How do YOU afford this...

[Deputy819]

45 years old
Police Officer (so NO money)
2 girls and a wife (so even LESS money)
Shooting, hand-loading, hunting are my only hobbies. Only have one Gunsmith "custom built" target rifle (Rem 700...just the Smith fee's alone were $1,650) and the others I have are semi-custom Savages. All wear either Leupold or Vortex glass. Took me a year to save (and work "off-duty") for the custom build and the semi-custom Savages just get put together as time/money allows. I hand-load for the rifles I have and admittedly don't shoot them much after load development. Always look forward to hunting season so I can start doing more shooting/loading.

 

[Mike 338]

With a young family, or even older, your time will ultimately be what you can't afford. That could change if the kids want to get into LR hunting but that's not a thing you can count on. I'd say, pick up a nice 308 or a 6.5 anything and learn to reload. Factory-nice, built for purpose is fine. You can have 10 custom rifles but you probably won't shoot any more than if you had one. Re-directing your fever for buying new guns, toward developing accurate loads on your reloading bench is every bit as satisfying, if not more, and a fraction the cost. That said... a guy can go a little crazy buying reloading stuff too.

 

[nathank]

32
Parts technician in oilfield in northern alberta
twin girls 3 years old
around $15000 invested into high end optics/semi custom rifles.
another $5000 or so in other guns and cases ect.
lots was purchased and slowly upgraded prior to having kids, took me 3 years to build my first full custom and it was a budget build.

 

[Clem Bronkoski]

Ah...yes the hunting/shooting $ conundrum! There was a time waaaaaay back when I only had one rifle and one shotgun and one bow. But I've been blessed with a good wife, kids, health and job. Back in the 80s when I finally got my "career" job (I was already in the workplace for 20+ years) I would take $50 out of my pay each week. That was for everything I needed (gas, smokes,etc). I would immediately put $10 in a kitty for myself. After a while I quit smoking and that added more $ to the kitty each week.
At the end of the year I usually had enough to buy a decent gun. Remember, they were a lot cheaper back then too. I also did a lot of trading (buying cheap and then trading up). Today I'm retired and I pretty much have all I need. But I did just order a Begara B-14.
Don't overlook the used racks. You can find some real good ones there that someone else had and either traded up or was hurting for cash. I wish I still had some of the rifles I traded up on! Ammo - I reload for everything. And I have for over 55 years.

 

[ETX Loner]

I'm 43 and work as a trauma surgeon so I can buy pretty much what I want, however, I bought my first rifle in medical school when I had no money. It was a savage 10FP in .308. I put a B&C stock and a SWFA scope on it and its still one of my favorite and most accurate rifles. I've got probably 40k in guns and reloading stuff. My most expensive rifle is a custom 300WM that I've got 10k in. The downside is that in my line of work, and especially with two kids, I just don't get a lot of time to shoot. I work a lot of nights, weekends and holidays. Seems like you can have time or money, just not both.

 

[Varmint Hunter]

I love to shoot, hunt and reload. They are all doable at my income level because I don't own boats, motorcycles, vacation homes, hunting camps or many of the other nice things that some of my colleagues have. I also don't take drugs or drink to excess so that helps. LMAO

 

[ENGUNEER]

My money saving process is simple. I bought a lathe for about a kilobuck. I also found a mill for about kilobuck. Great investments. So, I do all my custom work myself. Then the only costs are for the parts. The machining/stock work (epoxy work is easy once you get the hang of it) /chambering, etc. I do. Therefore my costs are 1/3 what you'd pay someone else to do. And, you get exactly what you want in the rifle. I also buy sale/demo/used scopes and have had no problems. And I do all my reloading (mostly using good used equipment that I find for sale or at estate sales). And, I get a GREAT sense of accomplishment from building and using the rifles that I've built.

 

[Legionnaire]

60+, management, married, empty nest, no debt.

Most of my rifles have been customized to some extent; none are high end built to order customs, though I have purchased a couple low mileage customs from their original owners. And I've built a several "Remages" on trued Remington actions. Only one scope that cost me over a grand, and I bought that second hand, too. Sorry; no idea of total value.

 

[KyCarl]

Well I'm 66 and a retired machinist Linda is 64 and a retired attorney.
We have 2 children both grown and on their own and one grandson.
No mortgage or car payments just the monthly bills.
I have probably 25K in 4 custom rifles and glass give or take?
Don't ask about my 1911's though...

