Holy crap. Does that mean those barrels cost $325 each? ...at least. They must. That just kinda killed it for me. I liked the gun at $2300, not so much at $3K. But if they start beating FX Impacts I will gladly pay $3,000.
Where do you get the $325 from?
The 3 barrel version cost $2950, so you remove 2 barrels down to $2450. €500 difference so they value the barrels at $250 each.
$2350 is the minimum they allow retailers to sell at but it's not the MSRP which is $2450.
What it means is that all the extra work that went into making the extra barrels can now be used on other parts of the manufacturing process.
As you mentioned the FX Impact how much does a barrel kit cost for the M3? The M3 doesn't use barrels but instead barrel liners and sleeves.
Looking at Pyramyds website a kit seems to be between $299.99 - 399.99 depending on kit chosen.
The advantage of the liners system is that you can easily swap liners without the need to get a new sleeve every time (unless changing barrel length, not sure if you need a new sleeve for caliber swap).
Negative would be since the liners are thinner they are more easily damaged from drops and such. Seen a few posts about damaged liners, not so much about barrels.
So what does a FX liner cost? Pyramid lists them at $109.99. That's just for the liner and not a complete barrel kit.
How much does it cost to manufacture an airgun? The price would surprise you, if you did all the work yourself you could probably manufacture a complete FX Impact M3 for less than $100, then again this does not include the cost of the machinery, technical skill and RnD that ha gone into developing the rifle.
From what I've been told the cost to manufacture a rifle is between 10-25% of the sales price depending on how complex the rifle is. A break barrels is much easier to manufacture than a PCP as an example, this is reflected in the price difference.
Once metal 3D printing becomes a viable option we might see prices for PCP rifles drop by 50-70%. I believe 3D printers will be there in about 10 years.
Sure we can already do it today but the price of the printers and speed is too slow for mass production. Once you can print a metal 3D printer with a metal 3D printer the price of them will reduce exponentially. The price will then be the cost of materials used, electricity and expertise.
Then what is the true price of a barrel? Probably less than $20, it's the time, cost of the machines, maintenance, electricity and expertise you pay for as it's just a hollow tube after all.
Are the barrels available for the Epoch available for any other airgun on the market? Not as far as I know, FX doesn't offer a .225 or .2195 sleeve.
I think the removal of the 2 extra barrels is a good thing as they should never have been sold with the rifle to begin with.
They are a niche item meant for people who truly understand the mechanics of the rifle and looking to get that extra decimal point accuracy increase these barrels might provide.
I have not seen any video or review that explains just what advantage these extra barrels would have for the average user.
I think it's more of a detriment to have the extra barrels as it increased the price beyond most peoples budget and average users who don't understand the purpose of the extra barrels might consider the gun something too advanced for them to use.
IMO there should have been a base version of the rifle at launch with just 1 barrel and a pro version with the 2 extra. Extra barrels available for sale separately as well for those who want to experiment.
TLDR:
IMO Epoch barrels have a comparable price to others, especially when you consider that the "caliber" of the extra barrels are not standard.
Then again...
