[ge0624me]

How many of you all are like me and cant stand to see either scratches,wear on corners, or nicks on your pistols especially the blued finishes , man this drives me nuts, i understand these handguns for the most part are tools, and alot if times get treated that way, but they are expensive, and with all the touch up paint/bluing available it can look damn near close to new again, it amazes me when i see one at the pawnshop ,or used dealer, and the whole side is worn off, i mean how do you get it to this point? did these guns see some time in iraq or what? I like to use the hell out of my handguns, but at the same time, i take care of mine, thats pretty good investment, and doesnt hurt resale....:banghead:

[Black Majik]

Cars are expensive too, but I don't leave mine in the garage in fear of dents and scratches. I won't repaint the whole car if I get a scratch on it. :)

It just comes with the territory of firearm ownership.

[porterdog]

It's a tool; I bought it to use, not to look at.

Hell, MY body is scratched and scarred- truth be told I kind of like it.

[.38 Special]

Well, the first scratch hurts, and if it isn't too deep, I'll usually try to hide it with cold blue or what have you.

OTOH, I have some nice old guns with plenty of dings and each one tells a story: a nice day afield, a keen hunt, that slide down the shale hill, etc. Those don't bother me.

And I have a couple of guns with decades of wear from riding around in holsters, tens of thousands of rounds, and just generally lots and lots of honest use. Those are treasures, and I wouldn't complain about their finish for any reason!

[Hawk]

Many, perhaps most, "touch-up" finishes blow chunks. Personally, I would put cold blue in that catagory.

I'd rather let honest wear accumulate to the point where professional restoration or refinish becomes viable and starts making economic sense.

Addressing each scratch as it appears seems a labor of Sisyphus to me but I may have simply deluded myself into the belief that I'll send my Turnbull back to Turnbull after 20 years of use. If something like a SIG P239 develops scratches and dings it's hard for me to really care.

Then again, I'm not drawn to Nighthawk for the very reason that I know I'd tear it up and regret doing so. Better I should carry polymer STIs that can be dragged across a gravel parking lot with impunity.

[woad_yurt]

That's why I like to buy my shooters used. It's almost a relief to have a dinged & scratched gun.

Before my present vehicle, a 2006 model, I had a 1980 Olds Delta 88 with close to 400,000 miles on it. I had it for maybe 16-17 years. It ran fine and it looked awful. But, it was a totally carefree ride. Everyone always gave me the go ahead at intersections and backing up into a pole wouldn't make it worth any less. If the price is reasonable and the gun works properly, I always buy myself a very used looking piece. I hate being a slave to my stuff.

PS: The frickin' 2006 has screwed up more in a couple of years than the Olds ever did in all the time I owned it. I miss that car.

[Treo]

Every scar on my body tells a story, like wise the scratches & dings on my gun.

To me if you've got a nice shiny, showroom finish on your gun it means your just a poser who never actually uses the damn thing.

I feel the same way about my tools

[anythingshiny]

Back in the day..before dirt.. whenever i bought a new skateboard the first thing i did was throw it down and kick it across the road...there!! now its scuffed up and i free to ride with abandon.

My weapons are the same way. I agree in that they are tools and I expect them to get scuffed and rubbed and scratched on occasion. As long as I don't bang it hard enough to offset the sight or bend the ejector port cover...stuff like that..its all good. I don't abuse them, too much, but I don't baby them either.

[Rexster]

"Honest" wear on a weapon is an indication that one may be experienced, and not a rookie. Of course, horrendous marks may be an indication of clumsy gun handling. Or, not. The Parkerized finish on the Vang-Comp barrel of my duty shotgun looks pretty beat-up, but is has been carried, ready to deploy, so that it picks up dings and scratches from bare-aluminum patrol car consoles sometimes, and there are distinct marks where I used the barrel to break glass to enlarge an existing hole in a broken window. The stock is also marked up pretty badly.

I would not refinish a handgun due to holster wear. Some of my co-workers, in the days before we went to DA .40 autoloaders, had their sixguns, 1911s, Browing Hi-Powers, and such, re-blued or otherwise refinished every few years.

[Rexster]

BTW, refinishing and touched-up spots will ruin a gun's collector value, too. Honest wear is best left alone, from a collector's viewpoint.

[rfurtkamp]

amazes me when i see one at the pawnshop ,or used dealer, and the whole side is worn off, i mean how do you get it to this point?

You mean like my many years-carried 226 after a couple weeks of 12 hour a day carry with no time to clean it? Even if I'd babied it, it'd still look like garbage with no stainless parts and long, long hours of use.

The gun that has zero sharp edges from use, not gunsmith melting?

That hasn't skipped a beat in well past the official service life of the pistol? :)

http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/5287/carrysigak0.jpg
http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/3910/carrysigrightug5.jpg

It's called use.

It's a tool, it's cost me probably 15-20x what the gun did in ammunition over the years now. I have two more LNIB for when this one eventually fails.

I no longer worry about dings or hard use or anything else, and it puts things where I'd like them reliably out to 50m.

I should add the chamber throat is starting to look like a 9x21 too.

It'll be retired soon, it's past its prime even though it still functions 100%.

[lee n. field]

Dang, man, that's what I call a well used gun.

[CWL]

I like to use the hell out of my handguns,

What's the oldest gun you own and how many rounds do you think you've put thru it? I'm thinking not very long.

