I live in rural Ontario Canada, the only means available for me to purchase firearms new are Specialty Gun shops, a hunting store chain called LeBaron, and more recently (it just opened up) a store called BassPro (which is 6.5 hours from my home. The rifles I were looking at were in the $600-$800 range (lever action browning 30-30), I guess I was a little high when I said $1000. None the less, at $306 for the 870 I purchased, it was all I could afford to get into the sport. I wish we had somewhere close that sold a decent rifle for 250-500, I just couldn't find one (unless I bought used, which I was trying to avoid)