Overpriced outdoor gear

[Tussock]

The price of hunting dogs is getting plum ridiculous. Best dog I'll ever own cost $35 in 1977 which was a little more than a bargain back then. I suppose with inflation that would be ... $168 current value. Lucky if one can find any kind of dog today for less than $1500.

And how about Sitka outerwear. I mean, how good can that super dollars suff be short of having sex with the wearer?

Doug, we both know it's all about prestige in the outdoors game. The show. But I'm not buying a ticket. My 1998 Jimmy has a different colored hood, rusted out rocker panel, and 300K miles. Ain't pretty but it still gets me there and back. My hunting rifle probably shot a few Japanese in the last world war. Last pair of expensive camo hiking boots lasted three days in the field before blowing out. Cheap crap holds up better. A few months ago I bought a brand new Remington 4-in-1 waterfowl jacket, tags still on, for $35. Goodwill Store. I'm all about spending my money on hunting trips, not stuff for hunting ... especially stuff I really don't need.

I brought a dog in 1979 for $45. Amounted to a weeks wages for me at the time......What's a weeks wages now say $1500... = price of dogs hasn't changed.

 

[OntarioHunter]

I brought a dog in 1979 for $45. Amounted to a weeks wages for me at the time......What's a weeks wages now say $1500... = price of dogs hasn't changed.

Wow! $45/week? What were you doing? Even back then that was slave wages. I was working as a GS-4 survey crew member with the Forest Service the summer of 1977 when I bought Ethyl. Must have made at least $6/hour. Double that when fighting fires. 1979 I started working at the aluminum plant. $26K per year to start as I recall. $35K when pulling pins.

 

[shrapnel]

Wow! $45/week? What were you doing? Even back then that was slave wages. I was working as a GS-4 survey crew member with the Forest Service the summer of 1977 when I bought Ethyl. Must have made at least $6/hour. Double that when fighting fires. 1979 I started working at the aluminum plant. $26K per year to start as I recall. $35K when pulling pins.

You really need to start writing a book. You could call it “A Lifetime Of Being Right”, or “A Lifetime Of Being Tight” or “Binoculars, Who Needs Them?”

 

[OntarioHunter]

You really need to start writing a book. You could call it “A Lifetime Of Being Right”, or “A Lifetime Of Being Tight” or “Binoculars, Who Needs Them?”

Tight? Really? Didn't you know back in 1977 I supposedly blew an entire week's wages on a halfbreed pup with no papers. Sounds rather spendy to me.

 

[kwyeewyk]

You really need to start writing a book. You could call it “A Lifetime Of Being Right Perfect”, or “A Lifetime Of Being Tight” or “Binoculars, Who Needs Them?”

It's much more than just being right, any subject, any argument, always perfect

 

[fleabagmatt]

Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.

But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet."

Props to you for the Terry Pratchett quote.

 

[tjones]

It's much more than just being right, any subject, any argument, always perfect

Reminds me of the old saying--"Runs faster, dives deeper and comes up dryer than any man alive"

 

[kwyeewyk]

My first job was summer of 93, minimum wage was $4.25. And all this time Ontario has been snatching up the good gear from Goodwill.

 

[OntarioHunter]

My first job was summer of 93, minimum wage was $4.25. And all this time Ontario has been snatching up the good gear from Goodwill.

Actually, the day I ran across the new waterfowl coat at Goodwill I was shopping for junker luggage to rob the handle for a gun case I was building. I could have paid the bucks to order a fancy plastic handle from woodworkers supply outfit but they're junk that cuts my hand and breaks off easily. And where can you buy a case that looks as nice ... at any price? Maybe not perfect ... but I gave it my best shot. About fifty dollars in materials. Guess I should have instead bought a Pelican case for the really big bucks ... so everyone would know I have a Pelican ... and think I have really big bucks.

 

[JLS]

This thread is reaching a YUUUGE level of braggadocio, bullshit, pretentiousness, and comedic irony.

 

[brocksw]

This thread is reaching a YUUUGE level of braggadocio, bullshit, pretentiousness, and comedic irony.

Can we just move this thread over to Rokslide then?

 

[JLS]

Can we just move this thread over to Rokslide then?

Or 24 Hour

 

[rtraverdavis]

This thread is reaching a YUUUGE level of braggadocio, bullshit, pretentiousness, and comedic

 

[TheTone]

This thread is reaching a YUUUGE level of braggadocio, bullshit, pretentiousness, and comedic irony.

It’s practically a throwback to the earlier( better?) days of the forum

 

[Dave N]

Stay Sharp reincarnated?

 

[Pmacc60]

Just my two cents , good apparel is worth its weight in gold , warm non binding clothing , good boots keeping you blister free and your feet warm. I buy the best quality I can afford and take care of it , I did the under equipped thing for years raising a family then I found materials like gore-Tex and I realize clothing is just as important as the rifle or bow. You cannot buy skill or experience but quality equipment does improve your ability to stay out longer be more alert and see better. Learning to use binoculars is a skill set as well, the ability to see game is enhanced either close or far and I can see no down side to the use of optics except when I’m being looked at through a scoped rifle. There is no excuse for that IMHO. We all have to decide for ourselves what is best for our budgets and get rid of prejudice of what others are doing with their money! For me I won’t to buy once and be done with it, good stuff last !

 

[OntarioHunter]

This thread was started by DougFir as a question: Is high priced outdoors gear really that good or do outdoorsmen (and women) buy it simply because it's expensive? In other words, are they paying a lot simply because they want to advertise they have the means to do so? Some on here maintain they are buying top of the line because they're convinced it serves them better. And maybe it does. Maybe they just think it does. Doesn't really matter. A few have been honest and admit they buy fancy gear essentially because they like shopping for high end things. A hobby if you will. That's okay. A few, like myself, eschew shopping and stereotyping. We're more cautious about following the latest fashion, whether it's guns, gear, clothing, whatever. Sometimes it's due to financial constraints (which I can assure you is NOT the case with me ... not now anyway). Sometimes it's simply because we value being individuals and not slaves to marketing. That's okay too. What I'm seeing is most who have responded on the high-spending end of the spectrum are aggressively defensive. They assume folks who explore or adhere to a different philosophy are ridiculing them for being wasteful or pretentious. Because we with low end preference can demonstrate that we have success without excess, we're branded braggards. But those same guys who brand us flaunt photos of themselves and their expensive gear, rare collector guns, exotic dogs, etc. worth tens of thousands of dollars. Yeah, there's some irony at work alright.

 

[TOGIE]

lol

 

[TheTone]

making its own gravy at this point

 

[Valley1320]

I wore cheap boots for hunting for a number of years and then I bought a pair of kenetrek mountain extremes, best $400 I ever spent on boots!!! Will not go back to cheaper boots