Don’t shoot it ‘cause it might break, and then no parts available.

Personally, I think it comes down to......."maybe". That is, if it is a family heirloom that still does work, maybe it gets fired once a year for old times sake. If it was a cheap $100 imported milsurp, they usually make great tomato stakes or - worse comes to worse - you part it out and make money selling it piece by piece.

That would depend on the value of the gun. I wouldn't shoot a Manton flintlock . . .

But I would shoot a Holland and Holland from the 1880s........

Guns are tools in my world. If they cannot be used then there isn't much value to me. Truth be told there really isn't a part which cannot be replaced as most anything can be designed and machined but it might be very expensive compared to the value of the gun. Still unless we are dealing with museum pieces I don't see an issue with shooting a safe gun. Now if were are talking poorly heat treated receivers or some other potentially dangerous condition like old Damascus barrels then I would understandably not be using it. (Probably sell unless heirloom.)

OneFreeTexan said:

I was reading the thread “wearing out a firearm’.. Several commented they have a gun they don’t shoot because they can’t get parts for it,,, maybe the manufacturer is out of business, or the model has been discontinued so long.....who knows.
I have some guns which are real difficult to find parts for, some Spanish guns,, some Italian,,,,and some of the old Combloc guns....However, they are fun to shoot, so I shoot them, and if a part breaks and I can’t replaced it.....oh, well, I enjoyed the gun while it worked. So I am asking, if I had never shot that gun because a part ‘might’ break, wouldn’t I have missed out on a lot of nice shooting?

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I guess it’s like a classic car. If you never use it some will see a higher value in it. Some of us will see it strictly as a piece art and a waste in some ways.
So I guess I’d say it depends. If it’s something extremely rare and valuable then treat it like a piece of rare art and don’t damage the value and the gun. On the other hand if it’s more common, then enjoy it. Parts can be made and if you look hard enough there are people who won’t charge you an arm and a leg (although they’re becoming as rare as the parts.

I have been looking for a nice Colt Woodsman. On the one hand, I don't want someone else's broken-down gun with hidden problems, but on the other, when I see a nice NOS job still in the box, I realize I would never be able to make myself shoot it.

Just put an unopened, display-cased, unfired 1967 Colt 1911 Muese Argonne Commemorative on layaway at the LGS.

I can't wait to rip that puppy open and shoot it!

Of course, 1911 parts are always available, but I shoot all my guns within their reasonable limits. My low-numbered 1903 only gets light hand loads and I avoid Magnums (especially 110gr JHP) in my S&W M19s. I figure if anything does break, I'm pretty handy with a lathe and a drill press, so I'm good.

A couple years ago I obtained a Colt model 1877 "Lightning," a 1909 manufactured revolver that looks like a SAA with smaller frame and birds head grip. This was, as many here probably know, Colt's first double action revolver, and it is sometimes called a "gunsmith's nightmare" due to its overly intricate and purportedly fragile interior mechanism (s).
I have the right ammo for it, black powder loads .... but I really hesitate to shoot it. If it breaks? I have obtained some spare parts for it from Dixie Gun Works. But do I want to tinker with it? Hmmmm.


No. Not really.



But it might be fun to shoot ....



And not so fun to fix.


I'll worry about shooting it next year.

Part of the reason I got rid of my AR-180 last weekend (traded for a Springfield Operator with the box and stuff + $400) is because there were no replacement parts available, or decent mags for that matter. We are talking about a 5.56 semi auto rifle that sells for around $1500, that is known to break certain unavailable parts. Since I have plenty of modern AR's (and you can have one too for $500 or less, with no sign of parts drying up in the foreseeable future), it made sense to not shoot it when I had it and to get rid of it for the deal I got.

If someone made it, someone can break it and someone can fix it.

Pretty simple.

But not inexpensive...

Some stuff's value is in its rarity and collectability, some stuff's value is in its utility.

You should know which is which. I wouldn't hang a Picaso in a bar, and I wouldn't hang a copy of "Dogs playing poker" in an museum.

No harm in embracing both or only one.

