Apparently I have a "hoarding" problem. I like to get deals on scopes for guns that I don't yet own. My friends think I have a problem and should probably seek counseling

For example, Doug @ Cameraland had Pentax 3-9 for $89 last year so I bought one. I think I also bought a Pentax 4.5-14 from Doug without a rifle to put it on. Now I see Nitrex scopes are on closeout with a rebate.

Do you buy scopes for guns you don't have yet especially if they are good deals?

Worse than that: I buy ammunition and components for guns I don't have.

As an example, when I was in college, almost 40 years ago, (and money was naturally scarce), I couldn't help but buy several hundred rounds of Herter's .222 Magnum brass (Made in Finland) on closeout for $2 per hundred. It was at least 15 years later that I finally found a Sako .222 Magnum rifle to go with the cases. But I'm still reloading and shooting those same cases today!

Compared to my "speculative" component buying, the half-dozen or so "spec" scopes that reside on the top shelf of my gun safe are insignificant.

Mthuntr,
I know what you mean. I still have a brand new Intensity 6.5-20x44(also an asian scope made for ATK, one notch below the Nitrex) sitting new in its box that I picked up from Natchez on closeout a couple of years ago. Bought two, using one a Weatherby Vanguard Varmint Special in .223 Rem. Scope works great for the price, but have to admit I prefer the Leupold 4.5-14X I have on the Remington 700 SPS Varmint in the same caliber. But those Nitrex scopes sound too good to pass up. So tempted to grab a 1.5-5X TR One and a 3-9x42 TR One. Could get both of them delivered for under $200 if the rebates show up. Anyone know if the rebates are limited to 1 per household, or can you order 2 different scopes and get rebates on both?

Guilty as charged Good to see I'm not the only character that does this! Some really super deals on decent optics out there nowadays, Doug is making us poor. Waidmannsheil, Dom.

It does have its benefits. My grandfather handed me a Leupold Vari X 3-9 to mount, price tag was $89.

Yeah, guilty. But I have an excuse. I keep an eye out for high end Euro glass and I buy them when I find them at the right price and then I wait for the gun that belongs under them to show up.

Works for me.

I did the same thing with the last three Swarovski's I bought. They are the PV-N and discontinued. I found all three on the classifieds here. Great prices on all of them and all three now have rifles under them. Go figure!!

quote:

Originally posted by miles58:
Yeah, guilty. But I have an excuse. I keep an eye out for high end Euro glass and I buy them when I find them at the right price and then I wait for the gun that belongs under them to show up.

Works for me.

In a word "no"! I find that optics is something that evolves and you get a better quality product later for the same money you spend now. I buy the gun, then later the optics. Sometimes I buy the optics much later--- I have a couple of bolt guns bought around 1980 that have yet to be scoped or fired.

Buckeyeshooter, I think that means you have your own set of problems! But then again, we all have our little idosyncracies. I buy swap and trade so many rifles, I have piles of dies, brass and bullets that I technically have no use for. But you never know what may come down the pike next.
Les

quote:

Originally posted by buckeyeshooter:
In a word "no"! I find that optics is something that evolves and you get a better quality product later for the same money you spend now.

There's something to that theory. In 1965 I bought a Leupold Vari-X II 3-9 from a discount catalog seller for $65. Sounds like a deal, right?

Well, if you run that figure through the inflation calculator at http://www.westegg.com/inflation/infl.cgi
You'll find that $65 in 1965 is equal to $437 in 2009.

You can buy the equivalent scope today (VX-I) for about $220, or the next higher in the line (VX-II) for around $300. So, for $300 today you get a better scope than the one you paid the equivalent of $437 for in 1965.

Today IS the Good Old Days in many ways.

My thoughts exactly Stonecreek!

The $437 figure is using the Consumer Price Index. More significant to most of us is how much something costs compared to what we earn. If you use a scale called the "Production Worker Compensation" index, then the $65 Leupold in 1965 was costing you $567 in dollars you earn today.

