It would be impossible for that store to have an XM3 for at least 20 years, since the original IBA XM3's built for the Marine Corps were made in 2006, which was 16 years ago. IBA had them available for police and other civilians to purchase from 2006/7 until they shut down however many years ago. The IBA XM3's were available in different packages the most "affordable" being the one without the nightvision and silencer. That package sold for about $8,500 (I don't know the exact number, you guys can Google serial it if you're that interested). This is about what I paid for my first XM3 back in 2012.
IBA didn't sell very many XM3's and that was due to multiple reasons. The first of which was obviously the price. Take away the NF NXS scope and you're still around $7k for the rifle. Think of all the other custom rifle builders in this price range, it's literally anyone you can think of and it's probably going to be a few thousand dollars cheaper than the XM3. Even though the XM3 was a very well built rifle, I'm pretty sure everyone on this forum (myself included and you guys know how much I like the XM3) would choose a Tac Ops over it for about the same price. Additionally, IBA wasn't a very well known company and has always remained rather obscure. GAP, LRI, RWS, etc. were much easier to find and easier communicate with.
These reasons and probably a few others meant that IBA XM3's were never a popular rifle and not many were made over the course of about a decade. Pretty much the only ones out there besides the USMC CMP rifles are the prototype DARPA rifles and the shop's test rifles (the ones that weren't USMC or DARPA). Beyond these, there's probably only a handful of custom orders. I've seen at least a dozen or more IBA Chandler custom rifles (his custom rifles built to the customer's specs) for sale, including one at my local FFL. However, I've never seen a regular 'ol IBA XM3 for sale. Well, I recently sold one of my XM3's to a friend, so 1 XM3 sale in the past decade.
For a collector, finding one of these original IBA XM3's is almost as good as getting one of the USMC CMP rifles. They're literally the exact same, they're in the same serial number range, built by the same guys at the same shop. The only difference is military provenance. People are spending tons of money now trying to find old parts that are no longer made in order to clone an XM3, but it will still never be an actual IBA built XM3.
So,
@VargmatII, if your gun store has an original civilian IBA XM3 with everything except the silencer, it's a pretty amazing find, especially for $7,000! Right now the few known civilian XM3's are worth more than their initial $8k+ because they're as close as you can get to a real USMC XM3 without paying real USMC XM3 money. If that's an IBA XM3 kit for $7k and you're a collector, that's an excellent price, buy it. If you're a shooter and not a collector, there's better values and options out there, even though the XM3 is an accurate rifle. If you're a collector who likes to shoot his rare rifles, then you'd like the IBA XM3, buy it.
If the rifle at your gun store is one of the Remington Custom Shop made XM3's, it's almost worth picking up at that price, since they originally sold for around $10,000. It's obviously not an IBA rifle and they were built using a 40X receiver instead of a stainless "S" prefix receiver like the USMC rifles. The markings will also be different and they're built by gunsmiths who didn't build the USMC rifles. To answer your question about what barrel the Remington XM3 used, they used a Hart barrel. And this is just for the Remington XM3 that looks like the IBA XM3 (there's also another version of the Remington XM3). This particular version was listed in Remington's catalogs around 2009/10 and I doubt they sold too many.
Just like the IBA XM3 this one was very expensive, but it's also less desirable to collectors because it's not an IBA rifle. Let's say it's 2012 and you want to buy an XM3, do you buy one from the original XM3 gunsmith or do you buy a more expensive copy from Remington? I was in this exact situation at one point and I bought the IBA rifle. So, if it's a Remington XM3 at your gun store, you can see why it's been sitting there for so long. Collectors don't really want it because it's not an IBA rifle and it's built on the wrong receiver. Shooters don't want it because they can buy pretty much anything else for less money and will be a better suited rifle for that person (custom build spec'd out by the user who's focused on shooting and not collecting, it doesn't have to be locked into the XM3 style). So, you have 2 groups of gun buyers, collectors and shooters, both passing over the Remington XM3.
There was also another type of "XM3" that was built by the Remington Custom Shop and that is the one I posted a photo and link to earlier in this thread. That's was the Custom Shop's attempt to upgrayedd the XM3 into a more modern sniper rifle. So, the added detachable magazines, a different muzzle brake and the painted the rifle in a camo pattern. And I think that's it. And this rifle was also $10,000. I think they only made 2 of these, they weren't a very popular rifle.
@VargmatII, sorry for the extremely long and boring analysis on the rifles, so I'll just give you short answer here:
- If it's an original IBA XM3, buy it. $7k is a great price on a real IBA XM3, but since it's been sitting there forever you might be able to make an offer and get an even better deal.
- If it's a Remington XM3, buy something else (unless the XM3 is your Holy Grail rifle and you absolutely need any kind of XM3 clone).
I hope this helps you out, but it also might be a bunch of late night gibberish. Please take some photographs of the rifle and kit the next time you're in that gun shop, I think everyone in this thread would love to see what it looks like!
Also, here's a link to the 2010 Remington catalog, their version of the XM3 is on pages 48 and 49:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://cartridgecollectors.org/content/catalogs/REMINGTON/2010-Remington-Retail%20Catalog-Full%20Size.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwj4y4f-lbv2AhUUKn0KHaGPA304FBAWegQIAxAB&usg=AOvVaw2pkw3_NUd8RHUxj7cG4OA9
And a Tac Ops version of the XM3 would be awesome!
