Is this sport expensive?

Pete Wass

Pete Wass

Well-known member
The topic comes up from time to time and is sometimes used as a reason why there aren't more people in our games. Welllll - - - -,

I use to race Flat Track Cycles back in the sixties and 70's. Back then, money seemed to go a lot furtherer than it does today. 3 years before I quit racing I built a new bike from the best custom parts available at the time. I had around 3K into the project, as I recall, including a new engine.

I happened to notice that there was a First Time TT race on Thursday of the Daytona Bike Week a couple of weeks ago so I watched it on YouTube a couple of days after. The first two places were won by the new Indian 750 Flat Tracker, a limited production racing model from Polaris. Got to wondering if a Citizen could purchase one of this model.

After a bit of looking around I discovered that YES, a Citizen can buy one for a mere $50,000. I can't make those numbers come out right but has $3K turned into $50 K since 1968?

So, it begs the question, I guess, "Is our Sport expensive"? The 50K is just for openers. There is also the van and the spares and the travel, etc. etc. etc. that must be procured.

Pete
 
There are plenty of sports / hobbies that are more expensive. So, I think it is all relative. My biggest problem is that at my age the way I make enough money to cover all the hobbies I have, requires that I work on Weekends, which takes time away from some of those hobbies. In the late 60s I was into Drag Racing and Muscle Cars, in the 80s I raced Sport 2000 (Tigre) and SCCA 930 Porche, just the handling of the cars and getting them to the venues, would pay for many a custom bench rest rifle.

Bob
 
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After spending the past 15 years drag racing all over the east coast, BR doesn't seem that expensive. In one weekend we sometimes broke the equivalent of a comp rifle. I guess it's all relative.

-Lee
www.singleactions.com
 
Drag & BR

It seems that quite a few people I know in BR used to drag race. When I was involved in it I ran a TFC. Without a sponsor you couldn't run that class. I finished in that sport in the mid '80s and at that time if we didn't break anything it was costing 5K per pass. I'd hate to think what it costs today. Built my first BR rifle in '76. By comparison I don't think the cost of BR shooting has gone up as much as drag racing or many other sports has.
 
Is this sport exspensive

Pete Wass said:
The topic comes up from time to time and is sometimes used as a reason why there aren't more people in our games. Welllll - - - -,

I use to race Flat Track Cycles back in the sixties and 70's. Back then, money seemed to go a lot furtherer than it does today. 3 years before I quit racing I built a new bike from the best custom parts available at the time. I had around 3K into the project, as I recall, including a new engine.

I happened to notice that there was a First Time TT race on Thursday of the Daytona Bike Week a couple of weeks ago so I watched it on YouTube a couple of days after. The first two places were won by the new Indian 750 Flat Tracker, a limited production racing model from Polaris. Got to wondering if a Citizen could purchase one of this model.

After a bit of looking around I discovered that YES, a Citizen can buy one for a mere $50,000. I can't make those numbers come out right but has $3K turned into $50 K since 1968

So, it begs the question, I guess, "Is our Sport expensive"? The 50K is just for openers. There is also the van and the spares and the travel, etc. etc. etc. that must be procured.

Pete
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Exspensive is directly reflective of ones income. I live on the edge of 2 counties in north eastern Indiana where the a a average household income is $44,000.00. So as exspected there isn't a ton of short range benchrest shooters, yes ,there are a notable few that are well known in the shooting community.

Fortunately Iam done with travel baseball and hotels every weekend in the summer. So I now have some Money to spend on myself. I just sit down and figured up what I have in my new 30br (on a new savage action because I had to keep it somewhat affordable). Action, bartlein barrel. Competent gun smithing, quality tuner,polishing, Harrells die and bushings, custom seating die, scope mounts, decent weaver scope to get started, decent stock, powder, custom bullets, mandrels and neck turner, neck thickness gauge. For a grand total of $3450.00

I would have to say that's pretty exspensive for the average guy around here with kids. Probably would have been another 900.00 on a custom action and trigger. which yeah thats my next year project but I did have to budget a little to get in the game to see if I like it, pretty sure I will if I can be half way competive and keep myself a few slots off the bottom. I realize I probably don't get enough range time to ever really compete, but I had a great time at the local shoots.myself I feel it a reasonable price to pay for some fun, while my wife would disagree, it's all relative.

