How do YOU afford this...

[Daves762]

Age
31 Married for the last 4 years. Been with my wife since high school.

Occupation
Oil Field Process Control Operator I work a 7-7 schedule so I have lots of time off every other week. My wife works full time in the office of a landscaping company. We live a great life and don't really want for much, unless its more toys or vacations.

Kids / no kids =
1st daughter Born in April, going to have at least one more.

Dollars invested in custom rifles and attached scopes.

ENDLESS..

My wife and I both work and have very flexible schedules and do not pay for day care( yet anyways). But this could all change. House I bought when I was 25, bought at a good time in the market and its only gonna make us money. I drive a 4yr old truck and my Wife drives a some what newer car that is paid for.

Started buying rifles and reloading when I started making money in the oilfields right out of high school. Bought new trucks and new rifles and money wasn't really a problem. This is where the dark rabbit hole got me hooked. Had three semi custom rifles built and while I still have two of them. I started build my own personal rifles 5 years ago.
first lathe, learned to use and sold for a profit to buy a better lathe.
Second lathe learned a lot more and got way more than my money out of it. Sold it for a profit still.
Third lathe I still have. Not to mention a Mill last year. I cant even count the amount of tooling, reamers, cutters, oil gauges, measuring equipment. It doesn't really matter anymore.

How much money do I have into all this???? I have a safe full of full customs that I have built they all shoot great. Use mainly two rifles now for hunting. I don't do PRS or any comp shooting. That's not really my thing. I like building tac driving hunting rifles and like to shoot them at distance for fun and hunting only. I have an entire room setup for reloading which I have no idea how much money I have into that. If I had to guess in total maybe $50k or more into my hunting rifle building obsession. Because that's what it is to me is an Obsession now.

So now im 31 and I have so much invested into building rifles, O well most of it is paid for. If I had to sell all of it I could make some of my money back. But I love it so I cant put a price on it. I'm just getting excited to start building small rifles for my daughter to shoot.

Recoil Magazine just did an amazing article last month. it was about a custom rifle build for kids, that can grow with the kid so they never get rid of it. Check it out.

 

[BallisticsGuy]

Recoil Magazine just did an amazing article last month. it was about a custom rifle build for kids, that can grow with the kid so they never get rid of it. Check it out.

Clearly the author of the article doesn't have kids.

 

[Kansaswoodguy]

I carry extra home owners insurance to cover the firearms the standard policy doesn't come close to covering everything just something to be aware of guys.

 

[Technologist]

30
Engineer (living in northern Europe, meaning I have roughly 75% of the income, twice the taxation and maybe 90% of the cost of living compared to most of the US)
No kids but the wife and I are trying to rectify that
Maybe 5000 dollars in gun gear all in all.

I fooled around a bit before getting my career going but now our household finance numbers are improving steadily. I believe in buying quality and "cry once".

 

[Hogan]

30
Engineer (living in northern Europe, meaning I have roughly 75% of the income, twice the taxation and maybe 90% of the cost of living compared to most of the US)
No kids but the wife and I are trying to rectify that
Maybe 5000 dollars in gun gear all in all.

I fooled around a bit before getting my career going but now our household finance numbers are improving steadily. I believe in buying quality and "cry once".

 

[nvschütze]

No wife, no ex-wife, no kids, no ex-kids, no huge house with five bedrooms and three bathrooms; no car loans, no college debts, no credit card debt, no braces, no Little League games, no ballet recitals. Am very short on hair-- makes the first four in this list very easy to obtain. If I see a rifle I want, I just say "Wrap it up. I'll take it!"

No idea how much money I've spent on my 40-some firearms. Several Vortex scopes, the best one being a 6-25X FFP PST.

 

[Hogan]

68 yr. old, hunted my whole life, 2 daughters, 9 grandchildren, glad I obtained most of my gun stuff before grandchildren HAHA. I was lucky enough to own a successful small engine sales and service shop for 26 yr. I still have nothing fancy, its all just standard factory stuff...As far as optics go , I have never wanted anything more than a Leopold VX3-4.5-14X.
A custom rifle would be nice, but it probably would not outshoot my Ruger American (love the name) 7MM-08...or my Sako A7 300WSM. Both of these rifles with my handloads will shoot groups at 100 yd you can cover with a dime.
Be choosy in your spending habits and smart with your money.
NO ONE will look after your money for you. It is your job.

