even buy a quality mass produced Remington 700 for that (5R,Police,etc)

[Ar180shooter]

Although this could've been worded better, i kinda agree with this point.
There is absolutely no way that production of this rifle costs more than a SAN classic green, for example. Yet it costs 5x more.

Is this rifle more accurate than a Steyer HS-50? More reliable? Easier to use? Not likely, but it still costs 3 times the price of HS-50.

It seems that there is a huge "luxury tax" involved in .50bmg rifles. There is absolutely no other reason why a bolt action .50 cal should cost 10 to 30 times the price of regular bolt action hunting rifle (in a standard caliber), from a manufacturing point of view. It uses more metal and requires more machining, but with the cost of steel and modern manufacturing techniques (CNC), neither is a significant factor. It takes hours (or maybe a few days at most) to write a CNC program to machine this rifle from scratch. The basic design (bolt action rifle) was perfected 100-150 years ago, so there shouldn't be significant engineering costs involved either. Yes, it will cost a lot more to make on a smaller Swiss factory (compared to Remington, for example) but 30 times the price (of a Rem 700)? Come on..

That's like saying:

"Cars were perfected 100 years ago, so there shouldn't be significant engineering costs in designing a Ferrari."

"There's no reason why a Lamborghini should cost 10-30x that of a Hyundai."

You're looking at a rifle that is not only made of the finest materials to the highest levels of quality, but also one in such low production (due to very limited demand for .50's in general), that even mentioning Remington in the same sentence is f*cking full pants-on-head retarded. In don't mean to be a jerk, but you really have no idea about the economics of production, engineering that goes into a rifle like this, or the amount of actual work that would go in to producing a quality .50BMG rifle.

Between the level of quality, no economy of scale and requirements to recoup R&D costs, it's not surprising that it costs what it does.

[angrysoldier]

i have shot alot of 50 cal in my time. we use the barret tac 50. is it fun to shoot? sure it is, would i pay 15 k to own one- not on your life. i feel that guys who buy these rifles are the same guys who put 32 inch tires on thier mall crawler suv's and creep around the neighbourhood. im pretty sure they are making up for something. and all 50 cal rifle shooters know you should NEVER shoot any more than 10 rounds at a time?? why? go ask your eye doctor. just my 2 cents. i hope i dident hurt any feelings.

[GunGuy34]

i have shot alot of 50 cal in my time. we use the barret tac 50. is it fun to shoot? sure it is, would i pay 15 k to own one- not on your life. i feel that guys who buy these rifles are the same guys who put 32 inch tires on thier mall crawler suv's and creep around the neighbourhood. im pretty sure they are making up for something. and all 50 cal rifle shooters know you should NEVER shoot any more than 10 rounds at a time?? why? go ask your eye doctor. just my 2 cents. i hope i dident hurt any feelings.

Do you know the girl in your avatar? If so pics please:D

[rivetc78]

$15,000 Rifle with an Airsoft Grip.....yippee.

I'm sure someone is counting their pennies right now to see if they can buy it.