Fantasy Purchase

A friend brought up and interesting mental exercise. “If someone left you a huge chunk of change in their will, say half a million dollars, but you could ONLY spend it on firearms and accessories, what do you get yourself? If you don’t spend the money soon it goes away, so no fair planning on a ten year plan.”

Now let me tell you a phenomena I experience every time I go in a big gunstore. My eyes glaze over and I can’t concentrate. There is just so much stuff around demanding my attention and consideration. I drool. Like a kid in a candy store. Does that happen to anyone else, I wonder? When I think about the $500,000 fantasy the same thing happens. I have to let a part of my brain that thinks rationally be in charge of the wallet hand and try to ride herd on the part that is going, “whatsthat? lookatthat? lookatthis? doyouneedthat? howboutthat? wantthat!” Sometimes I go in with the express purpose of, say, buying a cleaning kit or gungrease or something, and I leave with a bad full of stuff but forgotten is the item I went in to get. Gotta work on that.

Anyway… on to the $500,000

Do you buy a really nice Italian Shotgun. Do you buy that museum quality Browning Automatic Rifle, German MG42, Thompson Sub Machine gun, or Ma Deuce? (assuming the first thing you do is get a class 3 license with that money, if you don’t already have). Do you buy 300 Glock 21s? Something historical, like the pistol that shot Teddy Roosevelt to little effect in a parade? With that kind of money you buy the firearms and plenty of ammo, certainly. What? Feel free to chime in in comments if you like.

That would be a wonderful quandary. My biggest objection to personally owning a fully automatic gun is the expense of the weapon and the expense of the ammo, (followed by a lack of general utility) and that cost worry is out the window with 500 G’s. But I am tempted. I always loved the old BAR and Tommy gun. History in your hands. Same with the M2 machine gun. I think I’d pass on the MG42, even though it is neat.

Italian shotguns can go for more than $500k, and they are simply beautiful objects, but my interest doesn’t lie there. I’d pass.

I’d get everything on my wishlist, including duplicates, maybe match quality versions to go with the service grade versions, so that is triplicates. Spare parts kits to go with everything.

Am I allowed to spend the money on classes? I don’t know. If so, I’d take as many as possible. Like the offerings at Gunsite. With that kind of money I’d have to research for other high quality courses, too.

Do handloading and gunsmith equipment count? I could probably spend every dime on outfitting a fine gunsmith shop and need more, not counting the fact I’d need gunsmithing courses and an apprenticeship to use the shop well. But I’d certainly be on my way in handloading with the best equipment available.


One thing that would be high priority, is to get that bolt action rifle I want custom made for me. With all my requirements met. The only problem is, I’m too green that I am sure I am overlooking requirements that I would only get around to preferring after experience shooting. What if I hate the scope set up with use? What if I’d be happier with a different trigger system? Still… My requirements aren’t that wild. A good trigger is a good trigger. A left handed bolt is pretty hard to get wrong if you are left handed. And a good custom builder would be able to anticipate and ask me questions that would go into the rifle design that would tailor to my needs without me even knowing how he figured it out.


I’d buy a lot of the good, expensive ammo and use it like throwaway plinking cartridges without batting an eye.