Entry level guns are viewed by the gun using "elite" as cheap, shoddy guns that they are too good to use, I guess. It is much the same to me as an entry level, or "price point" bow. With bows, there is actually more of a difference in performance between the lower priced options, and top of the line (which are incredibly expensive and getting worse by the year.) With guns, there are some very nice ones out there that could serve a shooter well for many years, if not a lifetime. Most can be made accurate enough, and the performance of an "entry level" 30/06 may be nearly identical to an expensive model. Why should a person who is just finding out if they are interested in shooting/hunting buy a really expensive gun? 3 years ago, I bought my son a Mossberg youth combo 20 gauge. He only shot his first doe with it, and last year in 2 days of PA's youth pheasant hunt, he killed 3 birds with 5 shots. When he asked about trading it in at a local shop, he was advised to keep it, since it had little trade value. Does its job quite well though.