Are you primarily a collector, shooter or both?

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The last couple of years I have definitely accumulated more parts than I even have time to turn into more ARs. For when the inevitable comes and I must help my fellow similar thinking neighbors.

I have also acquired a number of bolt action chassis rifles. Because you never know when you will need to take that 1 mile cold shot.

Plus a number of full size 1911s for which I have developed a fondness. For when you need to blow the lungs, liver AND heart plumb out of the body according to Brandon.
 
I'm an "accumulator", and becoming a "cleaner" and "handler."

I buy guns to shoot, and typically buy the ammo needed to do just that, but opportunities to shoot them come up more rarely these days than I acquire them, so I have dozens that have yet to be shot. That needs to change soon, somehow.
 
I have been adding stuff over the past 5 years at a healthy rate. I have a few guns I was gifted and haven’t shot, and a few others I have bought that I have yet to shoot as well.

By the end of this year I will retire (Hopefully!) and then I will have more time to shoot. And to tinker. And to clean. And to reload…just so I can do it all over again. :)

Stay safe.
 
I buy guns to shoot. If I buy it then it gets shot no matter what it is. I no longer sell any guns. If I buy it I keep it. Every gun I have sold I regretted.

3C
 
It must go bang. But that doesn't make me a shooter. To call my collection 'Eclectic ' would assign far too much orginization or thought. I'm a mix breed. Some sort of 'Mutt' in the shooting world.

Some haven't been shot yet but only because I haven't tinkered them into shooting condition. 20 years old or 200 years old, they have to shoot. And yes, one is 226 years old and I shoot it. It took 2 years of tinkering to put that one in shooting condition.


I collect shooters.

That seems to fit me.
 
Like many I collect, I tinker, I sometimes buy problems, cheap, to fix them. I like when they function correctly.
I also shoot, and hunt.
Setting up for retirement (and with kids looking over the shoulder, working out who gets what).
Setting up to reload, so I can afford to shoot, in retirement, and tinker!
 
I used to be a collector, especially of the old .303 war clubs, but now I'm an occasional shooter. Just not much time...
 
Shooter, and reloader. I cannot think of the last time I’ve sold anything, but I’m not opposed to it. Everything I have has been shot and used. Some more than others. Nothing is highly collectible, just a bunch or stuff I thought I liked at one time.

Jeff
 
With my latest pair of rifles, PTR-91s, I shoot either one of them pretty often.

As they are roller-delayed Blowbacks in .308 (gas pressure is Not inside a separate system :scrutiny:)

I'm mostly a Cleaner of Rifle Internals. Your time cleaning can almost equal the time spent shooting.
 
Reloader, then a shooter, so I can be collector or empty brass, so I can then be a reloader again.
Just makes my day when I go to the range and find some non-loader has shot 800 rnds of 5.56 and 500 rnds of 9mm and leaves it on the ground in one area earlier in the day. Sometimes I find 50 or 100 45 LColt. Still shiny and new looking. It's like ....JACKPOT.
 
It seems as time goes on and after moving to another state last year. I do more collecting than shooting. I know Covid had a lot to do with it but also, I am not able to just walk out back and shoot like i did on my previous property and have to find places to shoot. Sometimes I wonder if i am still as enthusiastic as i was before about shooting, although i love to, it takes a lot more effort to shoot these days. Ammo has never been an issue as i was hoarding for decades when on sale cheap, I dont think i will ever run out, lol.

I have not read the other replies yet, but wanted to respond to your post.

I am lucky enough to walk out my back door and I can shoot anything I own or even think about owning.....not sure on that great deal on a 20mm, but cross that bridge when and if I ever get there.

Just this year I am starting to "do" again, been in pain for so long, so many surgeries, I just felt like doing nothing....NOTHING. Finally now just this year I am doing again, and there is just so much to do....all the way around not just playing with gunz.

Shooting, some things still hurt, actually hurt. So I really don't shoot much "big" stuff anymore, once in a blue moon. I really do love reloading, and load development, however you know the rule, never shoot anyone else reloads, so I don't even want friends shooting my reloads, so I do most of the center fire rifle from a lead sled. I really want to play the long range games, and think the weight of the rifle, as well as the fairly soft shooting 6-ish mm cartridges in that game would allow me to play, I have shot others and while I am not gong to be hauling that heavy rifle all over the place just laying there prone and shooting I could do without much issue....those heavy pigs do eat up recoil pretty well.

As to ammo right there with you, I have stuff I loaded up in 2016 that I am just now shooting, as well as an over flowing 40mm ammo box of rimfire....I think I am set.

One game I did play was the different clay games, and I liked a bit heaver 20g shotgun. I did play a few rounds with an auto 5 16 and it really is not that bad....I could do a round of sporting clays....I felt it but I had fun doing it.

I will from time to time just grab something that has not seen love in...YEARS....and not shoot it but take it down, clean it up, cycle it a time or two, and just look and enjoy it.
 
I'm an enthusiast.
I have guns that I have bought primarily to shoot.
I have guns that I have bought because they are historic and interesting.
I have guns that I bought because I thought that they were good investment.
I even have guns that I bought (or picked up) because they just happened to be in front of me at the right time,
I have my little enthusiasms... .
 
I'm in a unique category. I have a collection of suppressors for research purposes. The research requires that I use them and X-ray them.
I am a shooter when it comes to my rifles, but the suppressors are for research.
 
I have a few toys that I like to shoot. I enjoy reloading for each toy that I have and spend time at the range. It seems that I need to start downsizing and let a few toys go that the kids and grandkids do not want. I do not have a collection, I have a menagerie. All sorts of misfits and some that actually fit together well like pistols with lever actions of the same caliber, etc.
 
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