Best bang for the buck firearm? Ones you own or have shot.

[Exposure]

I had an interesting experience at the range recently that has gotten me thinking about bargain basement firearms that are really the undiscovered gems in the land of gun bargain hunters.

Here is how it unfolded.

A good friend and I went to shoot some clay pigeons one morning. I brought my Mossberg 500 and he had his Remington 870 with him. However, to my surprise, he also brought along another shotgun. It was the most ugly, vintage looking thing I had ever seen. It was a bolt action Mossberg chambered in 16 gauge. He told me I just HAD to try it out since it was such an awesome shotgun. UGGHHH. It looked like something my Grandfather would have bought right after he got home from the Pacific in 1945.

To be polite I tried it out. HOLY CRAP! This thing was great. I was busting clays left and right with a shotgun I had never even handled before. After only a few minutes I was easily breaking doubles, with a bolt action shotugn I had never handled before! That sucker has a slick bolt on it!

Finally I swallowed my pride and asked where he had gotten such a fine piece of firepower. At a local pawn shop, he answered, for the princely sum of $65.00! To say I was impressed is an understatement.

I have a few firearms that I think I got a super deal on. But that $65.00 Mossberg tops the list as far as ones that took me by surprise. I only wish I had seen it and been smart enough to pick it up as my very own!

Anybody else own, or have played with, a firearm that just provides way more entertainment than its price tag justified?

 

[Hoppy590]

ya mossberg bolt actions are cheap cheap cheap for what they are. and all over the place in my experience.

hi points (specificly he carbines) are WAY too fun for the money

 

[Heavy Metal Hero]

I don't know how it ended up in my gun safe, but I have an old (and I mean OLD) .410 bolt-action shotgun in there. I need to shoot it one day.

I have had good experience with a Llama 1911 knock off.

I would still say that 500's and 870's are the best bang for your buck in today's market.

 

[S&Wfan]

FORTY-TWO BUCKS!

That's what I paid for a surplus, former Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission issued, Parkerized Ithaca Model 37 DSPS 12 guage slug gun, made in 1969 (the year I graduated from high school.

It has a 20" smooth bore barrel, original rifle-type sights (the front one glows orange and it is DEAD ON with Federal 1oz. rifled deer slugs at 100 yards . . . ALWAYS making a one-hole, ragged 3-shot group to dead center of the bullseye!

Yep, you can load it with buckshot too for home defense.

The gun was in really nice shape. Best of all, those Ithaca 37 shotguns have safeties that can be reversed for left-handers like me. Mine has a 5-shot capacity.

RESULTS?

"Besides this light and short little pump gun KILLING AT BOTH ENDS, it is obviously a devastating slug gun on deer. I mainly handgun hunt but took it once and used it in my climber. I was the last day of deer season and TWO bucks walked by, paralleling me at 75 yards in a hardwood bottom.

BAM . . . The first one was a "dead deer running" at the first shot, and it raced off in a semicircle from my right to left front and piled up to my left side at about seven o'clock. The second buck, a big 200 pounder, waited until the other buck had done his semi-circle before bolting . . . STRAIGHT AT ME.

I racked the slide as he came quickly to me thinking, "I don't believe this!!!"

By the time I racked it and got it to the shoulder the deer was close. BAM . . . I about blew his chest off as he fell towards me and then bounced off the tree I was in! He died below me, with a hole in his chest the size of a softball.

At the deer processor's place a couple of young guys were amazed at the size of the hole in that deer. "What-ya shoot that buck with, a 300 Mag?" "Nawww," I replied, "a SEVENTY-ONE CALIBER SMOOTH BORE."

It is a great home defense weapon . . . plus a great and accurate deer and/or bear gun that weights less than most rifles!

FORTY-TWO BUCKS!

T.

 

[foob]

Hehe I remember the gripe post a few days ago complaining about listing good deals without saying when you bought it...

 

[Claude Clay]

good thread idea.....a CZ 52 (with additional 9mm bbl, 600 new cases of 7.62x25 brass, 3 mags & dies) that shoots the 6 inche plate off hand at 100 yards for $95 ~2003. a mosin 91/30 with all original extras that shoots 50+ year old 10 cent ammo sub 2" at 100 yards (under 5 " at 300) for $65 ~2004. a iver johnson sealed 8 22lr that groups 2" at 25 yards for $75~2001. cz 452 super brno 22lr. floated the bbl w/ a washer & a $14 trigger job-a dime (sometimes a nickle) will cover 10 rounds at 100 yards off hand. sand bagged w/ a scope is one ragged hole:$204~2006.

