I'm not an outdoorsman like many of you, but shoot a lot of pistol, shotgun, and 3 gun competition.... the multi gun sports especially are pretty hard on equipment, as you abandon the empty firearms when you transition to another...over the years, I've tried to upgrade to the most reliable that I can afford...at my age, I really don't want a piece of equipment to go down at a big match as I may not be able to get there next year... its bad enough when I screw up...so I guess I tend to buy the best quality I can, but being retired and single, have a little more expendable income for toys....

occasionally, though, the switch do to reliability is a little cheaper... shot a series of 1911 pistols for 25years, and a link break at Ft Benning caused a switch to a plastic gun...