My oldest pistols are over 20 years old. They are in good condition, but no one would ever think they are new.
The people I meet who carry well-worn guns are the ones who's advice I listen to.

[harmonic]

How many of you all are like me and cant stand to see either scratches,wear on corners,

Yeah, I'm with you.

[Almond27]

Id like to have that well used Sig and i have a few guns i bought beat to heck i just would not sell so dings and such do not bother me too much.

[REPOMAN]

It's called character.........:)

[tinygnat219]

It depends, if it's NIB and there are nicks and scratches, you bet I am going to yowl and yell till it comes back clean.

If it's used, then its... used. If it looks like someone kicked it across the room multiple times I will pass, if the finish is worn in a few spots then I am not going to worry about it either.

[Ske1etor]

I actually like the holster wear that I now have on my Kimber... looks like its supposed to. I am going to get it refinished though... saltwater+23 hours on my hip and then overnight in the holster without cleaning caused surface rust and the corrosion speckled the slide on the left side down to the bare metal. Since this is a carry gun I don't mind the wear but the finish missing is a problem...

[rainbowbob]

I hate being a slave to my stuff.

Amen. The only new car I've ever owned in 40 years of driving was the worst lemon I've ever owned.

My firearms - the ones I own and the ones I contemplate owning - are all used.

[Butter]

You ever see a guy with a truck who never had any dings or dents in it and the bed of the truck looked pristine after two years? Well, at some point I figure he didn't need the truck or never drove it.

[Majic]

I like to use the hell out of my handguns, but at the same time, i take care of mine,
If you do USE your gun it will get wear marks and cold bluing the marks just sucks unless you don't mind the multi-color splotches you will end up with.

[FullEffect1911]

The only time a scratch would really bother me is if it was on a firearm that I bought with the intention of collecting. My "working" guns can get scuffed and scratched, it just comes with the territory. With that said, I try and avoid undue wear but it isn't always possible.

[paul45]

What a hoot......the OP goes to a rant thread because.....

scratches,wear on corners, or nicks on your pistols especially the blued finishes

..........Please......what a waste of band width..........:D

[Justin]

The gun pictured in this post shows what I consider to be minor finish wear from being drawn from a holster thousands of times. I consider it just one indication of my skill level as a shooter.

The shooters I admire the most universally share one trait: their weapons, while well-cared for, are all missing swatches of finish.

http://www.thehighroad.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=84492&d=1221083523

[Zundfolge]

I've never seen touch up bluing that didn't look WORSE than the wear.

[ArchAngelCD]

Touching up an old gun could destroy any value that might come along some day when the next generation decides they like that gun.

[1911 guy]

I don't like signs of abuse. Honest wear, even extreme wear, doesn't bother me one bit. I've got a particular 1911 that has very little of the finish left.

[kcshooter]

My carry guns have holster wear. Some pretty badly. I don't sweat it. I feel much better about shooting a 1911 missing some finish on the slide and looking a little rough around the edges (or rather, smooth around the edges) next to the guy with the spotless pristine $2500 gun that looks like it's seen less than 1000 rounds. Proves it ain't the hardware.

[loop]

I don't mind good honest wear. Things like idiot marks from people who can't put a slide stop in place without scratching up a gun irk me.

I recently customized a Norinco 1911A1 and redid the nickel finish. When I was done my wife took a look at my carry gun, a Kimber which has been my primary carry gun for more than 10 years and I've shot more than 100 matches with it (we shoot 12 months a year because we're in the desert SW), and told me my Kimber looked really crummy next to my Norinco.

To my great surprise (and joy) she said I should rebuild the Kimber and refinish it. I actually only replaced the springs, pins and slide stop as parts that showed wear. I added TruGlo TFO sights, an S&A magwell with arched mainspring housing and some gorgeous grips from Esmeralda. Then I had the frame refinished in high-gloss blue and the slide redone in high-polish nickel.

Now at matches the guys razz me about how a gun that pretty better shoot darn well even though they know it is the same gun I've carried for years.

I still win my class in about 80 percent of the matches, but I've retired the Kimber from daily carry. Yeah, it's just too pretty and I have plenty of other pistols that are accurate and reliable for daily carry.

But, because of the TFO sights it has become my nightstand gun. I can't say enough about the TFO sights. They are bright day or night and I've never had iron sights that I can pick up the sight picture with so quickly.

Also, regarding finishes... One of my favorite guns is an 1895 Nagant revolver that was a Viet Nam bringback that has no finish on it whatsoever. I treasure that stupid gun and the only way you can tell it ever had a finish on it is to take the grips off. I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

[P97]

When I got my 1994 Ford Ranger pickup there were several in the area that looked just like it. People that saw a Red Ranger Pickup couldn't tell if it was me or someone else. About 3 years ago I had it parked on the Ranch under a shade tree while I was Brushhogging. The Cattle got around it in the shade, and two got to fighting, and one shoved the other into the side of the bed where the gas spout was. I was afraid I would do more harm than good trying to straighten it out so I just let it go. Now when people see me in it they know who it is because I'm the only one with a dent at the gas spout. My Carry piece is the same. You can tell its mine by the looks of it. Personal Character! :D

[lance22]

That's really cool! One of these days I want to find a Sig buried in the ground, too! What type of metal detector were you using ??:neener: