This is going to be a fun thought experiment on how to build the best $10,000 gun collection for tactical use. If you’re anything like me then, you’ve probably collected various guns over the years, but you’ve never really thought about how you’d build a collection from scratch. In this article we will review the guns that I think would allow you to build a no compromise collection for almost any tactical task. Keep reading for more.
As I was thinking about various ideas for articles, I came across this video from 1911 Syndicate. In it, they asked about their ideal gun collection for $10,000. Initially I was really excited, but it became obvious that it was basically an ad for a very high end gun store, that sold expensive guns exclusively .
It did give me flashbacks to those 90’s game shows where you had to run around a store, loading your cart up with as much stuff as you could.
This got me thinking, how would I build a $10,000 collection for tactical use. Most importantly, which types of guns would I select? Moreover, what accessories and optics would they need to be most effective for a wide variety of operations. Here are the guidelines I came up with for this hypothetical collection.
$10,000 Dollar Gun Collection Rules
- Quality over quantity
- Guns selected must have a proven track record of performance and reliability
- The guns must be readily available, no military only guns, or fully automatic weapons
- Must be available in the United States
- Brand agnostic
- No touching of the hair or face!
I had to throw that last one in there for my Anchorman fans. Joking aside, this list is what I came up with that would allow for maximum capability under $10,000. I will say that there are many guns that would be worthy inclusions here and they simply don’t appear because I’ve not had much interaction with them. Similarly, some expensive guns are good, but not good enough to justify their price.
There are also certain popular brands that you will not see here, for good reason. I’m not naming names, but smart readers can probably figure it out. Quality and reliability matter.
If you decide to purchase any of these firearms or accessories, know that the links to them are affiliate links. That means any purchase after clicking on them, sends us a small referral fee, at no additional cost to you. It helps keep the lights on here, and is much appreciated. I’ve also tried to link to the best price for each item currently available. Without further ado, let’s get to the list.
The $10k Gun Collection for Tactical Use
As a quick administrative note, I’m not making a distinction between NFA items like short barreled rifles. I’m going to link to the best version of the gun I can find. Sometimes that will require NFA paperwork, but that’s beyond the scope of this article. I will include the tax stamp cost in the new gun purchase price calculations.
Before we get to the $10,000 gun collection, don’t forget to join the email list below. We’ll send you all the latest articles as soon as they’re released.
$10k Gun Collection: the Rifle
The heart of any good gun collection is the rifle. It is the single gun with the best stopping power from CQB distances, out to several hundred yards or more. The first thing I considered is the caliber of these long guns. Initially, I thought something like a battle rifle might be the way to go. After all, a lot of people really enjoy those rifles.
However, if you remember this article, we saw that 308 Winchester rounds really don’t provided much (if any) additional stopping power against human adversaries. The data from that article is congruent with what most deer hunters see as well.
Many White-tailed deer are the same bodyweight as humans. Any hunter can tell you that even with a good heart or lung shot, they rarely fall over dead, even when shot with large caliber rifles. This leads me to favor the venerable 5.56mm NATO round. The ammo is plentiful, and regular magazines have a higher capacity.
Out of the thousands of rifle brands, I feel most confident in the AR15 style rifles from LWRC. I have been issued them for several years, and I’ve found them to be rock solid reliable, soft shooting, and they’re much cleaner to suppress (piston variants).
Because of this I would recommend the LWRC MKII with a 10.5 inch barrel (pictured below). This gun uses a short stroke gas piston system with suppressed and unsuppressed gas block settings.
This MKII variant has a new MLOK rail, which is a big improvement from their previous rifles. This great gun also comes in 12.7, 14.7, and 16.1 inch barrel lengths. It has premium features like, ambi controls, including the bolt catch, which most gun enthusiasts prefer.
As the title implies, no compromises can cost a lot of money. This gun is currently hard to find in stock, but it does retail for about $2850.
