doublegunshop.com - home Forums Thread Like Summary - eye popper

So I was chatting with an ex H&H barrel man this morning who still does a bunch of work for the trade including the big name houses and was floored with the cost of a new set of barrels through a top tier gunmaker. I knew it was high because I had a price quote a little of ten years ago of 22,000 gbp. I about dropped the phone when I heard the current price 37,000 GBP. Lots of work and skill required to be sure but dang, that is some serious loot!

Last I heard…H&H, Purdey, and others make their own barrels in house. Pretty much always have. A barrel blank is not a barrel. They get those from whomever. The actual making of the barrel is done entirely in house. Other provincial makers almost certainly outsource the barrel work unless they themselves specialized (apprenticed) in barrel making before striking it out on their own.

My theory for the absurd cost of having new barrels made by one of these makers is this…..price the work so high that nobody will want to have it done, that way most of the effort stays will fulfilling new gun orders.

If someone sent a late 1890’s or early 1900’s H&H Royal back to the factory and spent 30k GBP to have a new set of barrels made for the gun…the gun would not magically be worth 30k+ GBP. It would now be a very nice vintage gun with very expensive factory replacement barrels….and the entire gun maybe worth 10 to 15k USD….maybe 20k USD to an idiotic buyer who just had to have it (those guys are out there).

These are consumer goods that are luxury products. The makers/sellers should offer up the fruits of their labour at any price the market will bear. Good for H&H if someone will pay them $45,000 usd for a replacement set of barrels. Or $150,000 for a new gun. It's called the free market and if they want to continue in business and no one is buying at those prices, my guess is they will come down. In the mean time, more power to them.

No, not really. I understand why nice things cost a lot of money, I get it….but 37k GBP for barrels is a tad on the absurd side.

I wonder what the price difference is for dovetail lump barrels.

You charge what the market will pay. H&H can do it, or have it done, for less but we’ll heeled owners must be willing to pay it. New guns are near six figures so a third of that to bring back the portion most likely to wear out to factory new condition to me gives the gun four to six decades, if not more, of use. Spread out over 50 years and perhaps several owners, it seems less outrageous. I wish I had a rack full of guns worthy of investing that much money into.

I realize everyone on this board already knows this to some extent.

The real question for me is where rebarrelling can be done at a price I can pay without going too far upside down.

My desire vs reality may already be ridiculous.

If the market gets so expensive that new guns don’t get made, high end double guns begin to die.

If the trade makes rebarreling impossible by price (we are almost there now) And worse no one is even doing it then all the worn out guns with thin walls become permanent wall hangers.

We are a fringe hobby that is shrinking more and more and the shrinking trade supporting it is concerning if you want to get an old gun rebuilt.

We will soon be left, if we are not already, with playing with those old guns still serviceable, that is until they wear out, then oblivion.

While it can be argued that there are plenty more side by sides still serviceable to supply our actual need, as opposed to our wants, it is that we want to be able to have.

I understand another post I read recently on the math and economics buying an already sleeved gun as smarter than buying one needing to be sleeved, true, however it ignores an underlying principle which is I want what I want. I have three guns for which I need barrels. All are shootable in their current form, I simply want new barrels on them. One I may of located a set of barrels in the white, but whether that works remains to be seen.

The other two a Purdey 16 with cut 26inch barrels that have Briley tubes that I want to replace with sound longer barrels, and a Boss with excellent wall thickness 12ga tubes on it, but I have discovered the frame is really lean and the same width or narrower than several of my light 16’s, so I want to have a set of 27inch 16ga barrels in addition to the nice thick 12ga 28inch barrels it already has.

Why because I like so many others on this board want that, and what they want, they want

New barrels are like the holy grail. A good set of new barrels will last through to my life, what is left of it, through into my Grand Son’s life (I pray he will like my guns and that I will last long enough to teach him)

The price point has been and will be the problem, I am not sure what that point is

My hope is that someone(s) on this side of the pond will start providing new barrels for classic British guns, whether someone already here or someone emigrates from the collapsing British trade and then provides the service.

In the end reality we face market forces that overwhelm desire and reason, there are not enough of us doublegun lovers with money to create the marketplace we want.

The next thing you know, you Canucks will be condoning Capitalism Hope you are well James.