I'm not posting this as a flame thread by any means, but what exactly do you guys do for a living that you can afford 30 varmint rifles, plus any assortment of big-game rifles, and then probably some dangerous game rifles, and to top it all off, a .50 BMG? I teach for a living and can afford to own my Browning Citori, M70 Featherwieght in .30-06, a 788 in .308 and a 788 in .243 and now that I moved to Iowa and can only hunt deer with pistol, I'm buying an Encore system, and I hope to get a few barrels for that. I would love to have 30+ guns in my arsenal, but how exactly do you afford it? Just curious, and I'm probably not that only one wondering this.
Willie

How'd I afford my guns? Being single w/ no house payment and a good job had a *lot* to do w/ it

Now, I have a better paying job, but a huge mortgage payment, significant other w/ 3 kids (two teenagers!!), vehicle payments, etc. I know how you feel Now it seems every time I sell one gun to fund another, the money gets diverted to 'put out a fire' somewhere else.

As for job, I work as a control room operator in a hydro electric dam in Washington (technically a Senior Operator/Maintainer at Rock Island Hydro Project for Chelan County Public Utility District #1 in North Central Washington on the Columbia River)

Monte

[ 09-25-2002, 21:08: Message edited by: milanuk ]

Willie: I am a retired policeman from Seattle. I have been retired for 5 1/2 years and and just turned 55. I do not smoke, drink, gamble, travel to foreign countries, chase loose women, wear jewelery, buy fancy clothes, own a motorboat, or own a small plane and my wife cuts my hair and has for 30 years. Visualize those savings to a families budget! But I do not use "family money" for my "hobby" (obsession). I use extra money that I earn from buying and reselling Guns, outdoor equipment, Firearms related books, tools and other man stuff. I also earn extra money by travelling from Montana to the west coast of our country and doing body guard work and robbery suppression assignments. Those fools out there pay expenses and $25.00 and hour to "babysit" them. They also pay overtime rates and I usually get 12 hour days for a minimum of a week at a time. This adds up quickly! And my "mad money" replenishes itself pretty quickly.
Yes I would much rather buy a couple of new Rifles than go on a cruise (although the VarmintWife and I have been on two cruises) or buying a Corvette or spending up to $180.00 a round for GOLF!
I just got back from a trip to Salt Lake City with a lifelong friend of mine (who just retired) where he bought a 1958 Black Chevrolet Impala! It was so beautiful! He paid $25,000.00 cash for this mint condition car! All I could think of as we put it on the car trailer was how many Varmint Rifles I could buy with that money! My friend is a Hunter and owns several Rifles and one shotgun - but he has other priorities for his "happy makers".
Yes I feel blessed to have made some good decisions for my life and blessed to have that guaranteed $3,300.00 (after taxes) retirement check coming in every month from the city and a mutual fund check of $2,000.00 (before taxes) every month for the family budget. Those and my wife refuses to retire! She has two jobs!
Anyway I have just made a commitment to not use family money for my Rifles.
In addition to my Varmint Rifles I have collected Winchester Rifles or 35 years. The first Winchester I "collected" I paid $205.00 for. I recently turned down $1,800.00 for it. That "profit" (investment) would have bought two complete Varminters! I have had pride of ownership for many years and the Rifle had increased in value. I have done this type thing literally hundreds of times in 35 years. Recently at a Gun Show in Portland, Oregon I was snooping the aisles when I noticed a bunch of handsome Weatherby catalogs on a table. The fellow had several and wanted $3.00 a piece for them. I picked out a nice one and offered him $2.00. Don deal. I walked away not 150 feet and sold that catalog to a Weatherby collector for $20.00. Needless to say I went back and bought the other catalogs. I ended up making about $150.00 for that little bit of alertness. I recently sold a Nosler bullet display board for $100.00 that had been given to me years ago!
Oh don't get me started! I have held garage sales, babysat, dogsat, borrowed money from my mother, sold items dear to me, worked two jobs (both 40 hour a week jobs!) for 13 years straight at one time and always been on the look out for bargain items to resell. That and I never pay retail for any Firearms related items or componenents. Never! I always have an "in" somewhere.
My "arsenal" presently consists of more than 100 Rifles, about 20 pistols and one shotgun! I am certain I have owned in the past 1,000 different Firearms. Most all of them have been resold for a profit. So that is how I come to own and enjoy my "arsenal". I personally know some other "working guys" that have collections that HUMBLE mine! My friend Armand who is a machinist owns 25 Rifles in caliber 22-250 alone! he literally has one of every Varmint Rifle ever manufactured. Well it seems like it to me anyway. You would not even believe the number of EXPENSIVE Firearms my Dentist friend owns so I won't go there!
Want more Rifles (and those darned expensive scopes!) then remember my tip about not smoking and such and the wife cutting your hair and garage sales and buying and reselling Firearms (which is very enjoyable in itself!) and other little ways one can come by Firearms. My relatives even remember my passion in their wills!
Good luck on growing your collection and above all enjoy the ones you have now and scheme a little now and then to add to them.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

