You people must be millionaires

[Golden_006]

All I have is an SKS that I bought in the Obama scare for $360, and the only other thing I could find that was that cheap and good, was a Yugo one for $260.

The yugo was sold before I could buy it and I heard the Romy's are better anyway; plus you get a chrome lined barrel that I was happy about since I wouldn't know how to clean it/ I can shoot cheap ammo and not worry about it.

And speaking of ammo, is Caballas sale on 7.62x39 really a good deal at 130 dollars for 500rnds? You can get brown bear for 20 bucks cheaper at Cheaper Than Dirt any time. Although the cabellas is a better grade . . . still I need money for other things but I'm down to 3 boxes. Is that pretty much the going rate for ammo? Seems like every trip to the range will cost you more than golf; a rich persons leisure pursuit if ever was one. Not that I know anything about golf . . .

 

[mcdonl]

Don't get down Golden. There are a lof of people who can spend 1000's of dollars on guns, ammo and accessories. There are also many folks who purchase firearms based on what they can afford.

I own a dozen $200-$300 guns... some folks own 1 or 2 $1000 guns. To each his own. Buy what you can and buy something you can shoot!

You should consider a .22....

 

[MachIVshooter]

Some here have money, but for most of us it's just taken years and meant not spending money on other junk. I don't have any tech gizmos, my furniture is made to last as long as possible, and my newest car is a 1987 Dodge Daytona Shelby.

It's all about priorities

 

[ijosef]

Guns are an expensive hobby, but that's the way most hobbies are. I can't even begin to imagine the money gearheads spend on their project cars. I know a guy who has put almost $10,000 into his custom motorcycle, along with countless hours of labor.

The commie guns are a sore spot for me, especially since I got into the game late. You used to be able to buy an SKS for as little as $60, and a thousand rounds of milsurp 7.62x39 ammo for a hundred bucks. Prices have jumped, and are likely to stay (although things have settled down after the initial election panic).

As far as the Cabelas ammo deal goes, I guess it depends on what brand it is. At the price you quote, you'll be paying about $5.20 for a box of 20 rounds, which is about average.

 

[freakshow10mm]

I'm working on my second million 'cause I sure as hell didn't make the first.

 

[TheWarhammer]

Sounds like you're local to DFW. Avoid CTD and drive down to Military Gun Supply. The prices are better and they weren't price gouging during the ammo scare like CTD was.

As for wealth and guns, most of us aren't rich. We've just been buying guns for many years. If you bought your first gun during the lead up to the BHO Administration, you paid a hugely inflated price and you've had to deal with scarce ammo until very recently. It's not always been like that. A couple of years ago, an SKS was a $50-100 gun and 7.62x39 was $2-3 per box. Hopefully, we'll see those days again.

 

[Walkalong]

I haven't made the first or the second mil.

Lots of folks around here just getting started with only a few guns. That was 99% of us at on time or another.

I used to have 4 to 6 guns at any one time, buy the cheapest cast bullets I could find, and caught powder on sale, then started casting and begging wheelweights, just like many folks. Did that for years.

I am very fortunate, after working and pinching pennies for around 35 years, to be able to have more stuff these days. You will too some day.

 

[Tirod]

Welcome to the internet. Forums are a place where a wide diversity of people post comments about mutually interesting topics.

Some actually do have the money to spend on expensive toys. If financial statistics have any value at all, they show it's done on a credit card. Not cash. Running up $2k for a hot new firearm is nothing. Selling off the last one to help happens, too. The concept that every poster has other responsibilities like family, car, home, charity, etc actually doesn't exist for this group. They are an influential group - but not the norm.

Consider just getting access to a forum during a busy work day. 40 hour a week people don't have much time to post hourly if they are really doing their job. So - most of what I read comes from those with lots of leisure time, not responsibility. The working gun owner has to crunch his time down to what's important.

Don't worry, the other 80 million gun owners aren't quite the bunch of show-offs you might think fill up forum space. They don't need to come here for that.

 

[sanerkeki]

It does not matter if you bring a HK or a Kel tec to the range what is important is that you take pride in what you have and take care of it.

 

[Norinco982lover]

All the firearms I have purchased have been within the last 3 years. They took a lot of hard work and there have been just as many firearms sold or traded off as have been purchased...so I'm not really sure how I ended up with the 5 that I have now.

