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I may have written about this before, but it’s worth bringing it up from time to time since much of what I cover on this blog is expensive. Perhaps a decade ago, Swarovski lent me a spotting scope and it was so wonderful I found I was unable to return it. Reeling with guilt I sent them a check. Now, a decade later–maybe more–I can’t tell you what I paid because I have no idea. What I can tell you is that when I took it to West Virginia last summer it showed me, with perfect clarity, .257 bullet holes in a target 500 yards away on a hazy evening.

In 1985, I bought a Perazzi MX-3 (not their top of the line gun at the time, and now long discontinued) from Griffin & Howe after going through trap guns at the rate of two or three a year. I’ve now used the MX-3 for 26 years, put who knows how many thousands of shells through it, and it has never failed me. (I have, however, failed it on occasion.) I have no idea what I paid for it any more.

I’ve never seen hunting clothing as good as that made by Sleeping Indian or King of the Mountain, and both lines are quite expensive. Meindl and Kenetrek boots are better than anything else, and they are not cheap.

In fact, looking back on 40 years of occasionally spending very serious money on guns and equipment, I can’t recall a single instance where I was disappointed and wished I hadn’t done it. Quite the contrary. You don’t always have to spend a fortune to get something really worthwhile–Helle knives and Minox binoculars come to mind–but if you’re serious, and you’re willing to save for a while, you can get what you want, and you won’t regret it.