ndking1126
New member
I've been doing a little pricing on .308 ARs and it seems they are noteably more expensive than their .223 equivalent. And that's whether you are building your own or buying off the shelf. Why is that?
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AR price differences
- Thread starter ndking1126
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Birddog1911
New member
More metal required, more machining required.
Technosavant
New member
The .223/5.56 ones are made in massive volume, both for the government and for civilian markets. The .308 sized ones aren't made in anything near the same numbers. That impacts cost.
ndking1126
New member
Alright, I'll go with that. Still, seems to me a lower is a lower.
Birddog1911
New member
Alright, I'll go with that. Still, seems to me a lower is a lower.
This simply isn't the case. First, the majority of 5.56 lowers are made by a few companies, and marketed by everyone else. There are also millions of them.
Every .308 lower is different from manufacturer to manufacturer. Those companies had to invest heavily in order to forge them. It's not like Aero Precision who has made enough in return on what they invested to forge 5.56 lowers; it takes time to see that money come back.
So, take investment cost, in addition to additional metal, and that is what you get; a more expensive rifle.
You may want to keep in mind that many of the parts may be proprietary, and wouldn't work from one company to another.
Alright, I'll go with that. Still, seems to me a lower is a lower
Quite right, the cost of making a 5.56 or a 308 lower is the same. Little more metal in the 308 but the process is exactly the same, same process, same amount of machining, the 308 lower must be a little stronger but everything is the same.
The problem is SUPPLY AND DEMAND, margin of profit is the same, but more 5.56s are sold than the 308 so to get the same results you must charge more for the 308 because you are selling fewer of them. (untill the army starts using 6.8 SPC) Then the 308 lower will cost less than a 5.56 lower. Except then there will be a ton of supplus 5.56 lowers and their price will drop like a rock, untill they are all gone and then the price of a 5.56 lower will cost twice what a 308 lower will.
Jim
Last edited:
It's rarely material cost that makes up the difference. There's likely just an ounce or two in finished weight 5.56 vs. .308, mostly in the larger mag well (no, lowers aren't interchangeably the same.)
What costs a lot more is to change out the forging dies, then run a few hundred lowers that sell much more slowly. 5.56 dies are simply left in the machine until they wear out stamping tens of thousands of platters. They get the money out of them. .308 dies will take 10 times longer.
Same on the CNC setup, load the program, add the different sized platters, and machine a few hundred. 5.56? Some CNC machines never get a program change. No extra set up fees or down time.
BCG's, bolts, etc. .308 parts necessary for it's specific make are low production, high cost items. There's no government contract to compete for, very few offshore sales, and a small market in American. Nine million ARs/M16s/M4's have been built, only thousands of AR10's in comparison.
Having a custom knife made to your desire is labor, about $4-600. The same materials finished in a production knife, same lock, same style, $85. Ask yourself, do you get what you pay for? In utility, maybe not. The knives are the same, the AR10 vs AR15, same - you launch a bullet.
Reality is, you can't EDC a 10" Bowie well, and large caliber AR's have their costs and drawbacks, too.
What costs a lot more is to change out the forging dies, then run a few hundred lowers that sell much more slowly. 5.56 dies are simply left in the machine until they wear out stamping tens of thousands of platters. They get the money out of them. .308 dies will take 10 times longer.
Same on the CNC setup, load the program, add the different sized platters, and machine a few hundred. 5.56? Some CNC machines never get a program change. No extra set up fees or down time.
BCG's, bolts, etc. .308 parts necessary for it's specific make are low production, high cost items. There's no government contract to compete for, very few offshore sales, and a small market in American. Nine million ARs/M16s/M4's have been built, only thousands of AR10's in comparison.
Having a custom knife made to your desire is labor, about $4-600. The same materials finished in a production knife, same lock, same style, $85. Ask yourself, do you get what you pay for? In utility, maybe not. The knives are the same, the AR10 vs AR15, same - you launch a bullet.
Reality is, you can't EDC a 10" Bowie well, and large caliber AR's have their costs and drawbacks, too.