Are guns your passion?

I’m passionate about the ladies! Outdoor of course, hiking with guns and yoga pants!

I have to say that it used to be. I have tried to get back to the passionate point I was at. However, Life has changed.

I used to really enjoy going hunting with friends. However, as I have mentioned in the past, I moved to Kansas and there is no real hunting here. Even if there was, the hunting was mostly spending time with friends, and they are not here. The second is that the range here closed, which pretty well ended my target shooting. The next closest place is a dump range that is about forty-five miles away. Even backyard air gun shooting is prohibited. As it stands, my gun safe is locked and I would have to look for the combo. I have one pistol that isn't in it.

Passion would be a good word for it. My wife likes to use the word obsession, or occasionally autism-like focus. When I really enjoy a hobby, I tend to jump into it headlong. That used to be golf when I was younger, then softball (and the equipment involved) for awhile, then it's been shooting/firearms for the last 10 years or so. So far, it's had more staying power than the others. It helps that my father-in-law and brother-in-law also shoot. Before I got into it they mainly just hunted, but I've rubbed off a bit and they both have gotten more into non-hunting shooting as well.

I guess I am the oddball here. I like firearms and I do enjoy shooting just about every weekend but I don't consider myself passionate. If firearms were outlawed tomorrow I would just grab my pool cue and play pool every Saturday afternoon instead of heading to the shooting range.

I would say there was a period where I was very consumed by shooting, reloading, bullet casting, acquiring and trading guns. I retired in 2017 and I always expected once I did I would spend even more time doing gun stuff, but the reality has been quite different. I have no idea what’s happening to me but I’m gradually losing interest and am starting to sell off several of the ones I rarely shoot and all the ones I bought telling myself they were investments.

It’s something I never would have predicted. I’m increasingly spending more of my disposable income on experiences rather than things, and there really aren’t many experiences you can have with guns besides hunting. One of these days I’m going to attend a shooting school, but just about the time I got serious about it Covid shut them all down.

So to answer the question, I’m a lot less obsessed about guns than I was a decade ago.

Hasaf said:

I have to say that it used to be. I have tried to get back to the passionate point I was at. However, Life has changed.

I used to really enjoy going hunting with friends. However, as I have mentioned in the past, I moved to Kansas and there is no real hunting here. Even if there was, the hunting was mostly spending time with friends, and they are not here. The second is that the range here closed, which pretty well ended my target shooting. The next closest place is a dump range that is about forty-five miles away. Even backyard air gun shooting is prohibited. As it stands, my gun safe is locked and I would have to look for the combo. I have one pistol that isn't in it.

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That doesn't sound like life has changed, more it has been given up on....
Remember "you don't give up what you love because you get old, you get old because you give up what you love".

If I drive by the gun store, I get sad because I'm passin it ;^)

Yes and no.
Certain types of guns in passionate about, specifically magnum revolvers and big bore lever guns. I own modern designed guns, don't think about them much at all, they're just tools. I spend a good amount of time thinking about , loading, casting and shooting the big bores. I'm just fascinated by the power and recoil of the big stuff. If I had the money you can bet I'd be shooting 700 nitros and 50 bmg, for now I'll settle for 45-70 & 454 casull . I'm a 12 gauge fan too but it's just not the same.

They are one of but many "passions".

I have two hobbies. Firearms and American made "muscle" cars. Preferably a convertible with manual transmission. I go through phases with both. The past few years it was pistol caliber carbines and bull pup type shotguns. I bought, accessorized and then gifted ones to family members, sold them after I lost interest or wanted funds for something else. I have a core group
of firearms that I "probably" will never part with but I never say never if the price is right.

Two months ago I bought a '12 Mustang GT convertible with a six speed manual that I'm tinkering with now. I ordered a Borla exhaust system last week and am looking for a supercharger.

I am passionate about my family and to some extent my two loyal dogs although I believe they're more loyal to my wife than me. I'm also fairly passionate about yelling obscenities at the television/radio anytime I see or hear a "woke" progressive regurgitating their garbage.

Ironicaintit said:

I sure appreciate their utility and they're neat as heck, but I'm not "passionate" about them.

I am, however, passionate about our right to keep them

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This

Oh yes a passion and addiction. My step son said i need to go to guns anonymous.

Not having somewhere of my own to shoot in peace is really sucking all the joy out of it for me here lately. I'm going to work on fixing that.

Paul R Zartman said:

No...View attachment 1075032
But they come in a very close 2nd to my wife.

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I like your closet more than her's unless she has guns in them too.

I find I'm more passionate about reloading than guns, but they are intertwined.

I like guns a lot but I don't have many. To me there are different kinds of gun people. There are hunters, milsurp collectors, those that like semi-auto AR15 type rifles, and then there are the old farts that degress to BP cartridge and then muzzle loaders. Those old coots stand by themselves doing their own thing and like reloaders and handloaders, they are skilled in a special way.

I’d say guns are my passion. My wife would call them an obsession. I like to shoot. I like to chase the “perfect rifle” for every situation. I buy em. I tinker with them. I trade them. I shoot and hunt with them. I carry one every day.

I go through seasons though. I get all fired up about some some type of gun for a while and end up with a bunch of one thing. Most recently that was Ruger No. 1s. I got up to about 20 of them at one point. I think I’m down to about six of them now. I kept the ones that I liked the most and now I’ve found myself buying and trading for lightweight hunting rifles. I’m sure that will change at some point too. In the mean time, I’ve got to go take a look at a Fierce Carbon Rival tomorrow and see if it follows me home.