One last thing, this article has been interesting.

 

[PredatorSlayer]

Recoil Magazine just did an amazing article last month. it was about a custom rifle build for kids, that can grow with the kid so they never get rid of it. Check it out.

I always kind of chuckle at the guys who spend a ton of money on a custom rifle for their young kids. Best thing I ever did was buy them a cheap gun and made them haul it all over the rockies themselves. Both started out with savage model 11's and have boyds at one stocks. They both have memories engraved all over the guns from slipping and falling while hiking or the gun getting knocked over while it was precariously leaning against a tree etc. when they are 8,9,10,11 etc. crap is going to happen no matter how hard they try to be careful. I would have been dying if it was a $3k custom rifle they were hauling around. $600 into a savage - slip and fall all you want! Lol.

 

[Technologist]

68 yr. old, hunted my whole life, 2 daughters, 9 grandchildren...

When you quoted me I thought you meant to say "me too, I'm also a 30 year old with no kids", but then you wrote that you're 68 with 9 grandchildren. Did you mean to say something regarding what I wrote?

 

[Remmy700]

38 MSgt in the Good Ol' Air Force (so you know I am poor). Wife is an RN, BSN Charge Nurse at local hospital and teaches at local nursing college when she is not working at hospital. She will be done with her Masters in Nurse Education in Oct (she makes all the money). Have a 17 year old girl, 13 year old girl, 6 year old boy, 2 German Sheppards and a yorkie. It takes years to accumulate a good collection of guns, it is one of the many things that requires patience and knowing its just a new rifle I have plenty of other ones maybe I should wait. If I had to guess I currently have over $100K fairly easy in just custom long guns, and glass. Don't take much to get there when a build and glass averages $8-$10K. I retire in 2 years and finally get to go back home in SC and in hopes of opening up a gun shop or custom load development shop or combination of both. If I aint working I am either shooting, camping or riding the Harley! That tis life!

 

[Kay0404]

41, not married, but may as well be 1 kid (3yo)with S.O., but divorced, and that cost me $236k( or I would have a ton more firearms)
Started a small textile carpet company with a HUGE loan, did really well networking for a few years, got an offer to sell the business to a huge competitor, took the money and ran back to school, now, a traveling P.A...
Not sure of the $ amount, but zero full customs, have some good glass on various rifles that came that way, as I travel a lot, spend lunches/evenings at pawnshops and estate sales.. I always look for deals and everything is for sale other than heirlooms from my grandfather. Have 3-80 gun safes FULL, a couple smaller safes FULL. No mortgage as I inherited the family farm/homestead.
I'd guess I'm pushing $200k in firearms

 

[jd126]

33
CNC Programming
3
More money than I want to add up

I've been buying, selling & trading this stuff for 15 years. For the custom rifles, it helps that I am my own gunsmith. I have 4 customs built & assembled by me at the moment. It's rare that I buy anything new besides reloading components. Most everything comes off of the classifieds.

 

[Remmy700]

33
CNC Programming
3
More money than I want to add up

I've been buying, selling & trading this stuff for 15 years. For the custom rifles, it helps that I am my own gunsmith. I have 4 customs built & assembled by me at the moment. It's rare that I buy anything new besides reloading components. Most everything comes off of the classifieds.

Called perks of the job brother!

 

[Deleted member 48126]

Age:

31

Occupation:

Engineer for GPI, Army Reservist after 8 years active duty, I have VA retirement from getting blown up a bunch (im fine but the Army is worried about TBI), so I only drill for extra retirement points (paycheck ends up being like $200 a month after the VA cancels out since you cant double dip), $200 goes into TSP investment, and then tricare benefits. Wife owns her own company. Its wedding and event rentals. Pretty cool with great hours since she works from home and does deliveries either Friday evening or Saturday morning.

Kids / no kids:

Wife, two boys both under 3, 4 dogs bc my wife is spoiled and loves dogs, big stupid house we dont need bc my wife is, again, spoiled.

Dollars invested in custom rifles and attached scopes:

3 full customs, Bunch of semi autos, bunch of well cared for hunting rifles and shotguns. Scopes on customs and semi autos are SWFA HDs FFP Mil/Mil and scopes on hunting rifles are Nikon Prostaffs. I have enough money in all my rifles that I took out an insurance policy on them. Able to afford it with 3 deployments by saving money being overseas.