You may be personally better or worse off than average, but 45 years later you're likely making a much better living than you were in 1965 just due to longevity, promotions, or accumulation of investment capital. I know that I don't think a half-second about dropping $300 on a new Leupold if I need/want it today, but in 1965 I had to save and agonize over spending $65 for weeks or months.

By the way, I still have that Leupold from 1965 sitting on top of a $139 Sako Finnbear . My dealer (and ebay) tell me the scope will bring about $200. But since I've gotten about a thousand dollars worth of use out of it on hunts for whitetails, mule deer, elk, wild hogs, coyotes, pronghorns, etc., etc., that means I'm still big money ahead .

I buy scopes for rifles I don't own.

I buy ammunition and reloading componants for calibers I don't shoot but want to.

I buy clothing for hunts I have never been on but would like to. Tweed stalkers and bird shooting outfits for the British Isles.

This hunting addiction also brings an addiction for me to aquire stuff.

Maybe not with always the best intentions.

Stonecreek,

had you waited, you would not have had that scope for FORTY-FOUR YEARS! to hunt with. On your logic you should wait another ten years before buying any scopes or rifles. They'll be better, cheaper, and you could have taken your wife on Holiday with the money.

Rich

I am soo happy to find you guys I THOUGHT I WAS ALONE.
I am sure I will never be able to shoot all that ammo I have.
Hank

I went out to the vault and counted. Eleven scopes on rifles, and ten spares. Too many bargains here this year on Leupolds...

Rich

I can't count the ammunition. Fifty-three bullet moulds and almost 3500lbs of WW.

Idaho, I bet that much bulk lead would be worth a small country these days.


When I was living in Germany I was unable to have my Waffen with me, so I stockpiled optics. I bought a Leupold Tactical to put on the .308 that was far away at home. Then I bought a Leupold 2x handgun scope hoping to put it on the Super Blackhawk, but changed my mind and later put it in an SK scout mount on the Vz24 rifle when back in the US. I got tired of having scopes for rifles I didn't have, so I got some Wind River binos so I could at least use them right away!!

So its called "stockpiling". Thank goodness, I thought I was a hoarder. I have quite a few scopes that are not on guns, some still new in the box some used. I just bought two scopes and a pair of binos in the last two days. Crap, I can only look thru one at a time. Is there a cure?

quote:

Originally posted by Idaho Sharpshooter:
Stonecreek,

had you waited, you would not have had that scope for FORTY-FOUR YEARS! to hunt with. On your logic you should wait another ten years before buying any scopes or rifles. They'll be better, cheaper, and you could have taken your wife on Holiday with the money.

Rich

That was funny!...Man Stonecreek--you are one mathematical guy, no doubt.

I'm the same as Rich--i think i have 10 scopes or more just sitting around waiting for a gun or two to show up too. Have some oddballs too- like 2 BR Leupold's that have been converted to LER by Wally Siebert with power boosters on them and TK Lee dot systems. One's on a specialty pistol, one's wiating for the next build to come along.

I also bet i have 50 lbs. or more of gunpowder waiting for casings to come along too, as well as bullets coming out my ears.

Apparently I am better at stockpiling rifles than at stockpiling scopes. Am always scope poor with just a few spares.

Ordered a pair of Pentax Pioneer 3-9x40 BC scopes when CameraLandNY had them on sale. Both are in use already. Wish I had ordered 4. Not a bad scope for under $100. Certainly goods enough for smaller caliber rifles.

I'm in the same boat. I have a whole shelf full of scopes waiting for the "perfect" rifle to come along.

Idaho SS, you and I should talk. I have 14 Hensley and Gibbs gang moulds (6 cavity to 10),60-odd Lyman, NEI and SAECO moulds, and by last count, roughly 600# of hardball alloy, 3k lbs of linotype, and roughly 200# of pure lead.

And as far as scopes go, yes: Burris Euro-Diamond 2.5-1-10 X 44 german 3P4 still in the shrink wrap, two Leupold 3.5-10 Vari-X IIIs and a 2.5-8X 36 Vari-X III, among others.

Thousands of pieces of brass, thousands of cast bullets, components out the ears, and a loading bench that should have been bigger...

We all have an ailment that cannot be cured, but thankfully there is a very large support group!