whats 400 more anyway lol
If you think a 642 (with which the LCR directly competes) costs $1500, you are smoking some really good **** (or I will sell you as many as you want). It's 400 and change, same as the Ruger is, around here.
A 686 isn't $1500, either, but regardless, it doesn't compete with the LCR.
calling the LCR a polymer gun is like saying your car is made of paint. Yes, you SEE the paint but it has very little to do with the structure of the car.
The little metal spaceframe inside the polymer shell is a HELL of a lot cheaper to make than a revolver where the frame is exposed, because the Ruger block of metal can be very, very ugly, with almost no fit and finish required, and still be acceptable. An all-metal gun has to be finished. Molding plastic is REALLY cheap and easy, and apart from the cylinder, that's the only part of the LCR that has to look finished.
Have you ever taken a rough, unfinished revolver frame and barrel from the machine shop, and finished them so that they will look pretty when they're blued? I have. It's a royal PITA. A bare stainless gun or a clearcoated alloy gun require the same work.
Ruger figured out a way that they can avoid doing all that work, by surrounding the frame with plastic. More power to them. But as a customer, I want to see some benefit to me, in the form of a dramatically lower price than something that I know from personal experience takes a lot more to turn into a finished revolver.
So regardless of what surrounds the cylinder, the LCR costs a hell of a lot less to make than an SP101, a Model 60, or an Airweight J-frame. As a customer, I want to buy it for a lot less.
When I can get a polymer snubbie that costs $250-300 instead of the $400-500 that is standard for guns like Airweights, I'll be interested. There is no OTHER reason to buy one, that I can see. They're not lighter, they're not stronger, and they won't outlast modern metal alloys. So they'd better give me something, and that would be
cheaper. It's pretty simple.
The point is that, if Ruger can make a cheaper revolver that works well, from plastic and some easy-to-make metal parts, then I want to BUY the thing for cheaper than a revolver that costs a good deal more to produce. There's no particular benefit to ME if a company can make their product for a fraction of the cost, but the price is the same as the nicer competition.
