Anyone here a gun enthusiast and NOT a materialistic and/or competetive person?

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I have to go along with Owen Sparks' post (#11). I am competitive as far as my shooting goes (member of a national team), & most of my firearm purchases are oriented towards that. However, I have little to no interest in watching sports, especially those involving a ball. In fact, this past weekend I was blisfully unaware that the Superbowl had been played on Sunday until I was driving to work that evening & the final score was announced on the radio news!
As far as materialistic goes, I have some 'nice' guns for my competition shooting, but my vehicles include a 1979 pickup, a 2000 Mini Van, & a 2004 Dodge compact, & I live in a 50year old 1700 sq. ft rambler. My choice of cell phone is determined by what's on the free list of my wireless provider! Apart from the occasional 'opportunistic' gun purchase we live within our means.
 
Wow, Owen, that post fits me almost exactly!:D (i don't ride bikes...yet. I hate watching sports, and TV, except for the discovery anc history channel) I was so suprised on sunday, my Father calls, do i want to come over and watch the superbowl?
 
I live 40 miles from a tiny town you never heard of, on a dead end dirt road. I drive a '98 Ford with 200,000 miles on it. own a 15$ walmart pocket watch and no cell phone. I do have an insane selection of Craftsman tools though. Does that count?

P.S. my house has been paid off since the late 19th century, so I guess that's my status symbol
 
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A respect for quality workmanship in what one purchases is one of the hallmarks of the frugal.

But it's difficult to be competitive, when all you want is for people to go away and leave you alone.
 
I don't like to compete. I've been competitive at a couple things in the past, and it ruined it for me. It became stress, and work, not fun. I get why some folks like it, I don't. I shoot to relax, why would I want to take that away? I like to see small groups, but I'm not fighting to be the best, by any means.
 
Dr. THW, I am with you on the thing about being a gun enthusiast, and finer things. I have a soft spot for guns, knives, watches, and fine cars, nice dwellings and so on. I don't have a trophy house, far from it. But I do live on ten acres of the most beautiful Manzano Mountain land available, have three BMW vintage cars, and a bunch of very nice to very fine watches. I love well made fine things and find most other gun people also do.
 
I think I used to be pretty materialistic. Always had to have the latest electronic toys, the fastest crotch-rocket, big truck, etc. After awhile i realized those big ticket items were just putting me in debt and that Dodge Ram QuadCab was more like a financial prison than something to enjoy. Over time, sold all the extra stuff and focused on just one thing, firearms.
For the most part, I havent spent too much on any one gun and its comforting to know that if i really really needed to I could sell them relatively quickly.
 
Both are cr@p for sure. Living modestly doesn't mean bad taste.
Click to expand...

i like that quote. haha.

i am not materialistic, but i do have a tricked out rifle. i do not however get the urge to go buy a new gun or whatever just to outdo someone. i couldn't care less about what other people have.

"fear the man with only one gun"
 
Nice things need not be expensive things, and even expensive things need not be expensive to acquire.

Many years ago I acquired a 1972 Mercedes 350SLC V8 coupe. New, it sold for $35,000, in 1972 dollars. High performance luxury sport coupe, boasting pneumatic suspension, fuel injection and other interesting and cutting-edge technologies -- in 1972. I routinely drove it over 100mph, and it was a chick magnet. Its cost to me? $4,500 in 1995 dollars.

Many of the military surplus rifles I've acquired either could not be produced economically today (if they could be produced at all), or would cost thousands of dollars to purchase at retail if produced for the commercial market. Carl Gustav Mausers, etc. Their cost to me? A hundred or two hundred dollars apiece, and often much less than that.

Years ago I became a fanatic connoisseur of Romanian cabernet wines from the Dealul Mare region. Routinely rated at 92 and above, they sold for about $3.00 a bottle twenty years ago. I bought the stuff by the case, and turned many a fellow oinophine onto them -- until a series of disastrous vintages in the early 1990s wrecked their American reputation and market.

My favorite cigar, the Nicaraguan Padron Anniversario, sold for $5 a decade ago. Filled the humidor while they were available at that price.

Last fall I picked up a great woolen overcoat at a final closeout, going out of business sale for $2.98. It's survived a Maine winter, and I actually get compliments on it.

The good things in life may not be free -- but they can be cheap.
 
I don't like competition, at anything, other than competing with myself to improve my performance (at shooting, for example). My watch is made of plastic and cost $7, and I hardly ever even use it. I drive an '02 Ford Ranger with no frills or flash. I usually wear what might be thought of as "work clothes" -- as in, blue-collar work.

Yes, I have a credit card -- balance paid in full each month.

My most recent gun purchase was a Saiga, and I wasn't really thinking much about another rifle, but my brother sort of talked me into a battle rifle, and I saw the price was $270.

I try not to buy a lot of stuff, but since I've never had a taste for much stuff to begin with, I don't have to try very hard. I've been disappointed by stuff in the past, so I don't invest in it emotionally. I value accomplishment more than possessions.

And to those American Idol fans who want to be famous -- let 'em. I won't be watching.
 
