Steve

I don't know if this is any help since what applies to Nioa and Weatherby might not be the same with Winchester.

With Weatherby I deal direct with the bloke in the custom shop and do the leg work and form my own relationship with them. He gives me pricing in US retail and sends the "Nioa" price to Nioa, then Nioa gives me the recommended retail and my Weatherbys are sitting at Horsely Park Gun Shop awaiting our stupid gun law paper work.

When I settled on what I was getting I spoke to Nioa and they rang Horsley Park and I went in and got the price and paid 50% deposit.

Are you ordering the Custom Safari Express or Custom African Express.

One other point, and again it might be different to Weatherby, if you form your own relationship with the people in Winchester you might find you can do different things to what are "catologued" and also get then to sneak on some good wood for you.

Mike