What's the most amount of money you would spend on one handgun?

The more I spend, the more I shoot it
Never bought a safe queen
View attachment 818292

I haven't spent $1000.00 ,but that's my limit.

I've shot guns that people said I shouldn't. We found a gold colt 1911 rattlesnake edition. 1 of 1000. With real rattlesnake grips. Ugly as sin imo, In a pawn shop. It had no box nor anything so any future collector value was shot. Looked new for (if I remember correctly) 600 bucks. Figured a nearly new, possibly unfired, built 1911 for that would be a nice shooter, I changed the grips to a set I had because I figured the scales would fall off but I did shoot that 45.
If I buy an old collector gun that's been used I'll certainly shoot it. When I buy a m1 carbine or military 1911 for example I find it ludacris for people to be put off by shooting it. It saw a war (or more), what could I possibly hurt worse than mud and razor wire and the things they already went through. Lol. Maybe I'm odd but that seems silly to me. The ones I don't carry or use are mostly new higher end models. I don't care to shoot most, but won't actually use them like I will certain others.
If I found a roosevelt/ Jesse james/ or something neat or some other proven history handgun, I could see the big money coming out. But for any new mass produced handgun I'm sticking with a flexible 2k. But nothing I know of at the moment is on my list. I'm sticking to collecting 300 dollar glocks and 400 dollar sigs while they last

No real idea. I'm going to say over $1500 that gun better be real special. But it will not be a safe queen so the value will go down because of shooting according to the sages of the safe queens.

CraigC said:

I find it odd the reasons people think others spend their money.

Click to expand...

Yes indeed... Stranger that people assume you cannot afford to shoot it, above "their" perceived price point. Plenty of 6 figure guns out there with millions of rounds through em.

I voted 1500. Because i want a P226 stainless and that is over the $1,000 bracket

I really have a hard time self justifying as the price gets closer to a mortgage payment.

But that's your mortgage, or mine. If you live in a 10 million dollar house your mortgage is much higher than mine or likely yours but I hope that's not the case. When I was 18 I lived in an 8k dollar 50 foot trailer. I wouldn't have (and certainly couldn't have) spent the 2 thousand I voted for back then on a gun.....2k would have bought the car I drove back then 4 times over.
I have an older neighbor (a neighbor here is miles away) who got high 6 figure bonuses for airplane sales. His ferrari costed roughly what my house did. But to him it's not a huge thing. And if he were a shooter, And he may be, idk, I'll bet his upper limit would be staggering to you or I.

ETA
When I lived in that 8 thousand dollar trailer I bought a beretta 96. So I'm guessing my limit was about 5-600 bucks. Before that I dual wielded Jennings j22s (not to be cool but for redundancy, surely one would go off). So my limit was about 75 bucks.

Jeb Stuart said:

Now that was funny Varminterror.

Click to expand...

I’m not sure what about it was funny. Most custom 1911’s, or rebuild jobs on revolvers, custom Glock rebuilds, Sig X-Five rebuilds, etc can all be bought for less than $6,000. Not including optics or specialty aesthetic embellishments, of course. It’s pretty easy to spend $4,500-5,500 on a pistol or revolver, but it seems like getting over $6,000 takes an effort to do so - again, not including collector’s value items.

If you started a thread asking about price tolerance of other folks, just to whine about high cost pistols/revolvers, well, I don’t have any other suggestion than to reconsider your perspective on life.

Varminterror said:

I’m not sure what about it was funny. Most custom 1911’s, or rebuild jobs on revolvers, custom Glock rebuilds, Sig X-Five rebuilds, etc can all be bought for less than $6,000.

Click to expand...

Obviously never priced out a 1911 from the premier builders.. i.e. Chen's run around 10k with the 5-7yr wait. Course that leaves plenty of time to save for em.

Many more cost more than the 6k.. Now a days the semi-customs are approaching that price tag. Go spec out a WC Supergrade and let me know the number you come back with.

crestoncowboy said:

His ferrari costed roughly what my house did. But to him it's not a huge thing. And if he were a shooter, And he may be, idk, I'll bet his upper limit would be staggering to you or I.

Click to expand...

Thats the thing though.. We are not talking about Ferrari type money.. More in line with very used Kia's or Hyundai's. Course some are obviously happy with their Yugo's..

I’ll be happy to spend $2500 on an Ed Brown, one of these days.

That’s about it, though. I don’t really have much of a desire to go over $850 or so for anything else.

Bottom line, income or net worth will (most definitely should) influence your max on a gun, watch, knife etc unless your just foolish and using plastic on your toys. Maybe the question should be what percentage of your yearly income would you spend on a handgun? I'm guessing most of us here are in a pretty narrow tax bracket. I have friends with 7 figure houses. My grandparents passed away this century and still had an outhouse and dirt floors. I'm happy for those who can spend 6 figures on a car and 5 on a watch, I know what most gave up to get there.
If I'm Bill Gates and 20k goes missing on a gun, no one notices. Me personally if 20k goes missing on a gun, I'm either getting divorced or at least wishing I were for a long long time.

tarosean said:

Obviously never priced out a 1911 from the premier builders..

