TTAG reviewer Joe Grine recently asserted that it’s better to buy a Porsche than spend similar money to turn a rice burner into a Porsche-killer. “Where’s the fun in that?” a reader responded. They’re both right, of course. Thank God we live in a free market economy where consumers are free to spend their post-tax cash however they please (healthcare aside); whether that’s shelling out $350,000 for a set of four hand-crafted shotguns or ponying-up $315 for a Hi-Point .380-caliber carbine.

As for GQ commissioning rapper 2 Chainz (born Tauheed Epps) to determine whether or not high-end shotguns are “worth” big bucks, that’s like TTAG asking Dyspeptic Gunsmith to critique Chief Keef’s Faneto. I rate that interesting, but irrelevant. Something’s worth exactly what someone’s willing to pay for it. No more. No less. Cabot Guns included.

What’s the most you’ve spent on a firearm?

 

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124 COMMENTS

  1. $1675 + shipping and FFL fees when I bought my 18″ Tavor a few years ago.

    Plus optics and accessories… right around $3K total.

    • As a relatively early adopter of a Tavor (don’t remember exactly, but it was right around the TTAG review timeframe [and I’m too lazy to look up when that was]), I paid just over $2k for my B16. I used to keep a running tally of how much I had in it (optics, mags, and other gubbins) but quit doing that when I passed $4.5k.

  2. $1250 for a Remington Model 32 over/under that was 60-plus years old when I got it.

    My body naturally points with that gun.

    Still worth every penny.

    • Interesting factoid:

      The Remington Model 32 (first sold in 1932) was the design that became the Krieghoff K-32, that was then improved (with a new trigger mechanism) to become the K-32 sold for some time, until Krieghoff improved the gun a bit more in the model that became the K-80, which is one of the most favored guns at the high end of shotgun shooting sports.

      The Rem M-32 is a great example of how American gun companies left money on the ground. There’s nothing in the K-80 that only the Germans could do. Remington could have done anything and everything to the M-32 to make it into the K-80, and if they had done so, instead of people shipping $10K/gun to the Germans, they’d be shipping that money to Ilion, NY. But noooooooo… Remington wants to chase only the low end of the market.

      • Fun fact: a factoid is not, in fact, a ‘small fact’; it is a piece of false information that is passed off as fact. The term was coined in Norman Mailer’s 1973 Marilyn Monroe biography, and was defined as, “facts which have no existence before appearing in a newspaper or magazine”. And now you know, and knowing is half the battle.

      • Would you really want the Freedom Group trying to make fancy-shmancy over-unders, though? Sure they’d still be priced at $10000, but you’d probably be better off getting a Turkish over-under…in fact, Remington would probably just import crappy guns from Turkey, call them “the new, improved M-32” and still charge $10000 for them.

        • Well, if Remington had made some fancy-schmancy guns and made a bit more profit, perhaps they wouldn’t be owned by a bunch of corporate pillage-plunger-rape types on Wall Street.

          Krieghoff has pretty solid financials, last I knew, selling $10K shotguns and (previously) $8K Lugers.

        • I’m looking at a Krieghoff double rifle in 450-400 right now.
          It’s a beauty of a rifle and shoulders very nice.

    • This. Me too for a similar rig. If you add the 51T connector and can; it’s a double stamper…

  6. ~$3,500 for my STI-frame (well, Chip McCormick at the time) built-from-the-ground-up Kimball custom .38 Super for IPSC back in the 90s. Has the lightest trigger on any 1911 design I’ve ever felt.

    …then came the magazines, and the Dillon 1050, etc., etc., etc…

    O2

  7. Probably right arround 3k. It’s all the little stuff that adds up though. You buy a gun, then it’s needs an optic, a sling, bi-pod, magazines, you change the grip or the charging handle, B.A.D lever……. Ext. Next thing you know it your $1000 gun is really $3000

    • Yup lol ! Example: My girlfriend bought me a Remington 700 BDL in 30-06 53 years ago for $110. Stock, trigger, butt plate replaced. Kreiger rebarrelled, action trued and bedded. Scope base, mounts, and Vortex Razor added. Now this $110 rifle has ~$4,500 in it . . . and it is proven to 1200 yds with 175gr Sierra TMKs.

