Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Is it OK to build rifles even when you're broke!

My loonyism funds are at an all time low. So in the last month I've had to build a couple of rifles but just in my mind. I'm hoping at least one will come to fruition but who knows. I have built a 256 Newton, a 338Federal, a 6mm, a 358Winchester, a 224TTH, and an 8mm-06. It's not fun being broke but you can get in some high level wishful thinking. powdr

In answer to the OP's question....I hope so!

Powdr, maybe you could find some items to trade for build components. Got any used motorcycle tires lying around?

FC

JB once wrote a story about paper rifles (pictures) that were easy on the wallet

Got an uberlanche? Bet that could get ya a few custom chargers minus bipod plus a custom holster?!?!

Yes, but how do they shoot ?

That sort of rifle puts them all into one hole. Believe me, I know.

It wouldn't be fun if it was that easy.

Man, I'm sittin on the parts and am broker than the 10 commandments. Got about half of what I need and have been pleading w/Santa to bring my gifts in the form of cash. Three gifts of about a $100 a lick would put me in shippin mode. powdr

well sheeeyet. i just need cash, and a barrel. and i'd be all set lol

On a related note, my old college roommate and I were talking about the old days when we were broke college students. We each had a deer rifle (pure factory, each probably capable of 1.5-2 inch groups at best), a 12 gauge shotgun (mine a used wingmaster, his an 370 express), our boyhood .22 rifles (Marlin model 60 and a 9422), .22 handgun (Colt New Frontier and Browning auto), and that was it. But we had just as much fun shooting, and perhaps more fun hunting, as we do now. And boy, do we have more and better guns now! Think I'd trade the firepower for the youth.....
We did a lot of dreaming about the guns we'd someday own, and those wishes were almost more exciting than actually
owning them.

Often the pleasure in desiring a gun far exceeds the joy of actually owning it. Actually fulfilling your dreams is often a disappointment. Jim Carmichael once said that with some things its far more satisfying to dream about having them than it is to actually own them.

Amen to that!!!

Accurate statement. It also holds true with other material possessions, not just guns.

A noted gun writer with some sort of Irish name, O'Kelly or something like that, once wrote that after shooting a lot of different rifles and cartridges he eventually came to the realization that all of them only used powder and bullets. After some experience, I am beginning to suspect that despite the improvements made in rifles, powder and bullets since his day, the same basic principle still holds.

John Wootters wrote an article "Facts and Fancies About Deer Rifles" and stated that there was not a dimes worth of difference in the popular deer cartridges.
I wished I had paid attention

I was off work for 2.5 years, 6 months longer than my 99 weeks of Unemployment. During that time, I didn't buy any rifles or start any new reloading projects, but I did find ways to have fun.

Mostly, what I did was find new uses for old stuff. Trading around scopes got me some better functionality. I pulled off a few recoil pads and ended up making a rifle that would work better for me in cold weather after I was wearing extra layers.

I'd take this broke phase and make it a challenge: what new functionality can I make with the parts at hand?

I faintly recall a writer such as you describe. Thinking his first name was Jeff or Jim?

You jogged my failing memory. I believe Jed O'Cochrane was his name.

Seen any decent buck deer lately? I'm starting to switch into antler mode from horn mode....

And wimmins too!