 

[cpttango30]

Any of the old Mossberg 22 bolt guns and Remington 500 series 22 bolt guns.

 

[CNYCacher]

Mosins

 

[jrfoxx]

Mosins

gotta agree with you there.gun and ammo are about as cheap as it gets, and they are a hoot to fire.dead reliable, and good enough for hunting too.I'll also second Heavy Metal Hero on the Llama 1911's.I have 2 that cost $300 or less each, and both have been 100% reliable, accurate, and fun.I'll also add in ANY super cheap .22lr rifle found collecting dust in a pawn shop or gun store.shoots the cheapest ammo you can buy, old, beat up .22's can be found dirt cheap fairly often, and the are still fun to plink with or pick off rabbits, squirrels, rats, and such.

 

[VARifleman]

I've been most happy for the price with my Remington 1100 that I got with a 28" and 20" barrel. Not to say that'd I'd trade my Baer TRS though...

 

[mainmech48]

I have a Norinco ATD-22 (copy of the little Browning TD semiauto) that I bought for $35 in 98% condition about 5 years ago. The fellow I got it from had broken one of the fingers off of the extractor and said he wasn't going to sink any more money in it to fix it because it was "Chinese junk". I asked him what he'd take for it, he named the price and I handed him the cash.

When I got it home and disassembled it the reason for the failure was obvious: he hadn't bothered to clean the the shipping grease out of the interior before he started shooting it. When that had collected enough unburned powder and residue behind the extractor to keep it from pivoting it literally beat itself to death on the breech face. Fortunately, it hadn't damaged the clearance cuts there in the process.

One phone call to Brownell's got me a Browning replacement part for about $12. It took about half an hour to drive out the pin, remove the broken part, clean the crap out of everything and reassemble it. Dropped right in and no fitting required to make it work.

Gotta ditto the old Mossberg, Marlin etc. .22 RFs, especially the BAs. Pawn shops and small gun shows can net you some sweet old rifles that'll still shoot better than most of us can hold for for under $75! Careful though! It can get addictive and you might end up with a couple of dozen before you know it.

My All Time Best bargain has to be an 85-90% overall Winchester M-52C target rifle I bought at auction about 10 years ago for $150, complete with Redfield Olympic front and rear sights and a servicable hard case. I sold it to a collector a couple of years ago for $800.

 

[ROMAK IV]

Wow! Most surplus rifles are excellent bargains until someone discovers how good they are and the price goes up. Moisons have for the most part stayed cheap, and as some of you are unaware, the multitude of Russian rearsenaled rifles has been the latest wave in a long stream of Moisons that has been coming into the country for years. The Yugo SKS's and Mausers have been quite good as well. I ordered a Yugo rifle some years ago, that was supposed to be an M-48, but turned out to be a pristine K-98. You have to realize, that this was way before the RC K-98's and the few K98's you saw were really rough. The rifle still looks new. You are right about the bolt action shotguns, they use to be in all the pawn shops and they used to be cheap, but most pawn shops don't take them anymore because there is little demand. I will also mention the K-31's. It is almost impossible to buy any rifle with the combinations of quality and inexpensive price, as well as historical significance.

 

[sixgunner455]

Ruger .22s. Not really "bargain basement", but they are just incredible guns that go and go, and the ammo is cheap, the guns aren't really expensive, and the two very minor problems I've had over the years -- a broken spring guide on my pistol after who knows how many thousands of rounds, and a jammed scope base screw on my 10/22 -- were taken care of at the factory's expense.

I don't expect to wear either out. I expect to leave them to my two kids. What more could you ask for, in "bang for the buck"?

 

[sm]

1999, just before the world was going to ka-put in 2000

$25 for this pitiful, neglected, lonely H&R Topper Youth single shot .410.
It stunk. Moldy on the butt stock, but it seems the Gulf Automatic Transmission fluid kept the metal in good shape.

Icky, still once taken apart, and all the ATF removed, it had nice metal and internals in good shape.
The stock needed some sanding and all and then...well...instead of being refinished as the wood stock it was...

Put it this way, I am 52 and graduated HS in '73.
Lady that bought it is a year younger than I.

