Manufacturing is essentially about making a product at a given price point, and locking in costs through contractual agreements for a specified time period...manufacturers commonly do this with their suppliers based on yearly projections.
As Reed stated in his last post on this thread, in his opinion, their rifles are spec'd the way the market wants them to be because they are selling them, so if a customer wants something different at this point, then the customer will have to pay the difference.
But one might question that if there were no cost difference to manufacture to a different spec, then what are the extra costs that will be passed on to the customer that he is talking about?
Anyway, that's what Reed was saying, and it's their business, so you'll have to call them up and argue with them about it, but if your Amaxes are happy in a 9 twist, then no worries, you can buy one of their production 9 twist 6mm barrels and not have to pay the additional costs for a faster twist barrel...that don't exist.
If I go to Barlein's site - I don't pay extra for a twist I desire. I pay extra for contour or length. IOW - TWIST has no effect on the barrel makers COGS and thus they don't charge extra based upon twist. Same with Brux and it was the same with Krieger.
1. LAW isn't taking delivery of a years worth of barrels at any one time.
2. Their barrel maker has a COGS for each barrel and charges accordingly. If something affects COGS - cost to the customer goes up. Apparently the only thing affecting this is contour and length, NOT twist.
3. I would immediately fire any purchasing manager who entered an agreement where my costs as the rifle mfg are affected by changes to orders on inventory that my supplier hasn't even produced yet and it doesn't affect my producers cost to manufacture. One thing if there's a spike in commodity prices, that I understand. Twist rate changes don't fall into that category. If twist did - you'd pay more for a barrel with a 1-8 instead of 1-9 all else being equal. You don't because it doesn't.
4. The most likely purchase scenario for LAW and their barrel mfg is price A for 1-20 barrels, B for 21-40 and then C for 40+ (numbers are arbitrary) in standard contour, above a certain contour/length - different price. (as they've shown in their own pricing on their own web sites)
Pricing is dependent on number purchased AFTER minimums are met. It has nothing to do with twist. As far as the barrel mfg is concerned - it's simply volume as the twist doesn't introduce any extra cost to them.
If LAW is passing on extra costs to the customer to go out of their arbitrary twist rate - it's not because the new barrel is going to cost materially more from the mfg. It's because LAW is charging a convenience fee for not being able to simply make the rifle without concern for the specific customer. If every rifles the same - you don't have to worry as much about getting the right one to the right guy. Or LAW simply ordered a bunch, took delivery of a bunch (not a years worth) and now they sold a rifle that didn't actually reduce their inventory of barrels. They're carrying those costs longer. Not my problem because as it's been pointed out here - those who don't know - aren't going to complain about extra twist. Those who do know are going to complain about not having enough twist.
Servicing the latter does nothing to harm your ability to service the former. It increases your customer base at zero added cost.
