Anybody ever downsized the collection and regretted it?

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marksman13

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I’ve been toying with the idea of downsizing my rifle collection lately and maybe doing some cartridge consolidation. I’ve got several hunting rifles that I just don’t use with a bunch of use-overlap between them. Lately I’ve been thinking about buying an additional thermal scope along with maybe putting together a pair of hunting rigs (one long range, one short range) and sending some of my other hunting rifles to new homes.

Problem is, I post these guns for sale, but just don’t have the heart to let them go. They would all be difficult to replace. Some are no longer in production. Some just hold a soft spot in my heart. My brain knows that my needs would be better served if I moved some of these guns to a new home and used the cash for other purposes, but my heart is in a different place.

I know several of you have down-sized your collections over the past few years. Anybody regret those decisions?
 
Yes and no. Some of the things I've come across I do regret letting go, like my first mosin. Nothing special, but sentimental. Other things, like the SCCY I had wasn't , it was just a plastic fantastic I was curious about.

In all honesty, keep whatever you find sentimental. You may be able to replace an iron, but you'll never replace the memories with it. My SKS is sentimental, and even though I've been offered 1k+ for it, I'll never let it go. My first rifle, the rifle that started the bond with my friend B. The rifle I taught my baby sister to shoot with, my friend Janine. Sure, I can get another SKS, but it'll never replace my SKS.

Sometimes, a collection is more than a hobby, y'know?
 
I downsized a lot after I lost my daughter last year. I clearly wasn't thinking straight, and at the time, just didn't care about much of anything.

Most of what I let go of served no purpose to me. But a few of them have to be replaced. And soon. If I can find them.

Greatest loss was a 4" S&W 65 that was my grail gun that took years to find. Need another LNIB, so the hunt continues.

The other was a 1st gen Colt SAA that was near mint. Gave that one away to a close friend that was deeply in lust over it. That one will be impossible to replace.

He treasured it so much he couldn't leave it home when he went to work. It got stolen. What a loss.

If you do let some go, think long and hard about it if it is an out of production item.
 
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I know several of you have down-sized your collections over the past few years. Anybody regret those decisions?
I'm "sort of" starting to downsize, but I'm not regretting it so far. What I mean is, Dad left me a pair of Colt "Frontier Scout" .22 revolvers in a beautiful, hand-carved leather gun belt and holster set. I passed them to my oldest nephew (Dad's oldest grandchild) a few years back because I knew he would appreciate them more than any of the other members of my family.
Then, just a couple of weeks ago, during deer season our youngest grandson (who was out here hunting with my wife and me), Aaron was telling us that next year his employer has offered to pay his way to come along on a guided elk hunt. So Aaron was planning on getting himself a dedicated elk rifle sometime next year. But I told him he might as use mine - a custom .338 Winchester Magnum built around a pre-64 Model 70 action. Then I told him, "For that matter, you might as well keep it because it will be yours someday anyway."
When Aaron gets some time off, he'll come out to the house and we'll go shoot that rifle. If he likes it, I'll just tell him to take it home with him. I doubt I'll regret it.:)
I also gave a Browning semi-auto 30-06 (BAR) to a good, but much younger friend a few years back. That rifle was actually gifted to me by my brother-in-law, who unfortunately had contracted macular degeneration. He gave my wife and me all of his guns (there were only 4) because he wanted them to go to people he knew would use them. Well, my wife and I already had (have) all the guns we can use, so I in turn gave that Browning 30-06 to a good friend that didn't have a big game rifle at all.
On the other hand, I'm still using the Browning A-5 "Light 12" my brother-in-law gave me. I love that gun, and the old Remington 1100, 12 gauge my Mom and Dad gave me for my 16th birthday (in 1964) just sits in the safe.
I don't know what I'm going to do about that. Nor do I know what I'm going to do about my first deer rifle, or my first .22. There's a lot of sentimental value in those guns.;)
 
If you feel you are a slave to a possession, get rid of it. That is, if you know you won't shoot it, but keep it anyway, you may be a slave to it. That's generally not good. You can still be sentimental about it even if someone else owns it.

I have one or two I regret selling, but I can replace them if I decide to. Or just live without them.
 