If you like these kind of guns and want to look at a lighter direct impingement model, or the previous gen options, then you can find a bunch to choose from here. They are also in stock! Next let’s look at setup for this rifle. Don’t put that credit card up yet!
Rifle Setup and Accessories
For this rifle I prefer a red dot and magnifier. While you can engage targets out to 500 yards or more, this is generally a 300 yard gun. I can tell you from experience that you can hit man sized targets at 300yds with no problems, using just a red dot and magnifier.
I like the Eotech XPS 3 Holographic sight. It’s fairly compact, and doesn’t require an additional mount. I think pairing it with the Vortex Micro 3x magnifier is a good combo. The Vortex is a good deal, with an excellent warranty. I also think 3x is the right amount of magnification for this short rifle. Those two items together are $998.
The MKII is a great candidate for a nice suppressor. I’ve had good luck with Dead Air suppressors in the past. They are rugged, and lightweight. The Sierra 5 would be a great option to mount to this gun. This can goes for $860 and can be shipped to your door, if ordered from Palmetto State Armory.
The last thing I think we really need is a good rifle light. I’ve had good luck with the Surefire rifle lights, and I like their Scout 640 DF light. With switches and the appropriate tail cap, you’re looking at around $500 in total.
While we could go all the way down the rabbit hole, and talk about slings, and mounting points, I think we will just spec this rifle with the major items we’ve already covered. As it sits, you are looking at $5,608, including two tax stamps. Now let’s talk about the next gun in our $10,000 gun collection.
$10k Gun Collection: Sub Gun
You can argue about the utility of sub guns, but you can’t argue that they’re cool. In my experience sub guns are great options for times when your primary job isn’t being a gun slinger. If you have to carry some extra equipment, or you want to carry a bag gun, then sub guns are a great option.
For our purposes, I think the CZ Scorpion 3+ would fit the bill nicely at $1100. It’s very compact, around at 14 inches without a brace or stock. You’d probably want to add in a decent brace like this one from HB Industries ($190).
I think this gun needs a light weight suppressor, such as the HUXWRX Flow 9k titanium can ($679). This little guy weighs only 9 ounces with an adapter I’d add the Surefire M340C compact weapons light ($332) as well as a Holosun AEMS ($430) for this PDW.
All of this, including one tax stamp for the silencer, brings this PDW to $2931. Again we aren’t looking at every little adapter, or mount we might use, just the big ticket items. Our running total is now. $8,539. Next we’ll cover the last gun on the list.
$10k Gun Collection: Pistol
As you might expect, we couldn’t have a $10,000 dollar gun collection without any pistols. Given that we’ve spent just about 9k on guns so far, we’ve ruled out super expensive pistols. Sorry Staccato fan boy’s, you won’t find any here. As fun as they are to shoot, I can’t recommend them for tactical use.
What I can recommend is the HK VP9 with an included Holosun SCS red dot sight. While I haven’t used that red dot sight, I have used other Holosun red dots, and they are top tier. I’ve also put in excess of 20,000 rounds through a few VP9 pistols. They work.
I would then add a Surefire X300 light, Amazon affiliate link. I’ve used these for years and they’ve been very reliable. This brings this gun to $1349.
Between these three guns, we have a total of $9,888 which leaves us some wiggle room for small ancillary items like creatine and White Monsters. Let’s finish this article up.
Final Thoughts
I’m going to be honest, I thought 10k would go a lot further than it did. Originally I spec’d a nice B&T SPC9 which was almost as expensive as the full rifle build. I also did a fair bit of swapping amongst sights and suppressors to get the quality and performance I wanted. This three gun firearms collection is quite the financial investment!
If you’ve read any of my gear reviews you know that a lot of what you pay for is more related to marketing hype rather than actual utility. To use a car analogy I’ve tried to include a lot of Corvettes here, rather than Ferrari’s. Remember, the performance is almost always limited by the user, not the gear.
If you’ve got some better additions to this list, put them in the comments section below. Now get out there and get training! Don’t forget to join the email list.
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