Mfg. costs v. sales v. profit, once the profit goes below X production is over. To me they were always a little pricey, there were always much cheaper guns to to had. For example I paid $85.00 for a SR-FN Supreme action only - in about 72 (you can see the resulting rifle under Mauser Pics. on this site). You could puchase a Mauser actioned rifle at the time for aboout $100.00?, action only maybe $25.00. About 10-15 years later the asking price for action alone was $350.00. But I ramble, you get the picture. John303.