Their value adds up to about $1750 so no, I am not a millionaire

~Norinco

 

[LeonCarr]

I am a shooter, not a collector. IME most folks that have bunches of guns shoot one or two of them all the time and the rest of them are safe queens. The other 99% are inside the safe saying, "SHOOT ME! SHOOT ME!"

 

[hso]

It's less a matter of what you shoot than how well you shoot what you have.

Some of us have been into guns for decades. That usually means a few good guns that might get shot or a lot of guns that probably won't get shot.

Folks just starting out may decide that one is plenty or get the bug and spend time and money finding and owning different firearms.

 

[MinnMooney]

I like ijosef's idea that

Guns are an expensive hobby, but that's the way most hobbies are.

My brother's hobby (back in the 70's) was ham radios. He spent a ton of money and bought excellent equipment. Some thought he was foolish but I thought "It made him happy and kept him totally occupied" so where's the harm.

Obviously you're going to find The High Road members will run the gammut of wage earners from unemployed to doctors/lawyers/wall street brokers. Some save for a time just to buy an SKS or a Savage w/blued bbl and syn. stock. Some go on GunBroker.com and buy a Blaser rifle ($4m-$6m) for their 16 year old kids birthday or a matched pair of Krieghoff M-32 12ga O/U shotguns for him and his wife (about $12m-$13m for the pair).

If you do a search on THR for "show your safe", you'll see some have safes the size my basement and they're full of very fine firearms.

 

[Mikil]

It doesn't matter how much you have to spend on a gun,just get what you can afford and enjoy. You can always trade up. the important thing is you are buying guns and ammo. I,d rather buy guns and shoot than eat,but thats just me and I'm sure a few others.

 

[EddieNFL]

I used to have 4 to 6 guns at any one time, buy the cheapest cast bullets I could find, and caught powder on sale, then started casting and begging wheelweights, just like many folks. Did that for years.

...buying primers one hundred at a time, using Lee powder dippers 'cause I couldn't afford a measure, mining berms for range scrap, spend an hour scouring the range for brass after everyone else has gone home, owning a Lee Enfield, but keeping an eye on a sportized Springfield '03...

Some actually do have the money to spend on expensive toys. If financial statistics have any value at all, they show it's done on a credit card.

Very good point. I remember returning to the states after an extended overseas tour and credit cards were available to virtually everyone. About a year later I realized the party was over and the piper wanted to be paid. Since that little lesson in life I'm now considered a deadbeat by CC companies because I never carry a balance. If you're just starting out in life, PAY CASH. You'll reap the benefits later in life.

 

[Sam1911]

Some of us have been into shooting for a long time and bought the majority of our guns back in "the good old days."

Some of us are fortunate enough to have been handed down the beginnings of a pretty decent collection.

Most of us, I'd say, are fortunate to add one to the collection each year. When you think of purchasing one $300-$1,500 luxury item each year, it doesn't seem like so very much.

Now, those of us who shoot competitively are really screwed! 'Cause instead of sitting on a collection of guns and a pile of ammo we bought when the buying was good, we're constantly scrounging to feed the ammo need. For me, that means careful budgeting and planning out my shooting needs far in advance, as well as reloading almost every round I shoot, shooting almost entirely cast lead instead of jacketed, and bulk buying to get the very best deal I can.

I've got lots of match fees and travel expenses to squeeze into that budget as well.

Yeah, it also means that I DON'T spend discretionary income on other things. I don't do home electronics, nice new cars, foreign travel, etc., and try to do as much of my home and vehicle maintenance work myself as possible. If I'm laying in the snow after dark changing a set of shocks on my truck, I'm thinking, "there's $60 for bullets I didn't have to pay a mechanic."

It's about priorities ... and patience.

-Sam

 

[MMCSRET]

Acquiring firearms is not a "hurry up and go" type situation. I was given my first rifle in 1955, had used family guns before that, since then I've bought, sold, traded, had built well over 200. Don't have near that many at any one time, they are just machinery, like cars, tractors or lawn mowers. Keep some cash in your pocket at all times and be on the look out. I picked up, and still do, some very nice guns over the years. Gave some of them away to family members, too. Its all fun!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[jnyork]

As others have said, many of us have been into the gun hobby for a long time, my addiction started about 1945. You might consider getting a good .22 rimfire, MUCH cheaper to shoot and just as much fun.

I have to tell you, I quit drinking about 18 years ago, turned out I had a LOT more money for guns.

Would you rather have a nice rifle or go out to eat 3 or 4 times a week? Up to you.