I was wanting to attend the super shoot but with the new schedul just can't afford take that much time off work. Plan on shooting up at Plymouth Michigan a couple times . So far Iam hooked on it.

I have a local range close, most of the guysthat work there are 3 gunners so there not really interested in my opinion on marketing short or long range benchrest. Well hopefully I get to meet some ofyou guys this year. It is a little exspensive but in my opinion worth it.
 
FBecigneul said:
I crewed on a Pearson 46 some years ago. We blew two spinnakers out one morning to the tune of around $50,000.00
Sure glad it wasn't my money.
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Yacht racing is definitely one of the more expensive sports; however, there is plenty of competition lower down the food chain, thanks mostly to PHRF. Small boat racing, some of which is VERY competitive, can be even less expensive. The AC boats, as you might expect, are the other end of the cost spectrum. But someone interested in yacht racing (yeah I still say "yacht" even though I'm sure it's considered racist by many) can do so on a budget. Or, if you don't mind not being the skipper, you can do it essentially for free. In short, sailing can cost very little or it can cost more than you can imagine.

Competitive shooting tends to result in a much narrower cost band and I'd say a shooter can have fun at somewhere around the cost of playing golf. Spending a ton of money on high-end clubs or a fancy gun is no guarantee of success and, on a local level anyhow, you can win with equipment that doesn't cost anywhere near as much as your car. So yeah, shooting cost some money, but not an unreasonable amount in my opinion.

Motorsports, on the other hand, tends to have cost which doesn't drop below "expensive" for real racing. Even Autocross (fake racing), if you're serious about it at all, seems expensive. But once you get on a real track and expect to be competitive you will find that racing takes ALL your money even at the bottom of the racing food chain. Even low level road racing or drag racing is a real money pit. At the highest level, it's VERY expensive.

I've been involved in many sports in my life time and I would say that a shooter can do pretty well without spending too much money when you compare things like cost, fun, and chance of success with other sports ordinary people pursue at a amateur level.

I try to keep my shooting budget under control yet I want to win or at least do very well at the club level. I've managed to do that. In my personal experience, it's much more expensive and time consuming to have the same level of success in yacht racing, sailplane racing, automobile racing, custom car building, antique car restoration, boat building, radio control model airplane competition/racing, or experimental aircraft fabrication.
 
FBecigneul said:
Oh but Bill, the winnings pay for that. Yeah, right.
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I am in it for the fun and it is worth every dime. Anything I spend on shooting is not waisted. As far as hobbies go, it is cheaper than collecting and restoring WWII war birds.

Concho Bill
 
I used to be able to afford shooting Benchrest....barely. My family did without and I knew that but continued anyway. I was having so much fun! I knew that you couldn't win without a good rifle and....since I wanted to win...kept on keeping on until it all came to a halt one day when I realized that I didn't have the money to continue. To say it correctly, I simply shot myself into the ground.

I do love Benchrest shooting!
 
This sport does cost money, relative to other pursuits or not. A friend asked me about it and said, "once you build the rifle, then it's all powder, primers, brass, and bullets, right?". I had to explain all he was missing. Travel is a big one if you plan to attend big matches. And if you shoot a lot, you'll burn out 2 - 3 PPC barrels a year. That's $1,000 right there. And if you don't do you're own work, you're paying a gunsmith for chambering. What does that run on average....$300 - $400 a tube, right? So barrels alone equate to $2,000+ a year.

