Life's too short to shoot cheap guns!!!

[Picher]

(I originally posted this under the New Model 70 thread, but maybe it deserves it's own thread.)

I can't figure out why gun nuts like ourselves get so wound up about paying for the cost of a rifle, handgun, or shotgun that may last a lifetime and appreciate in value, and even passed on to loving members of the family or friends for generations. Yet, when it comes to other purchases, especially a computer, IPod, computer games, cars, snowmobiles, and other things that just don't last more than a few months or years, we don't even whimper, but throw down the cash and walk away with our new toy, wearing a big grin!!!

That's probably why all the electronics companies are rolling in dough and gun companies are struggling, sold, or going out of business. The products they make last TOO LONG!

Many people won't buy a new gun, but put out big bucks for one that's 50-100 years old. That just doesn't happen in the electronics business!

I submit that its' okay to buy an old gun, but stop whining about the new guns and their prices!!! The amount of money spent for a QUALITY new gun is never wasted.

When I think of all the wonderful new guns I could have bought when I was younger, it drives me nuts. Today, I should go out and buy a new Cooper, or a Kimber 1911, or a $3,000 Beretta shotgun, or any of the really nice guns being made.

Maybe I should really splurge and get a new hand-made rifle by one of the better custom gunsmiths. A good one is probably only around $3,000 and the wait is only about a year or two. I'm worth it, whether the wife agrees or not.

We have some excellent guns being made here and around the world right now; YOU DESERVE TO HAVE A GREAT ONE! Now get out there and SPEND! Let's get this industry back into the black...one fine gun at a time. If we buy only quality guns, maybe they might stop making crap!!!

Life's too short to shoot a crappy gun with a cheap scope!!!

There; that's the inspirational message for today.

Picher

 

[flashhole]

I'm anxious to see what you buy. Can you post a pic?

 

[OJ]

I'm in total areement - my wife gave me this one for our 25th anniversary three years ago and I shoot it regularly.

Winchester 95 in 30-06.

 

[copenhagen]

Hey, I don't even spend money on electronic noise. The CD player on my computer won't even open, and the screen is starting to change colors! I'm waiting for that bad boy to die die die before I get a new one, and then I'll probably wait a month or two for good measure, because everytime I look at computers or electronics.... I think about the rifle, pistol, revolver, or shotgun that I could bring home to the collection. Therefore, I probably have some of the trashiest stuff besides my guns. I even drive a little import rice burner because it was cheap, is paid for, and gets 44mpg. That gives me more money for guns. If I need to get somewhere in the woods I'll walk. You can never have too many nice guns in my opinion!

 

[Redneckrepairs]

Life is too short to worry about what my gun cost . I have a pre 64 mod 70 that i shoot and use , i also have a savage 110 that i enjoy. I have an old mod 12 that is a joy as is my old auto5 , but then so is my mossberg. Point is if the gun works , fits , and fulfills its role the cost is incidental . Personally i take more joy seeing a dad and kid both equipped with them " handi rifle type guns " out taking game than i do a whole bevi of cooperate types with shoot twice beretta scatter guns walking up phesants . Must just be me but the gun is just a dammed tool , and i like nice tool as much as the next fella , but ya know i like nice folks even more than i like nice tools .

 

[flashhole]

OJ - saw a gun similar to yours at a gun show in Portland, OR about 5 years ago. Very nice. I'm glad to hear you shoot it regularly. None of my guns are safe queens. If they function, they get used. I've wanted a 95' in 405 Winchester for a long time.

 

[Mike Irwin]

Life's too short for me to listen to people telling me what I should, and should not, be shooting...

 

[boesman82]

Damn those bills i have to pay otherwise i would get some more weapons for fun.

 

[CraigC]

Picher, I agree 110%!!! Which is why I splurged a couple years ago and spent $4000 on a dainty little Merkel 28ga.

BTW, my recent-production Winchester 1895 .405WCF is one of the most accurate rifles I own. Mine is of the first run of .270's that didn't sell and were returned to Miroku for rebarrelling to .405. Serial number 12.

 

[Beretta16]

My dad still uses his 1936 Winchester Model 71 .348 for deer hunting which was the first full year of production for the gun and it's probably worth a bundle. Doesn't stop him from bringing it out in the snow and pushing it through brush and branches. And I think most people on this forum shoot what they enjoy. My Beretta semi auto 12 gauge only cost me $500 but I love the thing and my CZ 75 was only $459 and wouldn't trade it for a couple grand 1911 unless I could sell it and buy a few more 75's. Just because they're cheap doesn't mean they're not quality.

 

[shooter_john]

While I appreciate your post and see where you are coming from, I'd take the Kimber 1911 OFF of the list. And yes that is based on MY experience. Maybe a Nighthawk or SA Operator perhaps though. I traded mine on a GREAT pistol that was half the price... a GLOCK!!!

 

[Rembrandt]

Nice to see others appreciate quality over price. In Europe many countries allow each citizen one rifle, one shotgun, one handgun in their lifetime....you can be assured they don't go looking for the cheapest thing to fill that need.

