How do people pay for machine guns?

Combloc said:

Quality over quantity every single time.

Click to expand...

Well... as the saying goes, I've never slept with a 10, but one night I had five 2s.

Doctor_M said:

Well... as the saying goes, I've never slept with a 10, but one night I had five 2s.

Click to expand...

I'm a solid 3 at last call so why shouldn't my collection fit my person

I was at a machine gun shoot last year as a guest. Got to shoot some cool stuff including a StG 44. One guy with a belt-fed shot 6,000 rounds of .308 in two days. Yes, they are in a much higher tax bracket than me.

Jerry M said:

.... One guy with a belt-fed shot 6,000 rounds of .308 in two days. Yes, they are in a much higher tax bracket than me.

Click to expand...

Most of the people shooting 308 at our range shoot reloads that cost them say $0.25 each. Most times those shoots are once a year. So it might very well be that he spends $1500 on ammo once a year and shoots it all in 2 days. While thats a good chunk, you don't have to be super rich for that. You just have to reload and buy components in large volume when you get them cheap. Last time I bought 308 I paid 23 cents a round for surplus and bought 8K rounds.

Please advise where this treasure trove is located in 2021 where you can reload .308 for $0.25 or buy surplus .308 for $0.23?

Jerry M said:

Please advise where this treasure trove is located in 2021 where you can reload .308 for $0.25 or buy surplus .308 for $0.23?

Click to expand...

You have to buy smartly. When you find the deal, you buy enough for years of shooting. There are no great deals at the moment. This is the time to go into your stocks, not buy... If you don't have stock not to have to buy ammo for a year, you are not doing it right.

then you gotta feed it. Maybe $30 each mag.

Bertfish said:

Simple question.

Are people taking loans out? Saving long term? Selling a ton of stuff to buy one thing?

I'm not talking a $5k Mac. I mean like a Thompson, M16, belt fed stuff. The class 3 guns that get really costly.

I know some people are just wealthy so it's less of a thing but folks in that position don't constitute all NFA owners. But for guys such as myself (I do decently, pay the bills with extra and live well below my means) that much money for something full auto seems unachievable in my life time.

Click to expand...

It IS,, and they are no more complicated than a semi-auto to manufacture. The fact that they have been priced out of the ordinary market, is an INFRINGEMENT by Itself. Would NEVER have gotten so ridiculous, with out Government Infringement. If ANYTHING is going to limit their ownership, it will be the cost of feeding one.

I'm going to be honest that the only reason I don't own full auto is because my wife sees a machine gun that costs as much as a used car as an unjustifiable toy. To a point she is correct. The money to send lead downrange a bit quicker than my pedestrian semi-autos is not justifiable. Then again, neither is the expense of any hobby. If you want to see some eyewatering costs in a hobby, look into serious amateur astronomy. The equipment costs in the mid-to-high end there makes machine guns look cheap. I've had to contain my firearm hobby side into a cost box that is acceptable and machine guns lie way outside that box. Even the $8K Sten I was wanting to buy was outrageous to her but I have precision rifles worth several thousand dollars and two of them together adds up to that. Her response: "Sell those if you want that.". That was years ago and I didn't have the precision stuff then and on the latter I spread the cost over a year or two to at least make it seem less expensive.

Everyone covers the "how do people afford it". Credit card, line of credit, home equity withdrawal, sell kidneys, pay cash and so on. The problem with full auto is you have to save money faster than the perceived value of the gun. A $28K machine gun last year is a $32K machine gun this year. There are no more of them so if you want it bad enough, you have to pay the asking price or wait out the seller and the seller has time on their hands. Of course, that $32K machine gun only has value if it is sold. Otherwise it is monetarily worthless. I've long stated the biggest opponents to changing that by reopening partially or fully the the NFA registry for machine guns would be existing machine gun owners themselves. Because they would be seeking to preserve the value of their "investment" and would be opposing such a thing on economic grounds. Which is what a lot of people act upon in general.