I'm a fish farmer and commissioned salesperson.

Here's some of the math, for me:

No cable: one gun per year
No smokes: two guns per year
One beer a day, only, no junk food, no soda, pack lunches: two guns per year
Pickup (Toyota) paid for, liability insurance only: four guns per year.

I finally had to break down and replace my wife's Toyota corrola after it rolled over 200,000 miles. Bummer. You know how many cans of powder you can buy for $22,500, plus interest, plus full coverage insurance? FWIW, Dutch.

County employee at joke wages. Have 2nd job at decent wages but only part time. Just as Dutch said mind your pennies. I worked a bunch of overtime several years ago and financed a plains game hunt. Sold several rifles for the air fare. My ex wife got the taxadermy money though.

I try and save all I can keep from my wife for my gun habits.

I'm a geologist and make ok money but live in CA so it is all gone before I know it. But as several of hte guys, I don't drink or smoke so that gives me a lot of mad money.

I do not own any custom rifles but own a number of guns. I started buying when I was 16 and picked up one every couple of years, except for when I was in college. I am now trying to catch up with one a year. But it will slowly add up. Its just a matter of what your priorites are and where you put your expendable cash.

VarmintGuy, you end up out here in the Central Valley of CA on one of your trips. Give me a hollar and I will take you out shooting.

CA Mike

Willie: I'm retired now but I guess I'm the one you mentioned with 30 varmit rifles plus others. Shot alittle BR in the 80's. I also own quater horse which we show and found out one thing. It cost the same to feed a bad horse as a good one so why not own a good one. And that hold to my rifles. I also started varmit shooting back in the mid 60's in Calif plus deer hunting. I want you to understand something Willie I didn't just go out and buy 30 varmit rifles I started in the 60's with a 243 and I guess I'm one of the lucky ones as my wife has been with me every step as she enjoys shooting and hunting. She will be hunting with me in the 2nd season in Co (we live there now) for deer and elk. I hope when your my age you have as many rifles as I do and enjoy them as much. One thing that has keep it going is the quality of barrel and bullets plus the new calibers that keep coming out. I remember you would be lucky to hit a 20" bull at 1000 yds and look at the light rifle record now at 1000 yd 1.5". I also hear Winchester might be coming out with a new line of cases one of the days something alot shorter than the WSM case. I was very lucky early on as to met a bunch of great shooters in calif. and that kind of pointed me to where I'm at today not as to how many rifles you can own but to get the best accuracy out of a rifle. Tom

Willie

Fellow Iowan here. I am a plastics molding technician, wages nothing spactacular, just have to pinch pennies whenever I can. Bought an Encore last year and still have not got the scope for it yet, but am hoping to get it done this year. I think that having to try so hard to get the things that I want (or need... depends on your point of view), it makes me appreciate them even more when I can get them. You don't have to have it all, as long as you enjoy what you have.