Bulk of American consummers are in the rut of buying just what gets by..."price first, quality is out of my reach mentality". That's why their homes, cars, (insert product) don't last. Most items people purchase are not worthy of being passed down to the next generation, those items are better suited for the landfill.

Long live steel and wood!.....

 

[Redneckrepairs]

Nice to see others appreciate quality over price. In Europe many countries allow each citizen one rifle, one shotgun, one handgun in their lifetime....you can be assured they don't go looking for the cheapest thing to fill that need.

I cant even imagine making a decision on a firearm on that basis . my reply for one was flippant when that type hearitage is taken into consideraditon ( i assume one would not have to sell dads gun to get a new one )

 

[Edward429451]

I agree also, good points. Although I've never splurged on a real custom piece, I like to buy the basic foundation on which their built. That gives me the no frills version. The quality is there sans whistles & bells.

The custom piece is still there, just like the great statue in the raw rock. Just hasn't had the fine pieces cleared away yet.

Perhaps you're right. I should have me a nice Vickers or Wilson in addition to the fine Milspecs. I deserve it, I work hard. It'd be a good backup for my primary, and something nice to leave one of my sons.

Hmm, if I plant the seed now in the Wifeys ear, plenty of time to get it paid for before next Christmas. I like this plan.

Edited to add: Actually I should have the custom (?) 4-5/8" 45 Colt Ruger built. Unfluted cylinder, 5 shot tank with a rounded Bisly type trigger guard (just like craigs!). It'd be cheaper and just as sweet.

 

[CajunBass]

I buy what I can afford.

You may do the same.

 

[CraigC]

Bulk of American consumers are in the rut of buying just what gets by..."price first, quality is out of my reach mentality". That's why their homes, cars, (insert product) don't last. Most items people purchase are not worthy of being passed down to the next generation, those items are better suited for the landfill.

Amen! That's also why our countryside is so littered with vacant mills, factories and manufacturing plants. We can point our fingers at greedy corporations all we want, the american consumer is to blame for the Indian that answers the phone when we call customer service.

"Affordability" is a point of view. It usually boils down to choice.

 

[Big Caliber]

Other side of the coin

Some of us still have to raise & feed a family, mortgage, cars, kid's braces, appliance breakdowns, vet bills, etc., all on a single income that doesn't come anywhere near 6 digits, & do it in Cali-taxme-fornia. And yes, modern electronics are crap. The point is that some of us must balance the family's needs against our irrational fascination with rifles. I can't see kachunking down $1-2000 on a gun when a $5-700 item does just as well, if not better. Neither will I get a $100 gun & try to turn it into a tack driver. You get what you pay for, it 's true. Well, that's 2 cents worth. Don't spend it all in one place. BC.

 

[Reyn]

I want an Ed Brown Damara but its hard justifying 3,000 dollars for a gun. Thats a lot for me and would take a year or so of some serious savings. On the other hand i look at the guns i dont use much and if i start adding them up i could sell and knock some money off. It's something i would keep and pass on. Then i start thinking how many guns i could get with 3,000 dollars.

 

[Baba Louie]

I wonder what it would cost today to custom build the equivilent of my $69 Swedish Mauser, built back in 1900 (purchased at a Woolworths in Las Vegas in 1987)? Specific swedish steel, German machine run time, pre CNC tolerances, long barrel, tiger striped stock, etc.

Heck, back then ammo cost me $25 for a box of 20. The three boxes I bought with it cost more than the damn rifle.

So while "life might be too short to shoot cheap guns!!!" for some (and nothing wrong with that for them that wants it), sometimes you luck into an old cheap gun than shoots like a million bucks. Life's too short to miss out on those as well. In fact, several people I know prefer shooting those. Isn't that strange?

While the bullets get to the target about the same as the expensive guys bullets, it's fun to think about young Olaf or Sven or Knut taking pride in it, in their ability to shoot it well, hoping to keep their fjords safe while the northern lights glow above their heads in some Nordic forest. Or an older Olaf, Sven or Knut shooting it in local rifle matches for bragging rights showing the "kids" how it used to be done. I suppose there's some "value" in those intrinsic thoughts that just might be priceless... to a dreamer. Eh?

But I could be wrong.

[edited to add... OJ, you got a good woman there doncha know?]

 

[grey_pilgrim]

Cheap guns may not necessarily be a step down in quality. I'll feel just as happy passing my 11-87 down to my children as I would a $3000 super tactikool whatever rifle. I think you are right though, that there's no point in buying something you don't like because its within your pricerange, when a little more money gets you exactly what you want. At the time I bought my shotgun, it was a little spendy for me, but I got exactly what I wanted.

Emphasis on little more money. I think your argument may hold if someone's saying "my pricerange is $300, but I really want that springfield XD for 400", but isn't there a law of diminishing returns at work here? Thus for someone who doesn't make a whole lot of money, that beautiful remington that's just like they want it might be just as nice, and last almost as long as that blazer. (However, i have no experience with blaser rifles, so this is my uninformed opinion at work).


Back to the computer analogy - some of the people we see on gun forums like this one spend more time reading internet gun forums than shooting, to say nothing of the work that lots of us do which essentially requires a computer to preform. Thus for me, the man hours that I put into a computer justifies the price. (and a basic computer is pretty dern cheap these days).