      Note that the girlfriend is still around too, and there’s a lot more sunk into her. So maybe the firearms aren’t such a bad deal after all 🙂

  8. Wilson Combat Tactical Elite (~3700). Only gun I haven’t had even an iota of buyer’s remorse for.

      • Exactly. One never knows…

        I met a farmer in Nevada who ran a farm with utterly antique and dilapidated equipment. I’m talking John Deere “D” and “R” tractors with most of the paint gone. You’d think to look at him, he didn’t have to dimes to rub together, and would have been able to break an anvil by just looking at it from hearing his constant complaints about how his clapped-out equipment was always breaking down.

        Then when I got to know this farmer better and we started talking about nice guns, I came to find out that he didn’t put money into tractors and field equipment. Noooo. He thought putting money into farm equipment was foolish. He farmed to live, not lived to farm, as he put it.

        He put his money into fine English shotguns, and he had not one, but three safes full of them in his run-down house – I don’t think he owned a gun worth less than $25K other than his .22 squirrel rifle.

  13. So far it looks like I’m winning (losing?). I spent over $5k on my Rem 700 precision rifle. The only pieces from the factory gun are the bolt and action, and the gunsmith blueprinted those to be a bit closer to perfect.
    But it can reliably make headshots at 1km, so I’m not complaining too much.
    I’m thinking of getting a 1911 (or two) from Atlas that will cost $4k-$6k depending on the options. But I have to save up $200k+ for a downpayment on a house first, so that will have to wait until the summer.

    • Oh, we going to house brag as well? I’ll talk about houses online before I’ll talk about owning guns.

    • Assuming it’s not merely poorly worded, then that’s patently inaccurate. Our Rights are God-given and enshrined in the Constitution, which charges our Government with preserving and protecting them. Nowhere should it ever say our Rights come from a piece of paper or an organization.

      • If you have any freedoms you feel are being impinged upon you really need to address them under the current Republican administration. If you do not support this administration ad request what needs to be done, then you will lose.

    • Yea, $999 seems to be my cap too, although I’ve got a couple of rifle/scope combinations that top that.

    • IAmNotTheHulk,
      Funny you mention the Delta Elite 10 mm… went digging around in my safe and pulled out my gen.1 I bought when they first came out. Still as new in the box, although I did polish the feed ramp and replaced original grips w/ VZ operators. Always been very accurate! Put 150 rds. thru it Tuesday. Love it.
      My EDC is a Ed Brown executive carry 45 at ~ 3500.00

  17. Optic included, my Walther .22 has probably $600 into it; if I added up all the parts I maybe spent $800 on my AR. Glock was around $500, and I don’t think I’ve spent more than $300 on anything else. Working on a couple that will change that when complete, but so far, that’s it.

  19. $1,250 for a Sig 516 Patrol with the old sig brand red dot. But with attachments and everything else probably up to 2.5 to 3K all together.

  20. My new Ruger Precision Rifle in 6.5 CM was $1,399.00. Burris XTR II 5x25x50 optic $1,200.00, American Defense Manufacturing Recon mount $180.00 Harris BiPod plus S-lock $130.00 so with everything, I am into it close to $3k.

    Out of all of my other guns, my CMP Service Special M1 Garand was about $1,200.00 back in the day. Other than those two, I have and like a lot of cheap guns. I am a C&R guy so $300.00 K31s and $250.00 Enfields keep me happy. And my $89.00 Mosin 91/30 I bought from Big 5. Cheap guns can be a lot of fun.

    • Just got my new RPR 6.5CM…and I knew it would be a money pit. Are you happy with your scope choice? Just curious.

  21. $1,800 on a ACR

    $200 for SBR tax stamp
    $350 for custom 10.5″ barrel
    $350 for a Vortext Viper PST 1×4

    $2700.00 TOTAL
    At its core the most I’ve spent on a rifle, kind of forget what you are siting at until you add up the extras.

  23. I have spent $700 twice, plus shipping, tax and transfer fees on top. My 80% AR build with optics cost me a bit over $800, but then with the new registration regs coming in and the near impossibility of complying with those requirements with a polymer lower, I spent another $110 plus taxes and fees on a new lower from Spikes. Now I need to buy a new “featureless” stock (I am leaning towards Thordsen) and a muzzle brake to replace the A2 birdcage so that I don’t have to register it as an “assault weapon.” And as my eyes age, I may just have to opt for a scope instead of a red dot so that I can see the center of those targets 100 and 200 yards out. That’s the one problem with ARs–it seems it is something you don’t buy once, but instead keep spending money on.

