Ludicrous price of firearms…

I’ve had a shotgun certificate for a few years now but never owned a gun….i shoot with a mate who has two and just use one of his instead.
I decided to take the plunge and buy one of my own, browsing a few sites it seemed that a very good new gun would be £1000+ and a decent secondhand gun would be anywhere from £250 upwards….we wont get into the price of some of the more ornate examples (tens of thousands of ££££)….anyway, there is a gunsmiths local to me so i popped in this morning for a look around….

….and walked out with a Baikal (Russian) 12g shotgun for £79

Gobsmackingly it wasnt even the cheapest in the shop, there was one next to it for £75 and then a single shot/single barrel shotgun for £49!!!

Obviously he had in stock the usual range of uber-expensive stuff but i had no idea guns could be had for so little money….the cheapest air pistol he had in stock was £75….it was brand new but still around the same price of the shotgun i picked up, madness.

No wonder some of these guns find their way onto the street for bugger all money.

£79!!!!!

You could buy a bicycle for that!

Explains an awful lot of what’s going on in places like Somalia, doesn’t it?

I used to have a Diana .177 air rifle and fancy something else like that – how much would an entry-level rifle cost me now?

I went clay shooting a little while ago.

Talking to the guy who took me, it struck me that people pay a massive amount of money just to have elaborately ornate guns that they can show off to their peers.

Not like MTBing at all, obviously.

just out of interest wotsit cost* to get a licence?

Total, applications, gun lockers etc

No wonder some of these guns find their way onto the street for bugger all money.

Given that by definition an illegal firearm has been obtained through dishonest means then the price of a legal firearm is irrelevant.

Baikal’s are pretty poor as shotguns go but £79 is very little it must be said. you could fill your freezer with a lot of food before you’ll need a new gun, at that price though you will need a new gun. When though? What you shooting?

I guess it’s not so surprising that an air rifle is as much as a shotgun. They’re a bit more complex (if not as strong).

Cougar, agree entirely….i’m not a bad shot and my mate’s second gun is this ancient side-by-side thing with barrels about 6 feet long and no markings on it giving away its origin….the looks i get from people at shoots when i pull that out of its bag is what i imagine would happen if i turned up at Swinley and unpacked an Argos special mountain bike from the boot….it gives me great pleasure to then shoot pretty well with it!

I once went to a petrol station in Northern Ireland and got taken down to a shipping container to part ex a shotgun we had (apparently this was legit) and swapped a baikal and a naff small gauge for a sexy berreta clay gun (I only do clay shooting) and £100. Some of the guns in there were very, very suspect though. Halfway through the transaction a guy came in looking like a cross between a roided gypsy and Johhny Rotten so we got outta there sharpish. It does seem silly for something so potentially lethal to be so freely accessible and cheap.

the old side by side is/was probably a better gun. have fun with the new one.

mt….i dont shoot all that often so not overly concerned if i have to buy a sub £100 gun every year, its the convenience now of not having to always go with my mate.

Mainly shoot clays but also have the use of some land that is full of pigeons and rabbits.

DONK- my cabinet was less than £100, the shotgun certificate was £50 and the gun was £79….less than £250 for me to get started.

Don’t even think about asking about the price of a good F class target rifle then. The one I want has a stock that costs nearly a grand on its own!

Total, applications, gun lockers etc

Don’t keep weapons at home if you don’t absolutely have to (even if you live in a nice rural area). Keep them where you plan to shoot (e.g. gun club).

There will be loads of people who will say “rubbish, i’ve kept my guns under my kids’ beds or down my trousers”.

However, there will be as many (myself included) who can give you quite specific examples of why being spotted on a saturday afternoon unpacking a gunslip from your car can lead to some unwanted attention from some fairly hard people.

Not worth the risk of a couple of wide boys trying to rob you by your car, or even worse, in the house.

Willard, could you not just manage with an old BSA underlever?

Sorry

My old man sold his single barrel for £25. The price of a license and locker was too much. Only got one left now from early 1900’s which we had decommissioned

Mmm, rabbit stew and fried pigeon breast.

Baikal’s are pretty poor as shotguns go but £79 is very little it must be said

Yep, Baikals are cheaply made and it will fall apart if you use it plenty. BUT frankly it’s got you out there and where you point it and when you pull the trigger is far more important that the engraving or name!
My money is on you getting another gun within 18 months just because it looks nicer/is better made 🙂

Guns are remarkably simple, easy to machine items on the whole. Not really surprising that they can be made and sold for buttons?