Click to expand...

I haven’t bought a Chen. My bullseye pistols were from Clark and Les Baer. Both were just over $5,000. When I built my own, I paid about the same, even paying a a Smith for fitting the slide and bushing.

tarosean said:

Go spec out a WC Supergrade and let me know the number you come back with.

Click to expand...

Admittedly been 10yrs, but my Wilson CQB upmodeled was only $3,800ish.

crestoncowboy said:

But that's your mortgage, or mine. If you live in a 10 million dollar house your mortgage is much higher than mine or likely yours but I hope that's not the case. When I was 18 I lived in an 8k dollar 50 foot trailer. I wouldn't have (and certainly couldn't have) spent the 2 thousand I voted for back then on a gun.....2k would have bought the car I drove back then 4 times over.
I have an older neighbor (a neighbor here is miles away) who got high 6 figure bonuses for airplane sales. His ferrari costed roughly what my house did. But to him it's not a huge thing. And if he were a shooter, And he may be, idk, I'll bet his upper limit would be staggering to you or I.

ETA
When I lived in that 8 thousand dollar trailer I bought a beretta 96. So I'm guessing my limit was about 5-600 bucks. Before that I dual wielded Jennings j22s (not to be cool but for redundancy, surely one would go off). So my limit was about 75 bucks.

Click to expand...

So I guess you understood my post.....

I didn't vote because I don't know how much money I "would" spend on a handgun. I have spent close to $1,300 for a Colt SAA, which I later sold because I figured out I'm not a "collector" per se, and would rather have handguns I intend to use.
I also spent around $1,400 on a real nice, custom, Freedom Arms .357, that I don't use for anything other than target practice. I'll probably hang onto it though, because I bought it from an old friend who was retiring, and closing his gun shop. He sold it to me at cost.
But the most expensive handgun I have that I actually use (carry) and I really like, is my Sig M-11 A-1, 9mm. It's a dandy! It's utterly reliable, I shoot it well, and it's not that hard for me to conceal. I paid right at $1,000 for it.

Up to now, 1400 has been the max. But there are some things on my lust list that will likely take more. As others have said freedom arms is one.

I have several old Rugers that I would never trade all bought between $109-$275. But the volquatzen kits I added to 2 of them where between $900-$1500. It may seem excessive to some but for me it helped show me the difference that a good upgrade could make.

Your money, or mine?

I wonder how much more happiness a $6,000 hand gun brings to someone over a $500.00 gun brings to someone else? If you have to spend $6k to find that happiness and you have the money, then go for it. I doubt that even if I had that kind of cash to throw around, I would make that purchase. Nothing wrong with it, just not me and it would not make me any more happy or enjoy the sport any more than I do. Some guys will spent $500.00 on a bottle of single malt. Others, have a good time on a bottle of Evans. Just the way life is.
I think the gun that brought the most happiness to me is the Marlin Model 80 bolt action 22.cal my Dad gave me for Christmas when I was about 12 years old. Those were good times. Dad must have paid around $75.00 for it at that. Would a custom rifle worth $5k made me more happy? NO.

If your buying a gun to "find happiness" in life. You done made a wrong turn at Albuquerque my friend. But I think I get your point.

In 2017, I bought a DW VBOB, a DW ECO, Colt 1991, Colt LW Commander (used XSE), Colt LW Commander (new manufacture), Colt Level 1, LB Concept 7, CZ 1991A1, and a Springfield Pro. Total cost around $11,000. I sold them all (except the VBOB) and bought a beautiful Wilson CQB and a utilitarian Wilson ULCC. I have not bought another handgun in 2018. For me, buying top quality killed my bug to constantly want more and better. I ended up selling off much of my collection of other guns as well. I'd rather have quality than quantity.

That being said, all of those 1911s that I sold were great guns. The only one that I hated was the used Colt LW Commander. Wouldn't cycle anything.

crestoncowboy said:

If your buying a gun to "find happiness" in life. You done made a wrong turn at Albuquerque my friend. But I think I get your point.

Click to expand...

Well said.

tarosean said:

So you assume the people who can afford a more expensive weapon cannot afford to feed it?

Click to expand...

No, I assume nothing. I don't foresee any event where I would decide to buy a higher value gun, based on it's arbitrary value
as a collector's item. "I'm a shooter, not a collector"
simply means I will not pay collector's high prices for a collector's gun.

Sometimes, when somebody says "This steak tastes good." all they mean is they like the steak.

Well, the next handgun I will likely buy will be a Wilson EDC X9, so at least $2500 - 3000. Wont be for a few years yet so maybe I can find one for less. And, yes, I'll carry it every day and beat it up and all that.

I could see going up to around $4k for a decent 1911 some day, perhaps. I've got darned near everything I want already so I dont see the need to accumulate $600-$1000 guns any longer so I can save for the nicer stuff.