How important is a test target to you when purchasing a new rifle or custom gun? I’m looking for feedback from our TBH brethren regarding this topic to get a feel for how much value folks think this actually adds to the purchase of a new rifle. It is something we are considering doing moving forward as we get asked by quite a few potential customers when inquiring about our “ready to ship” production rifles.
We have not included them in the past for a multitude of reasons. One of the biggest factors is added cost. Given the number of rifles we produce we would need to hire another full time employee to set up optics, go to the range, shoot multiple brands of ammo through each gun, log data, clean rifles and remove optics every day of the week. All of that expense would have to be passed on to the customer for something they might not want or need. Secondly, we are confident in the product we produce and back it up. If a customer is not happy with it, neither are we…... Period. So is it really worth the extra $$ on the final price tag for a piece of paper with some holes in it? I also question if it really represents the true potential of the gun being sold. All it shows me is the test shooters skill that day with that particular lot of factory ammo in those particular conditions with a brand new barrel that hasn’t even begun to show it’s potential yet. None of which is valuable to me and I personally wouldn’t want to pay extra for it.
All that said, we’re building them not buying them and my views and opinions on it take a back seat to those of our customer’s. As mentioned earlier, we have received quite a few requests to include them when we list a new rifle for sale. We have no problem with doing just that if that’s what most customers really want to see. We just don’t want to add unnecessary costs if a majority of customers won’t find value in it, as it would be adding considerable costs to the final product.
So, what are YOUR thoughts???
I did grab 2 production rifles off the wall this morning, scoped them up and took them to the range and shot a couple test targets. Both shot 5 shot groups under ½” with factory ammo after a couple sighters to get them close on paper. I still don’t feel like I did either one justice. We’ll be posting them tomorrow on Facebook, Instagram or some such with the targets, so I guess we will see how its received.
Thanks,
Robert
Aprifles.com
We have not included them in the past for a multitude of reasons. One of the biggest factors is added cost. Given the number of rifles we produce we would need to hire another full time employee to set up optics, go to the range, shoot multiple brands of ammo through each gun, log data, clean rifles and remove optics every day of the week. All of that expense would have to be passed on to the customer for something they might not want or need. Secondly, we are confident in the product we produce and back it up. If a customer is not happy with it, neither are we…... Period. So is it really worth the extra $$ on the final price tag for a piece of paper with some holes in it? I also question if it really represents the true potential of the gun being sold. All it shows me is the test shooters skill that day with that particular lot of factory ammo in those particular conditions with a brand new barrel that hasn’t even begun to show it’s potential yet. None of which is valuable to me and I personally wouldn’t want to pay extra for it.
All that said, we’re building them not buying them and my views and opinions on it take a back seat to those of our customer’s. As mentioned earlier, we have received quite a few requests to include them when we list a new rifle for sale. We have no problem with doing just that if that’s what most customers really want to see. We just don’t want to add unnecessary costs if a majority of customers won’t find value in it, as it would be adding considerable costs to the final product.
So, what are YOUR thoughts???
I did grab 2 production rifles off the wall this morning, scoped them up and took them to the range and shot a couple test targets. Both shot 5 shot groups under ½” with factory ammo after a couple sighters to get them close on paper. I still don’t feel like I did either one justice. We’ll be posting them tomorrow on Facebook, Instagram or some such with the targets, so I guess we will see how its received.
Thanks,
Robert
Aprifles.com
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