Are you a collector or a shooter?

[PATH]

I thought all shooters were collectors!

I take all my firearms to the range during the course of a year.
Between sessions I take them out and clean and oil them and rub them down. Sometimes I just hold them. My wife thinks I love my guns too much. I really do love them you know.

Whether I am on the range or at home I love my firearms.

DAL, who was that strange person you were talking to at the beginning of this thread. Reminds me of Sybil or the Three Faces of Eve!

 

[Greg L]

Well, my first thought was to answer "yes", however after realizing that the govt sent me a piece of paper last year (C&R) I now can answer that I am a federaly licensed collector.

Greg

 

[Larry Ashcraft]

BOTH...

I shoot a little IPSC, and I hunt, and I'm going to try a "Battle of the Bulge" match in a couple weeks so I can use my Garand and .30 Carbine. I also keep a couple rifles around to shoot at coyotes and I like to go to the range and burn up ammo. So, yes, I'm a shooter.

I also have guns I haven't had time to shoot and I never may have. I have 7 .22 pistols, 4 of them inherited and I don't know how many .22 rifles, some of them inherited. I'll never sell them, but I may never shoot them either.

Why do I keep them? Because I CAN.

 

[Chris Rhines]

I'm a shooter. I have very little interest in collecting. Guns I don't shoot get sold or traded.

- Chris

 

[Kframe]

Little bit of both.
I have an as-NIB (no box though) S&W M1917, absolutely perfect; have never shot it, prolly never will.

I don't like the looks of dirty stainless, so after shooting my M617, or M640 or any of the others, I like to clean them up to as new looking as possible. I tell ya, I takes plenty of time and elbow grease to get rid of any trace of burn rings at the cylinder face.... so, I actually have been shooting my blued guns more lately.

This is MN, and it is VERY cold this week (-33F windchill) and so the outdoor range is out of the question.
So, the only guns I'm shooting lately are the handguns unless I decide to put the .22 conversion in the AR, but that's not much fun given that the range is 25yds max.

So, some guns I'm trying to keep cherry, some that just end up that way, and some that I just can't shoot right now like the centerfire rifles.

I'd bet that most of us fall in the middle somewhere like that.
-Kframe

 

[Smoke]

I'm a shooter. I won't own a gun I won't shoot.

But, once a gun gets in my aresenal its pretty hard for me to get rid off it. I've only sold 3 or 4 guns in my life. But I will shoot any of them even if I don't do it very often.

Is that clear? I think I might be confused now.

 

[larryw]

I collect shooters; if I don't shoot it, it doesn't belong in my collection and I have no qualms selling it. I do have a couple guns that I haven't shot in a while, but that's only because others have been getting more attention.

 

[RCL]

I collect shootin guns!

 

[Archie]

Fence sitter.

Like 444, and Kframe and Smoke and RCL.

I'm primarily a shooter. I shoot in all sorts of disciplines, none very well, but I'm having fun.

I own some guns because they are classy old pieces. I have a 1923 Savage Sportster in .32 WCF. It's a neat piece of history and I do shoot it. Not a whole lot, but I shoot it.

Yes, I've sold gun off before. I miss most of them, and regret having parted with them. A couple were sold from boredom; several, (including a real Beretta BM-59) from poverty. I regret not having them now.

Does that make sense? Only from the inside.

 

[HS/LD]

Definitely a shooter first.

The fact that I need to collect guns in order to shoot them is the only way I consider myself a collector.

HS/LD

 

[BerettaNut92]

Shooter first. Started turning into collector now going back to shooter.

 

[Soap]

Shooter. But later on in life I might collect historical arms, double rifles, and tactical toys.

 

[Dave R]

Ditto. Shooter. If I ever get some more disposable income, I'll become a collector.

 

[Country Boy]

I'm in the process of morphing from a shooter to a collector. Not that I'll be shooting any less, but I'll have a bit more variety, and quite a bit more history. I've applied for my Curio and Relic Collectors license, and I really want a Swiss Schmidt-Rubin K31. It's an off the wall design that shoots an expensive cartridge. Why do I want one? 'Cause it's really cool. Do I want a lot of guns that I'm too scared to shoot? Not really, I want to feel free to run a few cartridges through them from time to time. But are they all gonna be shot each time I go to the range? Nope.

Anyhow, thought I'd chime in as a collector in training.

 

[*8*]

I'd say, both collector and shooter..

 

[gryphon]

shooter, although if I get anymore guns, then I think that I will be classified as a collector anyway.

 

[tlhelmer]

Shooter!

 

[kalibear45]

I shoot my collection

 

[MessedUpMike]

I'm a shooter, I can't afford many guns so the one I have I'm gonna shoot. No point in spending what little money I have for gun and just looking at them (same reason I stay out of go-go bars). When I'm independently wealththy I'll collect, until then they all get shot.

DAL speaking of collections, one of the voices in my head advises me I have some MOA inhibiting drugs you can have the he assurse me I don't need to take anymore. When I do take them it's hard to hear it.

 

[4v50 Gary]

Neither. A collector carefully builds a collection looking for specific guns of certain quality. A shooter shoots. OK, I shoot & buy guns. I think I fall into the tasteless hoarder category.

 

[Tamara]

Are you a collector or a shooter?

I was unaware the two were mutually exclusive.

No, I don't shoot my Martini-Henry or Schmidt-Rubin or my Arisaka a lot. I don't plan on taking any of them to Gunsite. I don't practice speed reloads with them or any of that other tactical garbage.

I have other rifles that I do practice that tactical garbage with, however.

I don't have a spare magazine for that Mauser HSc, which makes it a pretty sorry carry gun. But then, I never intend to carry it or use it for anything other than sitting in a gun case and looking pretty, which does not require a spare magazine to do. Heck, I haven't even shot it.

Owning that pistol does not make me any less effective with the serious pistols that I shoot and practice with all the time, however.

 

[Freedspeak]

Collector or shooter

Yes!

Don't get to shoot as much as I would like, but trying to buy a bit of property to have my own range., have some older pieces that don't see much use, and some that were bought to irk the anti's (makes them worthwhile to me!).

With some of the odd ones it is fun with the reloading.

 

[DeltaElite]

Are you a collector or a shooter?

Yes

I have a few collectors guns, but my guns are primarily for shooting and self defense.

 

[Pappy John]

I must be a shooter, because all my guns that would have had any collector interest are now buried under new bluing, scope mounts, and composite stocks. It cost me a lot of money to loose all that value.

 

[MountainPeak]

Both, because I seem to go in cycles of what I enjoy shooting. I will go on long sprees where I like my revolvers, then 1911's or rifles. I always mix it up some, but seem to gravitate towards majority shooting of one or the other. If I don't shoot several guns for years and then shoot them often for 6 months, am I a collector or shooter? I do own some firearms that I do not intend to ever shoot, but have duplicates that I do. I have bought firearms at gun shows with the intention of not firing them for investment purposes. Some of these same guns were fired off of some side country road before I ever made it home!