Willie - I've always taken a little different approach to firearms ownership. Rather than try to OWN scads of rifles, I've pretty well maintained a small "herd" of 8 - 10 rifles at any given time. My strategy is to keep my guns " CIRCULATING . By this I mean eventually I will get tired of a rifle or one will fall out of favor with me...or I may never have liked it from day one...so I sell or trade it and buy myself something that DOES excite me.

By this method I've owned, experimented with, hunted with and gotten intimately acquainted with heaven knows how many different firearms and cartridges! (Including 3 submachine guns and two anti-tank rifles!)

It's been a fascinating road to travel. Sure there are some guns that I've let go that I still wake up in the night crying about...but not many. Most I just learned what I wanted and moved on.

I guess you can almost look at my approach like "leasing" rather than buying. The advantage is you're always driving/shooting something new.

PS - I'm at the age now where I'll probably just stick with the herd of firearms I have today. (Except for a couple of guns I'm in heat for. )

willie where abouts in iowa are you? im just south of ft dodge. i liked your ?? i wondered the same thing sometimes. im on social security full disablilty so you can about quess that i dont buy so many weapons. i have a good friend whos a gun dealer so he helps me alot. i didnt realize there was a handgun deer season in iowa is it right after bow season or what??

a .357 mag can be your best friend.......

Tasco 74, I'm from Hampton, my wife and I just moved here from SD. We are both first year teachers and don't make a whole lot in the way of salary. The handgun season is the same as the regular shotgun season, but you use a handgun. The handgun must fire a straight-walled case, I'm going to go with the .454 Casull, not that I need the power, but it's nice to know it's there and I can always load it down first. In SD I always hunted deer with a .30-06, but I can't here. I'm buying an Encore, so I might take my pistol hutning abroad and use a rifle barrel in the Encore when I hunt is SD. It's good to know of some other hunters in Iowa, thanks for the reply.
Willie

This is for everyone else who replied to my original message. Thanks for letting me know, I'm 23 and a first year teacher. It's good to know that a modest salary can turn into a nice little collection, although my wife think I already have enough guns, but she fortunately likes to eat venison. I also do not smoke, have a beer maybe once a month, change my own oil, drive a restored 1973 Suburban that my father bought new, and I can do all of my own work on it. My parents and my wife's parents are both very frugal and do many of the things that you all do to obtain your luxury toys. Save and pinch pennies and do things yourself rather than pay someone else to do it. I'm glad to know I'm on the right track, I'll just keep adding slowly, I can't wait to get that Encore and a few barrels for it!
Thanks for the encouragement,
Willie Rosin

A teacher! What the heck are you doing with guns? I thought that all you NEA types abhored guns!

Ok, ok, just pulling your chain. My wife's a teacher and shoots as well. Not all teachers are idiots.

Heck, I forgot to mention that I am a retired soldier. Many of my guns I've inherited, many I've collected. Those that I've sold I've done so under duress!

[ 09-26-2002, 21:26: Message edited by: Hobie ]

CaMike: Thank you so much for the generous invitaton! I will save your info and maybe in a few years I will head out thataway! My next Varmint Safari out of my usual haunts (Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and the west half of the Dakotas) will be to Wood Chuck country! I want to add a Wood Chuck to my all time brought to bag Varmint list. I have been gathering info on the nearest place Wood Chucks inhabit to SW Montana. I hope to get headed east next spring/early summer on my first Wood Chuck Hunt. Thanks again for your very generous offer to Hunt with you. If you happen to get into the Rockie Mountains look me up there is usually something to Hunt Varmint wise here.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Well I don't smoke, gamble, drink very little, don�t chase women and keep my eyes pealed for a good deal. I don't have to justify what I do to anyone I'm single and haven�t needed a kitchen pass in 17 years now. So I pretty much do as I please. My gun safe shows the results it�s full and it is bigger than my refrigerator.

quote:

---

Freedom is a wonderful thing.