I know several of you have down-sized your collections over the past few years. Anybody regret those decisions?
I'm "sort of" starting to downsize, but I'm not regretting it so far. What I mean is, Dad left me a pair of Colt "Frontier Scout" .22 revolvers in a beautiful, hand-carved leather gun belt and holster set. I passed them to my oldest nephew (Dad's oldest grandchild) a few years back because I knew he would appreciate them more than any of the other members of my family.
Then, just a couple of weeks ago, during deer season our youngest grandson (who was out here hunting with my wife and me), Aaron was telling us that next year his employer has offered to pay his way to come along on a guided elk hunt. So Aaron was planning on getting himself a dedicated elk rifle sometime next year, but I told him he might as use mine - a custom .338 Winchester Magnum built around a pre-64 Model 70 action. Then I told him, "For that matter, you might as well keep it because it will be yours someday anyway."
When Aaron gets some time off, he'll come down (he works up in Driggs - about 150 miles from here) and we'll go out and shoot that rifle. If Aaron likes it, I'll just tell him to take it home with him.
I'm looking forward to that. And seeing as how I'm getting too old and infirmed to do any serious elk hunting anymore, I doubt I'll ever miss my ol' 338 Win Mag.;)
 
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I don't understand the question.
You actually sold something?

Truthfully, what I have, i thought long and hard and got exactly what I wanted. A few times, I come across a great deal and pick it up, with full intention to use for trade. Never regretted any of those.
My treasured arms, are recorded and marked to which grandkid it will go to, because they said it was theirs.
Most will never sell, by me, anyway.
 
I had a lot of guns, sold the majority. Sometimes I think I’d like to have one of them back, then realize that, even if I did, I wouldn’t use them any more than when I had them. Virtually all of them sat in the safe unused.

There’s something in the human nature that makes us want to accumulate “stuff”. Watch the George Carlin routine on YouTube. We work to accumulate stuff, and work so much that we don’t have time to use the stuff we already have. People rent storage lockers to store stuff. How much do people use something that’s been squirreled away in a storage locker for years?

I wish I’d spent more on using my guns like hunting trips or shooting matches and a lot less on guns I never used
 
The analogy that I use. 38 years ago when I married my wife I promised to love and keep her until death. I've kept that promise. I make no such promise when I buy a gun. If I no longer use it or if I can sell/trade it for something better it hits the road. My needs and interests have evolved over time and the guns I own at any given time match those interests. I could not afford to have kept all of them and own the quality guns I own today. I've met people with hundreds of guns and the safes they keep them in are worth more than all of the guns in them.

Over the last 40+ years I've owned well over 200 guns, but never more than about 30-35 at a time. I'm down to closer to 20 now. Granted a lot of them were gifted to my kids and others will be going to grandkids one day.

There are some that are off limits however. I have 2 shotguns that be owned by the 6th generation by the time my grandkids get them. And my son will get his grandfathers shotgun. But there is nothing that I've bought that I wouldn't sell at the right price. There will still be plenty for heirs to inherit and by the time I die (or get too old to use them) those will be the ones that meant the most to me.
 
I know several of you have down-sized your collections over the past few years. Anybody regret those decisions?
In our 20s, when my wife got pregnant with our daughter, she told me to sell all the dirt bikes, buggies and any gun I haven't shot in 6 months to better focus on raising the new baby :eek: ... Well, most of the guns I had, I hadn't shot in 6 months. :oops:

So my gun safe got cleared only to buy the guns back when our daughter was old enough to ride kid's quad.

$180,000 later in guns and reloading over 650,000 pistol rounds later (not counting rifle rounds), last year I had to liquidate/PIF over 90% of my guns and reloading equipment/components to anticipate moving in with my parents due to medical reasons.

Well, we decided on alternate home care for my parents but not after guns were sold/paid it forward.

Do I regret having let most of my guns go twice?

Yes.

Is it end of the world sad? No, as I kept the guns that I really do enjoy shooting and know that I could always buy more guns and build more ARs.

The biggest regrets I have is selling the Russian 380 Makarov and NHM-91 ... perhaps SLR AK/Saiga .308 as they were good shooters.
 
I have sold quite a few that have no sentimental meaning to me and have been idle for years. Some I had multiples of. It's a sellers market right now and I have been getting what I ask for them on the high end. I use to have that attitude that I am not letting anything go and just go buy what I want. Once I sold that first one I realized what I could do with that cash for something that was just taking up space. I get a kick out of doing now. Of course I have used some of the the cash to buy some higher end firearms and have others I want and will get...
 
