One gun you regret selling and...

I once traded off a beautiful, totally mint Beretta 1934 (pre-war, with the beautiful deep bluing) that I'd inherited from my late father-in-law ... While the pistol itself was not particularly rare nor valuable, , its value -- as a pistol brought-back by a returning service-member -- was something I should have understood and appreciated ...

Bought a Winchester Model 70 (post-64) in .30-06 because at the time, the Model 70 was widely considered the premier deer rifle in the land ... I just hadn't kept up with what was going on with Winchester at the time (it was the early '70s) and hence bought a total lemon.

Regret selling: My very first handgun, a very low mileage S&W 681 Rockford Park Police trade-in I purchased the day I turned 21. But it was 2008 and the kids were hungry......
Regret buying: A Polish PPS43 semi-auto conversion. Aside from the goofy, hard to obtain caliber, they had boogered the receiver catch when they performed the conversion work and it blew open on me the first time I fired it. The bolt and springs flew out, the mag too- loose rounds went everywhere. the RSO called ceasefire and everybody on the firing line stared at me like I had a social disease.
Found all the pieces and got rid of it.
Come to think of it, that was also the gun I least regret selling!

I regret pretty much all the ones I've sold.
The one that stands out; high standard Victor.
Probably shoulda kept the 50th anniversary AR10, too. Whatcanyado.
The Star Modelo B, I liked that one.
Oh, the 336, what was I thinking?!
Whatcanyado. Que sera sera

I don't regret any I own....but that cetme sure tries my patience sometimes. I'll turn it into a viable beater yet.

Luckily I haven't bought a lemon yet, but the firearm I regret selling the most was a Delta Gold Cup.
I needed $$ for closing costs on my first house and it was my DGC or a Poly Tech Legend AK.
I still have that. AK though.

As of today, I don't regret selling anything, and I've bought and sold a bunch over the years. I've sold a few and regretted it afterward. Even bought a replacement on a few only to end up selling that at some point too. I actually bought the same gun back once.

But at the same time I don't regret buying any either. Most of them either didn't work out for me, or while there wasn't anything really wrong with them, I just found something better. But I don't regret the experience of owning and shooting any of them. Even some that I didn't like. At least I know WHY I don't like some guns.

Regret selling-Just about every S&W, Colt, and Ruger revolver I ever owned, especially a S&W Model 10 (heavy barrel model), a Model 36 (3" heavy barrel), a Model 38 (nickel plated), a Model 57, a Model 58, a Colt Detective Special, a Colt Trooper Mk.III, a Colt Trooper Mk.V, and quite a few Ruger Security Sixes. There's also a few Berettas in the mix too, like a Model 950 BS, a Model 84, a Model 85, and a Model 90 (one of the most stylish and elegant pistols I have ever owned).

Regret buying-Two Colts and a Ruger: a Colt Agent (with the factory no-frills finish), a Colt Officer's ACP, and a Ruger GP100.

Regret selling: I almost never sell. The closest I can come to "regret selling" is an old Beretta 21A mousegun in .22lr that I liked but was not reliable enough to trust for carry. I put it and some $ towards a shotgun, but I always thought the gun was cool and kind of neat even though I didn't quite trust it for SD. I probably should have tried to work with it and keep it as a plinker. Even though I use a Ruger LCP nowadays for mousegun duty, when I see a 21A for sale I always at least consider it.



Regret buying: I bought a dog of a no-name .22 revolver one time as a young man. Never really worked properly. That was money and a permit wasted. Past that, no real regrets... although I have a few impulse buys laying around that I did not truly need and on another given day probably would never have purchased.

I regret trading into a used, heavily beat up Dan Wesson 357 (gritty 15+ LB trigger pull). I ended up trading it off for a Uberti Cattelman and am sure I got the best of that deal.
I did not ever sell anything I regretted though. Most sales were to friends that helped them get started/equipped and I moved them on for what they cost me when purchased.

Probably most regret selling my SW model 36, traded it for ...something. It came from the factory with a wide smooth surfaced trigger, somehow. Loved it.
10 years later I bought another to replace it, unfortunately w/o the same trigger.
Most regret buying... .300 Win Mag Ruger . I got it for bear hunting...being assured by my bear hunting friends it was the essential gun. It shot great. was generally a good accurate gun , but the first bear I shot with it (25 yards double lung) the bear ran off leaving a 6 inch clot of three ribs, most of a lung and other essential stuff. and still was 75 yards away when it gave its death groan. I was horrified. I switched to 45-70. Nice hole both sides and dead bear on the spot. I am a close range type of hunter anyway. the 300 wasn't appropriate for this task.

I completely regret selling a Mossberg 590A1 to fund a stupid 10.5" SBR. Dumbest thing I ever did.

Marlin 1895 STP. 1of 500 made traded it to buy an ar15 on the brink of the safe act passing. Got 600 for it and didnt know until after at that time it was a $1200 gun and value keeps going up. Wish I had know it was a limited edition, young and dumb I guess.

My Interarms Walther Stainless Steel PPK\S I sold to my sister. She wanted a small gun for concealed carry so I sold it to her.
Nether her or her boy friend could shoot the thing. They said it always jammed. and did not want it so I bought it back.

I took it out and shot it on a few occasion and could never get it to malfunction.
I got it back, never to be out of my possession again.

Selling- tie between Colt 4" python for $450 (happened in early 90's- took me a while to get that for it) and my Colt SP-1 that I traded for 2 AK's (1980's)

As I just mentioned in Ol' Unc's Python thread, I really regret selling my 2 1/2" Python! Buying-Tie between the Kel-Tec Sub2000 that Ka-Boomed on me twice, my son once, and a friend once. After it kaboomed on my friend and caused a slight injury, I traded it for a Star BM. The gun it tied with was a IJ Cadet that spit lead so bad I always wore a glove when I shot it. At least I came out about even on both of them.

