Are you a collector or a shooter?

[DAL]

Do you have guns that haven't seen the light of day for months or years? I do, and after giving it some serious consideration, I am selling off the ones I don't get around to using, and getting to know the ones I keep better.

This is probably heresy to most people, and I would fully expect to be burned at the stake for such thoughts if I expressed them at a gun show. But think about it--how many guns can we really learn well given a finite amount of personal/range time? Unlike the idle rich, I have to work for a living, do household chores and other mundane tasks, and budget my time. Isn't it better, although not as exciting as planning to buy that next new shining wonder, to learn to handle and shoot well 3 or 4 guns (pistol, rifle, and shotgun) than to have a 21-gun safe filled to the brim?

Of course it is. I didn't really post this to because I am unsure of the correctness of the words above. What I'm interested in is if people disagree with what I've written and why.

BTW, I wonder how many collectors are really top, or even competent, shooters. If I had spent only half of the money I have spent on guns on training instead, I'd be sitting pretty. Isn't it a pity that hindsight is 20/20?

Well, this is the year I begin to remedy my training deficit. Come **** () or highwater, I am going to a shooting school this year, even if I have to sell half of my guns to do it. How about you?
DAL

 

[DAL]

(I will now answer myself, since no one else has, as a different person.

WOW! What a really great question! I don't think I've ever heard such originality in all my years of surfing. How, exactly, did you come up with this particular query? You certainly have a knack for starting probing, insightful conversation. It really just doesn't get any better than this!

You're crazy if you think having only a few guns is better. I have multiple safes full of guns, guns, and more guns. You can't have too many guns. Have only 3 or 4 guns indeed! What are you, some kind of anti? By buying as many guns as I can go into debt for, I am supporting the gun industry and the U.S. Constitution. Sure, maybe I'm not as proficient with them as I'd like to be, but as soon as I find the time, I'm going to wring out everything possible from each and every one. You just see if I don't. Yup, and then I'll go to Thunder Ranch, and then to Gun Site, and then to Ayoob's LFI, and then to...
DAL('s alter ego)

 

[DAL]

One more time...(at least)

Oh, ha, ha. You are SO funny. What, was that last post by "DAL('s alter ego)" supposed to be humorous? It wasn't. Leave the humor to comedians, you moron, and stick to guns. Look, if no one wants to reply to your stupid topic, then get over it, okay? Better yet, why don't you go clean a gun or something and get away from the keyboard? Man, I've seen some real nerds over the years on the 'Net, but you take first prize.
(the objective)DAL

 

[DAL]

I'm back

Hey, now that's enough out of all of you! If this silliness doesn't stop immediately, I'm going to notify the proprietor of this fine establishment.
(self-appointed do-gooder mode)DAL

 

[GD]

It is good to know how to assemble, disassemble, clean, and shoot a large variety of firearms. It is even better to be able to use very well a small select subset of that collection. I think the education a lot of us collectors get from purchasing a variety of firearms equips us then to select a few that we want to become experts at.

 

[SteyrAUG]

BOTH.

I have a couple guns that I have never fired, for example a 800,00 serial number mint, never fired pre Pearl Harbor Springfield M1 Garand. I try and limit the number of "white elephants" in my collection cause it sucks to have a really expensive one you can never shoot. However, I remember that I am just the current caretaker of these weapons and they belong to the generations after me. I learned that from collecting pre Meiji Japanese swords. I have some truly wonderful ones that are in the condition they are because for 100s of years people took care of them and thought about the next owner.

I have guns that I don't shoot too much because ammo or parts are scarce. Hard to find ammo for my WWII Nambu and Arisakas. I'm rarely shoot my first year Colt 1911 cause it is a original gun. My Luftwaffe drilling is in really good condition and too valuable for me to shoot very often. I have a "few" prebans who were barely imported before they were banned and parts are expensive and hard to find.

Then I have my other guns. My MP5s get LOTS of time at the range. So do my FALs, HK91s and AR15s. I take very good care of them, but I shoot the hell out of them. I try and have a few dedicated "grunt" guns. These are guns that get heavy use and nicks and dings are to be expected.