  24. Somewhere around $750.

    Either on my S&W 567 or my Colt Official Police

    I REALLY want to get an extremely garish Desert Eagle, but I have a hard time dropping more than $700 on a gun. Actually on about anything really, and it’s not that I couldn’t afford like 12 of them, it’s this dang fiscal responsibility that was drilled into me.

  25. you guys forgot the ammo, cleaning kit, lubes, grips, safe, container, eye and ear pro, gloves, range fees and the cost of the vehicle you transport in.
    how much was the gun again?
    the most i’ve ever spent on a gun is whatever that decent woodsman i haven’t bought yet costs. that may break a grand.
    nothing else came close to that.

  26. Non-NFA: $5,500 for a P226 X-Five Enhanced Open Imported from Germany after Sig lost it’s export license.

    NFA: 5 figures for a transferable Bushmaster XM-15

  27. I’m spending my money on SCUBA gear to go find all those guns that keep getting lost in boating accidents.

  28. About $3000 for a custom .44 Special S/A revolver from Ben Forkin. It started out more modest, but I kept calling and adding new features.

  29. I paid $2,500 for my numbers matching, mint bore G98/40 four years ago, which was a halfway decent deal. No sling, no optics, just a rifle with a battle-damaged exterior. I haven’t put a round through it, and never will.

  31. $498 out the door for a Ria 1911 Rock in 9mm

    $315 out the door for a 12 gauge Mossberg 500 field/deer combo.

  32. 3-4k on a custom rifle. One chambered in 30BR and setup for benchrest. The other a long range plinker based on a Savage 110 action and chambered in 6.5×55 swede.

    I like seeing tuned savages killing custom up rifles but the custom up rifles shine at nationals and state competitions 95% of the time.

    • All you guys showing love for the 6.5×55 and a shooting buddy of mine extolling me with his fantastic results of building up Model 93 Mausers in Swede have finally done it for me.

      I’m going to build up a 93 or 98 in 6.5 Swede this year. Just because.

  33. $1,500 at an auction for a full octagon bbl. .44-40 1873 Winchester made in 1890. I consider it the best auction deal I ever got.

  34. $1700 cash for a HK Mark 23. New in box last year. But I’m still happy with my sub $500 SA XDs. I’ve probably got as much money in reloading for the few guns I have, as I have in the guns themselves.

    • What prompted you to buy a Mark 23? The rarity and curio factor? Or something else? I’m genuinely curious

  35. My Nighthawk stamped Korth 5.25″ Mongoose came in this week. I spent almost exactly the same amount on my 10.5″ .338 Spectre when you consider two tax stamps, optic, can, and expensive everything else except the inexpensive Magpul fixed carbine stock. However, I also just got a $400 piece of mammoth tusk for my Mongoose’s grip so it takes the lead again I suppose.

  36. My most expensive rifle purchase was about $620. The rest were sub $300.
    My most expensive handgun purchase was about $540.
    My most expensive shotgun purchase was about $200.

    Yeah, I am a cheapskate.

    • Sounds like me. A bunch of really good guns for not a lot of $. And they outshoot stuff costing way more.

  37. I honestly don’t know if I’ve ever spent more than about $700 on any one gun. I tend to have a thing about buying broken guns and putting them back together.

  40. $1500 total for a freshly imported x39 Galil ACE rifle right when they first appeared for sale on market.

    It is my dream raifu and I was willing to shell out.

  42. For just the gun or for the end product with accessories?

    Individual firearm w/o anything else ~$1300 for an M1A.

    Handgun: USP + accessories: ~$2450.

    Rifle: tricked out AR ~$3000. The .243 SPS build I’m working on might eclipse that, but I hope not.

  43. $1200.00 for 1886 shipped in 1888. Then sent it to Turnbull and was informed that te 45/70 barrel which was no good was also not original. The Cody letter they had stated that it originally shipped with 40/82 barrel, which as you all already know was one of the early bottleneck cartridges. 40 calibe 260 grain round nose lead slug propelled by 82 grains of black powder (somewhat successful in long range shooting contests). So about $6500.00 and a year later I recieved a magnificently restored Winchester. Which is up for sale if anybody is interested. I have 100 rounds of custom ammo and redfield dies and a lyman bullet mold for it. I have not fired it. By the way the barrel on this thing is a premium barrel quite capable uf using smokeless.