I wouldn't say I'm passionate about guns but they are a great hobby for me. I was thinking a while back that guns were probably my first hobby when I was a kid, then I moved on to cars and motorcycles and sound systems and other things (especially girlfriends), and now I'm back with guns being the hobby that I think the most about and spend the most hours enjoying.

CoalCrackerAl said:

Oh yes a passion and addiction. My step son said i need to go to guns anonymous.

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I when to Anonymous once, left and bought a 6-pack. Told myself, wow, those people got real problems.

marksman13 said:

I’d say guns are my passion. My wife would call them an obsession. I like to shoot. I like to chase the “perfect rifle” for every situation. I buy em. I tinker with them. I trade them. I shoot and hunt with them. I carry one every day.

I go through seasons though. I get all fired up about some some type of gun for a while and end up with a bunch of one thing. Most recently that was Ruger No. 1s. I got up to about 20 of them at one point. I think I’m down to about six of them now. I kept the ones that I liked the most and now I’ve found myself buying and trading for lightweight hunting rifles. I’m sure that will change at some point too. In the mean time, I’ve got to go take a look at a Fierce Carbon Rival tomorrow and see if it follows me home.

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You had 20 #1’s RESPECT!

I got 2, 7STW and 45/70 - Looking for a #1 in 12 Gauge

More than likely. I have a good number of them - various types (no ARs, SKSs or AKs or derivatives thereof). I also hand load. Furthermore, I have a (at last count) sixty volume library of firearm books and I do study the history and development of firearms from the development of 'smokeless powder' to more or less now. Actually to about 1980. I don't keep up with current trends much.

I spent a career as a federal lawman and am fairly handy with a handgun. Time has limited me somewhat.

I'm about as rabid about firearms as I am about Christianity. I have a good collection of books on Christianity and the text of the Bible as well. I am not always in accord with orthodoxy or the orthodoxy of the non-orthodox, but I can defend my interpretations and conclusions with scripture and logic. Much like I do with firearms.

I like my guns and have a pretty decent collection---but lately have been upgrading my audio equipment and music collection, which is rivaling my gun collection are far as money spent----have been looking into getting another truck but will wait until the insane prices come back to reality-----wanting to get the motorcycle running again this summer which will take a good chunk of cash also-----not to mention vacation plans and I just bought another fishing rod but that was cheap--but the fishing trips most likely won't be---oh ya, looking to get a traditional recurve bow and all the stuff that goes with that.

So I'm kind of all over the place but I do like my guns.

I'm becoming that 13 year old kid again with all the dreams and passions but with the money to back it up this time.

Cars. I buy guns because I cannot afford to buy cars all the time. Work used to be my passion, but I've retired. I think I am a relic of the mid-20th Century.

I have a passion for guns, almost an obsession, but guns aren't my passion. I enjoy too many different things to get passionate about any one of them, but I suppose firearms are as close as it gets. I only wish I had the money and the space to have as many as I've wanted over the years, but in the last ten years I've managed to accumulate a varied collection of guns I've admired, or thought were cool, or serve a specific purpose I have for owning it.

Like most boys growing up in the '60s I had a passionate interest in cars, sports, airplane/warship/tank models, and guns. Use to take my gun, flying, and model airplane magazines to school with me and keep them inside my textbooks to read while the teacher's went on with their instructions. Our family doctor had his office located right next door to a gun and tackle shop, you know the old timers kind of place with WWI Mausers stacked up inside of an old oak barrel. If your played your cards right it was a simple matter to get Mom to let me go over there to look around for a little while at least.

Once I graduated from high school and got a job, I became interested in hunting as one of my co-worker's family owned some acreage out in country that they kept an old trailer on. We would go out there on the weekend to do some plinking away at paper targets and assorted cans and plastic bottles that we collected. My friend's dad use to make the rounds of the local pawn shops picking up whatever old rifles and shotguns he could get a good deal on. Two of my favorites were a Remington pump action .22 and a very basic looking Ithaca Model 37 20 gauge pump action shotgun with a plain 26" barrel. We would hike all over the place as there were lots of the clear cut lanes for the underground gas lines that had been put in sometime back.

I had so much fun hunting upland game that it made me want to get my own guns so I didn't have to keep borrowing my friend's guns. I immediately bought myself a Ruger 10/22 and a Remington Model 870 12 gauge with an 18" and later a 28" vent rib barrel. Still have the Ruger but parted ways with the Remington some years ago when I needed the cash. After I turned 21 I became more interested in handguns and some of my earlier acquisitions were a Charter Arms Undercover, a Hawes Deputy Marshall .22LR/.22Magnum Single Action revolver, and a Colt Trooper Mk.III .357 Magnum with a 4" barrel. It would still be awhile before I discovered semi-autos but when I did, I went all out, pretty much forsaking revolvers for a long time (well I did dally on occasion with S&W J and K frames and Ruger Six Series Series revolvers during this time too)! But for the most part it was older Colt Governments (when you could find them), Combat Commanders, an HK P7 and P9S, a Browning Hi-Power and BDA 45, a SIG P226, countless Beretta Jetfires, a Model 90 Roma, and a greatly treasured Model 70S.

So I guess guns are a bit of a passion for me. I really do enjoy having them, as well as going shooting with family and friends, adding to the experiences and memories I have of good times spent with them over the years.