Honestly it's been so many years ago I don't remember what I paid to have the mark 2 done I had Tim at SAS do that work when thay were located in Evansville but its been close to 2 decades ago . Seems like I heard a guy saying he called a local place and it was 125 to get a rifle threaded now. Probably not including a thread protector or any extras like moving sights. Still
You're correct it makes more since to buy a threaded host if buying something new. Back when i had most of my stuff threaded nothing was factory threaded except AR stuff for flash hiders and everything else was custom. At least to my knowledge. . That said I have only bought 3 rifles factory threaded and one threaded barrel for my glock. The rest I had threaded but was years ago. Today I want everything factory threaded if it's offered. Just makes more since and saves money and time.
Browning buck marks are one of my favorite .22s probably because my uncle had one and it was the first handgun I ever shot whan I was probably around 10. Add in I rolled the target every shot and my uncle made a big deal about it when I was young and impressionable and it stuck.
On the metering sound test they are always louder suppressed due to the open ejection on both sides of the slide. But that's with a sound meeter and not as easy to pick up with the human ear. They are great little guns.
Ah, I didn't realize it was so long ago you had it done. That make sense.
These days if a person needs a threaded barrel, ISTM the first step ought to be pricing a new gun and checking the resale value on the old gun.
I paid for threading on an AR-10 I really like last year, but its about a 1200-1500 $ gun. I like it and its accurate. I didn't want to roll the dice on the accuracy of a new gun in that price range. I also chose to overpay slighly on the threading service to let the suppressor company do it (they do thousands of them, and then its "one throat to choke" if alignment issues damage the suppressor).
I could also see someone paying for cutting/threading on a gun they're personally attached to.