  44. SCAR 17…three years ago. Got it for $2,399.99 at my LGS. Including tax: $2,543.99. Got 500 rds of ammo to go with it. My total for that one time purchase, over $3,000.00

  45. Bare bones factory pricing? The FN Five seven. Built a few AR’s that put that price to shame, but that was done piece by piece. The most I’ve ever shelled out at a single payment? I bought a Colt AR about 8 years ago for $1300 and change + tax.

  46. In the neighborhood of $10,000 on a custom precision bolt rifle, factoring in the high-end scope, plus optic mount, plus bipod, plus suppressor.

    I’ve probably got $6K into my SCAR, by the time I factor in all the upgrades and the Elcan Spectre 1.5-6x optic.

  48. $1,900 for a lightly used Beretta 682 Gold over/under 12 gauge. It had been modified with an adjustable comb and buttplate, recoil reducer and release trigger. It would cost close to $4K if you bought this gun new and paid for the upgrades, so I think I did pretty well. Waiting for weather suitable for trap.

      • Good to know. Thanks.

        It has a release trigger on the bottom barrel. Still about half scared to get accustomed to such a thing. Might make me an ND waiting to happen when I pick up a different gun.

  50. I’m not going to name an exact number. I’ll just say “More than $2K, less than $10K. Multiple times.”

    For me, the exercise is sometimes professional. Sometimes, I really, really, really want to see the inside of a gun and learn more about it. Most gun retailers and gun owners won’t let me open up their guns in front of them, so I sometimes have to (at least that’s what I claim – “have to”) buy a nice gun just to open it up and learn the secrets – then I might sell it at a later time.

  51. $1082.50 exactly a grand plus TX sales tax for an Aimco Luger. I’m pretty sure it’s a 94′ when Stoeger started marketing them since it has the roll mark and the serial starts with S but there really isn’t a lot of information out there about them.

    I’d only ever read about them and with it being the first time I ever saw one in person I bought it even if it was a bit more than it may have been worth. After looking at some online auctions I think it was about right though so I’m happy with it. It gets interesting looks on the range too.

  52. $1,000 for the M1 Garand that I built in the CMP advanced maintenance class in Anniston. Additional fees and travel costs on top of that, but just for the rifle, a grand.

    Best money I ever spent.

  53. Rifle: $1200 for an AR.
    Handgun: $550 for a Sig P238.
    Shotgun: $100 for an old Western Field branded Stevens 620.

  56. I bought a S&W revolver for the thief who subsequently became my last ex.

    You have no fvcking idea how much that gun cost me.

  57. No more than 800 bucks. Couple safes full of goodies but not a penny over that. You would be surprised how many distress sales (divorces, bankruptcy etc) drive very fine Kimbers, ARs, AKs, shotguns etc into my clutches for CRAAAZZY Eddie prices. Guns are the first thing to go when youre locked out, the car just got towed and you need motel money.

    Besides, you can always get a Glock for 300-400 bucks, best combat handgun on the planet. Why pay more?

    • Yep…it pays to always have a wad of ready cash on hand. I’ve gotten some really great deals and done some really great flips by just being at the right place at the right time with my ever ready brief case full of cash.

  58. Around $2000 into my AR build counting multiple uppers. Least amount was $10 for a working 1895 nagant revolver.

  59. I’ve never paid more than $600 for a gun, but my dad bought a Browning Auto-5 Sweet 16 in 1958 for $258, which according to the inflation calculator, would be 2,148.71 in 2016.

  61. I have about 5000.00 Invested into my Semi-Auto Bren MKII I had rebuilt. That covers the cost of the parts kit, the rebuild, magazines, spare barrels and all the other little odds and ends.

  63. Shiloh Sharps ‘Montana Roughrider’ .45-70 with heavy octagon, Extra fancy wood, AA finish, bone charcoal pack CCH, steel checkered sg plate, polished & fire blued screws, brass escutcheons, pewter forend tip, Baldwin globe front sight, Hoke long range vernier. Somewhere in the neighborhood of just under $4k. Worth the price, worth the wait.

  64. Ain’t sayin’ what I paid but I saved $1700 when I bought it…an impulse buy from seller who was getting out of a particular shooting sport. He truly made me an offer I could not refuse. It was a race to see who would come off the hip first, me or one of my shooting buddies. I won.

  65. A very large dollar amount for a 1911 from a well known small shop…Worked great, until it didn’t, which was under 30 days…. Then I had to send it to Wilson Combat to get it fixed- for a lot more money. After that, I just bought a Wilson Combat Compact Carry for a chunk of change- but I cut out the middleman. And it is worth every penny.

