CoRoMo
Member
Many.
Let me elaborate on this sentence and clarify my post 71. I think you are 100% correct that the best way to preserve history is to live it. Couldn't agree more. I remember being a kid and staring at my grandpas Luger he brought home. We didn't shoot it, but it live in the sense that he let me see it every time I went to his house. But the reason we never went and shot it is because it was in 99% condition. My grandpa was smart enough to preserve it.(He took it off an old officer after Hitler died that was hiding under some hay. He was not a combat officer and was probably happy my grandpa was a GI and not a commi. Unfortunately, in 1994, my grandpa was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. The gun disappeared and we think he sold it.)I regularly shoot a myriad of rifles dating back to the 1860's. Just don't try to get nuts with your pressures. They are a real hoot and many of the odd-balls really get the attention of the younger shooters. They are amazed at the size of the cartridges as well as the length and weight of these rifles they have not only never seen ... they've never even heard of them.
That's the duty of we who own old firearms ... show 'em and when you can, shoot 'em. Living history always makes a bigger impression on people.
... my sole purpose in the gun world is to preserve good examples of different firearms.
I have a .32 S&W Safety Hammerless 1st model, circa 1890, blued (much rarer than nickel) in very nearly perfect condition. The stampings/patent marks are clear, the finish is good, the case hardening is still colored, the bore is beautiful, the front sight is bright and shiny just like it should be, the action is perfect. Lots of fun to shoot.
What do you consider an antique? What year? Ambiguous to sat the least.
I could take one of my Commission '88 rifles, swap in a 16.1" barrel chambered for .40S&W, replace the bolt with a heavy blowback number (machining and tig welding the receiver as needed), machine a magazine well to accept Glock magazines, attach some pistol grips, and drop it in the US mail for delivery to someone in another state without breaking any laws
Personally, I think measuring collector value is probably more significant than measuring age. A few years ago someone showed me a Ruger mini 14, built in 1983, with a factory wooden hand-guard (unusual, they switched to plastic fairly early), unfired...not even sighted in. Is it an antique? No. Is there a collector somewhere who is pissed off that we loaded it up and got brass stains on the receiver? Almost certainly. Did doing so entail a risk that the wooden hand-guard would break? Ruger went to plastic guards because the wooden guards were cracking so yes. Did I feel bad about firing the first shot on a nearly 30 year old unfired gun? No, just the opposite.
There are fundamental differences in how people see things. That's why we'll never outgrow war.
(well, maybe old fuff would say it would break an unwritten law against antiquity or something).
Plus when you factor in the time it would waste it can't possibly be economically viable to play the swap game.
Maybe not for you, but it has been for me. I have bought a number of guns by simply using the profits I obtained by playing the "swap game."