Mean income.....

[16Bore]

"Comparison is the thief of joy." - Theodore Roosevelt

 

[Rich M]

It all depends on where you put value.

The Ford vs Mercedes argument above - I go with Toyota as it seems to be the best bang for buck with longevity and value holding. Stepson got a $60K Audi from his dad for graduating high school, we told him to sell it and get a $20K Toyota - have fun with the $40K or invest it. He drove it and spent all of his hard earned $ to fix the dang thing all the time. He's still broke driving a Kia or something like that now.

I have a 35 yr old Win Model 70 with a $400 scope as a main rifle, $250 rifle/scope combination that I shot the biggest deer of my life with, and a desire for a new rifle of a middle caliber - light recoil.

Historically they made "regular" rifles - now we have economy rifles (<$500), "regular" rifles ($500-$1500), and custom rifles ($1500+). A lot of it comes down to fit and finish and attention to detail - bent metal parts vs machined parts, 1-size fits all (long action gun with a short action bullet) vs short actions for short action bullets, etc.

We can say the same for scopes - roughly the same price brackets.

Some nice stuff out there for cheap these days thanks to technological improvements.

Get what you can easily afford.

 

[16Bore]

Price is what you pay, value is what you get.

 

[rayporter]

i pinched pennies all my life to take one trip. i saved every extra penny and now on SS i have all the customs i want. even though i can take more trips my body wont allow it.

 

[MThuntr]

I used to be a member of a different forum years ago. One of the guys had a signature line that said something along the lines of..."What I learned from this forum is when I asked where is the best steak is that I actually want the pork chop"

Meaning regardless of what you ask you'll likely be told something completely opposite of what you even asked.

 

[Newtosavage]

I'm intrigued.
It's been brought up recently & I'd really paid attention.

Random new dude asks for advice on a rifle. Usually something sane, safe & normal like 'which sub $500 .30-06 should I buy?' And it seems like every single answer is some form of "buy a $3,000 seekins .300wm." ".338 cheytac's the future". "Just buy a 6.5 PRC custom-$5000-whatever & you're set for moose at 3 miles as long as you have a such-and-such 2 grand scope. Bergers only though...."

What the hell are you dudes earning that y'all's go to answer is generally "Throw 5 grand at it"???

From the answers in this forum, I'm guessing that 9/10 of you have more in one rifle than I do in ALL of mine. And my truck!

I've killed literally one elk. No moose. A metric shit-ton of deer & more than that in hogs. I've killed game from "get the f**k off me!!!" to 606yds (measured) and I've never yet owned a rifle, scope & amo combo that you couldn't buy for a grand.

Am I missing something??

I could literally get by, very comfortably, with any single rifle in my safe right now. None of them are magnums. My old Swede has accounted for over 100 southern deer (it shits the 6.5Manbun into a cocked hat, ballistically) my .358 win does everything my .308 does with a tad more 'whomp' & my .30-06 does the same thing, but 100yds further out.
Any single one if those fellas is more that capable MORE THAN CAPABLE of knocking any critter over at 300+ yds. Not one of them has cost me over a grand (hell, most are under $500 including the damn dies!)
When the hell did shooting shit become a snob game?!

Great post and FWIW I feel the same way and ask the same questions.

Some people like to play expensive games with expensive toys, for a variety of reasons. I suppose to some folks (maybe a lot of folks?) my stainless Tikka or Howa Alpine looks like a really expensive rifle, when I could just go down and get a Savage Axis that basically does the same thing.

But I get what you're asking. I asked the "why?" question on a custom rifle thread a week ago - not being a smarta$$ but honestly asking what a $3K rifle does that my Tikka doesn't do.

I never got an answer, and that was all the answer I needed.

 

[Newtosavage]

The economy is cranking and people have money to spend. God Bless America!

Or, people are spending money they don't have, and the economy will tank once again, as a result. Just sayin' we've seen this movie before...

 

[5MilesBack]

Or, people are spending money they don't have, and the economy will tank once again, as a result. Just sayin' we've seen this movie before...

The economy will always go in cycles regardless what the people or the government are doing.......just like the climate.

 

[SDHNTR]

Or, people are spending money they don't have, and the economy will tank once again, as a result. Just sayin' we've seen this movie before...

Pretty hard to do that (at least to 2008 levels) with the mortgage regulations in place now. You’ve probably refi’d recently. Debt to income requirements are pretty tight! They were nonexistent before. I don’t worry so much about people spending money they don’t have, I worry about our Government doing that!