Machine guns are a well-off or dedicated person's desire. You have to want one bad enough to put in the effort to come up with the money one way or the other. I've met blue collar MG owners and people who clearly saw the expenditure as a "Meh, it's a toy.". I fall in the middle of that spectrum and could have a machine gun if I wanted one but the couch is not that comfortable to sleep on for the next year or two for what I would get out of it.

Matt

My boss on my former job has one. Uzi 9mm (I think he got it for ~$10K) with a suppressor. It's fun to shoot....its like that bb-gun game at the fair...shoot out the star. About as much kick too.

The owner of the gun store he frequents has quite a few machine guns. They look at it as an investment. The prices only go up...never go down. I look at as high-risk....because one signature on one piece of paper....and the AFT is kicking in your door, shooting your dog and taking your $$$. $65K for a Thompson and have my name on the top 1% of the Federal hit list? No thanks.

Priorities, like with everything else in life.

I work on a guys boat who’s annual slip fee in Annapolis is $24k. There are much more expensive hobbies than NFA. My boat is not that fancy but I also only have a lowly MAC10

Matt,
Indeed you are correct. MGs are like boats, being the hole in the water you throw money into. No, we don't NEED them, and the chances of being faced with an army of zombies or libtards rushing toward us with murderous intent, is more remote than winning the billion dollar Power Ball. BUT,,,,,,, They are fascinating, aren't they ? I had the chance, early on, to own a fully functional M-60, just like Rambo , for the paltry sum of 6K. At that time, it was out of my reach. I kept watching it, and the attached tag, which went to 12K within a few months, to 60K within two years when Someone DID buy it. Oh well. My other fondest desire is a real 1918 A-1 BAR. I would settle for an A-2, but an A-3 imitation is not even a consideration. The "government" has ruled this piece as off limits, even though the "government" has used it in three and a half wars. They claim the problem with it, is because it fires from an open bolt. SO WHAT ??? Those who carried it as their primary weapon had no problem, and it is/was second only to the venerable M-1 as the best battle rifle ever invented. Yes, M-14s were good, M-16s were good, and M-4s are good, but there is an aura about a BAR which defies description. Like a Hammond B-3, an original Stratocaster, or a 1957 Les Paul, the ones in existence now, are all there are ever going to be. We are at the mercy of the Law Of The Market Place, and, "government" INFRINGEMENT of the 2A. Mick was Right -- You Can't Always Get What You Want . . .

jjjefferson said:

....The prices only go up...never go down. I look at as high-risk....because one signature on one piece of paper....and the AFT is kicking in your door, shooting your dog and taking your $$$. $65K for a Thompson and have my name on the top 1% of the Federal hit list? No thanks.

Click to expand...

Well... price do go up and down. In 2008, I watch the price of FA M2HBs fall like a rock. I saw some in the low teens from the $40K they were selling for a year before. They can go down but for the most part, they are pretty consistent.

As high risk.... First this is true of everything. MGs have never been confiscated. Gold has! In 1934 you had to turn it in! Yet people don't see gold as risky... Stocks have shown to go up and down... certainly risky. With one signature the Government can put a one time 25% tax on your 401K and take most of the profit... Property can fall to eminent domain. There really is no super low risk investment... compared to MGs.

I just bought a Thompson for $17K that has $3K of work done to make it like new. Not all Tommy guns are super high.

The Constitution does protect you from having property taking without payment from the Government. Granted they might stick it to you but its not as simple as a signature on a paper... That would give you legal recourse. However there are no sure things in life.

However find me an investment more secure and more fun? Show me another product you can buy and use for years and consistently sell for more at the end? Now obviously, you still need to buy smart.

If they ban the sale, you get stuck with a MG... oh no... I mean yes! If WWIII breaks out, you have a MG to fight it with. If you buy historical, you can work against the loss you might get if they were make legal to build again. Sure Macs will go down but C&R guns will go up.

Doug Hile said:

....MGs are like boats, being the hole in the water you throw money into. No, we don't NEED them,

Click to expand...

MGs are holes you can get your money back out of...
What do we need but bread and water... and the communist would argue you don't even need the bread...