---

[ 09-26-2002, 23:50: Message edited by: Jay Johnson ]

I sell the hardest product in the world and thats LIFE Insurance. I also do financial planning and have a securities license. I buy and sell guns to pay for the next one. Mostly its rob Peter to pay Paul then mug Paul and buy a gun. I'm gun poor just as you can be insurance poor. I'll admit that when it comes to a gun I'm WEAK!! I'll buy the gun and figure out how to pay for it later.

It's all a matter of priorities and obligations. I am 55 but still work, my wife has a good job and pays her own way, my daughter is grown, out of college and married and generally off the payroll, the house and cars are paid for, and guns and related activities have always been my favorite diversion and recreation, although there are others too.

Operations Manager for a drilling company. I'm sitting down here in the middle of no-where making more money than I ever have in my life, the first 100k tax free. Free housing, utilities, car, telephone, etc. It's a tough life.

The downside is I'm living in the middle of kidnap country, and they kill you if you get in the wrong place at the wrong time.

(Ex. 1 - Drove home from the office for lunch. Started to stop at the grocery store for ham and cheese. Decided to do it later. Came back by on my way to work an hour later, they had tried to rob the store at high noon. Shot and killed one of the checkout girls but word got to the PTJ what was going down and they stormed the store. Shot both perps dead. Bad day to buy ham and cheese.)

(Ex. 2 - Word got around not to drive downtown at about 10:00am. Hostage stand-off at a department store. Perp demanded safe passage out of the store , a bullet-proof vest and one hostage as a shield. PTJ complied, let him get to the street then gunned him down and the hostage (accidentally). Bad day to go to the deoartment store.

Graduated four kids from college. No one on my payroll but me and my wife. She's my second and definitely a keeper. Own a couple of houses in Dallas. Got them leased.

Have a weakness for the stockmarket and am currently getting hammered.

I have only one gun with me (12 Ga. Browning Citori Satin Hunter over & under).

My S&W Model 57 .41 Mag and 9mm are in a Bank in Dallas.

My Browning A-Bolt 300 WSM and my Remington 700 ADL 25.06 are under my son's bed in Dallas.

My Remington Model 600 .308 Win, Riddle .30 Cal muzzle loader, Hopkins & Allen lever action 12 ga., Remington 1100s (12 & 20), Stevens bolt action .22 single shot, and Remington .22 Navajo are all in storage in Plano.

Save your chips. Avoid stockbrokers and other experts. Don't get impatient. I was ten years out of college before I started feeling like I was getting anywhere financially. Five years later I was back to zero, starting over. I got a little too cocky.

Marry women that are good with money, good mothers and good-lookers. I've had two. I think that's my limit. It's a target-rich environment down here, but my wife says I'm not allowed to have any target practice.

Like VarmintGuy and Ray Atkinson I'm a career Law Enforcement Officer 32 years with one more to go. That is NOT what funds my gun buying and hunting. My parttime job(s) do that. So when people ask me if I am rich, or how can I afford this and that, I too don't drink, or smoke etc. I save my money and work extra and I am sure I not only enjoy my guns more than the average guy I APPRECIATE them much morealso. Good Hunting, "Z"

I drive a $600.00 truck and load it down with $25,000 worth of guns. Some people are just the opposite.

Tsiero: BINGO.

I shoot clays with a guy like you. I think he drives a 20 year old Plymouth Horizon. Then he pulls out his English Doubles, and, and, and....

Priorities! LOL! Dutch.