 

[pods8 (Rugged Stitching)]

Meh, I don't see folks recommending full customs when folks ask on a $500 budget, maybe they'll recommend a $650 tikka or something. For any "go full custom" recommendation you see folks saying stuff like what gun/scope combination can I get for $300 and reliably hunt 1000yd... In the reality folks are generally making recommendations based on the actual original post and in some cases upping the recommendation based on their experiences (the incremental upgrading game, etc.)

Income will vary based on where you live. Using that as a metric doesn’t work. Somebody who makes $100,000 per year in the Midwest is living a pretty nice life. Try to live on that salary in the Bay Area or New York City and you’ll find that it’s nowhere near enough income to own a home and support a family.

If somebody wants to spend more of their income on a nicer rifle, good for them. If somebody doesn’t, good for them too. Doesn’t bother me either way. Enjoy hunting and do your thing.

BINGO! The reason income in a national discussion pisses me off. "You don't need $X dollars, you should share". Umm okay can we share my housing costs out equally too?!?

 

[87TT]

I suppose I could buy a custom rifle that could shoot the eye out of a gnat at 1000 yards. I could afford it. But I'm a cheap old dude. My hunting rig is 32 years old. My truck is 21. And my go to rifle is a 40 year old Ruger 30 06 that I bought new in 1979 for $208.00 The original scope was $175.00. I have never felt under gunned or handicapped. But I have other "hobbies" that I spend on too. If someone can afford it and wants it without causing a burden on your family, fine , do it. I think becoming a better hunter and not just a shooter is a more important goal.

 

[EastMT]

I’ve had customs, 20 lb benchrest customs, cheap pawn shop $200 guns back in the day. I’m down to a few production rifles, and really they do very well.

I got on the Dave Ramsey coolaid years ago, I’m now 42, debt free, and I buy a rifle once in awhile. But I refuse to spend big bucks on a custom rifle when a factory one can usually shoot pretty dang close.

I understand if you are seriously shooting long range, and by long range I don’t mean 300 yards, a 2 MOA bent barrel pawn shop gun is sufficient for 300 yards.

I’ll stick with no CC, no debt, my paid off truck. I see those new fancy trucks with their LED lights and all that nice new trim, and I’m tempted.....for about 30 sec then it passes and I remember I’ve got 10-15 years left before this one falls apart. Wheeew, close call hahaha.

 

[Azone]

Funny this thread came up, I have a friend who was just bitching about being flat ass broke two weeks ago. Talk to him the other day and he is telling me about his new 2K rifle that he ordered. Some people just dont learn, been there, done that with the plastic money. Cash is king for toys.

 

[MuleyFever]

Or, people are spending money they don't have, and the economy will tank once again, as a result. Just sayin' we've seen this movie before...

And that’s when I’ll buy a custom, off the classifieds.

 

[Billinsd]

The moral of this is simply that is is not how much you make, it's what you save and what's important to you.

My Grandparents said that. It is important how much money you make AND how much you save. The two are absolutely NOT mutually exclusive! The more money you make, the more you can save AND yes, you can make a lot of money and be in debt. Life is a balance I tell my kids.

 

[Billinsd]

Funny this thread came up, I have a friend who was just bitching about being flat ass broke two weeks ago. Talk to him the other day and he is telling me about his new 2K rifle that he ordered. Some people just dont learn, been there, done that with the plastic money. Cash is king for toys.

Most of the really wealthy people, multi, multi millionaires, I know and have known are generally very frugal in general. Not that I know a lot, lol.

 

[Ratbeetle]

Most of the really wealthy people, multi, multi millionaires, I know and have known are generally very frugal in general. Not that I know a lot, lol.

It's funny you say that...for a short time in college I worked a restaurant job in a fancy place on the top floor of a local building. The guy the entire building was named after would occasionally eat there. None of the servers ever wanted his table because he was such a bad tipper. Guy was a real estate developer and literally worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

 

[EastMT]

Most of the really wealthy people, multi, multi millionaires, I know and have known are generally very frugal in general. Not that I know a lot, lol.

Right out of high school I worked for a billionaire, former owner of the 49ers on his ranch. He drove a 4 Runner, about a days salary for him. Yet people are making 50k, driving $50k worth of trucks. Bad economics.


I have yet to be begin to procrastinate.

 

[eoperator]

Everyone has a guilty pleasure whether its cars, women, whiskey, guns.......
To each his own

 

[16Bore]

Rifles are expensive, balls are free, and age is the price of wisdom.