Do you take money into consideration when.....?

[thefamcnaj]

Im curiouse as to who takes money or sentimental value into consideration when deciding on a defensive fire arm. Weather it be an hd gun or a ccw.
Im asking this because most recently i am. Im not talking about: manufacturer, caliber, worth, collectors value or the like. Im curios strictly as to money spent or collectors value.
I use to carry my g27. After learning that the possibility of not getting your firearm even in the event of a court justified self defense ruling got me to thinking about pricy and sentimental fire arms.
The g27 was my first pistol. I won my first comp with a g19. My most expensive handgun is my sig p220 elite. My first 1911 was a sig c3. So here are some sentimental and pricey firearms of mine. Since learning this, i wont carry any of them. I carry my s&w shield a lot recently because its cheapet and doesnt mean much. Its also reliable and i trust it. What say you guys?

 

[Cee Zee]

I care about one thing only when I pick a CCW pistol. I want the one that's going to give me the biggest advantage possible for the situation. That doesn't mean I want to carry my S&W 629 with the 8 3/8" barrel around. .44 magnum will certainly give a person an advantage or two. But the thing is heavier than some of my rifles it seems and it only holds 6 rounds. I do carry it in bear country though. But for every day carry I use my SA XDm in .40S&W. It has a large, fast bullet and it holds 16+1 of them. It's accurate and reliable and it isn't hard to carry in certain situations. There are times I'll carry the Ruger LCP like if I'm dressed really casual on a hot day and it won't be easy to conceal a large gun. But for years I carried a Sig P220 then I carried a Taurus PT-145 Millennium Pro both of which are excellent. Obviously the Sig is far more expensive but the Taurus replaced it because of capacity and concealability. It is better in both regards. Then I moved to the XDm because of capacity and because a .40 round will do certain things a .45 won't.

I could worry about carrying the Sig I guess. It's the only one I would really get upset if I lost it but I would only carry it now if my other carry guns were broke down or something.

Some things are worth more than money so I'm not going to carry a cheaper gun for fear of losing it. I wouldn't have a gun if I didn't trust it and sometimes that means paying the price for it.

 

[RetiredUSNChief]

Cee Zee's hit the nail on what's important.

Certainly I can see where loosing an expensive or sentimental firearm to the custody of the police if you ever have to really use it in real life. But if the investigation comes out in your favor, you'll get it back anyway. And if you go to court (and win, of course), you'll also get it back.

However, if you go to court and LOSE, then it won't matter how expensive or sentimental a gun is even if it wasn't one that you carried and used, because you'll lose your right to keep and bear arms as a convicted felon. (I'm assuming that just about any shooting you would go to court over will involve felony charges.)


Your life is what's important. If the thought of potentially losing an expensive or sentimental firearm ranks high enough to concern you, then find something else to carry. You certainly don't need that potentially distracting you from what's important in a self-defense scenario.

 

[ku4hx]

I'm sentimental about a very few guns that for the most part represent a bygone era where craftsmanship, attention to detail and beautiful wood mattered.

I find it hard to become emotionally attached to any mass produced consumer product and that includes guns.

As far as to what I carry, price is not even a thought. If I had to, I'd take a $5,000 pistol simply because my hide is worth that and more to me. But I don't have to so I just grab one of the poly guns. Most of them are in the $500-$600 range but I have a few in the $350-$400 dollar range. A marginal difference in the cost of the various poly guns of $150-$250 is just not even a thought when it comes to staying alive.

 

[Sam1911]

Carry whatever you shoot bestest, fastest, most accurate-est.

The idea that the ONE time in your whole life that you REALLLLLY need to shoot the best you ever did because your life is on the line, you want to have a cheap gun you don't care much about because it might go to the police locker -- is just baffling.

Practice, practice, practice with THE gun you're going to carry. If a gun is too sentimentally valuable to lose (and come on, we're talking about Glocks and SIGs here ... really hardly special or non-replaceable items) put it in the safe and concentrate on becoming one with whatever gun you will carry.



Having said all that, you aren't talking about pricey or sentimental items. If you were talking about a Peter Hofer double rifle, or a shotgun once owned by Ernest Hemingway, that might be too pricey to risk losing. If you were talking about your great great grandfather's Smith & Wesson that he carried in the Spanish American war, that might be too sentimental to risk losing. If you're talking about a modern mass-produced Glock or 1911 or SIG that you won a match with? You're really going to extremes in putting so much value on a commodity good with very limited history.

 

[TimSr]

The value and collectability of the weapon was a consideration for me, as anything you carry will get abused, and get finish worn off, etc, but as Sam said, we are usually talking production line semi autos not revered for their beauty. I'm in the revolver camp, and chose a piece that won't break my heart to lose or suffer cosmetic demise, yet I'm still fully confident that it is reliable, and i shoot it well.