 

[Petersen]

I think the ability to save here and there, and build your rifles over time, any one can do it. Save some money on each component by picking them up on the online classifieds. Learn how to do your own stock and bedding work and pay gunsmith for the machining. Approaching this way you can easily build a full custom for around $2k. The setup would be comparable to what is sold for $5k-8k, sometimes more. You can take a couple of years gathering the components. I believe anyone with decent work ethic and saving can afford a couple thousand over a couple of years.

The scope purchase can hurt the most as you do have to do that in one lump sum. Just have to save. Learning some skills to make side money also helps. I have used second sources of income quite a bit.

 

[Buzzsaw]

67 Male
Single (divorced)
RETIRED
29 year old daughter who is now engaged. We still hunt and fish together.

currently own 3 custom rifles: .223. 6.5 Creed and .22 Creed, Swarovski 5-25X50 Z-6, Nightforce NX-8 4-32, several Leupolds and Meopta scopes.

Most of mine have come from selling other custom rifles.

For you, I would decide what you REALLY want and go for it. CRY ONCE, you can do many things with one rifle.

lucky for you, there are factory rifles who's accuracy will rival most full customs for a third the price. re; bergara, browning Xbolt, cooper. optics, you have great value with the nightforce shv, athalon etr, bushnell Forge

keep us posted, we have all been it your shoes.

 

[Jeffrey Van Zandt]

We all have various levels of engagement in this sport, and we are all from different walks of life with different expendable incomes.

My Wife and I have "good" jobs, 2 young children that have a lot of interests/activities (cha-ch$ng). We manage our money well and have an eye for the future.

I was reading a thread recently about various mountain scopes, and some of you fellers listed off 6-8 scopes that you currently have in circulation that I would absolutely drool over.

I've lusted over the "kit" required to do long-range hunting any justice for years and years. In addition to a small safe filled with hand-me-downs and affordable factory guns, I have 1 custom rifle that was given to me as a thank you for coaching their sons lacrosse team for 3 years (fortunately it came with a nice scope too - VX6 6-24x52). I shoot as often as I can, I but in reality I wish I could shoot 3-4 times more than I do .... it's the cost of ammo/components that prevents me from going hog wild. I also would like to get a light caliber semi custom to get my kids in on the fun (but we will make do with our ruger American predator just fine. it is all a matter of what you like to do if shooting is one you are all set if you want to do long range then that is what you put your cash in if custom long range is tops on your list then that is what you put your money in to money is not tops it is time buying high end and not putting the time and trouble to learn train ect is up to you.

I stand no chance of "keeping up with the Jones'" but I'd sure be curious to know....

Age
Occupation
Kids / no kids
Dollars invested in custom rifles and attached scopes

This should be interesting!

We all have various levels of engagement in this sport, and we are all from different walks of life with different expendable incomes.

My Wife and I have "good" jobs, 2 young children that have a lot of interests/activities (cha-ch$ng). We manage our money well and have an eye for the future.

I was reading a thread recently about various mountain scopes, and some of you fellers listed off 6-8 scopes that you currently have in circulation that I would absolutely drool over.

I've lusted over the "kit" required to do long-range hunting any justice for years and years. In addition to a small safe filled with hand-me-downs and affordable factory guns, I have 1 custom rifle that was given to me as a thank you for coaching their sons lacrosse team for 3 years (fortunately it came with a nice scope too - VX6 6-24x52). I shoot as often as I can, I but in reality I wish I could shoot 3-4 times more than I do .... it's the cost of ammo/components that prevents me from going hog wild. I also would like to get a light caliber semi custom to get my kids in on the fun (but we will make do with our ruger American predator just fine.

I stand no chance of "keeping up with the Jones'" but I'd sure be curious to know....

Age
Occupation
Kids / no kids
Dollars invested in custom rifles and attached scopes

This should be interesting!

 

[lancetkenyon]

48 yo
2 kids (17/28)
Gov't contractor for public safety
Also work side work 3 days/week (which pays for all my toys that go pew)
House is paid for
Have a work truck
Personal truck paid for
Daughter's truck will be paid off next week
Wife's car and 4Runner paid for
If I said how much I had in rifles and optics, and my wife saw this......(almost as much as my wife's 15 Camaro SS and 17 4Runner TRD)
I shoot between 2800-4500 rounds of center fire rifle a year. So have to spread that out over a multitude of rifles....is what my reasoning is.

 

[Holycity73]

45, self employed, married, no kids, 4 dogs.
Sold 21 guns last year. Collecting isn't my game. I still have several to sell before I'm happy.
I agree with the quality over quantity mentality. I run mostly Vortex g2r (4 of them) and one SB PM2, but also hunt with VX5,6HD and MINOX ZEi optics.