Mosin Bubba
Member
- Joined
- Jul 5, 2012
- Messages
- 1,936
I got thinking today: what's a gun that you've spent way more than you could justify or what made sense, but it somehow ended up being worth it to you?
For me, I saw a CZ 527 at a local gun shop on the used rack and immediately fell in love. It was $600 on the shelf with the scope rings still on it. The gun shop owner in question tends to price his stuff anywhere from high to outrageous ($480 for a Hi-Point carbine still sticks out to me). So not knowing anything about it, I said "I'll go home and look around the internet, I bet I can find it for cheaper." Well, as soon as I found out it actually was a good price, the gun was already sold.
But I was in love, so I spent $650 on Buds to get one new, then had to spend $70 on rings for it (had NO idea CZ's rings were so expensive). And of course, you're not going to throw a Tasco on a $720 gun, so I dropped just over two bills for Redfield Revolution 3x9. And then, of course it's getting a nice leather sling, so that topped it off right at around a kilobuck. $1000 for a bolt action plinker - so much for buying it to shoot cheap 7.62x39.
And I don't regret spending a single cent.
Every bit of that gun screams quality. If you haven't seen the CZs, they are just about the nicest factory rifles you can buy this side of a Browning, and the Redfield is a very nice scope for the sub-200 yard shooting I'm doing. It's light, it's easy to shoot offhand, the CZ set trigger feels like a custom trigger, it's dead-on accurate, - I don't know, I just love it a little more every time I take it out. It kind of started off as a money pit, but it's now looking like the last rifle in the safe I'd ever get rid of.
On the other extreme, I built an M16A1 clone, thinking a lightweight, full-size AR with a carry handle would be the bee's knees. I spent more than I should have putting it together (seriously, prices for everything AR have hit rock bottom EXCEPT for the retro parts), and now that I have it, it's just kind of ehhhh. LOVE the carry handle and A1 rear sight, it's like the perfect in-between size for a peep sight between the A2's two settings, and the 20" barrel gives you a much better sight picture than a carbine. But when I'm shooting it, I can't help but think "this does absolutely nothing my Delton Sport doesn't do for a pound lighter", "why did I pay $800 for this when I can just shoot my carbine."
If I had to do it again, I'd just put the A1 upper on the Delton and make kind of a poor-man's XM177 out of it, then just forget the A1 rifle entirely. Not going to get rid of it though - for one, it's not a bad gun as much as it is disappointing, and two, the super-saturated AR market + home assembled gun means I'd take a soaking if I ever tried to sell it.
For me, I saw a CZ 527 at a local gun shop on the used rack and immediately fell in love. It was $600 on the shelf with the scope rings still on it. The gun shop owner in question tends to price his stuff anywhere from high to outrageous ($480 for a Hi-Point carbine still sticks out to me). So not knowing anything about it, I said "I'll go home and look around the internet, I bet I can find it for cheaper." Well, as soon as I found out it actually was a good price, the gun was already sold.
But I was in love, so I spent $650 on Buds to get one new, then had to spend $70 on rings for it (had NO idea CZ's rings were so expensive). And of course, you're not going to throw a Tasco on a $720 gun, so I dropped just over two bills for Redfield Revolution 3x9. And then, of course it's getting a nice leather sling, so that topped it off right at around a kilobuck. $1000 for a bolt action plinker - so much for buying it to shoot cheap 7.62x39.
And I don't regret spending a single cent.
Every bit of that gun screams quality. If you haven't seen the CZs, they are just about the nicest factory rifles you can buy this side of a Browning, and the Redfield is a very nice scope for the sub-200 yard shooting I'm doing. It's light, it's easy to shoot offhand, the CZ set trigger feels like a custom trigger, it's dead-on accurate, - I don't know, I just love it a little more every time I take it out. It kind of started off as a money pit, but it's now looking like the last rifle in the safe I'd ever get rid of.
On the other extreme, I built an M16A1 clone, thinking a lightweight, full-size AR with a carry handle would be the bee's knees. I spent more than I should have putting it together (seriously, prices for everything AR have hit rock bottom EXCEPT for the retro parts), and now that I have it, it's just kind of ehhhh. LOVE the carry handle and A1 rear sight, it's like the perfect in-between size for a peep sight between the A2's two settings, and the 20" barrel gives you a much better sight picture than a carbine. But when I'm shooting it, I can't help but think "this does absolutely nothing my Delton Sport doesn't do for a pound lighter", "why did I pay $800 for this when I can just shoot my carbine."
If I had to do it again, I'd just put the A1 upper on the Delton and make kind of a poor-man's XM177 out of it, then just forget the A1 rifle entirely. Not going to get rid of it though - for one, it's not a bad gun as much as it is disappointing, and two, the super-saturated AR market + home assembled gun means I'd take a soaking if I ever tried to sell it.