 

[GBExpat]

Carry whatever you shoot bestest, fastest, most accurate-est....

<chuckle> Channeling the military spirit of Nathan Bedford Forrest, I see.

Well said.

 

[thefamcnaj]

Sam1911, its not up to you to decide what is sentimental in my mind or pricy in my wallet. Are the two glocks mentioned in the op: irreplaceable, beautiful, rare, or collectable, no they sure arent. Are the sigs i mentioned the most expensive guns out there, nope.
Sure the glocks are ugly and mass produced but the two i mentioned are special to me, regardless of how you see it.
Im well practiced with my shield and its utterly reliable. Cheap pistol with no meaning. Half the price of some of my guns.
I was simply wondering if anyone thought about it. If your in a clean self defense shooting, and cleared by the court, your still not guaranteed to get your firearm back.

 

[Sam1911]

I understand what you're saying. Just trying to add some broader perspective. It is easy to get so hung up in our own tiny spheres or experience and thought that we lose grasp of the bigger picture sometimes.

If you don't want to lose a gun to a police evidence locker, don't carry it. If you spend your practice time concentrating on mastery of the gun you DO carry, keep as many treasured safe queens as you like.

It seems a shame to have done well with a gun at one point and then decided you have to retire it due to sentimental value, but the good thing is if that's really the place you find yourself in, it is simplicity itself to find a Glock or SIG just like your treasured keepsake, so that you can carry a non-sentimental duplicate of which ever model you've achieved highest mastery of.

 

[Sav .250]

Your life could possibly at stake and your thinking about that?

Here`s a thought. Go totally passive. Problem solved. Just kidding of course.

 

[HankB]

Carry whatever you shoot bestest, fastest, most accurate-est.

The idea that the ONE time in your whole life that you REALLLLLY need to shoot the best you ever did because your life is on the line, you want to have a cheap gun you don't care much about because it might go to the police locker -- is just baffling.

Agree - if my life is on the line, cost of the tool I use to defend it is a non-issue; in fact, I want - no, make that need - the BEST tool for the job.

 

[cslinger]

I always chuckle at these threads, no disrespect meant by this. Most of us look at our guns as toys / prized possessions etc. and I am no different.

That being said in the very, very, very, very unlikely event you need to use potentially violent force to defend yourself when it is all said and done I doubt you will give two whits about the gun in question after the fact other than the fact that it saved your life.

Now that being said I wouldn't likely carry a family heirloom but whether it's a 300 buck Ruger or a 3 grand Wilson combat they are fairly easily replaced.

Carry what you are confident with and what works without question and don't sweat the rest.

My 2 cents

 

[LiveLife]

No.

For me, a defensive pistol must simply work, period. Cost is secondary and if you have any sentimental/emotional attachment to a pistol, buy another pistol. I consider defensive pistols like air bags/seat belts/helmets/body armor/parachutes - They must work to save my life, period.

I see many people buy new pistols and shoot few boxes of ammunition and decide to use it as defensive pistols. I think this is not a good practice.

Having shot USPSA matches, I have seen many unmodified and modified pistols fail to lock magazines, fail to feed/fully chamber ammunition, fail to fire, fail to extract/eject spent cases, fail to cycle/stovepipe, break/blow up on occasion and even fail to hit close targets at 5-7 yards.

For me to trust a pistol for defensive use, I must be convinced the pistol will work using different grips (one/two hands, strong/weak hand, firm/limp grip etc.), be accurate shot from various stances & pistol positions (shot straight up/angled/flat), function reliably even when dirty, tolerate fast/sloppy mag changes, drawn from various holsters without snagging, etc. etc.

The threshold for me to get comfortable and confident with a pistol is around 5000 to 10,000 rounds depending on what I experience with the pistol. During this time, various gun parts will "break in" and undergo enough stress to break or need replacement like recoil springs. I want my pistol to break parts when I am practicing, not when my life depends on it.

This also allows me to range test with different ammunition to determine which produces the greatest accuracy with reliable feeding/chambering especially when dirty. I will often practice with my reloads/factory FMJ ammunition to get the pistol dirty before I test premium factory JHP ammunition to see if they will work reliably even with a dirty pistol. I will also test pistols after being carried long enough to be full of lint/dirt to see if it will work reliably.

Shooting 5000 to 10K rounds through a pistol also allows me to evaluate how accurate the pistol is with both sighted and unsighted shooting (point shooting). Some pistols fit my hands better and "point" better. Since defensive shooting can occur under low lighting conditions or with impaired vision, I want to use pistols I can still shoot accurate even when shooting conditions are not ideal. Having started with 1911/Sig 226 which "pointed" very well naturally, I had some reluctance with Glocks but after 20 years, I can pointshoot G22/G23/G27 confidently.

