Walk into the right gun shop and you will spot a price tag that beats the car you parked outside. We keep a live catalog of 15,661 in-stock guns, so we went hunting for the ones that cost more than the car in your driveway. These are the most expensive guns you can actually buy right now, lined up against the very different rides you could roll off the lot for the same money.
The most expensive gun in the building: a $16,295 shotgun
The single priciest gun in our catalog is not some belt-fed monster. It is a shotgun. The Rizzini Grand Regal Extra is a hand-built Italian over/under chambered in dainty little .410, and it carries a $16,295 sticker. That is more than a clean used Honda Civic, for a shotgun that fires the smallest common shell on the shelf. You are not paying for firepower here. You are paying for months of hand engraving, hand-fitted walnut, and a production run measured in dozens, not thousands. If you want to see where normal .410s land, our guide to the best .410 shotguns is a gentler place to start.
The .50-cal money pits: Barrett territory
Next up are the anti-materiel rifles, and Barrett owns this neighborhood. The Barrett MRAD in .300 Win Mag runs $16,250, the M107A1 in .50 BMG lands at $14,186, and the classic M82A1 still asks $9,733. These are the same .50-cal rifles that hose downrange in the movies, and feeding one is its own kind of expensive. At about $4.40 a round, a magazine of .50 BMG costs more than a tank of gas, which is exactly why we worked out what it costs to shoot like the movies. If the big fifty is calling your name, start with our Barrett M82A1 review and the .50 BMG buyer’s guide.
The safari rifles: built to stop an elephant
Then there is the dangerous-game glass house. The Rizzini Rhino Express in .470 Nitro Express is a $12,800 side-by-side double rifle, and the Pedersoli Kodiak in .450 Nitro Express comes in at $9,300. These are the guns you carry when the thing you are hunting can hunt you back. Each one has two barrels hand-regulated to shoot to the same point of aim, which is painstaking, slow work. A used Jeep Wrangler costs about the same as the Rizzini, and the Wrangler will not stop a charging Cape buffalo.
How many guns cost like a car?
It is not just the headline pieces. Eleven in-stock guns cost over $10,000 each, 134 cost over $5,000, and 2,126 sit above $2,000. That last number is the interesting one. More than two thousand guns on the shelf right now cost a real chunk of a car payment. The average in-stock gun is a much friendlier $1,157, but the long tail of the price curve runs straight into used-car money.
The reality check: it’s the used car in your driveway
Here is the honest part. Even the most expensive gun in our catalog does not beat a new car. The average new vehicle now sells for about $49,000, and the priciest gun on our shelf is a third of that. It is even a hair under the cheapest new car in America, which starts around $21,700. So when we say these guns cost more than your car, we mean the used one in the driveway, not the shiny one on the dealer lot.
And for most people, that is a fair fight. A typical used car changes hands for around $18,000, and plenty sell for half that. If you drive a paid-off daily driver worth ten or twelve grand, then yes, that Rizzini shotgun, that Barrett fifty, that Italian double rifle all cost more than your car. By a wide margin.
Why do the most expensive guns cost this much?
Three things drive the price into car territory. Craftsmanship is the first, and it is why a hand-engraved Italian shotgun beats a polymer pistol by a factor of forty. Capability is the second: a .50 BMG or a .470 Nitro Express is a low-volume, precision-machined tool built for a job almost nobody needs done. Scarcity is the third. When a gun is built a few hundred at a time from walnut, exotic steel, and a lot of human hours, the math never lands anywhere cheap. You are buying a magazine and a polymer frame at the bottom of the market, and a rolling work of art at the top.
How we counted
Gun prices come from our live catalog of 15,661 in-stock guns, using the cheapest in-stock sticker price per model as of June 2026. Car figures come from Kelley Blue Book and Cox Automotive, which pegged the average new-vehicle transaction price at $49,220 in May 2026, plus typical used-market values for each model. Want more numbers like these? We also mapped the most armed-to-the-teeth states, tracked real cost per round in our Ammo Price Index, and ranked the most expensive guns ever sold at auction.
Frequently asked questions
What is the most expensive gun you can buy?
In our live catalog the priciest in-stock gun is a Rizzini Grand Regal Extra .410 over/under shotgun at $16,295, a hand-built Italian piece. A Barrett MRAD rifle in .300 Win Mag is right behind it at $16,250.
Why are some shotguns so expensive?
High-end over/under and side-by-side shotguns from makers like Rizzini and Beretta are largely hand-built, with hand engraving, hand-fitted walnut and tiny production runs. You are paying for craftsmanship and hundreds of hours of labor, not raw firepower.
How much does a Barrett .50 cal cost?
Barrett .50 BMG rifles run from about $9,500 for a classic M82A1 to roughly $14,186 for the M107A1, with the MRAD bolt gun reaching past $16,000. They are precision anti-materiel rifles built in low volume, which keeps prices high.
Do any guns cost more than a new car?
Not quite. The most expensive gun in our catalog, at $16,295, is about a third of the average new car price of $49,000 and even a little under the cheapest new car in America. But it easily beats a typical used car, which sells for around $18,000.
What is the most expensive type of gun?
Three categories dominate the top of the price list: hand-built Italian over/under shotguns, .50-caliber anti-materiel rifles like the Barrett, and large-bore Nitro Express double rifles built for African dangerous game. All three run well into used-car money.
Why is .50 BMG so expensive to own?
The rifle itself runs $9,500 to $16,000, and then there is the ammo. Real .50 BMG costs about $4.40 a round, so a single magazine costs more than a tank of gas. We broke down those movie-style ammo bills separately.
What is a Nitro Express rifle?
A Nitro Express rifle is a large-bore double rifle, usually a side-by-side, built for hunting dangerous game in Africa. Calibers like .470 and .450 Nitro Express are huge, and the two barrels are hand-regulated to hit the same point of aim, which pushes prices to $9,000 and up.
What is the average price of a gun?
Across our catalog of 15,661 in-stock guns, the average sticker price is $1,157. Most guns are far cheaper than the headline pieces, but 2,126 of them still cost over $2,000 and 134 cost over $5,000.
Free to use. Grab any chart for your own blog, article or socials, just credit USA Gun Shop at usa-gun-shop.com. Gun prices from our live catalog; car prices from Kelley Blue Book and Cox Automotive.
14,168+ Gun & Ammo Deals
Updated daily from 10+ top retailers. Filter by category, caliber, action type, and price.
Related Guides