[John Rogers]

Well Jeff hope I can help. I am guessing several things make this kit expensive, probably the biggest is the cost of the barrel. Depending on who made it and where and how well the rifling is cut it can be a huge expense. I bought a "chunk gun" several years ago that had a Douglas XX 50 caliber stainless barrel (made in 1950) that I found was put together by a fellow in Gas City Indiana. The whole rifle sans scope was offered at $350 plus shipping. When I asked my late mentor if it was a good deal, he yelled at me to hang up, call the seller back since the barrel was worth $3000 give or take a little! Seems Douglas makes very few of these and when I called them to see how to care for a SS barrel the oldest guy there remembered making it and he said that the $3000 price was probably about right...good golly I was shocked. Oh yeah he also said about a 3 year wait to get one if I wanted a replacement! Yikes!
John