Another week, another gun article. I’m actually impressed I have been able to keep this going for this long. I figured my ADHD and laziness would have teamed up to stop me from writing these weeks ago, yet here I am. Lucky you. This week’s topic was inspired by a brief conversation I had on our discord server. If you haven’t heard, we have a little chat room setup where you can talk to other weirdos glibs live. Here is the link if you’re interested. Anyway, a few days ago someone said to me that they would be into shooting except it is too expensive. This took me aback, because while it’s true that this sport is not exactly free, there has never been a better time to get into shooting on a budget than right now. You see, just like most of us, gun dealers and manufacturers were also expecting a Hillary coronation. As a result, dealers were buying up as much free stock as possible and manufacturers went into overdrive cranking out inventory in anticipation of the post election panic buying. When Sir Donald the Orange had his little bloodless coup it threw everyone on the gun side for a loop. Instead of surging demand and sky high prices, gun sales leveled off. This means there is a massive overstock and companies are slashing prices and offering big rebates just to move product. I have been serious into shooting for almost a decade and I can tell you I have NEVER seen gun prices this insanely low before. It really is a buyers market, IF you know where to look.

See, something I have learned about gun dealers is that in many ways they are somewhat worse than used car salesmen. When you go buy a specific brand of anything… shoes, cars, clothing, food, etc., the price is, for the most part, set. You might find one store that has it for 10, maybe 20% less, and on a blue moon you can find some really killer deals, but in general the price is stable. When it comes to guns, however, there is no such stability. I have literally found the exact same gun, in the same color, at two different stands in the same gun show with a $200, $300, even $400 price difference. Whats worse is that, unlike with most other products, the big brand name stores usually rip you off worse than the smaller mom and pop outfits. The reason I believe this happens is because much of the gun buying public is ignorant of the actual market value of the guns they purchase, which allow dealers to wallow in the profit margins. The other driving force behind this is the mistaken belief many people have that you cannot buy guns online. You absolutely can buy a gun online, you just can’t have it shipped directly to you. You must first find a registered dealer willing to accept online transfers. Most of them charge a fee for this. The fees range wildly from shop to shop and region to region. My current FFL of choice charges $20, but I have seen them as low at $10 and as high as $100+. Once you find a willing shop, you must purchase the gun online and have your shop send the seller a copy of their FFL. Once that happens they will ship the gun to your dealer, who can then run the required background check before handing over to you. It’s usually a rather painless process and it saves a ton of money.

So, how low are prices right now? What if I told you that you could have a reliable, modern handgun for $250? How about a working AR 15 for $400? Even a decent pump shotgun can be had for as little as $200. It’s all about where you look. There are 2 sites that I use to find good prices on guns. The first one is gun.deals,  formerly slickguns.com. This is where I go if I just want to browse and see what guns are out there and for what prices. This is a site that accepts user submissions for good deals on guns and then lets people vote and comment on the deal. I would say the majority of my gun purchases originate from gun.deals. It doesn’t just list guns, either. Ammo, mags, accessories… pretty much everything gun related is on this site. You can sort by caliber or seach by keyword as well. Now, if you know what gun you want and you simply want to find the best price on it, then I recommend gunwatcher. Gunwatcher lets you type in the name of the gun and it will search hundreds of websites to find the best price. Like trivago, but with fewer Brad Pitt look alike pitchmen.

So, what are my personal recommendations for good cheap guns? I thought you’d never ask! This is by far not a comprehensive list, but it is a good place to start if you’re on a budget and want some firepower. For handguns, my recommendation hands down has to be the EAA SAR K2P 9mm. This is a Turkish made polymer CZ clone. It holds 17 rounds and takes standard CZ 75 magazines which are almost as ubiquitous as Glock mags. Right now you can get one for about $270 shipped, which means you should be able to get it out the door for under $300 at your local gun store. My recommendation for a good cheap rifle is a bit more complicated. AR 15s are at rock bottom prices now, but the problem is that a lot of no name companies are just slapping a bunch of parts kits together and throwing them out the door. I highly recommend checking gun.deals for the latest sales, but just skimming it right now I can see a few good ones pop up. If you absolutely have to have the cheapest thing you can get, here’s an ATI polymer lower with a keymod rail for $350. This has a polymer upper and lower which I am not a big fan of, but they get the job done and you really can’t complain about the price. The free float handguard is a nice touch too. If you want something all metal and brand name there is this Smith & Wesson M&P for $450, or this Bear Creek AR for $400, either of which would make an excellent first rifle. One of my personal favorites is this Radical Firearms AR with a free float rail for $450. I have used Radical ARs before and they are an excellent value. Finally, we come to shotguns. If you are simply looking for a good cheap gun for home defense, nothing beats a pump action 12 gauge. My personal pick is the Hawk 982. It is a Chinese copy of the venerable Remington 870 and it is actually better than the new 870s coming out of Remington right now. There are a lot of inexpensive shotguns out there so do your homework and see what you can find. That’s pretty much it. Sorry for the lack of pics this week. I’m actually writing this at my job so I gotta keep it low key.