Pricey Pesting

I love expensive air guns but I don’t have a lot of disposable income. Shoot I live in Cali where everything is expensive! I’ve had to purchase a pcp for each of my sons and myself. I just upgraded my gun recently to boot. I Each time I set money aside from each paycheck until I had enough money to buy what we wanted. It can take a while but it’s worth it to my boys and I. Saving is kind of an outdated concept because most people want everything right now. I got in trouble with credit cards when I was young, out of college, paid them off and don’t charge things unless it’s an emergency. It all boils down to what you want to spend on your particular hobby and how much happiness it gives you. My boys and I shoot 10 times more with our AIRGUNS than we did with powder burners and I want my boys and I to have quality gear. Buy once, cry once... I can attest to that. We went through a few crappy PCP’s which made me go after the good stuff.

Everybody have a great Easter weekend!

Stoti

 Will ok..I have too many hobbies, I Need to shop wisely, there is No need to spend boko money on air guns to be able to enjoy them,the same can not be said for really good optics,or being an audiophile and spending $10,000 on a stereo system. In a short time "you" what to be able to hear or see the nuances and that takes resolution which takes money....

Air guns,=I only buy when I get a "killer"deal and I know "that' rifle will be able to shoot small groups...I paid $200 for a Coyote,shoots great and $300 for a Crosman CH2009..also is very accurate,both rifles were brand new..it is more fun for me to pay less for something that does more,butt truth be told my backyard range is only 25yds....

It is all about enjoyment....and you do not have to spend a lot of money for that,will I hope you don't and if you do good for you,just remember that there is not much better than a great,comfortable pair of shoes or for me boots....so where the shoe fits wear it wisely..

.......... i dont get it either ..... i can spend a grand or more - but only if i know ive got that gun or guns sold already. ...another thing is my recollection of the wake of dead poop i left behind everywhere i took my .22 disco out. i'm suprised there's still critters to go urban sniping for lately. i am a break barrrel guy , but i hunt with my disco. i explain that the disco is like cheating compared to hunting with a break barrel. i've had buddies that got a finely tuned a.z. theoben rapid - and they get bored with it. "with my .177, smokin sparrows from 80 yards away aint nothing." - rane on.

I'm relatively new to PCP shooting but have guns ranging from SPA Varmint (very inexpensive) to an Air Force Condor with well over $1000 in it. I recently purchased an HW44 and I have a pp700. I plan to get an Impact and a Daystate Pulsar in the near future. Will any of the expensive guns kill anything deader than the inexpensive ones? Probably not. But I enjoy quality as well as utilitarian things. Different strokes and all highly relevant to the individual.

I lived in S FL, on the waterway, my boat alone was N. of $35K, today that boat would cost $50K. That was just the boat, add rods, speargun, fins, mask, gas, etc to infinity. 

Those were some mighty expensive fish and lobster. (Will add pic) But worth every penny! I would never buy a gun that takes away from my family, but if I can swing it, and love the sport as I do, I will not even flinch. 

See those silly stupid grinning smiles, that’s what I paid for. 

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These pictures bring back some good memories. After college I moved to Florida then on to a cruise ship for about a year and then to the tiny island of St. Eustatius between Saba and St Kitts where I taught scuba and lived for 4 years. I speared more fish and caught more lobsters than I could ever count. No meat down there so if I wanted it I had to catch it or spear it. Such great memories... a looong time ago! 

Stoti

@Intenseaty- thanks for those pics! It brought a smile to my face, too!

I’m the ripe old age of 24. I have a wife of 5 years, two kids, a house with land and 2 pcp air guns. When I got my huntsman regal 2 years ago I had been looking at it for about 5 years. 1099$ is a lot of money for anybody but when I bought it it was with the understanding that it might be my last big luxury for the foreseeable future. It’s all perspective, a new phone can easily cost the same as a high end pcp. Or a years worth of vet bills for the wife’s dog when you hit it with the truck on the drive way. Lol

It depends what your priorities are. I drive a 100$ car with a few holes in the floor. I’m perfectly happy to limit expenses in some parts of life to have things I really enjoy.

Also we shoot the huntsman almost daily. 2 years and 1000s of shots with not a single cent spent on repairs or necessary aftermarket parts. Not sure I could have had the same result with a low to mid priced pcp. 

As a kid I took hundreds of rabbits with a £100 Webley Excel, kept me entertained for hours. As an adult I have spent a lot more on daystate, air arms and fx guns and get to shoot them a lot less, however the enjoyment is the same. Family first but any spare cash is about having fun, be that plinking airguns or getting beat up playing rugby. You can't take anything with you at the end of the day so enjoy yourself, whether that is with a £100 springer or £1500 pcp. 

