I bought the rifle at Cabela's for $450 (brand new) on, a maybe not repeated, sale! But, I think their 'new' price is in the $500 - $550 range, so I am going to say your gun shop deal is not real good.
I will say, this is a very nice gun and it is well worth $500 bucks. Mine will equal a highly touted, on this board anyway, custom rifle. Yeah, fit and finish isn't as good but performance is and that is where it counts. Right? :grin:
You can't compare this to the Blue Ridge, they are not similar at all. Kinda like comparing a TC Seneca to a TC Hawken. :hmm:
If you want it and you like it ................get it!