$350 Challenge

wankerjake said:

There are more than a few variables to consider. My example admittedly is not what somebody getting into hunting can expect. If they have to foot the bill themselves $5 ain't gonna cut it obviously. But there other good rigs that can be had for $350 or less, depending on the deal you find and what your hunting conditions may be. You can buy a used Marlin 30-30 and put an old Weaver k4 on it for under $350 all day long and that is certainly an acceptable deer rig.

You can buy a Remington 870 (or Mossberg) for less than $350 too, which will do a lot for you.

Also if you have time to wait you can find good deals. I bought a Winchester Model 70 chambered in 270wsm at the last gun show I was at for $335. It's in perfect condition, came with Leupold rings/base and a Pentax 3-9x scope. Most people aren't interested in that caliber, but if you really are on a budget you need to kinda take what you can get. I would have preferred a 7mm mag myself, but for the price I took it. I'm gonna handload for it either way so the 270wsm caliber is not a big deal. Now do these deals come up every day? Heck no. You gotta waste a bunch of time online or on backpage.com or gun shows or whatever until you find one. IF you are willing to do all of that then you can find a good rig for the money.

$350 can scrape you by, but you probably aren't buying new and your optics are gonna be low end. It depends on how bad you wanna go I guess.

Then you have all the other expenses; ammunition, range time, binoculars, gas, camping gear, knife...there's more than just the rifle to worry about

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Yes, good points. My point was simply that if the purpose was to show that someone new to hunting doesn't have to spend a fortune, then the prices have to reflect what is in the realm of possibility for a new hunter. I would think that a good deal that comes around once in a great while is okay as long as it is recent enough to be relevant. Prices from 40 years ago, or heck, even 10 years ago aren't really relevant.

Also, a sweetheart deal that your buddy/grandpa gave you isn't realistic. I think the key question is, if you had to sell the rifle in question, what would you consider a fair price?

Screw it...I bow out,

Also, a sweetheart deal that your buddy/grandpa gave you isn't realistic.

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Absolutely, I agree.

Well, I'll be looking forward to this challenge with my new .308 picked up on here with scope for $300.

Wait, so does this have to be the same weapon all year? I also recently purchased a new 12gauge and will be switching it out with the rifle as it suits me.

Hmm, might have to go practice with my buddy's $150 20ga Maverick and some sluggers, lol.

wombat13 said:

This competition has a significant bias toward hunters using weapons they have owned for a long time. If you want this competition to show that new hunters don't need to spend a fortune, then you should limit it to weapons with a current market value of under $350.

Take wankerjake's post for example. No one is going to sell a Win M70 in working condition for $5. A quick check on gunbroker suggest that used M70s are running $400 and up. So where is a new hunter on a budget going to buy one for less than $350 including scope and all accessories?

Using this criterion would essentially limit the competition to .22lr, low-end centerfire rifles like Stevens (note I did not write low quality), surplus centerfires such as mosin-nagants, etc.

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My rifle was acquired this year.

I guess it will still be a "free" rifle in 2011. I'll just need to shoot more game with it. Maybe I'll take it on my hog hunt in March now. Hmmmm.

Mudinyeri said:

My rifle was acquired this year.

I guess it will still be a "free" rifle in 2011. I'll just need to shoot more game with it. Maybe I'll take it on my hog hunt in March now. Hmmmm.

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Your rifle wasn't free. You traded truck parts for it. Would you have given the truck parts away for nothing? Would you give that rifle away for nothing?

ETA: I find this very interesting, but the only setup I have that would qualify is my 10/22. The glass on all my other weapons puts me near the limit, let alone the purchase price of the firearm. I'd have to take a lot of squirrels and bunnies to even have a chance (and I've never hunted either).

wombat13 said:

Your rifle wasn't free. You traded truck parts for it. Would you have given the truck parts away for nothing? Would you give that rifle away for nothing?

ETA: I find this very interesting, but the only setup I have that would qualify is my 10/22. The glass on all my other weapons puts me near the limit, let alone the purchase price of the firearm. I'd have to take a lot of squirrels and bunnies to even have a chance (and I've never hunted either).

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First, you might want to get over yourself. It's not like we're competing for money or pink slips here.

Second, why don't you tell me what the rifle, scope and sling cost me? I traded about $600 worth of parts (that I bought for cash) for the truck (that I eventually traded for the rifle). By the time the guy traded me the rifle ... and a Glock 30 ... for what remained of the truck, I had sold about $800 worth of parts off of the truck.

So, again, you tell me, what did that rifle cost me? I was already $200 ahead and I sold the Glock for $450. I guess you could say that the rifle had a negative cost (profit) of $650.

If you want me to "qualify" with a rifle that I actually paid cash for, I bought a Marlin 795 for my son for $100. We've taken countless squirrels with that thing. I also have a Winchester 1200 that I paid $150 for. I've probably shot 50+ pheasants with it. Just because you spend a lot of money on your guns doesn't mean we all do.

Internet drama is the best isnt it?

JustA19D said:

Internet drama is the best isnt it?

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Indeed.

You're the one that needs to get over yourself. Look up the economic concept opportunity cost. You might learn a little something. Of course, you come across as the kind of person that doesn't have anything left to learn. I'm done.

Now wait a minuet... the scoring starts January 1st.... Does that mean that you start counting every entry that is posted regardless of when you took the animal or is it animals taken after january 1st?

i was quite excited about this since I like to hunt with surplus rifles. sadly it's five days into the thing and people are already bickering. I don't think I'll play.

