I suppose economy of manufacture does play as big part as any. Producing larger quantities of any product (usually) ensures that the per-piece cost is lower, relatively speaking. Whether or not the MSRP reflects low production costs is another matter, but I remember being taught that there was supposed to be a correlation. Custom and semi-custom guns aside, I wonder if there really is enough general market interest in single-shot rifles to enable a manufacturer to get the costs down on anything other than a break-open. The current Savage rimfires are still a step away from where I'd like them to be, but I am often tempted to buy one just to try and nudge things in the right direction.
Used original rifles in this neck of the woods seem to be either quite expensive, or very worn-out (and often are both), which has kept me from investing in them. I'm just coming back around to single-shots after a 20+ year absence, but being networked seems to still be very important if you want to find the "good stuff." In my case, it matters less than it might to others, because I have always had a phobia about messing up anything original... shooting one makes me nervous, and I have enough real worries the way it is without adding imagined ones. I still love to see people out with the oldies, but envy them as I might, I am (usually) glad they are someone else's guns!
So what to do if a person wants something new? That's the question I'm asking myself right now. I suppose I could take enough of that old, dusty money out of the bank to order a new Ballard or Shiloh Sharps (or maybe a Meacham) and wait my turn, but not without a bit (!) of resistance from my frugal spouse. There is no denying the superiority of fit and finish on the higher end pieces, but beyond a certain level, I run up against the law of diminishing returns and it becomes a matter of artistry and aesthetics to me. I don't need an exact copy of anything original (at least not right now), so once again, maybe I'm more likely to be easily pleased with a rifle that would not be someone else's cup of tea.
I have a T/C Contender carbine with a 16-1/2" T/C Custom Shop .22LR bull barrel that shoots very bit as well as a mid-level match gun, but with the Rynite stocks and that stubby tube, it is really more of a "pro-street" late 1990's buggy rifle that packs in a briefcase than it is an elegant small-game or offhand rifle. I have toyed with the idea of getting a new 26" barrel and replacing the synthetic furniture with walnut, thus making a sort of "faux Maynard" out of it. By the time I was done, even that setup probably wouldn't be "cheap enough" as far as my wife would be concerned, but it would be a lot closer than any domestic falling/rolling block replica; if it shot like my current shorty, it might actually be a bargain.
I think it is unfortunate that there isn't a larger pool of $1000 (or under) plain-vanilla single-shots that would hold up, shoot well and not look too glaringly out of place if transported in time back to a c. 1899 low-intensity schuetzenfest. I would personally prefer something that was made in the U.S.A., but one of the better Italian rigs wouldn't be out of line from the looks of things today. My last venture into foreign replicas was back when brass trigger guard/barrel-banded .45-70 Italian rollers were virtually the only thing in the game, but looking at some of the new Uberti and current Pedersoli single shot rifles makes me see how much they have matured. I haven't had the opportunity to actually wring out any of these imports, but they look pretty nice to me.
If Sturm, Ruger & Co. would make a .22LR version of the #1 with an appropriate barrel, #3 finger lever and a mid-range tang sight in place of the safety, I'd be happy as a lark (or clam, depending on what part of the animal kingdom is actually more jolly). Given the state of the industry in the U.S. right now, I'm not sure who else would be able to pull something like this off and still keep it at the price point I envision it. In any event, it would (in my mind) fill a niche in the current market, but maybe I'm way off the mark.
I apologize for the rambling "stream of consciousness" here, but I'm dazed and confused after being away from the single-shot game so long. It's a whole new world!
