Hunter
Throwin' Up Spray
As for "Prices for everything involving shooting has taken a toll," I wonder if the dramatic increase in wages since, say 1970, has largely offset shooting-related price increases.
Lee, thank for your detailed analysis that covers approx. 23 years. I did a quick Google search of starting salaries and found this >>> https://www.naceweb.org/job-market/...-starting-salaries-for-new-college-graduates/. The first two columns in Figure 1 therein have "some" relevance to this discussion; however, since that table only goes through 2015, and I'd like to compare numbers over a 23 year time span (to be somewhat comparable to your 23-year analysis), I compared the 1992 number ($28,111) with the 2015 number ($50,219).Last year, I did an in-depth review of competitve short-range Benchrest cost comparing the year 2000 (when I started) to 2023. The data indicates that equipment cost is not a major issue in preventing an individual from entering the sport of short-range benchrest. These costs appear to not have increased at the same rate as inflation (74.7%). My data indicates that the total cost to “get into the sport” has increased 72.8% since the year 2000.
...
Here is some of my summary data:
Total Cost Summary:
Item August 2000 - Cost $$ April 2023 - Cost $$ Difference Table 1:
LV Rifle$3,700 $6,350 (72% increase) Table 2:
Bench Equipment$490 $1,055 (115% increase) Table 3:
Brass Prep & Reloading$1,200 $1,795 (46% increase) Table 4:
Range Equipment$735 $1390 (89% increase)
Grand Total
$6,125
$10,590
(72.8% increase)
Those last two numbers above represent a 78.6% increase in starting salaries over that 23-year period. I'm not sugesting that everyone's income increased at that rate over those 23 years; however, that comparison may somewhat support my thought expressed above.