...and the chances of being faced with an army of zombies or libtards rushing toward us with murderous intent, is more remote than winning the billion dollar Power Ball.

Click to expand...

Sorry, did you not see what happened in the last year in most major cities. Those mobs were not making it up my street... I spend several nights loading magazines to make sure.

..... My other fondest desire is a real 1918 A-1 BAR. I would settle for an A-2, but an A-3 imitation is not even a consideration. The "government" has ruled this piece as off limits, even though the "government" has used it in three and a half wars. They claim the problem with it, is because it fires from an open bolt. SO WHAT ???

Click to expand...

BAR is a great gun but its not even a LMG. Its an Automatic Rifle that the US army tried to use as a LMG. Its not a great LMG and I can't blame them for replacing it. Open bolt is more dangerous. You drop the mag and set off a jammed round once or twice and you see why. Or short stroke the cocking with a mag installed, you will notice why. For 1918, it was a great gun, maybe the best on the battlefield but it was out of date by WWII. Plus no one wants to carry that... I would still love to get one!

OP can always become a politician.

https://unusualwhales.com/i_am_the_senate/pelosi

First, I ask Ammo Jon to do the negotiating.
Then I swipe a credit card. My kids don't need me to pay for their college, right?

FA is on my 15 year plan, after paying off the house, building a detached garage, and probably parking a Hellcat Red Eye into said garage.

antco said:

First, I ask Ammo Jon to do the negotiating.
Then I swipe a credit card. My kids don't need me to pay for their college, right?

FA is on my 15 year plan, after paying off the house, building a detached garage, and probably parking a Hellcat Red Eye into said garage.

Click to expand...

There is always Community College! :-P

jjjefferson said:

There is always Community College! :-P

Click to expand...

I told the older one she better get prepared for the .mil recruiters office.

She's 6.

A lot of guys get a MG before college, have their fun with it and then sell it to help pay for college...

MG buyers are serious guys with serious money. If you need to sell a MG, you can do so in an hour or less if you are willing to let it go at market rate.

A few years back, a friend called. He knew someone with a MG42. He had sold the MG42 for $20k but the buyer was not coming up with the money. He asked if I wanted it, should the buyer not produce the cash in the next few days. I had about $4-5K in the bank. I thought real hard for about 3 mins and told him yes, I would figure out where to get $15k later but I would take it! Of course he past the word back and the seller told the 1st buyer and he had the money to him the next day. This is a $40K gun. I am not going to let a problem of where to get $15K stop me from getting a $40K gun at half price. If I really could not figure out how to keep it, I could just resell at a $20K profit. The point is, how often have you decided to spend $20K from not ever having thought about it, to yes in 3 mins? I am an Engineer... we don't do impulse buying... but you can always turn MGs into cash pretty quickly by just dropping it slightly below market rate.

IMBLITZVT said:

A lot of guys get a MG before college, have their fun with it and then sell it to help pay for college...

MG buyers are serious guys with serious money. If you need to sell a MG, you can do so in an hour or less if you are willing to let it go at market rate.

A few years back, a friend called. He knew someone with a MG42. He had sold the MG42 for $20k but the buyer was not coming up with the money. He asked if I wanted it, should the buyer not produce the cash in the next few days. I had about $4-5K in the bank. I thought real hard for about 3 mins and told him yes, I would figure out where to get $15k later but I would take it! Of course he past the word back and the seller told the 1st buyer and he had the money to him the next day. This is a $40K gun. I am not going to let a problem of where to get $15K stop me from getting a $40K gun at half price. If I really could not figure out how to keep it, I could just resell at a $20K profit. The point is, how often have you decided to spend $20K from not ever having thought about it, to yes in 3 mins? I am an Engineer... we don't do impulse buying... but you can always turn MGs into cash pretty quickly by just dropping it slightly below market rate.

Click to expand...

Reminds me of the time I had the opportunity to buy 2 Glock Gen1 19s for $20k could have easily flipped them for $30k-$40k but seller wanted them to go to a collector that was going to keep them for himself. Passed the deal to a friend.