Of my primary grunt guns:

1. MP5
2. DSA FAL
3. AR15
4. AK47
5. Rem 700 PSS
6. Rem 870

 

[M1911]

Yes

 

[cratz2]

Well, I don't get to shoot as often as I'd like but I don't have many guns that I have no interest in shooting. I've figured out that I don't seem to be a big fan of semi auto rifles prefering bolt actions in general. No doubt I have redundancies. I probably have about 10 pretty nice bolt actions, 4 mil surp bolt actions, 2 shotguns, about 10 pistols and maybe 6 revolvers. If I got rid of all of them, I could probably replace them with about 10 guns total and be just about as happy with my collection as I am now.

Hrm...
high quality 22 bolt rifle
carry weight in 257 Roberts AI
heavy varmint/target rifle in 243
bench rest rifle in 6.5-284
lever action in 30-30 with receiver sight
12 gauge pump shotgun
heavy target 22 revolver or pistol
fairly customized recreational 1911
fairly customized carry 1911
4" 357 revolver

I'd be pretty happy with that. Maybe throw in a 45-70 lever action and/or a heavy 223.

 

[Gewehr98]

Umm, SteyrAug...

If Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7, 1941, and your M1 Garand has an 800,000 serial number range - it would have been built sometime in August of 1942. Not exactly pre-Pearl Harbor. Caught my attention because one of my M1 Garands has a 669,05x serial number, and I knew it came off the Springfield assembly line in June of 1942.

(From the WWII Garand serial number website:http://www.jouster.com/serial/Springfield.html)


My collection gets fired on a routine basis. If I don't shoot it, it gets sold. Even my 1912 Steyr-Hahn pistol, and 1918 DWM Luger get taken to the range every now and then. The more obsolete it is, the more fun I have making ammo to feed it.

 

[Hkmp5sd]

I'm a collector that likes to shoot. Some guns get shot (much) more than others. With the number of guns I own, there are some that do not get shot every year, but they will cycle through the range eventually.

And my Garand's birthday was May, '43.

 

[SteyrAUG]

Gewehr98, just referrence my Scott Duff book and your right. Then I realized I was thinking of my brothers Gas Trap that was pre Pearl Harbor but his is not mint.

 

[Gewehr98]

MMMMmmmmm!

Gas Trap!

That, and a Rod Bayonet '03 would put me in Collector's Heaven!

 

[Sisco]

The only thing I have that closely resembles a collector is a Inland carbine I got from my dad, but it's a shooter & a keeper.
When I get the urge for a new gun I sometimes look in the safe and see what's gathering dust. If I decide I want the new one more than I do the dusty one and funds are short I'll sell or trade.
Been sorry I did a couple of times but came out for the better mostly.

 

[444]

Both for me also. I don't see why you can't do both ? I have a fairly decent collection of guns. Some of them have never been fired by me. Some I might shoot once a year or once every couple years. That doesn't detract from them in any way to me. I enjoy owning them. I enjoy taking them out of the safe and looking at them. I enjoy reading a thread about one of them on here and then taking it out to see what they are talking about. I also sometimes read a thread about a gun and think to myself, hey I ought to take mine out and renew our aquaintance. If I sold it just because I hadn't shot it for a couple months, I couldn't do that........................... I don't sell guns, I buy guns. I HAVE sold guns and regret selling each and every one of them. Some of them I will never replace because at this time it isn't a high enough priority item to me. But I would still like to own them, and knowing I once had them makes it worse. Who knows what the future will bring for us. I may never be able to ever replace them again, but I have another paycheck coming in two days. For now, I can make more money, so selling them to buy something else isn't really an issue for me. And they certainly arn't eating anything so I don't need to get "rid" of them. I have never understood the concept of getting "rid" of guns. Some people act like they are a burden or a disease that they must rid themselves of. I also own hunting guns that I pretty much only shoot during hunting season. If I get drawn for a deer tag or an elk tag, I take out my deer or elk rifle, re-check my zero, shoot a few hundred rounds from field positions for practice, hunt with it, clean it, and it stays in the safe for another year or two.

