Winchester_73
New member
Well said buck (although WWB is FMJ, and corbon is HP, which means...). Many other people in this thread have made sense too.
From the start, I figured this thread was about "how much is your life worth" when I made that same statement, just a few days ago. In that example, someone bought a gun, saved money, and then proceeded to "smooth out" the internals using a dremel tool.
My philosophy pure and simple was: hey, thats your CCW bud, do you really think a gun that probably needed the work that you did was a wise choice? If your budget is $200 or $800, there are wise choices and poor choices. My opinion was that saving money on a carry gun can be risky. On the other hand, I do not feel there is a set amount that has to be spent on a CCW. In some ways, we are all in agreement. The person that wants to save money shouldn't discount reliability, platform, warranty, design etc, because it goes against the purpose of getting the CCW to begin with.
To show that I'm not a snob (Marine6680 reaffirmed that he didn't mean about anyone who posted specifically) I have heard a lot of good things about a Taurus 85. If someone had one, and they claimed it worked perfectly, I would never say "get a glock" or anything. If it works, it works. Many people swear by their Taurus 85. I don't have personal experience with one, but most of the "my taurus failed me" threads are not about an 85 that I've seen.
A friend of mine at work who is into guns and cars always says "you always will have money for what you truly want" and I have found that to be true 98% of the time. I bought a used 7 year old car with low miles, I don't have any fancy clothes, and I don't own much jewelry. Why? Because I wanted to collect guns. I want to put the bulk of my money into vintage or collectible guns. Because of my choices, I found money whereas other people used the same money for designer clothing, a rolex, and a new lexus. These same people are mystified why I have a stream of gun money, and yet they do not. Of course, nothing is wrong with that, but the key here is to properly acknowledge where your money is going when you don't have enough. Some do have too little coming in and others let way too much go out. The too-much-outers rarely see the problem, and so they are unable to change, or they may see it, and rationalize it "but hey, I gotta have fun".
When the money saved allows for the item to have a flaw which goes against its intended purpose, I think it to be a more expensive choice in the long run.
A quick story - my parents recently were robbed. Money, jewelry, two handguns, etc. My dad had $5k in an envelope in his safe, don't ask why. Years before, my parents being frugal, decided to buy a safe, but it had to be a cheap enough one for them. They got a whatever brand X, and when the perp came in, he was able to PRY OPEN THE DOOR of their safe, thereby costing them $5k because they chose to save around $100 years before. Their frugality really gave them a big loss in the end. I look at a CCW the same way. They could have got a better designed higher quality safe for not a lot of money IMO but since their penny pinching resulted in a poor design, their worst fears of "money wasted" were realized more than 10 fold.
Buying the cheaper gun first can be the same way. Sometimes when people get to know guns better, they go for the better one. Often that same person loses a fair amount on the first. I am one of the people who bought quality from the beginning: my first rifle a 9422 and my first handgun a ruger SS MKIII 22. I still have both, and continued down the same path, with no regrets. Am I a gun snob? No, I think not. I have only tried to pass onto others what I have had work well for me in my own life. That is all.
From the start, I figured this thread was about "how much is your life worth" when I made that same statement, just a few days ago. In that example, someone bought a gun, saved money, and then proceeded to "smooth out" the internals using a dremel tool.
My philosophy pure and simple was: hey, thats your CCW bud, do you really think a gun that probably needed the work that you did was a wise choice? If your budget is $200 or $800, there are wise choices and poor choices. My opinion was that saving money on a carry gun can be risky. On the other hand, I do not feel there is a set amount that has to be spent on a CCW. In some ways, we are all in agreement. The person that wants to save money shouldn't discount reliability, platform, warranty, design etc, because it goes against the purpose of getting the CCW to begin with.
To show that I'm not a snob (Marine6680 reaffirmed that he didn't mean about anyone who posted specifically) I have heard a lot of good things about a Taurus 85. If someone had one, and they claimed it worked perfectly, I would never say "get a glock" or anything. If it works, it works. Many people swear by their Taurus 85. I don't have personal experience with one, but most of the "my taurus failed me" threads are not about an 85 that I've seen.
A friend of mine at work who is into guns and cars always says "you always will have money for what you truly want" and I have found that to be true 98% of the time. I bought a used 7 year old car with low miles, I don't have any fancy clothes, and I don't own much jewelry. Why? Because I wanted to collect guns. I want to put the bulk of my money into vintage or collectible guns. Because of my choices, I found money whereas other people used the same money for designer clothing, a rolex, and a new lexus. These same people are mystified why I have a stream of gun money, and yet they do not. Of course, nothing is wrong with that, but the key here is to properly acknowledge where your money is going when you don't have enough. Some do have too little coming in and others let way too much go out. The too-much-outers rarely see the problem, and so they are unable to change, or they may see it, and rationalize it "but hey, I gotta have fun".
When the money saved allows for the item to have a flaw which goes against its intended purpose, I think it to be a more expensive choice in the long run.
A quick story - my parents recently were robbed. Money, jewelry, two handguns, etc. My dad had $5k in an envelope in his safe, don't ask why. Years before, my parents being frugal, decided to buy a safe, but it had to be a cheap enough one for them. They got a whatever brand X, and when the perp came in, he was able to PRY OPEN THE DOOR of their safe, thereby costing them $5k because they chose to save around $100 years before. Their frugality really gave them a big loss in the end. I look at a CCW the same way. They could have got a better designed higher quality safe for not a lot of money IMO but since their penny pinching resulted in a poor design, their worst fears of "money wasted" were realized more than 10 fold.
Buying the cheaper gun first can be the same way. Sometimes when people get to know guns better, they go for the better one. Often that same person loses a fair amount on the first. I am one of the people who bought quality from the beginning: my first rifle a 9422 and my first handgun a ruger SS MKIII 22. I still have both, and continued down the same path, with no regrets. Am I a gun snob? No, I think not. I have only tried to pass onto others what I have had work well for me in my own life. That is all.
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A few years ago I had to take a delivery to the big city train station in the middle of the night in a bad area of town. My co-worker asked what kind of gun I had. A ruger single six. He let me take also the only gun he owned, a Hi-Point .380. He would have given me a more expensive gun if he owned one. A good deed from a friend.
