Are you a shooter or collector?

I used to be a shooter far more than a collector. However, since the days of being able to just "drive out of town" and plink away have gone by the wayside, I have been acquiring firearms more frequently than I have had the opportunity to shoot them.

Every firearm I've acquired, though, has been so with the intention of being shot. It's just that many have not yet been, even some I've had for two years or so.

I consider myself a shooter with a little bit of a collector streak. As far as the debate sometimes engaged in about the validity of owning something just for the sake of owning it, I have no room to comment. I own books so old they cannot be read without risking damage, paintings that serve no purpose other than looking at them and my son and I play with trains in the basement. No "practical" value but I like it.

I claim to be a collector, but in truth I am an accumulator. I add things to the pile... (there are some nice things in the pile)

Definitely a shooter or maybe more specifically a user I have guns I use for hunting and I have guns I use for CC. The last category would be caretaker as I have a few of Dad's guns that I'm holding for my children when I pass.

I understand the desire to have a collection of a specific type of "thing," whether it's coins, stamps, guns, etc.

I have no desire to collect something merely for the sake of finding it and possessing it.

I buy guns that I want to shoot. I don't think of my guns as a collection because they have no specific feature, manufacturer, time period of manufacturer, historic link, etc.

They're simply available for me to use when I want to shoot them, so I guess that puts me in the "shooter" category.

Both.

Deaf

I guess I could be considered a collector in the sense that I prefer to purchase different style firearms, but a shooter in the sense that if I purchase a gun I intend to shoot it, and some firearms I purchased that I wound up not enjoying to shoot as much as others were sold or traded.

For example, I think it's awesome when someone takes one specific caliber and then amasses a collection of firearms chambered in that caliber that yield an entirely different user experience. Like having a bolt-action scoped .22 rifle designed for serious precision, a cheap single-shot .22 rifle with iron sights, a semi-automatic .22 rifle, an AR-based .22 platform, an automatic .22 (if one is so lucky enough to find one), a semi-automatic .22 H-bar/long barreled target pistol, a .22 SA/DA revolver, a .22 SA-only revolver, and a .22 semi-automatic compact pistol.

It's perhaps worth noting that a reason I think that is awesome is related to how my own mind works in a screwy way of taking something similar and pursuing different outcomes. Like some days I get a kick to cook a chicken or a fish, but making several different dishes at the same time to use the same chicken in different ways.

Are you a shooter or collector?

Would it be OK to be both?

Jim

I want to think of myself as a shooter but I have too many guns that I rarely shoot and just a few that I shoot regularly. I guess that makes me a collector, I guess. *barf*

Definitely a shooter. Not that I get out shooting every weekend, but every gun I own has a specific role to fill and gets shot regularly. There are no spare guns or backup guns that fill the same role as another; no safe queens.

In all fairness, that's easy because I own far fewer than many of you probably do. So I'm not exactly bragging haha. All that said, my next purchase will be the one that fills the last legitimate "role." It's a weird feeling.

Would it be OK to be both?

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I hope so because that's what I am.

In my view most antiques shouldn't be fired because of the risk of damaging or destroying something that's once gone may not be replaceable. The out-of-sight and increasing prices have an affect too.

On the other hand more modern pieces made during the 20th century and later that have been fired previously can still be used without any serious reduction in value, and are often a lot of fun. Those that have not been may be another matter. Discretion is advised.

I guess I'm both. I buy different guns to serve different purposes, but rarely shoot more than 3 or 4 my guns. The others are there if I want to shoot them, but mostly they don't go to the range.

I shoot them all. Antiques and modern with appropriate loads and maintenance. Definitely not a collector.

I haven't been doing nearly as much shooting as before or would like to, but I'd say I'm more of a shooter that accumulates good values that satisfy my wants/needs.

None of them are what 'I' would consider 'collectables' in the traditional sense. I don't buy them for that reason.

I'm definitely in the collector camp. I literally haven't been shooting in years, yet the collection keeps growing and growing.

I appreciate the guns for their own sake, and for their historical and investment significance.

I'm sort of both.

I COLLECT S&W revolvers from the 1910s - 1930s - and 1903 Colts

I ACCUMULATE and SHOOT a bunch of other stuff - old and modern

Are you a shooter or collector?

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Both, but with a tendency towards 1860s-1960s designs, mostly in walnut and blued steel. With two exceptions, a CZ 527 Carbine and a Ruger Gunsite Scout rifle (psuedo-Mausers!), anything in my safe that I find interesting was designed and made in that 100 year span...

When a 50-lb box from MidwayUSA arrives tomorrow evening, I'll become a reloader, too.

Boy! howdy.

I'm a shooter and an accumulator. I don't have a specific area of interest and I have several different types of firearm with very little duplication.

I want to collect and own some different guns, but I would want to shoot those guns then. Having very nice collectable guns that I can't shoot would drive me crazy so I will remain a shooter and not a collector

Collector. I like sporting clays, so each shotgun gets taken out a couple times a year. The rest get checked for rust and re-lubed. The're lucky to get shot once a year

I try to shoot everything I own as often as I can (fairly easy to do since I only own 11 firearms currently). I wouldn't want to tie funds up in guns I'd never shoot.

Both. They aren't mutually exclusive.

Shooter, though nowhere near as much of one as i wish. There is maybe one "collector grade" firearm in my safe, a Freedom Arms 83 Premier Grade. Beyond that all others are seriously short on pretty and very long on ruggedness & functionality.

Shooter. If a gun doesn't get used it gets sold to make room for one that will be.

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