Yellow, and I do mean "Yeller". 70's Tie-Dye paint designs that show under black-light.

This is the gun I am often seen using as an Assisting Tool assisting with new folks with shotguns.

Awerbuck has his Red Gun.

I use a 'Nam Era, Gall-Durned Hippies, Rock-n-Roll, Anybody wanna get high? Anti-Establishment..,Awesome Dude ,Lets get it on......

Made sense at the time. Still does, some of us are not sure what we wanna be when we grow up, except we don't wanna be grown-ups.

I have felled a limit of 15 doves using only 14 shot shells, run a straight in Reg Skeet, and taken other small game.
Lady that owns this gun uses it for assisting students too, property gun and general shocking folks .

For $35 a few years ago she found a Rem 5xx, and it too was done up like this.
I mean totally awesome dude to see these guns under a black light.



I only have four dollars and <change onto table> and this kid with big eyes and doing this one foot hop come away with Daisy Red Ryder at a Garage sale.
Masking tape tag had $7 on it.
Screw missing and the stock sorta hanging and looking whomper-jawed.

No way a grandpa doing a Garage Sale is going to out haggle a five year old, that looks this cute.

Grandpa was assisting his new kinfolks that had moved into a house, and had junk in the attic.
Kid spied this BB Gun and got her mom, me and some others and ran back and pointed <excited to say the least>

Grandpa did not know this gun was part of the stuff from the attic.
"Is this all your money young lady?"
"Yes sir, but I can borrow some from mom <looks up at mom "can't I ? Look>
if I have to.
"Never leave a person without phone call money, so take back that quarter and we will call it a deal".

BB gun in good shape, new screw, some attention and been running like a top ever since.
BBs? What do you think Adopted Uncles are for?
"Uncle Steve, I have never had my very own new box of BBs before..."

I did not give in. Honest. I just happen to make a special run for BBs is all...

 

[kd7nqb]

Kel-Tec P3AT is a great deal for a great gun. But I agree the best deal currently is Mosins, neither of these count as "undiscovered". I like the idea of an old bolt action shotgun.

What about pump .22's they are tons of fun and pretty rare, after I missed an AMAZING deal on one I have not dared to look at prices.

 

[RockyMtnTactical]

Ruger 10/22

SKS

Makarov

Saiga

Ruger Semi Auto pistols

Mosins and Mausers

These are just great deals for the amount of money they cost.

 

[rdhood]

Ruger 10/22 ($139 on sale)

SKS ($100-$200).

Hi Points... carbines and handguns ($100-$200). These guns are way underrated.

Build It yourself Romanian AK-47 ($160 for kit,US compliance,rivets, flat). You'll have to borrow tools/go to a build party to make this a really cheap option.

How do I know? Well... I'm cheap and this pretty much describes my collection. I probably have less invested in eight guns than most people have in one!

 

[07Lway]

I know buying retail doesn't really count, but my $99 Savage .22lr is by far my favorite rifle. I have probably have gotten $500 worth of entertainment from it over the past 6 years.

 

[Nautilus]

IMO SKS hands down.

 

[Mark_from_Iowa]

Another vote for Mosins. The best part is that your first $75 plinker usually leads to an obsession with $400+ Finnish sniper rifles and a vast knowledge of model/arsenal variations... Or maybe that is a downside.

 

[El Tejon]

The Ruger 22/45 MkII version. For $200 these buggers have provided far more bang than I paid.

As well, you can still find Colt (not so much anymore) and Smith .22 revolvers for $200 a pop if you are lucky. These are well worth the money.

Come to think of it, many .22s fit your bill.

 

[Bazooka Joe71]

Mosins(any)

Ruger 10/22

870's

Savages

CZ75B

 

[kjeff50cal]

I say Tanfogio Witness .45 ACP & Polish P-64s are very under-rated.

 

[TechAlG]

How about a Bersa Thunder .380. Great little gun. I paid ~$150 used in 2005. I have since put about 2k rounds through it. Great little plinking gun. Also makes a good summer CCW. Not a whole lot of power behind the .380 bullet, but I can definitely place my shots with it.

Even new at full retail, I think this would be a great buy.

 

[Mojo-jo-jo]

+1 on the Makarov, however they are no longer inexpensive. They aren't particularly attractive pistols, but they are superbly reliable with even the absolute worst ammo--and they used to cost ~$150.