I've got a couple Anschutz rifles, one rebarreled by Karl Kenyon, a 40x, a handful of the Kimber 82Gs, as well as some older Remington's, a couple CZs, and a 10-22 with a few hundred dollars worth of parts. Some are used in indoor 50' matches, some for outdoor 25 and 50 yard matches, some just for playing around. While $500-$1000 is certainly not chump change it is relatively little money compared to other hobbies. All the money spent on the firearms themselves wouldn't cover the new motor I'm looking at to replace a worn LS2. At least with the .22s I can always shoot them regardless of my budget. Feel like spending a lot and shooting for minimal group or best score and I can splurge for tenex. Feel like plinking tin cans I can shoot federal champion or blazer, both can be found under $1.50 a box at times. I can't always justify blasting 500 rounds of even cheap .223 but a $14 brick of .22lr is something that is always an option.
People dont seem to have much issue spending $500-$1000 on a center fire and consider anything under that range to be a cheap rifle. Rimfires are no different. Quality costs money. There are a lot of nice rim fires that will kill any squirrel just fine for under $200 but if you want something that will shoot a competitive score you often find even the box stock $1000 rifle isn't quite there. Certainly in the game but not always at the top. It all comes down to what you want to do. If you need a hunting tool then a model 60 will do more than everything you need.n same with say a savage axis/edge. That's really all you need. Everything else is simply buying features and quality you want to have.
I don't think i'll go over 650 though.