-Lee
www.singleactions.com
 
Lee Martin said:
This sport does cost money, relative to other pursuits or not. A friend asked me about it and said, "once you build the rifle, then it's all powder, primers, brass, and bullets, right?". I had to explain all he was missing. Travel is a big one if you plan to attend big matches. And if you shoot a lot, you'll burn out 2 - 3 PPC barrels a year. That's $1,000 right there. And if you don't do you're own work, you're paying a gunsmith for chambering. What does that run on average....$300 - $400 a tube, right? So barrels alone equate to $2,000+ a year.

-Lee
www.singleactions.com
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Lee, you and I both know shooters, (very competitive ones), who don't buy barrels one at a time, they buy them one bundle at a time.
 
Agreed Jackie. I was talking about the lowest cost path, which is buy one at a time and use it until shot out. If you do it like the top competitors do, that $2,000/yr goes up considerably. I feel fortunate to be able to do my own gunsmithing. But even then, the price of blanks adds up.

-Lee
www.singleactions.com
 
The Bill

Some of us added up what it would cost to start from scratch and buy everything you needed to compete in benchrest with one rifle. It was roughly $8,000-$10,000. This includes loading equipment, rest and bags, one rifle with scope, powder, bullets and primers. You might be able to get below 8K if you bought used and exceed 10K if you bought top of the line new. Tim
 
FBecigneul said:
I hope no one is reading these posts aloud to the point that our wife can hear. Mine will want a new sewing machine at about $5,000.00
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Get her last years model save a grand for more components. Currently I am down to 3 black holes, House, Shop, and vehicles. Amend that,4 black holes, House , shop , Vehicles, and Government.
 
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Compared to many other sports, including other shooting sports, Benchrest shooting is downright cheap. Checkout flying, or bass fishing, or red fish tournament fishing. I think for most of us the travel, which equals time and money, are the limiting factors. The equipment isn't bad at all. Even a cheap boat will buy two or three nice rifles.
 
pablo said:
Compared to many other sports, including other shooting sports, Benchrest shooting is downright cheap. Checkout flying, or bass fishing, or red fish tournament fishing. I think for most of us the travel, which equals time and money, are the limiting factors. The equipment isn't bad at all. Even a cheap boat will buy two or three nice rifles.
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I spent many years shooting 3-gun Bullseye.

If I add up all the practice costs (LOTS of bullets), driving miles, getting to matches (more driving and an occasional flight), hotels, etc. It is likely pretty much a wash.

I do not compete in Benchrest but I am one of those critter killers.

Using a Kelbly Panda and Shilen barrels in .22-250 AI and 6mmm REM AI.

If I include ammunition cost (bullet, powder, primers, and 10% of the brass) and barrel wear it comes out pretty close to $1.00 a shot.

Most ends up spet on practice and load development for new barrels every few years.

I have the satisfaction of having land owners watch in my spotting scope while a groundhog tearing up fields is killed.

Over 400 yards for a single shot in 6 mm.

The landower watching through my spotting scope was happy as a clam.

"You got him!, You got him!"

The club wants me t go pick up the carcase.

Farmer says "Leave it there. Maybi the others will notice."

About 350 yards in .22

In many ways it is still relaxing.

Drives a few hours. Ask where I should shoot from.

Scope out the fauna. Even finding a groundhog a hundreds of yards is work. That little brown thing that stands up to look around and then moves to another plant every few minutes.

Set up and often take one shot.

One dead groundhog.

Let ownewer finger the rifle.

Drink owner's beer.

Pack up and head home.

Mostly over for medical problems but I still get out once or twice a year.
 
Trip to the range

sandiego1948 said:
You can FISH with your family,
See my prior post, guns are for one person.
This is not cheap.
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I have a lot of fun shooting with my kids. I have let my sons shoot club matches while I watch and have had just as much fun as shooting, and exspensive is breaking out the ar's with the 2 of them there. Hours and hours of work they blow thru in 45 minutes, 3 or 4 hundred dollars and when they are done they think we should do it more often. Good times!
 
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