I've downsized a bit, need to do more. Got completely out of .30 cals a few years ago; said goodbye to a .300 Win Mag, couple of .30-06s, and several .308s. No real regrets, other than later realizing I should have kept one of the .308 rifles and had it rebarreled in a different cartridge.

Over the next year or two, I may end up culling most of the 6.5s. I can do everything I need with 6 and 7 mm. I'll keep the .375 Ruger, though, just for fun. I'll admit it's always hard to let them go, but once gone, I haven't missed them. Still plenty in the safe to play with.
 
I downsized a lot after I lost my daughter last year. I clearly wasn't thinking straight, and at the time, just didn't care about much of anything.

Most of what I let go of served no purpose to me. But a few of them have to be replaced. And soon. If I can find them.

Greatest loss was a 4" S&W 65 that was my grail gun that took years to find. Need another LNIB, so the hunt continues.

The other was a 1st gen Colt SAA that was near mint. Gave that one away to a close friend that was deeply in lust over it. That one will be impossible to replace.

He treasured it so much he couldn't leave it home when he went to work. It got stolen. What a loss.

If you do let some go, think long and hard about it if it is an out of production item.

It stings to read this post because when something like that happens, its so easy to loose yourself too. Sorry about the loss of your daughter. God bless you and your family.
 
In 2009 I was literally down to 2 guns---not counting my two sentimental guns a Sheridan air rifle I was given when I was 9 and a single shot .22 my grandfather bought for me when I was 6. Those 2 guns were a 10/22 and a Ruger P95(still have them)---everything else was sold off for medical bills and general financial problems.

Fast forward to today, where I'm thinking about getting rid of most of my cheaper guns to fund a higher end shotgun or rifle due to the safe being full and all the extras are winding up in closets or behind bedroom doors---sort of an upgrade in quality and to make room in the safe for a more manageable collection.

Sure I regret some of the ones I've got rid of but I'm also happy with what I have--so it all kind of works out.
 
It sounds like you are not really ready to downsize your firearm collection. If your heart is not in a place to sell them, then you should probably keep them.
 
I think long and hard about buying a particular gun because for years I didn't have much spare cash. I also think long and hard about parting with one because if I bought it, I wanted it, and when I have sold some (for good reasons at the time) I regretted it later, even if the reasons were good. I have inherited some guns, that had no sentimental value, that I didn't care for and they went down the road with no regrets.
 
I gave my old patrol partner a couple of rifles, an uncle a M-1, another relative a Rem 11 when I left San Franciscograd. Gave my sterling silver Transit Operator Badge to a collector friend.
 
I down sized my collection of rifles a few years after I stopped hunting, but the handgun portion of my collection grew. No regrets, I wasn't using them any more.
 
If I don’t have a use for or interest in a particular firearm, and a close friend or family member doesn’t want it, I sell it off with no second guessing.
I understand some people are sentimental, but not me. I have a box about 10” square were I keep everything ‘sentimental’ I’ve collected over a lifetime.
The sudden loss of a child, two grandchildren and my wife/life partner/best friend of 24 years puts things in perspective. My sentiment now is “Lay up things in Heaven” and leave behind a legacy of honesty and integrity. Anything beyond that is in vain.
 
The analogy that I use. 38 years ago when I married my wife I promised to love and keep her until death. I've kept that promise.

I like the analogy. However I said I do and my wife said I boo. But that's a story about humor. Like, you, I wouldn't loose my wife for anything. As for firearms, I don't have any that I wouldn't trade or sell. When my son was born, I had a HK93 and a Model of 1917. I sold them both to help out with the family. Now, years later I can afford to have a few sitting around collecting dust. I plan on giving a few more away rather than selling. Gave my son a Ruger GSR and a Hungarian Nagant. My friend of many years an A300. Have a 6.5 Creedmoor Rifle that I will give my son in law when he becomes one.
 
I downsized quite a bit when I inherited all of my fathers collection after his death. I'm ATTEMPTING to just keep those firearms which either I shoot or which have a family/sentimental value. I did successfully get rid of about 15 pistols and rifles but now am at the point where there are some which are on the borderline so those take a little more consideration. There are about 8 of them which are basically inestimable due to their history. So I've got some work to do!
 
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