Another factor for me is that my wife/daughter must be able to use all the defensive pistols comfortably as well. While I liked G21/G30, my wife/daughter found the grip too fat. They were replaced with M&P45 and PT145 (SA/DA trigger model) as medium grip insert for M&P45 will work for all of us and PT145 fits their smaller hands well.

 

[mgmorden]

I've got several dozen guns. If it meant protecting myself - or my family - against an armed attacker in a life or death situation, then I don't are if the police get EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM.

You're talking about the difference between living and breathing the next day or being in the ground never able to see any of those guns - or anything else - again.

The value of the gun itself becomes trivial in such a situation. Carry whatever gun you think will best serve you if you actually need to use it.

NOTE: I'm not saying the Shield is a bad choice for you to carry. You're still relying on faulty logic though if you make the right choice for the wrong reasons.

 

[MedWheeler]

I haven't determined that I need to lay out a month's salary on a defensive carry piece, so I don't worry about the money. When I do think about circumstances under which I could lose my firearm, the idea that it can be quickly replaced with a similar piece, either form my home, or from the gun shop, comes to mind.

That being said, I do not carry my dad's old carry (duty and off-duty) revolvers; I do want to keep them "immune" from seizure, and have enough other weapons on hand to insure I'll not need to fall back to either of them.

I have no handguns that would currently exceed $450 in value, and that's a number that, for me, is not hard to swallow.

 

[ConstitutionCowboy]

I take my ability to handle whatever pistol I'm going to carry and shoot accurately into consideration exclusively. Cost and/or sentimentality is immaterial. Fortunately for me, there are many such pistols in my price range that fit the bill. The 1911 configuration suits me best. I carry some very affordable ones. If I could afford more, I'd probably carry a Wilson. If all that was available was a Wilson, I'd find a way to afford one.

Woody

 

[aarondhgraham]

Money = No.

Money = No.
Sentimental value = Yes.

I would not hesitate to carry most of my expensive handguns,,,
But then again I only have two that I consider safe queens.

On the other hand I would never carry an heirloom gun,,,
An expensive gun can eventually be replaced,,,
Mom's venerable Colt revolver can not.

Aarond

.

 

[rskent]

Sam1911

The idea that the ONE time in your whole life that you REALLLLLY need to shoot the best you ever did because your life is on the line, you want to
have a cheap gun you don't care much about because it might go to the police locker -- is just baffling.

Absolutely, I couldn't have said it better.

If I need to use a gun, I want the very best gun I own in my hand at the time.


Aarond

On the other hand I would never carry an heirloom gun, An expensive gun can eventually be replaced, Mom's venerable Colt revolver can not.

I bet your mom would totally disagree. I bet she would tell you that its just a gun. And that if you need to use it to protect yourself, use it.

 

[HB]

Carry what works. The chances of getting in a shooting are almost nil. If you do a gun will be a drop in the bucket compared to a lawyer.

Plus I feel like if a gun saved my life it would quickly become the one with the most sentimental value.

HB

 

[DeepSouth]

It its sentimental, I don't/want carry it.
If it's pricey, I will.

 

[BSA1]

Cee Zee and RetiredUSNChief said it best for me. I believe in using the best tool for the job and a firearm is a tool. My life to me is well worth more the cost of any firearm. I can replace a firearm. I have not heard of any way to replace my life.

 

[M-Cameron]

well im certainly not going to carry a high value custom, or collectible as a daily carry piece......daily carry guns get knocked around, bumped, scratched, sweated on, ect.

the market is flooded with cheap, reliable, and well shooting carry choices that i dont mind if they get beat up....... ive personally found no reason to carry an overly expensive gun, all of my carry guns are under $600 and they all seem to be working out well so far.

 

[Arkansas Paul]

The most important thing in a defensive weapon is that it function reliably and accurately.

And BTW, people in my tax bracket ALWAYS take money into consideration. We have no choice.

 

[Manny]

As has been said, I carry/use what works. For me that is a Ruger KLCR w/ CT grips for CCW & a HK VP9 LE w/ night sights for a house gun. By happenstance, the price for each was ~ $700 or so. I sure would hate to lose either, but just a week ago got a second HK identical to the first that is waiting should it ever be needed.

While I own & use other guns, these are the two I have specifically for defensive use & the need to surrender one for evidence if I ever need to use has already been taken into consideration. That being said, I would use any of my weapons for defense use if need dictated without consideration of loss.

 

[aarondhgraham]

Aarond

Quote:
On the other hand I would never carry an heirloom gun, An expensive gun can eventually be replaced, Mom's venerable Colt revolver can not.

I bet your mom would totally disagree. I bet she would tell you that its just a gun. And that if you need to use it to protect yourself, use it.

Nope, Mom would say shoot it till it wears out.

But take a chance it could be confiscated by the police?,,,
Never, that would be a waste.

I have plenty of other fine guns to carry for self defense,,,
No reason to risk one that is absolutely irreplaceable.

Aarond

.