ORIGINAL: younggun243
I was talking about custom rifle makers, not Dakota.
I was asking why would a barrel for a Dakota caliber be more expensive, which isn't manufactured by Dakota itself. Is there something special about the cartridge design? Does the bullet havean odd diameter? What is it?
The ammo could cost more if it's only made by an elite company, but an amateur gunsmith wouldn't need to charge extra for a barrel in a certain caliber, right? That's like saying a .300 Win. Mag. barrel is going to cost more than a .30-06. The price of the bullet is irrelavent to the barrel price,right?
A gunsmith would probably charge more to make an oddball chambered rifle because he has to have a reamer for the chamber. And a reamer for a Dakota caliber is probably hard to come by, not to mention expensive. And if he makes a rifle chambered in that caliber for you, how many more will he make. Probably not many.
And if he orders the bbl pre-reamed, it will cost more for the same reason. Not too many people buy rifles in that particular caliber. If they did, it wouldn't be a wildcat and a major ammo company would load it.
JMHO of course.