One of the things I consider when purchasing is what the parts market looks like.

I know that limits my choices re: interesting guns, but I must satisfy myself that I can source parts as needed.

For example, I looked long and hard at a Llama full size .45 frame and slide project, but walked when I saw what parts were available and how much people were asking for them.

Hokie_PhD said:

I guess it’s like a classic car.

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Sort of for sure. But not exactly like the hopped up, ’56 T-bird I had when I got married. I loved that car and I enjoyed driving it, even though I had to tinker with it every week to keep it running. I didn’t mind that though. In fact, I liked it.

However, if I had an old gun I had to tinker with every week to keep it shooting, I’d sell it in a heartbeat. Or if it was an heirloom, I’d put it away and state in my will who gets it when I’m gone.

BTW, I sold that T-bird shortly after my wife and I married. I was being shipped overseas, my wife needed dependable transportation, and we couldn’t afford two vehicles. So I sold the T-bird and bought a then new, ’71 Chevy pickup.

Times have changed. We now have two dependable vehicles, we’re both retired so we could really get by with just one, and I no longer have the slightest urge to tinker with a motor vehicle anyway. But that’s just like our guns – even though at our ages we don’t hunt much anymore, or shoot competitively at all, my wife and I still have at least two guns for every need we’ve dreamed up over the years. But unlike cars, I never did enjoy tinkering with guns. As far as I’m concerned, guns either work or I get rid of them.

As a collector, I have lots of guns that I wouldn't shoot -- not because irreplaceable parts might break, but because of the general wear and tear. Besides, at age 73, my shooting days are behind me. Not my collecting days, though.

If I can't shoot it, I don't want it.
My guns are all tools to be used.

I'd just make the part or have it made if I couldn't.

I bought this Ithaca 1911 as my first 1911 with the intent to use it as a range gun
After shooting a few boxes I became aware that it is an example of an original WWII gun in excellent condition and I found a copy of the original packing sheet, dated December 7, 1943. I have not shot it since.

I shoot everything I own. If it is that rare then I would sell it and get something I COULD shoot with the money. No safe queens in my safes.

stevehgraham said:

I have been looking for a nice Colt Woodsman. On the one hand, I don't want someone else's broken-down gun with hidden problems, but on the other, when I see a nice NOS job still in the box, I realize I would never be able to make myself shoot it.

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Same with me, always looking for a Luger P08. I love them, I want one, but if I shoot an all matching one and break something....yah..

a very old, around 100 years spanish vest pocket. Im pretty sure most of the small parts I could make myself, so a lot of why I don't shoot it is that its .25acp, and .380 is hard enough to load for. I do shoot it occasionally, and its very fun. I have a FEG APK in .380 acp that I did shoot, and the extractor broke. If took almost a year to get a new extractor, and spring, while the pawls that it sits against had to be made. Either way, it was broken for a year, and some of the parts could not be found. In fact I have been on the "inform me when back in stock" list for those parts for 9 years now.

stevehgraham said:

I have been looking for a nice Colt Woodsman. On the one hand, I don't want someone else's broken-down gun with hidden problems, but on the other, when I see a nice NOS job still in the box, I realize I would never be able to make myself shoot it.

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Get two? Now that you brought up Woodsman, I have some LNIB examples as well as regular shooters. The collector grade guns may see some very occasional use and whenever I go plinking I can use an identical gun without having to worry about dings and scratches. Spare parts are a bit of a pain to find but I've managed to keep a Series 3 Match Target and a Targetsman running for quite some time, at tens of thousands of rounds through each.

The only guns I don't shoot at all are family heirlooms with extensive history behind them. Anything that I've bought myself gets shot, though.

I look at it this way. If you don't shoot it because you might break it then its a show piece you never shoot. If you shoot it until it breaks you still have the show piece but got to shoot it first. Either way at some point its only a show piece.

My 1918 Colt 1911 will never be fired by me.
That one's far from an anonymous low-value foreign piece with no history or importance.
Break anything on it & the gun's no longer original or "complete".
No thanks.
Denis