I'm a man of simple pleasures, and I'm known as a frugal guy, but in spite of all this, I do spend money. For me, it's about spending money ON THE RIGHT THINGS...
 
I like nice things, but It's what I consider nice. I like quality tools but if I'm only gonna use it once I'll buy a cheapy one. I like good quality work clothes bc I've found cheap ones dont save you money bc you have to purchase them more often.

I like nice watches but only to a point, ex I bought a $450 kinetic watch, it looks decent, never needs a battery, and loses 15s a year. I could've bought a nicer watch but to me it was at the point of diminishing returns.

With my guns, I'm the same way.

Also I dont put myself in debt for anything, except my student loans and my mortgage. except for those if i cant pay cash I dont buy it
 
I lived a normal life up until I retired . I raced shifter karts, cars, motorcycles, drift raced, skydiver, spent years in combat, collected guns and was a soldier for 24 years. I had to have all the toys. Now I collect guns and shoot as often as possible and watch the grass grow.
 
Oh I'm competitive professionally, academically, and once upon a time where women were concerned. But I don't like to own dirt(gold, diamonds, rubies). I follow a saying my grandfather would exclaim when someone talked about Armani or Ralph Lauren or some such "If I can't eat it, drink it, fire it or, <expletitive deleted> it, I don't want it."

Keep your sports cars, I'll keep my four wheel drive towing capable V8 engine ten year old Durango. Keep your polymer high capacity firearms, I love my revolvers and simple semis. I'm more interested in what firearm I can build than what I can buy. You can spend five hundred bucks on a AK variant while I build it for under $400.

Yeah we all like nice things, but for different reasons. I like building anything, the mastery of steel and fire, so I want the challenges of working on guns because motorcycles have gotten easy. Granted that means my home workshop will one day look like a harbor freight catalog but those are my 'nice things'.

So I guess I'm also materialistic, but my materialsim is one that revolves around producing something, not simply having and showing off. Plus there are different kinds of gun enthusiasts. You have the 1911 fans, the black powder fans, the polymer job fans, the revolver only fans, the Garand fans, the .308 rifle fans, so on and so on, each with their own indicative nature.
 
When it comes to stuff my wife and I want (as in to use as a tool for a need or hobby) we get the one we want that is most comfortable, most fitting, and the one that when we use it in it's use we will enjoy using it more because we like it. Which is why I have a 20 gauge Beretta 391 Urika (bought it before we even met) to bird hunt with and a Marlin .22 to squirrel hunt with... right there is a $900 vs. $200 version for a different purpose.
I only bought an AR because it was cheap, never had a desire to own one at $600+, till I got one at $300, the rest of my rifles I won because they shoot well and they fit.

She has a 2005 van, I have a 2007 truck and we are going to drive them to the dirt, but she will always be in a newer vehicle because I want her and my kids in something that it highly likely to be dependable and won't leave them stranded.
 
I like the nicest things I can afford, but I do mentally set a "point of diminishing returns". This applies with most everything I enjoy; jazz, beer, guns, cars, cigars, cameras & photography, wristwatches, clothes, whiskey, whisky, and guitars.

I like to experience something and know that it is well-designed, well-executed, and that some time was spent to create it.

With beer, I buy the best/favorite that I can afford. I've had "Utopia" and many of the other most expensive/obscure beers in the world; at least once. I regularly spend $10 on a 12 oz. bottle, will never buy a lager if I have a choice, and can talk to someone about beer for hours and hours, but my "sippin' brew" is a 7-8% IPA. Somewhat middle of the road, the best "value" available to me.

With guns, I just feel there are too many aesthetically-pleasing AND functional firearms to ever buy an ugly or junker firearm.

I like things that function well, but show some attention to detail and aesthetic design.

Engraving, pearl inlays on guitars, and "flashy" stuff in general, well, I might be able to get into that once I have every "non-flashy" specimen that I want. In other words, I have better things on which to spend my money.

I like guns & guitars. Putting gold and pearls on guns and guitars doesn't make me value any of those four things any more. "Popular society" likes those things, but they also like people who make fools of themselves... :eek:

I'm pretty competitive, but don't necessarily think I'm really good at ANYTHING, so it's probably a healthy dose of competitiveness. :)
 
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We own good tools, one vehicle, work out of our home, and what personal stuff we have is good stuff but not the top of the line. We don't give a damn what the Joneses have, what they do for fun, nor do we feel inferior to those who have more and better. Practical is as rewarding and fullfilling - maybe even more so - than gluttony and extravagance. Then again, gluttony and extravagance keeps the suppliers and manufacturers in business, so we do our part where it suits us - at the gun store.

Woody
 
A gun is not just a fashion accessory; it is also a status symbol. It enables us to make ourselves understood with rapid comprehension by the onlooker.

People are so aware that others make judgements about them through their guns, accessories, gun parts and tactical gear that many run up huge debts to appear to belong to a particular lifestyle.

tacticoolAR15.gif
 
"... many run up huge debts to appear to belong to a particular lifestyle."

As what? A photographer?
 
I do not have much. I do get jealous of what others are able to have when I get a case of Poor pitiful me but I get over it and it does not happen often at all. I try to look at the blessings in my life.
 
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