My money is on you getting another gun within 18 months just because it looks nicer/is better made

yup, nothing at all like mtb 🙂

do deal extreme sell them?

what i imagine would happen if i turned up at Swinley and unpacked an Argos special mountain bike from the boot

i’d assume you were from bracknell and give you a wide berth. i wont judge you on what you ride, but will make wild assumptions about your socio-economic background and judge you accordingly 😆

Even the cost of an expensive gun is easily recovered with a trip to the Post Office on pension day though best to arrive early.

Don’t keep weapons bikes at home if you don’t absolutely have to (even if you live in a nice rural area). Keep them where you plan to shoot ride (e.g. gun cycling club).

There will be loads of people who will say “rubbish, i’ve kept my guns bikes under my kids’ beds or down my trousers”.

However, there will be as many (myself included) who can give you quite specific examples of why being spotted on a saturday afternoon unpacking a gunslip bike from your car can lead to some unwanted attention from some fairly hard people.

Not worth the risk of a couple of wide boys trying to rob you by your car, or even worse, in the house.

FTFY

It would be rather hard these days to get a license and not have a cabinet.

Given that by definition an illegal firearm has been obtained through dishonest means then the price of a legal firearm is irrelevant.

Pish.

It would be rather hard these days to get a license and not have a cabinet.

I’ve never had a problem putting down the gun club as the place where guns will be stored. Slightly better security IMO.

Also, the gun v bike argument is nonsense. They attract a different type of thief. Bike thiefs are often opportunist and like to steal and then flip for a quick profit. Gun thiefs aren’t normally looking to sell it down the local market.

Ace

You just need some Dragon Breath Cartridges now

wasn’t thinking about starting shooting peter, just wondering how pricey a hobby it is. I’d assumed fairly expensive but sounds like it doesn’t have to be, mind you I forgot to ask about gun club and shoot costs.

I asked my mate at the time, and whilst I can’t remember the figures exactly, it’s filed in my head under “prohibitively expensive, stick to archery.”

Don’t keep weapons at home if you don’t absolutely have to (even if you live in a nice rural area). Keep them where you plan to shoot (e.g. gun club).

Ah, so all gun clubs have to have large secure storage? You’ve not thought this out much eh? 🙄

I’ve belonged to clubs that didn’t even have premises, used to rent ranges. And some ranges were in the middle of nowhere with no buildings at all.

Ah, so all gun clubs have to have large secure storage? You’ve not thought this out much eh?

No, mine does. The point is that it won’t be your house that gets broken into if someone tries to steal your guns. I’ve had 2 gun related break ins over the years at our family home. Don’t care if the guns get stolen from the club.

You’ve not thought this out much have you? 🙄

Shooting is VERY expensive, especially so in the UK. Niche market, and generally presumed to be the preserve of the more affluent (though my experience shows this not to be true in the slightest).

I guess the OP won’t be buying his matched pair of Holland & Holland’s at £80,000 each.

You’ve not thought this out much have you?

Yes, most clubs neither have, or desire, member gun storage.

Guns are remarkably simple, easy to machine items on the whole. Not really surprising that they can be made and sold for buttons?

so you work in the gun trade?
only bore/chamber diameters are dealt with in thousands of an inch and the difference between an in-proof and out of proof chamber is miniscule.
or was that an uneducated guess?

OP, you might like to change the title to say ‘shotguns’ not ‘firearms’. Whole different ball game, costs, etc.

Pish.

bulls**t

i’d assume you were from bracknell and give you a wide berth. i wont judge you on what you ride, but will make wild assumptions about your socio-economic background and judge you accordingly

🙂

starting shooting peter

😯

Pish.

bulls**t

I see the standard of discourse is particularly well thought out and intellectual today.

Sense of proportion:

• 580,653 shotgun certificates were on issue on 31 March 2010, covering well over a million guns.

Figures for number of shotguns stolen or misappropiated (includes multiples, so one theft of five guns would show up as five)

2005 – 397
2006 – 282
2007 – 289

(latest figures I could find)

Further data shows that the majority of stolen guns are recovered shortly afterwards, at the scene or nearby.

So, really quite rare.