Rifle Costs

How do you cost out a rig? I have a couple guns that were given to me for birthday, graduation, etc. many years ago. My 10/22 was given to me ~25 years ago. I put a scope on it from another rifle I was given almost as long ago. I paid nothing for either. Is my cost $0? Do I try to find present market value? Obviously, finding the price of a new one would not be correct.

THE CHALLENGE IS NOT MUCH OF A CHALLENGE! - I purchased a used Winchester Featherweight .270 rifle (with scope & sling)for $350.00 dollars. It has since hunted 6 different states, (AL, MS, FL, GA, SC, CO) and taken a tremendous amount of game, including an average of 3-4 deer a year for the past 5 years, & 1 antelope... Not pictured was a hog that weighed in at over 400 lbs in Florida; it took all 5 rounds to stop him, we could not load him from ground to the tailgate. - If you look at Natchez, you can find excellent deals on gunscopes that are refurbished... I've been hunting with a refurbished Nikon Buckmaster (replaced the scope from original purchase with a scope that was equivalent in cost)) and it's never let me down.

Before the .270, i hunted with a 12 gauge shotgun that purchased used for $75.00... It took a nice 8 point and several smaller deer, and still use a Marlin Lever action .30-30 that was known as the deerslayer... It cost $175.00 (it never killed a buck over a 6 point)... My boy used it to kill his first deer last year.

I almost purchased a bargain of a Remington 30.-06 ADL at last gun show for $200.00... Still kicking myself for not buying that one, and working on a Mosin Nagant with Sporter stock for under $100.00 (See my other posts)

I once killed a whitetail doe with a pocketknife that cost $5.00

I'll play, despite the bickering of our "engineers"

I'll be using a sporterized swede I picked up for 200 bucks with a Bushnell scope I bought for a benjamin.

First Batch

Ok, took my 25 year old Ruger 10/22 ($175) and 4x Tasco (it does not have a model on it, but has a picture of an antelope(?) on the side, maybe $50) scope out and shot 7 squirrels. No pics, but I figure the gun and scope together to be worth, generously, about $225.

What's my score? 87.5?

This sounds fun, and I'll try to join. I'm gonna try to go hunting this week, I have my Yugo SKS that I bout for $212 delivered, with a sling I bought for a dollar. I had bought ascope for it but removed it because i wanted it for wild hog hunting, and if you've ever hunted wild hog in the brush, well yeah. Fast little buggers. I've used this open sights setup to kill one big boar already and more than a few coyotes, jackrabbits, etc.

Let the games begin. Anyone actually have a score for the year so far?

I have a Marlin 60 ($75) that I added an aftermarket stock to ($65) and a scope ($85), all told about $215, I plan on maybe doing some squirrel and rabit hunting. I'll post when and if I take any...

Ruger 10/22 - pawnshop special, $99.00. Really, really rough looking - been kept in a sheepskin-lined case and left wet, looked like. Barrel exterior pitted and rusted, and some idiot went at it with coarse sandpaper against the grind lines. Took some fine paper, then some scotchbrite, then some superfine steelwool, and then some cold blue to it. Pits are still there, but smoothed, the rust is all gone, and all the idiot's wrong direction sanding marks are gone. Looks okay, but not great. $50.00 scope - Tasco, IIRC. $10.00 nylon sling. Total: $159.00.

Spanish SXS shotgun, 20guage - $229.00.

Bear Ranger recurve, 45lbs draw - $5.00 at a yard sale. Arrows - whatever I pay for them until they break, and then on to the new set! $15.00 for a new string, so $20.00 total.

Swiss K31 - $89.00 a few years ago on a Black Friday sale. I got it because I like milsurps, and it's the best one I've ever handled. Got rid of all the rest - they're not as neat as this one, and not as accurate, and not as nice to shoot. I've never hunted with this one, and I'd really rather hunt with a Marlin 336, but what are you gonna do? I've got brass and dies for it, and it's at least as accurate as any .30 cal rifle I've ever shot.

Maybe I'll work out a deal for a Marlin before/if I hunt anything big this year. Saw one used for $339.00 today, but it had no scope - no big deal, I'd rather put a Williams on it, anyway - but the big thing was that the mag tube was dented about 2 inches from the muzzle, so I gave it a pass, rather than mess around with fixing it. Could buy a new one at China Mart for $354.00 - but that's outside the price limit. And putting a Williams on the dented one, plus fixing it, plus putting a strap on it, would probably put it outside the price limit, too. Heck, just tax will do that. Gotta keep looking.

Let's see, what else? Oh, my muzzleloader. .50 cal T/C Hawken caplock - straight trade for a custom knife, valued at $200.00. I've hunted deer several times with that one. But not since I moved to AZ. Only had one tag here, and never saw a buck that year.

I mostly hunt doves, quail, and rabbit here. Some of my friends are trying to talk me into hunting coyotes with our AR15s, but whether or not I do that, those are outside the financial scope of our little exercise, too.

This looks like fun! According to the above posts, I can't submit my dove from last year? Bummer. I'm sure I would have gotten some extra points for my method of despatching it. I was out bowhunting with a friend of mine, who was carrying a shotgun for grouse. A dove landed in a tree 20yds ahead of us, and I asked him if he was going to shoot it. He said no. I said that it would be better to come home with something than nothing. He then handed me the shotgun. I asked him what was in the chamber. "7 1/2 bird shot," was the answer. I then put the bead on the neck, and pulled the trigger. After the shot, we looked at the bird and found that the head had been blown off. We then found the shell I'd ejected, and found out that he had accidentally loaded a slug into the chamber!
Now that would have earned me some extra points. Right?
Matthew

Edit: The gun was an Ithaca Model 37 FeatherLight DeerSlayer from the '70s that I picked up for ~$180.