Cheap guns or expensive ones?

gunlaw said:

14 year old eyes will make up for a lot.

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Young eyes will beat expensive glass!

I prefer good guns, no matter the cost.

They may be inexpensive, they may be a bargain on sale, or they may cost way more than I thought they would…but as long as the guns I buy work with and for me as intended I’m good to go no matter what they cost .

Stay safe.

Riomouse911 said:

I prefer good guns, no matter the cost.

They may be inexpensive, they may be a bargain on sale, or they may cost way more than I thought they would…but as long as the guns I buy work with and for me as intended I’m good to go no matter what they cost .

Stay safe.

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Agree.

If I have to buy an older used one to get the quality I want, I'd rather do that than buy a new one I think is sub standard.

I've had inexpensive; now I can afford better. They're all fun.

Thanks for the story. A day in the field with a young shooter (who isn't a self-absorbed know-it-all) is a blessing to both of us. I'm at the stage where my kids are grown and busy with their own lives and my grand kids aren't yet at the age to shoot regularly ... but in a few years, I'll probably be looking for a few more inexpensive .22s.

Went fishing with my best friends son in Canada (see my avatar). Let him reel in every fish that bit. Afterwards he was bragging about how many he caught.....

I’ve taken his other son Turkey hunting twice. First year he got his bird less than twenty minutes into the season. This year, it took a little less than an hour. I could have gotten either of those birds. I’ve killed my share. I’d rather see him get them.

I suspect you do the same thing.

If you haven’t, take him target shooting using your high end with relatively small targets and hone his skills

I have another friend that has two boys. I set up a 3” metal spinner at 100 yards and gave them a bulk box of Federal Auto Match to shoot through my 453 CZ. At first, it was all misses. After a while, they were hitting maybe 9/10

You’ll get the endless “yeah, I used a $50 single shot .410 and beat guys using $10,000 Perazzi trap guns. Uhhh...yeah. Sure. That was the dame day I beat Michael Jordan in basketball

Using accurate, high end equipment doesn’t guarantee success but it does improve your odds

gunlaw said:

14 year old eyes will make up for a lot.

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One helluva lot....

I've had cost more guns that turned out to be junk and I've had cost less guns that turned out to pretty good guns.
I've had popular quality brand name guns take one or more trips back to the factory to get working and I've had not so quality brand name guns work great out of the box and never have problems. Higher price only guarantees you pay more. Not necessarily it works any better.

Sniper66 said:

Hard to title this story, but wanted to share it because it tickles me. Last week I took my nephew and his grandson squirrel hunting in my favorite squirrel woods. I've hunted squirrels for 65+ years and my nephew almost as long. We both carry very nice .22s with equally nice optics and shoot .5" groups at 50 yds with high-grade ammo. The grandson (age 14) carries a cheap Savage with a low end scope (his dad bought a "combo" against my advice) and shoots bulk plinking ammo.
At the end of our hunt the score was:
Me--0
Grandpa--0
Grandson--6. He shot 8 shots and killed 6. And had a 1,000 watt smile.

Us old farts got skunked, but we have a great story to tell and couldn't be happier with the outcome.

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Anything that goes bang close to my head is the best I can afford. A friend once told me, "Don't skimp on guns or tires"....

Im frugal, in some instances... I bought a Rossi M92 instead of a Winchester 1892. saved around 700 bucks. took the Rossi apart, stoned the roughness out of the action, it shoots great.
I paid 600 for a Ruger No 1a in 30-06. its ugly. its beat up a little. It kills EVERYTHING you point it at. it has the best trigger of most all my rifles.

i like reliable. I like dependable.

Inexpensive is fine, you just have to find what works well because they know where to save money and where to direct it.
Savage is the obvious example here. Stock is cheap, sights may be cheap, trigger may be cheap, the barrel may be inexpensive but is not cheap.
I bought a Savage Mark 2, a cheap scope, mounts and rings to fit them together. At 50 yards with the right bulk ammo, I can--and have--make one ragged hole with 9 rounds and then shoot the clip off the target with the 10th.
Total price including that box of ammo was under $200. In Obama-era money.

What happened to the old idea that it's the shooter who makes the difference?
Also define "cheap"-poorly made or inexpensive ?
And how many hunters really practice, are good shots?

I was building a pretty nice squirrel rig to replace my trusty Marlin when my then 11 year old daughter spied me mounting a new scope on it... She really likes her new squirrel rifle, I still like my old Marlin.

trackskippy said:

I had a real nice Ruger 77-22 back in the 80's. Beautiful wood, and finish. Put a nice 4x Leupold on it. Looked great. Paid a good buck for it. Thing wouldnt shoot a half-dollar group at 50 yards. My el-cheapo $139 10-22 with a cheap Tasco scope on it would shoot into a dime at the same distance.

Damn that 77-22 was pretty.

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Captcurt said:

Been there, done that. My 77/22 wouldn't shoot 2" groups at 50 yards with any ammo. A walnut stocked Ruger American wasn't much better. An old 552 Remington that looked as if it had been dragged behind a truck would shoot 10 shot groups you could cover with a dime.

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Buying a Ruger seems to be a crap shoot. We have 4 77-22's in the family and they all shoot well. Mine will shoot 1/2inch groups at 50 yards with a 1.5-5 Leupold scope and most ammo. The other 3 are about the same. These were bought in the 90's and maybe up to 2000.

Years ago a buddy and I bought matching 77's in 308 Winchester. Same day, same store, even same rack. His shot really well. Mine shot patterns, not groups. I did about everything you can do to make a rifle shoot and nothing worked. Different scopes, checked the mounts for tightness, recrowned the barrel, different loads/bullet weights/ect, free floated the barrel and bedded the action. And traded it off!!!

Yea, Ive owned quite a few Rugers over the years, both rifles and handguns. These days, Im down to one, a NM Blackhawk in 44, and it really doesnt get shot much.

A lot of the older 77's were beautiful guns, but as you mentioned, hit or miss when it came to shooters. My No.3 was a good shooter, but in 45/70 with that 10/22 buttstock, really sucked to shoot with full power loads. The Mini 14's in the era I owned them were a joke. As cheap as they were, the 10/22's seemed to be the sweet spot of the shooters. Ive had a number of them over the years and they always shot well. Still, they dont seem to hang around long.

None of the new stuff they offer these days interests me at all.

In my entire life as a shooter I’ve only encountered one 22 rifle that wasn’t more accurate than I am, an old Nylon 66 that had just the barest hint of rifling left.

I have an old Mossberg bolt action 22lr without a stamped serial number so it must be a pre- serial number required era edition. I dug it out last year in Northwestern Maine and it was still zeroed.... that has to be 20+ years it has sat in corner of the closet. Aim small, miss small, and I must say, it still shoots (I do) as accurate as it did 40 years ago. I have a Ruger 10/22 from the same period and it has seen 1/100th of the use. I don't know why I never favored the Ruger 10/22