Well, I got my Surefires today.

[Cryptkeeper 0]

$10,000 for a mold and $10,000 for the engineering and preprototyping means $20K and at $46 per mag they only need to sell 435 magazines to recoup their costs.

 

If these mags were priced like they should be ($25) then they would only need to sell 800 of them and people like me would buy 100 of them meaning they would only need to find 8-10 high end weirdos (like me) to break even and the rest would be gravy and they would get their money faster.

 

Your figures seem to assume (after initital costs) the unit cost of each magazine is pretty much $0.00.

 

How many molds does it take to make a complete magazine? One, as you assume, or more? Maybe one (or two if it's made in thwo halves) for the body, one for the follower, and one for the baseplate?

 

I also wonder how accurate the $10,000 engineering figure is (maybe someone who's actually made one can comment)?

 

Also, leaving aside the mold and engineering costs, what is the per unit cost per magazine (labor, power, insurance, magazine spring, etc.)?

 

Finally how much profit per unit will you allow (you do believe they should make a profit, don't you)?

 

 

i work at a refrigerator factory, i make the plastic liners inside, each mold cost 1 million dollars and 1 mold may make like 10 mags all at once,it all depend on how much they invested into it, i would think they made a mold to fit existing machines so start up cost is lower.and for a refrigerator you need 2 molds just to give you an idea of what it may cost 10k would be very cheap

Edited January 25, 2008 by Cryptkeeper

[fossten 1]

I cycled my ammo through my surefires yesterday - worked great. Haven't fired them yet though, too cold outside.

[Jack A Sol 2]

I cycled my ammo through my surefires yesterday - worked great. Haven't fired them yet though, too cold outside.

 

 

That when you need to test them!! if its cold then you are actually testing the mag better cause its slightly smaller and will be more sensitive to feeding issues.

if it works in the cold it'll work in the hot.

[mr. fudd 0]

I cycled my ammo through my surefires yesterday - worked great. Haven't fired them yet though, too cold outside.

 

 

That when you need to test them!! if its cold then you are actually testing the mag better cause its slightly smaller and will be more sensitive to feeding issues.

if it works in the cold it'll work in the hot.

 

Well, there was frost on the ground and hail stones from a few days earlier that still hadn't melted when I did my shooting last Monday, so it was cold. No problems with the mags though.

[1liter 20]

Is it difficult to change mags with the LRBHO? I imagine it is held by the bolt tension.

[sggrosso 0]

So does the BHO make removing the mags a PITA?

 

And also, do you have any more baseplates?

 

 

I have 4 Tromix made baseplates w/out holes and 4 baseplates with holes drilled through.

These are all $3 each +$2 shipping up to 1Lb. I can always make more at the same price (until the aluminum sheet runs out)

e-mail at sggrosso@comcast.net to order or for other info.

[Conklin 0]

Some more field testing done...I now have a few of these Surefire 25 rounders.

 

Not a single problem with the mags. It has been cold, they have been dropped, bumped around walking in the woods, and flew around the cab of my truck without a hitch. They have cycled ammo flawlessly...hell I have never had a problem with my saiga anyway.

 

The bolt catch on the surefire is kinda ghey. Its not that its hard to remove the mag or anything, but you cant bring the bolt back when closed and on an empty mag. Also, the bolt locks against it, and slams home (dont have enough hands to hold the bolt, the rifle, the mag relase). Not that this is a huge issue, but something to think about.

 

Though it is nice not having to deal with "click"...from the safety aspect, not a bad idea at all. From a combat standpoint, well...this is a "hunting carbine"...though I would have no problem taking a saiga .308 into a firefight. If I had the choice and had to go again, I would take a saiga over a M4/16 (though the ar10's are nice too)

[Jimba 0]

My surefire mag works just fine, my only comment otherwise is that all magazines are much more expensive than they used to be.

Thanks, Jimba