On the other hand, I probably shoot more than most people. I have a few guns that I shoot a lot. For example, right now I am on an AR15 kick. I shoot one of my AR15s at least once and usually twice a week. My Ruger GP-100 gets shot a lot. My Winchester 94/22 gets shot a lot. My Colt 1911 gets shot a lot.

My Garand's birthday was sometime last year. I bouight one of the "new" Springfield Armory Garands. Oh, and it is unfired. In fact, the day I bought it I was going on vacation. I called a friend and asked him if he could keep it for me while I was gone because I didn't want to take the time to rearrange my safe to get it in there. I never picked it up from him yet. That was at least six months ago and probably closer to a year.

 

[AR-10]

The first three posts completely freaked me out, so I will just address the question in the title.

Shooter...and accumulator.

DAL, you may want to consider professional help. If you're already in therapy, spend more.

 

[Standing Wolf]

I'm most emphatically a shooter, not a collector. I don't know where they all came from. They just kind'a showed up, you know? I mean, it's not like things are getting downright crowded around here, you understand. It's just that...

 

[Monte Harrison]

You have to be wealthy (or at least have no family) to be a collector. I'm just a gun guy.

 

[DAL]

I don't see why you can't do both ?

I don't see HOW you can do both. With my commitements (family, mostly), I am lucky if I can get to the range once every two weeks, if that. Sure, dry-firing helps, but it's not a complete substitute for live fire. At best, it helps keep your edge, but if you've never built an edge with a particular weapon, then what's to keep? If I had the time and a nearby facility then maybe I could learn to operate a multitude of guns well. But with limited time, dealing with a small handful of firearms is the best I can do. If you can do better, my hat's off to you.
DAL

 

[DAL]

The man of many minds has returned.

DAL, this is just a shot in the dark, but did you have a lot of pretend friends as a kid?

To (self-appointed do-gooder)DAL: Mind your own darn business, okay? That's what we have moderators for on this forum. It's people like you, people who think it's their God-given duty to stick their noses in other people's business without any real cause or justification, that have helped bring about the all-invasive government we live under today. Sure, you may have other kindred do-gooder souls on this forum, but that doesn't make your behavior right. If you want to be a moderator, ask. Otherwise, go deal with your own life and clean out your own closet before you even think about telling others how they should act, you uptight, self-rightous, pompous, odoriferous pile of garbage.
(the analytical) DAL

 

[ChristopherG]

DAL, thanks for a creative thread--once you wrested it away from those first couple of freaks!

I hafta admit I share your feelings. For me, a 'collection' means basically a range of guns that will allow me to do everything I can foresee reasonably wanting to do, without taking over my house or life. That means a couple of auto handguns (well, a 9, a 45, and a 22); a 4" .357; a snub; an 870 with a couple barrels; and a couple of centerfire rifles yet to be determined (a lever and a bolt, to be sure).

I can understand the urge to HAVE lots of other neat guns; but for me, 90% of the satisfaction of such pieces can be got just from seeing them, reading about them, understanding their historical and technological siginificance, without the hastle of being the one who has to keep them from rusting .

'Course, folks with more militant interests and paranoi...uh, sympathies may feel the need to have whole other categories in a basic, function-oriented collection.

CG

 

[10-Ring]

Well, I shoot all my guns on a regular basis. Lately, I see some really like pieces...things I see that would be to just have & one that might actually fun to shoot. But, I have my gun hobby & my son's music habit to feed so I just can't be as frivilous w/ the $$ as I used to be.

 

[ZekeLuvs1911]

I tend to be both but lean towards collecting. I do have 2 guns that I haven't shot yet but just give me some time.... I have a .357 Colt Python in BSTS 6" that I haven't used and believe it or not, a 22 cal. Ruger Mark II. Don't ask why....

 

[Citadel99]

I'd be both but don't presently have the monetary means to buy the collectables that I wouldn't shoot. So, for the time being, I'm a shooter aspiring to be a shooter and collector.

Mark

 

[foghornl]

Every thing in my cabinet is a shooter. I don't have any "mint collectibles", so not really an issue for me. There are some that don't get shot as much as others, though.

 

[terlingua]

Yes.