M24 sniper rifle retails for $7K - why is this?

Simple answer- its a military rifle made from the finest medals.. Stick to a cheaper regular bolt action rifle and get the same performance as this one
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V

Each M24 infused with the ashes of Simo Haya, Carlos Hathcock, and is blessed by Rob Furlong.

its not just the rifle, the scope retails for around 1500 IIRC...as for the rest of the rifle...I dunno if its a better rifle than say a FN TSR XP...that rifle is about 1100 MSRP, add the Mk4 mod 3 and your still less than half the cost for a overdressed Model 700 (this is my opinion...)

You can figure that you can find a nice Savage tactical that will do most anything that rifle you posted can do for a bit less than the FN.

It all depends I guess how much you have to spend, how much bragging you need to do, and, I am sure, other factors.


D

Remember the $600 toilet seat and the $400 hammer from the 1980s?

Same deal there I imagine.
No doubt the government pays that much for a $1,000 Model 700 without optics.

rc

Wrong. The government gets the lowest price. The only variation from that is where their specs require extraordinary features. An example of that was the milspec for a thermos for the B-1 that would withstand the impact into the side of a mountain at cruising speed and keep a liter of coffee warm for 24 hours -- forget that the crew would all be very, very, dead. The testing alone was millions of chargeable dollars. How about the glass ashtray that, if knocked off a certain high desk on to a particular type of concrete floor with a specific paint, was not allowed to break into more than x pieces none of which were allowed to be less than y size and never sharper than z -- by the time they were done testing these the government had to buy $700 ashtrays. Woolworth's had Olive Drab Bakelite ones for $0.99, and forget that eventually no-one was going to be allowed to smoke anywhere...

The gov't wants what it wants, when it wants it, how it wants it. Sadly, today, they are likely to find their suppliers guilty of a minor issue and fine them for most of their money back and fewer and fewer reputable firms are doing business with them. Part of the price is insurance from this -- "if you wanna buy our rifle go to Walmart -- if you wanna buy YOUR rifle it is $7,000 less whatever you can sue us for except now we can afford the accountants and attorneys while you screw the public instead of us."

This is old news -- government agencies are self-funding. Not only do they direct fees to pet Unions and overpay with tax money but they get some of the payments back to fund their administration. They also hire more and more auditors every year to "catch" their suppliers and extort money. I heard one agency head at a meeeting tell everyone to use the Civil False Claims Act because then she could get three times as much cash out of her private industry "partners"! I watched an agency threaten to lock up a VP for making a mistake on a document or pay a $24 Million "settlement" for $5 Million dollars worth of business!

Gulf War I -- neither of the manufacturers at the time would sell the US Gov't SatNav equipment so that all the vehicles could navigate the deserts. How'd they get 'em? The Japanese Gov't bought them commercially and donated them to the Army: that was their contribution to the coalition war effort, and we were lucky.

More than ever the governement is organized crime due largely to Democrat party influence.

Al

Our Tactical shooters here in Battle Creek, just recieved new R700s from the custom shop for $7000 a pop. But they came with cans, muzzle brakes, cantilevered scope rail to ad NV, Pelican hard case, Harris swivel bipods, MK4 scopes, what else.......And they still paid too much

Because there are some who will pay that would be my guess.

A good R700 with just a simple tune can be about the same for under $1000

$7K I'll take an accuracy international for that kind of coin.

Because civilians like owning military stuff. No way the DOD pays that much for them.

Dod prolly payin round 2k for em

IMHO they are all over priced these days. So is everything else, we can't get a break.

Enough rich guys are willing to pay that much so they can say they have an M24.

we can't get a break.

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I don't know about that. You just have to poke around a little. You can go buy the same make and model used by Hayha for $400 or less.

