New Shooter Gripe #1 "I want to get into shooting but it's too expensive."

Since people in my age group are heading to their mid 20's there seems to have been an explosion of questions landing at my feet about shooting. It seems many people I know have decided that they want to spend their free time doing something new and for many of them, shooting looks to be a possible choice hobby.

Their number one problem is that it's expensive. Yes, shooting is a very expensive sport. However, like other sports it is very enjoyable and rewarding. The problem with someone wanting to get into shooting is they typically have no idea what direction they want to go in. Most people's exposure to firearms is through popular media, and as such their ideals of what type of gun they want are skewed into one category: absolutely and colossally fucking expensive. Upon realizing that the ACR they want is $2700 dollars, they give up and then spend $350 every week drinking, rather than perhaps saving it up....

Seriously what sport or hobby is not expensive? The really funny thing about this is many of the people who gripe about shooting being to expensive have an iPhone, which they pay $150 per month for, which annually equates to $1800, they have an Xbox, PS3, a $1400 gaming rig, but, $500-$600 is far too much to get started in shooting. Now I'm not a communist, my point isn't that they shouldn't have those phones, or gaming computers and consoles or what not, my point is someone is willing to spend more than 3 grand alone on their video gaming equipment, yet at the same time, buying a properly crafted firearm is too expensive for them. Let me break it down like this:

Firearms have to be:

Made of quality materials to stand up to the recoil and other stresses, such as idiots dropping them, extreme weather conditions, and constant and continuous firing also years of use providing proper maintenance is kept up.

They have to launch bullets reliably and accurately.

Many of them have to be worked over by a trained and well paid gunsmith.

They have a billion contradicting and asinine laws that they have to be manufactured, shipped, stored, and sold around. 

And they have to work reliably to the point where you can bet your life on them.

You know, with all those things considered, $600 doesn't seem bad for a quality produced firearm, such as a Glock 17.

As a counter argument, I'm going to be honest, if you're into gaming, you will get a hell of a lot more time behind your $1400 gaming rig rather than your Glock 17. Your gaming computer will probably be used daily where as your 9mm will be used when you can get out to the range. So I can understand why dedicating $600 dollars to something you'll only use here and there is hard. But the fact remains you want to go shooting, you want to get into shooting and you want your own Glock 17. I'm sorry to say but you might have to not piss $350 away drinking for two weeks and use it to break into a new hobby.

Another point is that your gaming rig which cost you $1400 dollars will be a lump of shit within 5 years. I know this all to well, because I'm writing this on a 5 year old gaming rig. That Glock 17 which you bought for $600, providing you properly take care of it could easily last 25 years plus. If your kids are into shooting they could use it, if your grand kids are into shooting, they could use it. Were talking about something that could pass between three generations of your family, as opposed to that gaming rig you bought 25 years ago, which has been long since bent and contorted in your local landfill.


Lets face it, ACRs are really cool rifles, if I get a chance to shoot one at the range I'll definitely take it. It would probably make me want an ACR, but is that going to some how "ruin" my experience and enjoyment with the other guns I own? I doubt it. I might not own something as cool as an ACR, but I can have just as much fun with something that I do own. My point being, you don't need a $2700 firearm to enjoy shooting, you need one that you can afford to own and shoot and have fun with.

So what would I recommend?

Well for a new shooter the Ruger 10/22 is an excellent choice. They fire the economical .22lr cartridge and there are a wide variety of accessories available, giving you the ability to customize the rifle to your needs.For the basic rifle you're looking at about $250.

Here are some examples:

A stock 10/22 Sporter model.

A customized 10/22 built for competitive shooting.

 From hical.ca make sure to check their store out if you're Canadian.

The three above are "tactical" style stocks for the 10/22, from these few pictures you can see how the 10/22 is easily aesthetically transformed to your liking. Not to mention the mechanical upgrades to make the rifle more accurate and easy to use including different bolt handles and releases, triggers, trigger groups, and of course, target barrels.

The 10/22 is a truly  amazing gun just for the fact that you can constantly modify them to fit your needs. You can literally change a 10/22 from one philosophy of use to the other for years to come. This is made all the more easy given the simple and easy to upgrade design. 


Want something bigger than a .22?

Well the SKS is a good choice. Up here in Canada a Russian surplus SKS goes for about $200 and they fire the cheap and plentiful 7.62x39mm cartridge.

Heres a quick cellphone snap of mine as it is right now:

 I used to run the Tapco intrafuse stock and despite the haters, I enjoyed it quite a bit. (btw, I didn't fire it with the laser and light on it, just put them on for the pictures, because tactical ;)

Those are two great starter rifles, I'll probably make a separate post on pistols for a beginner. But those two rifles are great options for a first gun. Much like the 10/22 there are a lot of upgrades on the market for the SKS rifle, not to the same extent as the 10/22 but you should be able to find a stock and some upgrade parts for the SKS to your liking, and if you can't, there's nothing wrong with running an SKS as is.