You forgot #4. Some of us are old and need to get rid of some $$ in lieu of giving it all to our kids (they will get enough as it stands). So when I do the math, so far I have taken 5 nutters with my Daystate Woverine R. That comes to 2100 / 5 = $420 per nutter.🐿🐿🐿🐿🐿

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I can send you 5 nutters fresh frozen for probably less than half of that

I also get my jollies massaging cheap and/or ancient 'platforms' to previously unimaginable levels of performance (airguns and women).

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Both are very expensive depending how much fun you want to have

It Was Once Considered a “Garbage Food”
Up until the early 1900s, lobsters were primarily used as fertilizer and fish bait, and were served to prisoners and lower members of society. It wasn’t until techniques to ship lobsters nationwide were developed that people developed a taste for it, and it became known as an expensive luxury item.

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Who knew that chipmunk meat was so expensive.  Thank you gentlemen for providing good replies and not taking any comments personally. It was the “hidden costs” of getting my SCBA filled that I used as an excuse for spending even more money on my Hatsan Lightning. So, I’m in the same boat and just rocking it a little for the sake of conversation.

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Maybe one day chipmunk & squirrel meant will be a luxury item

The spearo community has a similar "challenge" to which one regular poster provided the ultimate answer to when he brought home his nth custom made gun: "...For science!"

As I see it, you can’t take it with you and it’s really one of the few things that is totally enjoyable these days. 

Disposable income helps. But there's three other factors that go along with it from my perspective:

1. Supply and demand

2. "Perceived Quality"

3. Envious competition via coveting thy neighbor's goods.

#2 is really in the driver's seat here. My phone died on me last month. I went to my local outlet for my service provider and bought a nicer phone. Would a cheap phone have done what I needed? Yes. But the phone I bought has a beautiful 19:9 edge glass screen, a glass-body back, and is simply pleasing to hold, look at, and most importantly use. It feels like money well-spent. I work hard for my money and I am the last person that my money ever sees, so it was a rare treat for me to have something "nice."

Supply-and-demand, and coveting the neighbor's goods go hand-in-hand. Let's face it, if a guy on YouTube just dropped $2000 on a PCP and it shoots well (not great, but well) he may be more likely to church it up in his review to justify his purchase. And someone watching the review may feel that their $700 PCP is inferior to the $2000 PCP, because a higher price suggests higher quality, reliability, and accuracy. That is not always the case, but most people expect to get what they pay for.

Me personally, I can't see myself spending that kind of money on airguns. It's not because I am cheap, but more because (what works for me) is that I know I can take that $2000 and make it go a LONG way in the powder-burners world. For my needs, I like airguns because of the lower power-level and the fact that they are cheap on trigger-time. Spending thousands on airguns in the persuit of making them closer to powder-burning counterparts seems like an enigma to me. However, I have nothing against those who do it. I actually do find d the higher-power and big-bore PCP's very interesting as an observer, but it's not my cup of tea as an owner.

IMO it has little to do with trying to make them closer to powder burners for everyone. For some, maybe but not for everyone. I also shoot both air guns and firearms. I plan to get an Impact and a Pulsar. Neither would be above .22 caliber and would probably be in .177 caliber. Also, I don't commonly shoot air guns at 50 yards or beyond. The engineering and quality ("perceived" is a relative term) is worth the high cost to me for some items. Certainly not the case for everyone and that's OK too. That's why choices are out there.

This is one of those loaded topics. Everyone will view it in their own way. Me personally, I have dropped that coin. Like with any new hobby, the startup cost is what ever you deem is right. I personally don’t have a disposable income. I have dependents. I have a mortgage...etc...yada yada. I bust my @$$ (96hrs in 6 days on this shut down) at work. I just save a little here and there and sell old hobby stuff to fund a new one. JMTC

Also, there are some people that may have messed up in their younger years and lost their gun rights. Airgun’s are the next best thing.

I lived in S FL, on the waterway, my boat alone was N. of $35K, today that boat would cost $50K. That was just the boat, add rods, speargun, fins, mask, gas, etc to infinity. 

Those were some mighty expensive fish and lobster. (Will add pic) But worth every penny! I would never buy a gun that takes away from my family, but if I can swing it, and love the sport as I do, I will not even flinch. 

See those silly stupid grinning smiles, that’s what I paid for. 

Click to expand...

These pictures bring back some good memories. After college I moved to Florida then on to a cruise ship for about a year and then to the tiny island of St. Eustatius between Saba and St Kitts where I taught scuba and lived for 4 years. I speared more fish and caught more lobsters than I could ever count. No meat down there so if I wanted it I had to catch it or spear it. Such great memories... a looong time ago! 

Stoti

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I’m on my way, I’ll buy the bait and fuel. I want some fresh fish and lobster. Free diving is a must. I just don’t like sharks.  

@Rokynutz

Man, I wish I could tell ya “come on down” but that boat is long gone and I’m land locked now. Traded in for a wife, 3 kids, a good job, and other expensive hobbies like Airguns, Knives, etc.