Actually, Terry and castnblast, the Brnos were more expensive, at least in my 1951 (published 1950) Gun Digest. Here are some contemporary prices, all from that issue:
Remington 721 .270 or 30-06 $79.95
Savage 99-R .250 or .300 Savage $99.00
Winchester 94 .30-30 $62.45
Winchester 70 Standard $109.50
Winchester 70 Super Grade $162.50
and by comparison:
Brno 21H or 22F $167.50
So, as you can see, the Brno was more expensive than a Win 70 Super Grade, was only brought in for a few years until imports from Communist countries to the US was banned, and was chambered in "weird" foreign calibers to boot. It's not that surprising to me that they weren't more popular. I like 'em anyway. :-)
Incidentally, here are some prices on a few other imported rifles:
FN Deluxe Mauser $137.50
Husqvarna (on FN action with Beech stock) $109.50
Sako L-46 (22 Hornet, the .222 came out the next year) $117.50
By the way, while the $30 difference between the Remington 721 and the Winchester 70 seems pretty trivial today, it was a major reason for the Remington overtaking the WInchester in sales, so it definitely was significant in those days. To give you an idea, according to the CPI inflation calculator, $30 in 1950 would be the equivalent of $275 today, and the $58 difference in cost between a standard grade M70 and a Brno 21H would be over $500 in 2011 dollars.
WOW! Both interesting and sobering! Thanks for the numbers.