 

[kanook]

I drink little beer
don't smoke, snuff or chew
don't go to bars
limit my lunch spending to $5 a day, and what I don't eat is found money for firearms
rarely go out to dinner (only if the wife says)
I hunt and fish a lot so my freezer is full of meat so less money on groceries
the firearm I have to have today, I'll wait at least 6 months and if the urge is till there

but most of all, I feel sorry for all the firearms staring at me in the shop window waiting for someone to show them love and take them home.

 

[NMGonzo]

40k a year.

Most expensive = $800 colt combat commander (I did not buy coffee or ate out for 4 months)

Least expensive = walter p22 (everybody needs a .22, it came bundled with my snub .357 so i consider it FREE)

Average = $500

I am done with buying handguns.

I have one serious one for every day of the week, every occasion, every type of dressing situation, and every whim so far.

 

[jcwit]

In my case it always looking for the deal, and yea they are out there.

Bought a brand new in the box Springfield S/S .45 Mil-Spec for $350.00, from the dealer, had never been fired, I sent in the warrenty card.

Got a Kimber custom S/S not new but like new for $400.00

Bought a Winchester 52B mfg. in the '40's in perfect shape, no rust, no dings in the stock, missing the hand stop however, wish it had the orginal box too, $50.00.

This only a very few of the deales I've made over the last few years. One thing I look for at a gun show is the gunsmith specials, have picked up some REAL goodies that all they needed was a cleaning.

I carrry this also into purchasing a car. My wifes current car was purchased at 2 years old with 60,000 miles in showroom shape, and mechanically perfect for the grand sum of $3000.00 cash from a new car dealer.

My current winter driver is a rust free 6 year old Escort, excellent condition, purchased for less than $1000.00

Yes deals are out there, just have to search, search, search never quite looking. Of course this might be from me being in purchasing since I was a 14 year old kid.

 

[Guvnor]

When I first started getting into guns a few years ago I caught gun fever and made alot a impulse buys. But several of them have turned into "safe queens" since they are kind of impractical for my use. I wish I had been a little less impulsive and just bought 2 or 3 practical, multipurpose guns. I would have saved alot of money.

But then again, there is just something about a fully stocked gun safe that gives you a nice warm feeling!

 

[Kimber45acp]

This thread is funny. Yes, most of us do talk like we can afford all sorts of guns, and/or like we HAVE spent tens of thousands on guns over the years uhoh: ), and the dirty little secret that isn't discussed is that quite a few people right here on THR really ARE quite wealthy. There's a false assumption of equality among us on this board sometimes because we're all gun nuts. The reality is that many of us are poor, can barely afford the mortgage, and have funnelled WAAAAY too much $$ to guns over the years, many of us are middle class and have funnelled way to much $$ to guns over the years, and several people here are so loaded with stacks of hundred dollar bills, house servants, and sports cars, that they KNOW many wouldn't talk to them if we knew (hence the reason they keep quiet about their multiple mansions/$100,000 cars/mini yachts/stacks of transferable NFA items, even though it shows through sometimes).

 

[Creature]

It's all about priorities

That's it in a nutshell.

 

[ny32182]

Slow and steady.

I guess part of the reason I seem to end up with AR15's is that you can get a lower one month, an upper the next month; internals the month after that, etc...

I don't really "budget"; I just have some simple financial rules that keep me out of debt, saving, and hopefully buying guns. These rules are universal for me, and I never break them for any reason, EVER, period:

1) I divert my % each month automatically to savings. This never hits my checking account, therefore I don't really have the "opportunity" to spend it. Money saved in this manner is designated as savings forever; I don't even own it at all from a spending perspective, as far as I'm concerned.
2) I never carry a credit card balance. I don't pay interest on anything other than a mortgage, including cars. I.e., if I can't afford it, I don't buy it, or I save up checking account balance until I can afford it.
3) Therefore, the part that hits my bank account, I don't feel guilty about having fun with. I pay my house, bills, food/other living expenses out of this, and whatever is left I have fun with; which usually turns out to be mostly gun money.

Golf? Heh... Yes, I play golf too; not real seriously, but even if I was: A really nice set of golf clubs is, say, $1500, and greens fees on a nice course are around $50-70... golf is basically trivial compared to the cost of a "nice" gun collection, even for moderately serious players. Like anything else, if golf is what you want to do, you can spend as much as you want on it through travelling all over the place to play, buying the best gear and lessons on the market, etc. *Anything* can be as expensive as you want it to be if you are serious enough about it.

If I had the money I'd be into toy cars, but, I don't.