Cheapest gun you've ever bought

other them the 5 to 20 dollar guns shops had in the rubbermaid trash can. i got a 1894 winchester dated 1901. it was a case saddle ring carbine. the old man selling it, would not let me pay no more then $50 for it, i had to sell it when my dad got hurt and was out off work.

I remember when I got my M44. $69.99, an even $100 OTD with a can of ammo with it.
Aside from that, I got a Carcano a couple years ago for $40. Already fixed up and sold when I moved.

My gun buying history doesn't hold a flicker to most on here, but for me, without question it was my HRR combo cylinder for a little over a hundred bucks.

Maybe one day I'll better that.

$75 SKS back in 2001.

Not counting the family freebies, $20 for a Bubba'd Carcano. The metal is in decent shape aside from the odd "barrel extension", but the stock is trashed. One of these days I will pick up a better stock for it.

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When a carton of cigarettes cost $2.50 in the PX, I traded a carton of Kool Filter Kings for an M-3 grease gun and 4 mags.

After a couple of weeks carrying, shooting and playing with the gun, it dawned on me that I got the short end of that deal.

Hard to beat free.

A friend was moving to a much smaller space and getting rid of a lot of stuff. He found his old .22 Automag and gave it to me. He said "it doesn't work, doesn't hit the rounds hard enough to fire". I like a project, figured maybe broken firing pin or hammer spring. Turns out he'd been cleaning it with WD40 and the inertial firing pin was "frozen" not protruding and not back enough for the hammer to strike it. An overnight soak in penetrating oil and flush with brake parts cleaner got it running nicely.

Surprisingly fun to shoot -- impressive muzzle flash and blast with minimal recoil. Seriously ammo sensitive. Only works with Winchester, CCI quickly gums things up badly, and its stovepipe city until the next cleaning -- known problem if you Google the .22 Automag, but I had to be sure for myself

Ran a box of Aguila "Silver Eagle" through it this morning so there is at least one other brand of ammo it "likes".

Mine goes back to the late some years when I bought an H&R .22 revolver for $10. It was so well worn that nearly every round spit out a fingernail of lead from between the cylinder and barrel.

I would guess that my first 22 was my cheapest. I was 15 and it was a Marlin bolt gun that someone had worked over. It had a black forearm tip and a shadowline cheek piece. The trigger sear had been filed down too much and it would fire if you bumped the gun and then slipped the safety off. I sent off to Marlin and got a new trigger for $1.50. When finished it was one of, if not , the most accurate 22's that I have owned. With a 6X Weaver scope, the 3/4" tube, it was death to many critters ranging from bull frogs and turtles to ground hogs. I put 5000 rounds a year through it over a 4 or 5 year period. Cost me $27 of hard earned lawn mowing earnings. Best money that I have ever spent.

Depends on the definition of 'cheap'. I picked up more than a few derelict .22 rifles during the time I cleaned out houses back in high school. Crappy job, almost always hoarder sites. My boss let me keep any he deemed junk because they were, but I thought they were cool.

The cheapest I actually paid money for was an RG-14 from a buddy of mine back in the mid-80s. I just needed something small and handy that could shoot snakeshot. Twenty bucks was all I offered and he took it, cause they were only thirty or so in the pawnshops.

Cheapest (as in least expensive), gun would have to be my first rifle, a Ruger 10/22. Paid $68 for it, plus tax, and was money well spent. Added a scope along with sling swivels and later a Butler Creek folding stock for it. A real tack driver with CCI MiniMags and Wolf Match Target ammo.

Cheapest? Keltec PF9

Lowest cost? Savage MK1

Mosin 91-30. I think they were $79.00 when I bought mine. Just sold it recently for a decent amount more.

I think my NEF 20 ga was $45 in "as new" condition when I got it a late 80's gun show.

Jennings J22 for $45 in the late 80s. It was a jam-o-matic that wasn't worth the pittance paid. Sold it to a friend with full disclosure for the same price I paid and I even threw in a box of ammo.

Wow. Wish I was alive when some of these deals could be had.

Cheapest I’ve bought was a Marlin 795, which I never took a liking to and sold for a minor loss to a good friend.

I do have two guns that were gifted to me.

One is a Nagant 1895 revolver, back when they were everywhere and sold for $99. A relative had two, so he gave me one.

The other is an H&R Topper Jr. 490 Greenwing Special in 20 ga. I was holding on It with a 16 ga. Fox sxs for a few years when a good friend was living in NJ and NY. When he came back, he told me to keep the H&R. Apparently it belonged to his ex-wife from her younger days, she had no interest in it, and neither did he.

montanaoffroader said:

Not counting the family freebies, $20 for a Bubba'd Carcano. The metal is in decent shape aside from the odd "barrel extension", but the stock is trashed. One of these days I will pick up a better stock for it.

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Nice!

I bought a Carcano for $55.00 with two clips and at least one, maybe also a second partial box of ammunition. Maybe a pretty good deal at the time...

It was this rifle and cartridge that got me into handloading and customizing loads for a rifle. Cheap maybe, valuable? A lot to me.

In 2016 I bought a Ruger New Model Blackhawk in 357 Magnum for $60. The rear sight blade was missing and it was covered with surface rust. it shoots great.
And there was that time I picked up a crate of 20 Mosins for $1700.

In 1984 I purchased a 1896 Swedish Mauser for $29.00 followed up by an M39 Nagant for $39.00 (paid an extra $10 for a select model). Still have both of them.

In 1961, I was working in a small town hardware store in Eastern Colorado. Kid brought in an 1893 Marlin in .38-55. I gave him $25 and we were both happy. I still have it. With moderate loads and hard cast heavy bullet, it is very accurate.

I guess a $75 SKS.

Colt 1917 $25. 1982. It had a bulge in the barrel 1/2 way down and the timing was off. The only way to shoot was to pull back the hammer and rotate the cylinder by hand to get it too lock up.

I was accurate though. I ended up cutting the barrel back just before the bulge and soldered a 1/2 penny on for a front sight.

My first gun was an Ithaca 66 in 20 ga, paid $10 for it a long time ago.

It was Western Field tube magazine fed 22LR.for$39. The barrel insides was a total wreck and the barrel had 6 small bulges in it. Someone got really rough removing that boo-boo. I also found it wouldn't load rounds out of the mag. The bolt handle had been welded back on. The stock was a mess. Ah ha, project rifle said I when I bought it. I found out about the mag problem when I got it home. I also found the bolt handle was too straight to clear a scope. When I stared heating it to bend it the handle fell off. Someone didn't know how to weld just like they didn't know about squib rounds or clearing them. The one good thing about the old rifle was that the bluing was still good.

I re-did the bolt handle and added one of those lug wrench looking knobs that I turned to replace the round knob. I also did a Redman barrel liner and a brand new stock including a new trigger guard. The trigger isn't bad at slightly over 3 1/2 pounds and I installed an overtravel screw in the trigger guard. I also removed all the mag stuff, made a loading ramp, and turned it into a single shot. For 39 bucks plus tax, a barrel liner from Brownells, a new 5/16" drill bit and a piece of 5/16" rod to make a deep drill, some material on hand just waiting on a project, and several hours of enjoyable work I have a pretty good single shot 22 that is probably as accurate as it was when brand new.