I am a high school shop teacher in Illinois.
Hobie: Until I got into teaching 3 years ago I thought all teachers were liberals and I wondered how I would fit in. I found out that most teachers I've met are VERY conservative; at least most vocational teachers are. I think a good number of teachers do not closely agree with the politics of the NEA. Every year, the NEA takes a political contribution out of our dues. We have to ask for it back or it goes to the liberals. Most of my co-workers ask for it back.
I play Rush Limbaugh's radio show during my drafting class.
I cannot buy as many guns and shooting supplies now as I did when I worked in industry, but I've found out I don't need them- I take care of the ones I've got.

Soybean Agronomist five years out of college, wife is a nurse at Univ of Iowa. I try to have guns that'll cover a wide range of shooting and not just fill a niche. Don't have a big game rifle yet as I have no use for one now. Yeah, I'd like to own a cabinet full of custom rifles, a few O/U shotguns and the like but can't do it now. We just bought a farm and have our first child due in a month. However, I picked up a Sako L461 in good condition for $300, (read SWEET DEAL.) So I thought I'd have it rebarreled to 17 Mach IV, I've alway wanted a 17 for fox and coyote. Anyway, that's my last gun for a long while but I have all my bases covered when it comes to guns, sans big game.

Stay away from the cigs and booze, follow a clear cut budget and you'll be on your way to a full gun cabinet.

Chris

Welcome to Iowa!

Max503, I am also a member of the NEA, and did not know that I was making monetary contributions to the liberals. Please let me know how to get that portion of my dues back. I would really appreciate it. You can email me at wrosin@rsrebels.org, this is my school email address at work.
Thanks,
Willie

Willie

I am a Civil Engineer for the Ohio Department of Transportation. Working for the government sucks! There are more lazy people here than you can shake a stick at. Anyone looking for a very bright Civil Engineer specializing in Transportation?

I am married (4 years) with a 7 month old daughter. We have two "family" cars and a brick ranch house and a 90 lb black lab that hates our neighbors.

I own several firearms, but nothing worth bragging about. The only gun I have paid more than $200 for is my TC Encore. I'm going to buy a Sako though in the next few weeks. I have saved for over 2 years.

Like a lot of other engineers, I too am cheap. My wife cuts my hair and I have $20,000+ of student loans to pay off starting in February. I will have finished my Masters in Civil Engineering at the end of this month.

I'm a criminal prosecutor for Pinal County, Arizona.

I am a criminal, hiding in the state of Arizona.
Please don't tell anyone.
VH

I am a Plant Superintendent in a factory. Have wife, kid and a Jack Russel terrier. Two nasty habits I have - buying and selling guns and stocks. The stocks pay for my gun habit.

I'm a machine maintenance technician for a medical device company. I have quite a few firearms, but I didn't buy them all at one time. I had a few before I was old enough to buy them, but once I came of age (and wasn't making much money), I bought two per year. One in July (my birthday) and one in December. It really helped me learn how to save knowing that the little bit of extra money I had after paying bills could go to the bar, or to the nice folks at the local gun shop.

After quite a few years of horse trading, upgrading, and watching for deals, I've amassed a pretty decent collection.

Ryan

[ 09-28-2002, 07:50: Message edited by: Big_R ]

I normally tell people I'm the Dean of Discipline at a school for wayward girls but in reality I'm a retired USAF Officer who is enjoying a 2nd career as an environmental ombudsman for a regional solid waste agency in Southern California. I used to have a lot more guns than I could use as I couldn't turn down a good deal..mostly hi-grade shotguns but then I decided to sell most of them and keep just a few that I used....a Perazzi multi-barrel set for trap and hunting and a Krieghoff K-80 tube set for skeet. My rifles are down to just a few but they are mostly custom.

How can I afford expensive guns and trips to places like Africa? Well after one son finished grad school and the other finished law school it was easy....paying the tuition at law school each year is the financial equivalent of driving a new BMW off a cliff so now there is "discretionary money" availabe.

For the younger shooters on the site....start saving money early even if it's only a few dollars from each check and make sure it's savings and not just delayed spending and think seriously about buying real estate AND stay out of the stock market until you have some discretionary money.