Interesting thread....I'm hearing about guns I've never heard of before. No regrets here on guns I've sold, but kinda wish I still had the Ruger Red Label 12 ga I sold. Really nice gun, but too heavy for me. I'm not thrilled with the Remington 700 .270 I bought at a gun show 3 years ago. It looks good and the first season out I killed a deer with it, but the next year I missed 2 shots. I had zeroed it just before the hunt, but not impressed with the groups. Took it out this year to zero it and I'm shooting 2" to 5" groups....very inconsistent. May have to ditch this one.

Sold an ultra rare Austin Behlert custom "Bob-Cat" Colt 1911 Gov't Model a few years ago as part of an effort to fund another purchase. Should have hung onto that one, it was an outstanding example of Behlert's work.

Bought a shortened 1917 Colt revolver that turned out to be less than it appeared in the ad, ended up trading it for a rifle, which I then sold to recoup the money spent on the Colt.

Also, bought a beat up S&W M28-2 that I should have passed on, it turned out to be a POS. However, a year later I used it as the base gun for a .41mag conversion so that ended up turning out okay.

As I look back, I have regrets, but selling or buying a gun has never been a long term regret. It is not important. I seldom ever bought a firearm that I didn't regret buying almost immediately....(Did I really need to spend that money? Don't need it and only want it... The money could have been used elsewhere or saved... etc.) The regret disappears after about a day.

The Colt Official Police I bought when I was in the Army in the '80s.

At the time, it was no big deal to sell it. After all, it's not like Colt was going to stop selling double action revolvers...

Of course on the plus side, it turned out it was stolen in California years before I bought it from a local gun store in Kentucky. I don't have the gun anymore, but I traded it away unknowingly rather than having it confiscated at a loss. That one bit the gunstore to whom I traded it. They later contacted me, saying the [then] BATF wanted to know where I'd gotten it. Since I'd bought it on a 4473 from another local store, that was the end of it as far as I was concerned.

I have sold guns that I wish I still had, but I have none that I regret selling. There are a few that I know I will never be able to own again, but I also know that I will never be able to own all they firearms I would like to have anyway. If I like a firearm but sell it to someone who could gets lots more use and joy out of it for a fair price, that is fine with me. If I can sell one I really like for a very good price, that is certainly OK too.

Buying regrets? I bought a nice looking 03FFL C&R Nickel Plated "Spanish Smith & Wesson" through GunBroker off of an experienced Spanish Revolver Collector in Ohio, not really understanding what I was purchasing (and yes, that was my own naive fault). He had to know, though. I could never even fire it because he sold me that gun with a cracked hammer. I cleaned it all up, spent a few fruitless months looking for a replacement hammer because it was NOT really a Smith & Wesson DA .38 Spl. Revolver as advertised (it was a poorly made 'copy') and sold it will a Full Disclosure on GunBroker for a $100.00 loss. Lesson: no excuse for not doing some due diligence background research in the Internet age.

Not really a regret because I knew I was taking a chance, but I once bought a NIB Hi-Point 9x19mm Pistol that never once ran a full magazine through without a stoppage of some type. I got my money back when I sold that C-9, also with a Full Disclosure, but I had to include two fully loaded magazines back when 9x19mm Luger was selling for about $24.00 per box of fifty. Lesson: never again a Hi-Point pistol for me. There are way too many alternatives to waste my time on another one. A lifetime warranty on a $150 out the door handgun loses its attractiveness when you have to pay 20% of the purchase price just to ship it back to the factory in hopes of getting it to run right.

I regret selling a mint condition S&W Model 28 4"

I regret buying a keltec pf-9 - just an absolute joke of a gun.

S&W 640 38SPL
I regretted buying it because the sights were too hard to see, I regret selling it because S&W went and made the little gun a 357MAG. To my mind that was just as stupid as the internal lock.
What use is a round full of slow burning powder in a less than 2 inch barrel? Anyway that's the only one. Guns come and go, when I find no joy in owning and shooting they get sold to fund the next bestest and greatest.

Deanimator said:

The Colt Official Police I bought when I was in the Army in the '80s.

At the time, it was no big deal to sell it. After all, it's not like Colt was going to stop selling double action revolvers...

Click to expand...

That can easily be replaced if you want to. I never thought Colt would stop making DA revolvers either. But of course now we have the new Cobra.

I'm with 22-rimfire on this one. They're just guns, they're just things. If I sold them, I likely wasn't finding them as enjoyable to possess as I did when I bought them, and thought something else would be more suitable for where my interests had moved.

However, there were a few moments of "What am I doing?" when putting down the physical cash to pay for my Colt 1911s, 6920, Aimpoint PRO and Leupold VX-2 EFR scope, but that went away after a couple of range trips proved them to work exactly as hoped for.

This buyers remorse happens to me all the time... buying a computer, buying a TV, new camera, guns, knives, art, more clothing, another flash light, even a higher end cell phone.... It all relates to acquiring stuff that I don't even need. It must be a personal flaw. It goes away. However, I was kicking myself for getting a keyboard (and case) for my new tablet computer after getting it home.... seemed like a good idea at the store. Except.... the reason I might carry the tablet is not to write long dissertations, but for it's lightness and usefulness when I travel light. Honestly, the Kindle app is its dominant role as I like the screen resolution better than a regular Kindle. The keyboard made it weight as much as a laptop and I already have two laptop computers. Not at all comfortable reading in bed as a Kindle. But with the keyboard, I will likely leave the laptop at home for one and two day trips and not have to worry about whether or not I have a wifi connection at the hotel.