Cheapest gun you've ever bought

H&R .410 single shot for $85 out the door. Sold it a year or so later for $10 loss. Just didn't use it much. Only one near as cheap was my first Mosin at $89 plus tax.

Free.

I have 3 different firearms given to me:

A pre-64 Winchester 94 in .32 Special.

A S&W 2.5" 19-4 .357 Magnum.

A Star BM in 9mm.

Each of these was given to me in my capacity as Pastor. The first for conducting a funeral, and the other two by a couple who were flying back to Europe that day. In each case I attempted to pay for them, and in each case I was told that my money wasn't any good.

The cheapest firearm that I have actually paid money for was $5.00 for a single shot .22 LR derringer. I think that I over paid.

A Mossberg Plinkster for $107 out of Wally World is the cheapest one I can remember.

I was actually just shooting it the other day and it's pretty nice. The stock is literally just ABS plastic with a big seam down the middle that makes it look and feel like a BB gun, but it fed through probably 100 rounds of 22 without a hitch and the sights and barrel were dead on. No regrets there.

Not counting a sawed-off (at both ends!) H&R-something 12-gauge that was given to me once, my three least-expensive buys are:

1987, Jennings J22, new, for $55, at a gun show.

1988, Stevens M89, lever-actuated falling-block .22 rifle, used, for $30, at a gun show.

2015, Hi-Point C9, used, for $70, from a friend who wanted the money for a bottle of rum.

Jennings 22 pistol! paid 30 bucks and a year later sold it for 80!

Pre-WW2 Femaru Model 37 (.380) for $60 about 4 years ago in an auction. Same auction got an Astra 400 (9mm Largo) for $80.

My cheapest gun was also my first gun. 7 years ago bought a Mosin for $100. I rarely shoot it anymore but I’ll probab never get rid of it since it was my first one ever.

On a related note my most expensive gun isn’t much to write home about - only in the neighborhood of $750. Due to some political changes a couple years ago in my state I could probably sell it for $1500-1800.

An 870 at a yard sale, estate sale.
$50.00 for a Remington that sat in a closet for decades?
I pulled the barrel took it to work and reduced it to 18.25 inches and staked a green fiberoptic on.
Cleaned the stock, cut it down and installed a nice soft recoil pad.

My cheapest “real” gun was a Savage .303 Mk IV Enfield marked US Property... 95 bucks at Big 5. The thing is in pretty good shape for a lend-lease relic of WWII.

My crappiest cheap gun was a bubbaed pump 12 gauge I got for 45 bucks off GB. A new laminated stock/foreend for 40 bucks and a bead replaced on the shortened barrel and all was great.

My cheapest rescue was a Ruger Standard that was a rusty mess on the outside, really good on the inside. 85 bucks on GB. Some bead blasting, cerakote, new grips and springs and it shoots like a dream!

Stay safe!

Back in 1960-61 I paid $9.95 for a Remington 03A3 rifle from the DCM.

RON in PA said:

Back in 1960-61 I paid $9.95 for a Remington 03A3 rifle from the DCM.

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That would be around $210 by today’s income standards so, I would say you bid great.

A Mossberg 410 in 1973 for $40 and sold it for $40. I wish I still had it.

Revolver was an beat up RG .22LR that I bought from a buddy for $25 and I carried in my tackle box with snake shot for years. I think it is in my garage rusting away into nothing.

Auto was a PA63 from a local pawn shop for $110OTD. I put a set of Wolff springs on it and it turned into a sweet shooter.

Cheapest functioning gun i ever bought was a webley Mark I Navy stamped for $90. Also the oldest from 1892. And yes, was very careful firing it with low powered load. Still have it.

Least expensive gun I have ever owned, and the first gun I ever owned, was bought by my father for me for $18. It was a British Enfield .303 carbine. Sold it years later for $25. I sure wish I still had it.

1974 garage sale, $5 12 Ga. bolt action shotgun (Montgomery Ward?) missing the detachable magazine.

I picked up a Yugo capture K98k with the front half of a case stuck in the chamber for $50 from a local pawn shop. Another $50 to a gunsmith and the case was out with no damage done. The bore looks brand new. Very smooth action and pretty accurate. It might be more accurate if my eyes weren't to old for the tiny notch in the mauser rear sight.

Matt

I bought an old single shot 20 gauge a few years ago for $50. It says 'black prince' on the side of it and from what I've read was made by a company called crescent firearms. It's all in working order but I've never shot it due to its age.

The cheapest nice gun I ever bought, and actually still remember, was a trapdoor springfield carbine for $40.00. I foolishly sold it a few years later for $125.00. I've had lots cheaper guns that were junkers but I still wish I kept the trapdoor carbine.

I bought a Mauser carbine at an auction for $40 once.

Another time I bought a bolt action 12 gauge shotgun. I think it was $50.

I'd forgotten all about the cheapest guns that I had actually purchased - probably because I only had them for a few months.
I was still in high school and working at a small auction in Junction City, Oregon on the weekends. A couple of WWI bring-backs - a G98 and a Springfield 03 - came on the block.
Nobody bid.
I opened at $12.50 each.
Nobody bid.
The auctioneer glared at me and said, "Sold".
That $25 was my day's pay.
Those guns and two others were stolen shortly thereafter when we broke down in the mountains during a move to California.

As best I can remember it was a Remington .22 rifle I bought new for $21. I still have that nice rifle. If I had cut a notch for every squirrel that little rifle zapped, it wouldn't have a stock.

I got a Jennings .380 for $50 once.

I once traded 20 rounds of Wolf 7.62x39 for an old Remington target master.

theotherwaldo said:

I was still in high school and working at a small auction in Junction City, Oregon on the weekends. A couple of WWI bring-backs - a G98 and a Springfield 03 - came on the block.
Nobody bid.

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I was going to go to a gun auction about 20 years ago but ended up having to work that day. A friend went to the auction and bragged about how poorly it was attended and the great deals he got. But most gun auctions I have been to the prices fetched tend to exceed what the gun is worth. I went to an auction that was selling off a gun store's inventory that had gone bankrupt. People were bidding more than the price tags that were still on the guns. Crazy.

I have not been to a coin or gun auction in a long time now. Just not worth my time, although now and then friends will tell me about some bargain they got.