The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post - Why are Hogue G-10 grips so expensive?

thatgrittyguy · September 5, 2012, 07:57 PM

I'm a plastics engineer, I'll throw in my 2 pennies' worth.

CAD/CAM software costs can be mostly ignored. I say this because with the same license, you can design grips for any number of guns. You don't have to buy a new software license for each design effort.

Decent injection molding dies run between $50k~$100k. In the USofA, you need to amoratize dies within 2 years. My guess is that the sales volumes are kinda low and it may boil down to a couple of bucks per set of grips to pay for the die.

The molding machine can be had for cheap. They last forever. You can likely assume pennies per part go into maintaining and running the machine.

Material cost is also pennies.

Without knowing production volumes, my guess is that they cost 100 bucks because enough people are willing to pay 100 bucks. Supply and demand.

Again, my two cents worth.

September 5, 2012, 07:57 PM	#11
thatgrittyguy Junior Member Join Date: January 28, 2012 Posts: 7	I'm a plastics engineer, I'll throw in my 2 pennies' worth. CAD/CAM software costs can be mostly ignored. I say this because with the same license, you can design grips for any number of guns. You don't have to buy a new software license for each design effort. Decent injection molding dies run between $50k~$100k. In the USofA, you need to amoratize dies within 2 years. My guess is that the sales volumes are kinda low and it may boil down to a couple of bucks per set of grips to pay for the die. The molding machine can be had for cheap. They last forever. You can likely assume pennies per part go into maintaining and running the machine. Material cost is also pennies. Without knowing production volumes, my guess is that they cost 100 bucks because enough people are willing to pay 100 bucks. Supply and demand. Again, my two cents worth.