Retired USAF Master Sergeant and currently work as an Electronics Technician for the US Postal Service. I also grow about 300 acres of hay and have a small orchard.

I don't have near the time to shoot them all.

The number of guns ya have don't depend on your income - it depends on your priorities. I had close to 30 guns when I was a poor Airman with three small kids and qualified for food stamps.

I am the same age as you I have a wife and two daughters go to school at night and like a lot of the guys above I don�t drink, smoke or drive a vehicle that is not paid for. I generally make one major gun purchase a year($500-$1000)and maybe one or two cheaper ones I can� t pass up and that�s on top of saving for a
house. I do all right by working as much as possible never turning down over time and doing side jobs here and there. My best advice is try to find this guy on a local radio station www.daveramsey.comor listen while you are on the Computer listen online

Wildlife Damage Control ssupervisor, Paid to hunt.

Doc

reTIRED dairyfarmer(@32)Ben welding cement mixer chasis since.Priorities & good deals!!!Sold the Harleys & cut wayyy back on the drinkin,still gone on the weekends but its huning & shooting done with the aid of a 10year old chev with 280000 that was baught used.Some people take out car loans others take out gun loans
Prairie dog arsenal..RugerVT223,Ruger8twist22-250,TC Ancor223,ColtHbar223,NEF223,Marlin22LR & Ruger1022 22LR

Want to see your bankers jaw drop tell him you need $3000 for a gun=CJ

[ 10-04-2002, 11:29: Message edited by: MachV ]

Mach V what are the rifles caliber/action etc. ??

They look very nice

I am a heavy equipment opperator for a mining company. I to keep only 8-10 guns around at any given time. No need for any more. I have settled down to a few rounds that i like and pretty much stick to them.

I am a Computer Programmer(Second Career) and Professional Musician(First Career and not as lucrative). I only own 1 shotgun(Mossburg 500 for hunting, a 22lr, 2 .303's, a 243 and my new 17HMR. Hee in Ohio I can only use the centerfires for varmints and not the big game. I got into Bowhunting because of the extended season. a Compound and 2 Recurves.
I spend my money on my 12 year old Daughters equestrian sports! The hunting trips have been every now and then! I had a large sale last year that paid for trip 1 to Africa nd this past summers trip was financed partly from the estate of an older relative.
I second the save even a dollar a week mindset, as priorities make a differance!

Amosgreg, what did you do as a professional musician? I'm a band director in central Iowa and played jazz gigs on my saxes for mad money during college. Just curious as to what you did that didn't pay off. I didn't go the player route for that reason, not that I'm making buku bucks teaching either.
Willie

willie_rosin,
I still play professionally and during almost 20 years taught private lessons. While the money was decent, the benifits sucked
Seriously, My wife was getting used and abused in her job and as she was the primary benefit holder, she couldn't just say go %#@^% yourself like she wanted to. Seeing as the music business is very cyclical(when it rains it pours...) I went back to school and re-tooled myself in the IT industry. I was certified to teach K-12 but chose to teach private lessons over teaching in the public school.
I am the benefit holder now and she is self-employed.
I still play when I get called by some of the larger contractors I hae worked for but am taking a slight break to attend my daughters sports activities and horse shows.

I still play 2 or 3 times a month and Musicals and shows as called.

Like the song goes... "Nice Work if you can get it...."

Thanks for asking!
How much do you work these days?

[ 10-01-2002, 14:22: Message edited by: amosgreg ]

I'm a geologist with 20+ years of experience, so I make a reasonable income.

Like so many others here, I don't smoke, drink lightly, drive a 10-year old Honda with 200,000 miles, do my own work, and generally scimp and save. While I have been hunting since I was a teenager, I don't own many guns. What I have done over the years is sell/trade up, and save. The result is that after 25+ years, I have a few nice firearms. I made a trip to Africa in 2001, for which I started to save in 1992.