Has anyone noticed spare barrels for old fixed-choke guns are approaching the cost of buying the whole gun?

Anyone have a theory on what's going on there?

Supply and demand, with what is going on in Washington, panic has set in, people are paying any price for anything gun related. It is what it is



cdb

Kinda reminds you of a certain "toilet paper" phenomenon of last year. Silly.....

As someone that is actively looking to purchase a different barrel for an 1100, I can tell you that the prices are pretty high right now. Supply and demand is king though.
I'm looking for either a Skeet, or IC, choked barrel for an 1100 to use for steel shot, and they seem to be going for more than $300.00. An old poly choke, or Rem Choke, barrel can be $400.00. Rifled, Full, and Mod choke are less, so I think there are folks looking to do the same thing I am.
I personally will not pay that much for a barrel. I'll buy an A300 first, or send my existing barrel out to have it shortened 2", and add a choke set to it..
30 years ago just about every gun store in my area had garbage cans with barrels for 870's and 1100's on the floor. That just doesn't exist any longer. At least not where I live. Times have changed.

That's more or less what I'm talking about - if you were buying a 40 yr old shotgun, you might be able to get them to throw in another barrel as a bargaining point. I did that about 5 years ago at a pawn shop.

Now we're to a point where a whole 1100 might be 5 or 600, but the IC barrel is 400. Makes having a barrel cut and/or threaded look a lot more appealing.

Win50,

A lot of this comes back to the political environment we now find our selves in. Gun shops right now are making big money, people are purchasing all kinds of different weapons, and paying top dollar for many of them. My buddy who owns a gun shop is so busy he hardly has time to get the paper work done correctly on his guns sales. When sales are like this you can depend on paying top dollar for not only the guns, but gun parts including extra or replacement barrels.

Pine Creek/Dave
L.C. Smith Man