It will improve. We're in a very odd time where anything a company builds will sell, due to unprecedented demand and genuine shortages occurring at the same time. When companies again have to compete for buyers, prices will drop as well. Can you blame the OEM's for jacking up wholesale pricing, rather than letting the retailers get it all? A CEO wouldn't last long if he left that on the table.
As far as Kimber goes, the Montana was an anomaly from the start. How those idiots managed to get that beautiful Sirkis design from concept to production is beyond me. All they've discovered since is paint and muzzle threading. Maybe they'll be smart enough to make more if they can command a big price, but don't count on it.
Domestic manufacturers seem to pass on quality for price over and over, telling themselves it's a good plan. It merely cheapens the brand and allows Tikka and the like to grow. The new Springfield Waypoint will sell like crazy - order as many as you can, SAS. But something good from Remington? I'll believe it when I see it. The new company may get the message but I doubt it. While they try Tikka will sell thousands. Seekins will grow. Springfield will become a name in bolt actions. CZ will command a larger and larger part of the rimfire market. Vudoo will be backordered for a year. Builders of 700 footprint actions and custom barrels will be backed up for months. A few new aftermarket stock companies will break ground, and one or two will stick around. Remember when it was just McMIllan and few also-rans? Custom - or at least semi-custom - is the new way.
We live in the BEST if times for shooters, but it isn't a cookie cutter retail market anymore on the high end. Cheap plastic and blued steel will sell, at low margins and [soon] low price. Ironically Remington started it all with easily machined actions, plastic stocks, sights, and grip caps. Then someone else did it better. Then another. And another....
