I concur that they're a little pricey. I just this afternoon coon-fingered one at my Academy Sports They had both the compact and the standard rifle, both priced at $269.00, which is better than MSRP, but directly next to it on the rack was a 10/22 for $200.00 even. It's hard for me to justify the extra money, although I admit it is nice rifle. If I had to choose, I'd probably go with the compact model, simply because I like a shorter LOP.