I guess military contractors can charge whatever, you'll be amazed how much they charge for simple stuff like nuts and bolts, they are 10 times cheaper if army would buy them from hardware stores, its also who gets the contract the whole politics is very touchy subject, but look at the bright side do you know who actually pays for m-24 ;-) you guess correctly we are, the taxpayers )))

Supposedly the M24 rifles (unlike the production 700 or 700P rifles) are hand-fitted and tested to specific accuracy standards before being sold. My understanding is that the trigger is smoothed out and tuned prior to sale. Instead of just being assembled using random parts the M24 barrel, action, bedding blocks, and trigger are precision hand-fit to match together. The rifle is guaranteed to shoot an average mean radius (group size) LESS THAN or equal to the values stated below:
200 yards 1.3 inches
300 yards 1.9 inches
200 meters 1.4 inches

Furthermore, it has to meet all the specifications shown in the Military Specification MIL-R-71126(AR), Released 24 September 1992. Download it at the below link. I work on military contracts and the price of products goes up significantly when you have to make things work for the assorted and random military requirements. However, you end up with something that will work regardless of what you throw at it.
http://www.everyspec.com/MIL-SPECS/MIL+SPECS+(MIL-R)/download.php?spec=MIL-R-71126.007029.PDF

Whether this stuff is worth $7k is up to you... evidently the market demand says it is worth it.

The person who buys that rifle will definitely be outshot by the guy with a $1,000 rifle who's put the other $6,000 into training/schools.

Although I'm sure someone who can drop $7k on a rifle has the coin left over to train if they reallly want to shoot rather than have a safe queen.

If that is seated in a ROBAR Stock ? that's where the big $$$$$$ come in

meh. I assembled a rifle using the same action that shoots better than the mil spec requirement for the M24 for less than $1,500. I get just under 1/3 MOA from a Remmy 700 SPS Varmint in a cheapy Choate stock with a $500 Millett scope. Some people just dig having the same stuff as our outstanding military members though. for $7k I'll find a Barrett M82.

Our Tactical shooters here in Battle Creek, just recieved new R700s from the custom shop for $7000 a pop. But they came with cans, muzzle brakes, cantilevered scope rail to ad NV, Pelican hard case, Harris swivel bipods, MK4 scopes, what else.......And they still paid too much

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Yep. The price is partly because the M24 System is much more than just the rifle. And it's partly because selling it commercially means there are some buyers out there who really will buy it for the "oooo I have a M24" factor. It's a good setup, but if you really wanted all that stuff, you could buy exact pieces individually and set up an M24 System that is identical to the issue version in every way but the serial number. And for less money.

probably because bragging rights cost you premium prices

Prices for DOD on M4s is 586 USD per unit. M9s are 263 USD.

Yes, the government gets a better price.

I used to shoot targets with a Savage/Anshutz .22 rifle

back in the 1960's...It was a very good rifle and capable of shooting so accurately it was actually boring me...yet it was not even near a top .22 rf target rifle.

As you get close to the absolute top end of accuracy, the cost goes up geometrically - and the little bit of difference in accuracy between the absolute best and the nearly the best is very small. It is probably beyond the capability of most of us to shoot well enough to tell the difference...it certainly is beyond me now, even if it might not have been at one time.

There is a reason that not everyone is a sniper - not everyone is that good a shot, not ever would be no matter the training or experience.Our best trained and naturally gifted shooters should get the best rifles we can make.
Others - even the above average great shots- would not be good enough to require such a fine tuned specialized weapon.

Don't know if this answers any of your question, but...IMO, a lot of high end firearms sell to people who want to have it just so they can say they have it...The manufacturers are very happy to sell them anything they want...they are in business to making money, you know...


mark

Prices for DOD on M4s is 586 USD per unit. M9s are 263 USD.

Yes, the government gets a better price.

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I'd bet if you were placing orders for lots of 100,000+ you could get similar prices, except you'd still have to pay the $100 excise tax per rifle

probably a dumb question but isnt that price tag for the .338Lapua model they put together? or at least the sniper SYSTEM including all the doodads and gismos and whatchacallits? im seriously asking because for some reason i remember the .308 (and .300WinMag version as well) being alot cheaper just a few years back before everyone went lapua crazy

and yea for $7K ill have a couple rifles built for me lol