What makes NR AR style / similar rifles more expensive in Canada

Economy of scale. AR's are the most mass produced firearm on the market. Not hard to figure out why they're cheaper.

Oh, and then there's the NR tax lol...
 
Well I have a couple of theories but please don't accept these as fact. The $1000 NR style AR you're referring too is probably the WK-180C? Well the cost is probably eaten up in development and then tooling for Kodiak to even produce it. For a company to start making AR's, what development do they need to do? Everyone buys their raw aluminum forging from the same companies. Parts are EVERYWHERE! This is a recipe to make a platform potentially inexpensive. Another theory is the developer or importer isn't afraid to potentially sink a little extra money into the gun bringing costs up a bit because they know the gun will sell as a non-restricted. Such as the case with the SG 542. No way that gun is worth that much money but I wouldn't be surprised if the importer went to the manufacture, asked for a price for say... 1000 units for over the next 5 years, and the manufacture said, "where not willing to fire up the shop for that small of an order unless you're willing to pay ____ this much per unit." The importer accepts the price because the know the gun will be eaten up by Canadians with non-restricted licenses. Again, these are just theories. Please don't go around repeating them as fact.
 
It is 90% economy of scale and 10% greed and capitalism.

Approximately 1,300,000 AR-15 are sold per year in the US according to some sources, and I doubt all other black rifles combined equal that much, but if that was the case, there has to be 50-100 proprietary non-AR designs with in that market space, making their average market share 13-26k units annually. As soon as you look at a proprietary design that isn't mass produced by several competing companies, widely adopted by military, law enforcement, and civilian ownership, require advanced manufacturing practices (milled recievers VS forged), etc, it all drives up the cost. The AR is a 60yr old design that was ahead of it's time and has had the neccessary support, time, and adoption rate to be tailored into the incredible value it is today, and even the military's see the advantage in this. There might be better designs out there but the cost to execute the move to a new design is far to great for the minuscule advantages they may provide. This is why the average non-AR runs 4-5x the cost of a basic AR like the S&W M&P15.

Then for Canada you bring in special limited runs with 18.5" barrels, that jacks up the price probably an average of $250, then you have the importer middle man who wants to pad his bottom line with $250 where it will most easily be accepted (NR), and you can quickly see how the price climbs that extra $250-500 over the US offered (often restricted here) examples once conversion etc have been accounted for.

Honestly, your best value for dollar spent is to buy a 20" AR for $600-750 and a NR reciever set from ATRS or MDI and be all in for 2k.
 
Short answer, Obama. A decade ago you couldn't find an AR15 for under $1,000. It was like a miracle when the Norc CQB came out at around $700 up here. The great assault rifle ban scare lead to a massive increase in production of AR's and the market was saturated.
 
-Small production runs for the Canadian market
-Canadian-specific modifications (18.6" barrel, other redesigns)
-Exchange rate
-Permits & Customs fees
-Shipping & Storage charges
-Marketing

All of those things add up, and that's before the importer / distributor takes their percentage. There's plenty of super expensive restricted guns out there too - this isn't an issue specific to non-restricted guns. A better comparison would be how Wolverine can sell a complete rifle for their price point when Maccabee and ATRS are selling receivers only for around the same price - that's a much better example of an NR tax. All three examples are made in Canada and aren't subject to import fees or exchange rates.
 
Milofficer said:
-Small production runs for the Canadian market
-Canadian-specific modifications (18.6" barrel, other redesigns)
-Exchange rate
-Permits & Customs fees
-Shipping & Storage charges
-Marketing

All of those things add up, and that's before the importer / distributor takes their percentage. There's plenty of super expensive restricted guns out there too - this isn't an issue specific to non-restricted guns. A better comparison would be how Wolverine can sell a complete rifle for their price point when Maccabee and ATRS are selling receivers only for around the same price - that's a much better example of an NR tax. All three examples are made in Canada and aren't subject to import fees or exchange rates.
Click to expand...

Then again, ATRS has a long waiting list at their price so they have no incentive to lower prices yet... obviously people value the AR-compatible NR receiver sets more than they value having $1000 in their pocket. Or a WK180C (which I had but sold after a week due to the poor aesthetics - just too thick and clunky.) As long as we keep the Liberals out of power, the price of the NR receiver sets will decrease once the early adopters all have theirs and ATRS has spare manufacturing capacity. There's no point in increasing capacity (and ending up with excess capacity once the pent-up demand is fulfilled) because the customers are willing to wait. It's a good position for them to be in. Plus, quality-wise, the ATRS receivers are on par with a $500 to $600 AR15 set. Better than a $200 forged milspec set. In short, ATRS is making a higher margin than Wolverine but it's purely based on what buyers are willing to pay. If I had the spare coin, I'd have one on the way at the current price.
 
Along with economy of scale as mentioned there is another factor most don't consider.

RISK

What if tomorrow the queens cowboys decide that these NR black rifles are prohib or Restricted. Then you have lots of R&D and machinery/tooling costs over your head.

The more you think about it the more it makes the price seems reasonable and of coarse these company's want to make money. That is the reward of taking the risks.
 
Last edited:
Something not mentioned so far is that manufacturing costs in Canada are higher. Everyting from business taxes to labour rates are higher. A journeyman machinist in Canada is $35-40/hr. In the US $15-25/hr.
 
onetwentyish said:
Honestly, your best value for dollar spent is to buy a 20" AR for $600-750 and a NR reciever set from ATRS or MDI and be all in for 2k.
Click to expand...

I agree with this 100%.

This one cost me $2100 to put together. That includes the ATRS receiver set, a brand new Stag Arms rifle (that I got a smokin' deal on) and $100 for the "infidel" ejection port cover and charging handle.

IMHO a build like this is a much better value than most of the other NR platforms out there.

attachment.php


attachment.php
 
Milofficer said:
For my money, I'd take a brand name forged lower over a billet set any day. I'd much rather put that money elsewhere.
Click to expand...

I agree. Billet looks nice but isn't necessary. But forging dies are expensive and a small production run is cost-prohibitive. That's why AR15 manufacturers buy raw forgings from just a few suppliers.
 
rifleman762 said:
I agree. Billet looks nice but isn't necessary. But forging dies are expensive and a small production run is cost-prohibitive. That's why AR15 manufacturers buy raw forgings from just a few suppliers.
Click to expand...

Yep. Just one more reason why ARs are cheaper than everything else. There's a huge established manufacturing infrastructure in place, and at the consumer level, everyone takes advantage of the economy of scale. Anyone can buy OEM completed receivers from a supplier like Aero for example, and slap their own logo on it.

btw Jiffx, that's a really nice build.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom