I keep reading posts about rifles that cost more than I pay for cars, and a few that cost more than my house.

If there are other folks out there having fine times and doing good shooting with really low budget stuff, let's talk about it.

Leftoverdj,

I see no reason to own firearms that I'm afraid to take to the field for fear of scratching em. The most I ever paid for a firearm (excluding scope) was $360. The least I paid is $15. Many I own were used at purchase, and the average price for the 13 firearms I own (including scopes) is approx $230. I'm a Remington 870/ Savage 110/Ruger M77 type of guy and love it.

Dave

O.K. cheap and poor people,here we go,2 nef handi-rifles,a win 94,a 98 with 4 barrels and 2 stocks,my latest a t.c. encore is my most expensive one at just under $600.but I wouldn`t trade any of them for anything.

Where I live shooting for poor boys is considered bad sportsmanship.

A few years back, I scooped up a Savage 23 in .25-20 WCF. Some moron had inlaid the stock with odd coins and tokens. Now I coveted the little Kimber in the same caliber, but it was selling for abot 5 times what I paid for the 23 w/dies and about 300 new brass.

It's light, it's cheap to shoot, reasonably quiet and accurate. I'd still like to have the Kimber, but I sure have not been deprived.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who can't afford guns that are more than my monthly rent. I shoot a .30-06 M70 Classic FTWT that I bought in the glory days of high school with no school loans or credit card payments, just a summer job and money to burn. I paid $250 for my .308 788 and I"ll be damned if I'll ever get rid of that rifle, it's the most consistent shooter I own. My .243 is a 788 that dad bought for mom to shoot deer with back in the 1970's, $99 new. We don't pay a lot, but we get a lot. I'm in the process of an Encore, that will run me pretty high, but it will be a blast, literally! I drool at the option of custom chamberings for <$250!
Willie

Considering I am a recovering grad student, new parent, and Dutch, it's amazing I spend any money at all on shooting!

I tend to buy things when they become available (a 7600 in 35 whelen for $350? --- sure, let me go get my checkbook).

This year, I got the hots for one of the new WSSM chamberings. So, I bought the cheapest Savage in 300 WSM ($325). Best I can figure, I can get $125 to $150 out of the take-off barrel. So, for $450, I will have a WSSM rifle with a match grade Pac-Nor screwed on. I'll pick up a "out of the mold" fiberglass (not plastic) stock from Sharp Shooters Supply ($115), and if I can't fix the trigger the way I want it (hasn't happened yet), I'll put in a Rifle Basix for %85. Doing it piecemeal.

But in the mean time, I'll be shooting 'yotes with a custom rifle for $425. That's how I do it.... Dutch.

While I do have some custom stuff, I really like my plain jane 700 ADL in 308. It just shoots real well with anything I put in it. I bought it some time ago for $300. I also have a BLR in 308 that my wife won for me in 1988. I sold it to my brother and had to buy it back, does that count?

I have a bunch of rifles I paid a $100 or so for. Got a $110 M98 in 30-06 that does 3/4" at 200yds!

The poor boy just struck again.

The local gun store got some consignment guns in. Seller priced them and Christmas help entered them in the books and put them on used rack.

I just bought me a J. Stevens model 44 in the best condition you will ever see for $125. The catch is that it is .25 Stevens rimfire. The good news is that this model is made to take down.

I got some choices, here. I can hunt around and find some ammo. (Looks like it is running about a buck a shot and the cartridge collectors will hate me.) I can find me a Savage/Stevens collector and see what the traffic will bear. I can make me up some adapters that use a .22 w/ the bullet pulled and powder dumped for for a primer. (Gotta see just where the firing pin hits before I try that one.) OR, I can make me up a spare takedown barrel. (.22 Mag. ??? Gotta let JBelk weigh in before I try that one.)

What fun!!!!! And all for $125.

The problem isnt funding my shooting habbits, its funding the wife's shooting habbits. She gets out there with the AR or her handgun and a paycheck flys over my head in minutes

I picked up a Turkish Mauser with a new synthetic stock and scope mounts for $200. With $200 in scope and rings it will shoot 1" at 100 yards all day long. I also picked up a Stevens bolt action 30-30 for $100 at a gun show a few years back for my wife. Our .22's cost $10 and $50, and shoot great. I love making an old gun out shoot a new $1000 rifle. By the way the Turk won our running deer shoot this fall. I was shooting agaist many high priced rifles. This is Canadian money I am talking.

My most expensive one, should I ever sell it (fat chance) is an Alexander Henry English sporting rifle that would need a fair amount of zeros after the first digit.

As a rule though, I'm a milsurp fan, and have been hunting with my old Swedes this season. With a 03 Curios and Relics license, you can put these, and lots more firearms you would never imagine, on your doorstep without a dealer mark up.

I am fortunate to be able to have expensive firearms in hand occassionally. Franz Marktl and Monte Mandarino both live in this area, and are friends. See R.L. Wilson's "Steel Canvas".
Recently I handled one of Franz' 1911 Colts that went for $34,000, and one of Monte's French fowlers that was in the $240,000 range. I try not to bang these around too much, although I did wack the fowler on the shop overhead. No damage, thank God!

I have 1 "new" rifle, a Rem 700, 7mm mag, traded a Ruger .22 hornet for it. About $375.00 total invested.
Several .22 s that were around $75.00.
1 converted Mauser from a $49.00 gunsmith special.
A couple of Fin 91/30 s.
Several m44 variants at $49.00.
My buds and I spend more time playing with the old milsurps than anything else.

Being rich or poor is not a sin...the key is to happy with what you have (or can afford)....there are a lot of shooters who buy rifles/shotguns/etc to impress their friends...about the only good thing they accomplish is to keep the good 'smiths in business...the bad thing is they just increase the waiting time for us others.

My first guns were a Mossberg .22lr, an Ithaca Model 37 20ga and a 3rd hand .30/30 and I was in heaven and no "rich man's" guns could compare as these were "mine".

But time moved on and between hardwork, some luck and the kindness of others I have managed to accumulate some very nice, albeit expensive rifles & shotguns that I use and enjoy and like the good-looking, busty blondes always say..."Don't hate me because I'm beautiful".

Eh, Bill?

And have you ever managed to improve on that Ithaca 20 gauge for a kicking the fence rows gun?

Sounds to me like you started with one of the very best.

And that Mossberg .22 don't sound bad to me either, if it is the b/a semi target job I remember.

Two of my buds bought .22 rifles in the same week. One was an original Kimber at about $400 back then. The other was one of the Chinese knockoffs of the Brno at $75. The Kimber was a joy, trim, beautiful, with a perfect trigger. The Chink would consistently outshoot it.

Granted, the difference was not much and would not amount to anything under field conditions. But both were joyous in their new rifles.

And that is what it is all about.

I have a motley assortment of Mausers, some original, some in sporter configuration. And one lonely Savage factory rifle. I wouldn't trade them for a bunch of new rifles. Character counts for a lot.

Best,
Todd

It ain't 'bout money, it's 'bout priorities!

Yeah, the $240,000 one is a work of art. Chase engraved from breech to muzzle on a patterned damascus barrel, with gold inlay, sculptured lock, and inlaid gold and silver engraved hunting scenes and wire inlay the full lenth of the full stock. Scary just to hold something like that.

Give me back my $49.95 turk!

I can relate about student lones, mortgage, and small children, hence little to no shooting funds.

I picked up my shooting buddies habbit, when you tire of a gun, sell it to fund new ones. So far the only guns I've bought new were a t/c contender frame, and this year, a Benneli Nova 12 ga.

The contender is the ideal method for cheaping playing. I've played with over 1/2 dozen barrels, I buy them used at fair prices, and sell them for what I paid, often times a litlle bit more then what I paid. I ordered two custom barrels for the t/c, both were "shorty" sale items, 10" barrels. I did a trade + cash for another barrel, then sold that barrel and a scope to pay for the recent barrel.

I started bullet casting at first just to try another aspect of the shooting hobby, but as of late, it has provided the spare cash to keep me in primers and powder, and an accessory here or there.

My ruger 480, that I'm very fond of, was a trade+ cash for the used gun, the sale of my super blackhawk provided the cash, and 1000 cast bullets made up the balance of the trade.

Where there is a will, there is a way!