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Are the American made guns that much inferior to the British?
A best quality English sidelock double rifle has about 800 man hours of labor in it before engraving.
A Searcy will cost you $10,500 for the very base model, or $14000 for the classic. At a fully loaded labor rate of $80 per hour (which is not very generous because it is the same as my muffler mechanic charges), how many hours can be put into a Searcy and still maintain some profit? Let's assume a minimum of $1000 in materials for steel and the stock blank. That means a maximum of 100 man hours of work in a Searcy to still maintain a profit. Of course the man hours can be cut by having some work done on a CNC, but machine rates run $50 to $80 per hour, plus the operator. So my guess (and it is purely a guess) is that a Searcy has about 80 man hours of labor in it. There is simply no way that an article with 80 hours of labor in it can achieve the same fit, finish and smoothness as one that has 800 man hours of labor in it. But they are pretty good for the money spent.
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