This has been a very interesting thread to follow. I walk in and out of gun shops every day for a living (gun manufacturer sales rep) and I had to come terms a long time ago that the guns were getting less and less interesting every year that goes by. That being said, they are technological way better than most stuff from the past....but still less interesting.
It would be an interesting survey for this site to ask how many of us own individual guns worth over 10k, 15k, 20k, etc, and how many? Most on this site IMO would be considered far above average hunters and without a doubt we are all spending way more money toward this hobby than 90% of people that go hunting.
If I was a betting man and we did another survey that asked how many members on this site are under 35 years of age, the number would be super small. Then ask them what their most valuable gun would be in their collection, my guess is it's a 2k shotgun or 3500 bolt rifle (with scope), or a 4k Black Rifle. The only trend I see at the higher end for young folks is long range target "tactical" rifles. For some reason these young bucks are willing to go through the trouble of buying 5-8k heavy rifle in 6.5 or some super 30, spend another 2-3k on a scope and go through some "long range shooting course" engineered by some ex-military guy that probably just read a book about it last week, .......But he's an expert and knows how its done. Now that's not meant to be a shot at our military patriots, I have nothing but respect for folks that served, but let's not kid ourselves, 99% of these fellas were never, nor are they ever going to be the "American Sniper".
In a nutshell, there is more happening than most people realize in the gun industry. The management structure is getting younger and younger (lack experience) and are from outside our industry, and the local shops are just trying to survive. They have no choice but to sell what they can bring in and get rid of in a hurry, (for the worst margins of any industry I've worked in)....... or they go broke. The up-and-coming generation was raised on Call of Duty and the plethora of other military inspired games that highlight all the "tacti cool" stuff currently in the stores. Add to that their buying is inspired by the movie industry. How do I know this? Every time a new John Wick movie comes out, whichever HK pistol or Benelli shotgun he is using, we see a spike in sales after the movie release.
Times have changed my Africa Hunting friends, and they are continuing to change. It's becoming more and more difficult and expensive to do these things we love. The incredible level of complication to even get in your truck, drive somewhere out west and go hunting in our own country "the country with the most freedoms" illustrates the future of our sport........but that's probably a topic for a whole new thread....