    I’m not mad at the original shop- far from it- and it was a learning experience. Never be the beta-tester for a new product line. I save my money and spend to the mid/high ranges for quality.

  66. $6700 Barrett 82CQ 50BMG, add a Nightforce scope and Barrett BORS ballistic computer and I ended up a little above $10k.

    Thanks HRC! I thought for sure she would be elected and take away our right to buy fun toys. The Dems are great gun salesmen!

  67. 8500
    Colt single action army
    1875 production date
    In extremly good condition.
    Worth every single penny and more

    • I like the sound of that. I have no guns of historical value but have started watching Simpson Ltd, Hallowell & Co, and James D. Julia. Simpson of course has more stuff in my price range. Hallowell sure has pretty pictures of pretty guns.

  68. I gotta tell you, My favorite guns did not cost too much. Back in the middle 60’s $60.00 for a brand new ruger 10/22 and when I got home from the Army in 1970 I paid 64 dollars for a ruger Mark I. I recieved a very nice Remington model 700 ADL 243 from my brother as a gift. It did not shoot well and the local gunsmith looked at it and noticed the crown was crooked. He cut 2 inches of the barrel and recrowned it and it shot 3/4 inch groups. I paid $200.00 for a Model 71 Winchester 348 cal with a repaired broken stock. Best Elk rifle I ever owned. I paid $129.00 for a Hawes 44 mag. It was subsequently sold to a fellow who sent it to be rebuilt as a 454. In those days the only 2 they could use was the Ruger or the Hawes for this) I shot it once afteer that from a bench, it hurt all the way up my arm.

  69. When I could buy it, I could not afford it. Now that I can afford it, state law prohibits ownership of it (I’ve moved since). I would sink $2500 for the new H&K SP5K in a heart beat. I absolutely loved the original SP89.

    • Pass on it.
      Its a neutered version of the mp5.
      Your better off getting a clone, that uses HK machining. Those are exact clones of the mp5. And will take all hk part

  70. Just a hair under $4K (and don’t even ask about the optic). It’s a Sako TRG-42 in .338 Lapua. The package was some sort of kit, because I got the bipod, muzzle brake, and some other widgets with it.

    I’m about 180 degrees out of phase with most in the firearms community. I was big into MSRs between 1984 and 2014, and the first in my deer club to field one, but I got to wanting a bolt gun. A good bolt gun! One that would put the projectile where I wanted it out to a considerable distance. There was no point in going with a 1 MOA bolt gun that was only good out to 200 yds, because my .308 MSRs do better than that (0.75 MOA) routinely. So .308 was out. And pretty much anything that comes out of an MSR was out too. I wanted real range and accuracy!

    If you guys haven’t shot .338 L, the round nothing short of amazing! Fast and heavy. In a 10kt cross-wind at 300 yds the drift is less than my hold precision, and that’s saying a mouth full! It’s not going to seriously compete with .50BMG in a good chassis, but $10K was a little bit north of my budget, and I don’t want to have to use a dolly to drag the thing around!

    Charlie

  71. $1600 + $350 + $150 for my Kimber Stainless II Classic Engraved, with elephant ivory grips and an elephant hide holster.

    Or ~$2500 gold, silver, and firearms trade value on a Walter Betts pigeon gun.

  72. $2500 on a full custom 1911 from a local gunsmith. I always wanted one, I had the money, I got it. I got to pick every single part on that gun. Well worth the money.

  73. Reverse gun-snob here. When I was younger I used to think there was a special secret “gun guys” knew. They seemed so knowledgeable and had mostly quality guns – more than could be counted. I thought that there is no way they would pay the same (outrageous) prices as me for a gun. I was wrong: they usually pay more.

    God has blessed America. I am sure most if not all of you worked hard for your gun money – and tricking out your guns. Just be thankful that you probably had opportunities that many in the world (including America) did not 🙂

  75. You guys make me feel poor.

    A ‘total estimated value of your collection’ post would really bring me down.

  78. $1,800 for an HK USP Expert in .40 S&W, Jet Funnel & 3 16-round magazines back if the early 1990s just after they came out during the Clinton AWB before it expired in 2004. HK rifles were going for $1,700+ at the time and I really wanted a 10mm MP-5 at the time, which was never fulfilled. I read yesterday that an FBI SMG of that caliber was recently stolen from the agent’s car trunk, reminding me of that time.

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