Are your guns tools or collectors?

Are guns just tools?

  • Yes

    Votes: 38 23.5%

  • No

    Votes: 11 6.8%

  • Some of each

    Votes: 113 69.8%
  • Total voters
    162
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Our primary income is from agriculture so most of our possessions are tools... With a few notable exceptions. One is a rifle an ancestor bought sometime after the War Between the States. It is a chambered for a rimfire cartridge that probably hasn't been made since the 1800's. Still, holding it is holding history and that is not something to be discarded lightly. Likewise is my Webley revolver, a gift from a departed friend... While a certain unnamed idiot that shall remain my brother will reload ammunition for it on request I simply have no use for a .45... Still I can't look at it and not hear Ian's brogue and his good nature. Last but not least- Gramps' ancient army revolver that my great grandfather "creatively acquired" during WWI. Unfortunately the piece that makes the cylinder turn has broken so it's not safe to fire. Still, it brought my great grandfather home from WWI, my Gramps from WWII, a great uncle from Korea and my uncle from Vietnam. For that alone it has earned it's place in our little armory.
 
I can't say I use my guns on a daily basis, and I survived a large part of my life without owning a single gun, so I can't call them tools. I can count the number of times I've used my guns for a needed purpose on zero fingers. But I live in suburbia. I suppose if I lived in the country that number would go up with killing vermin, but I hope to never use a gun in self-defense.

Sooo....considering the number of guns I have, I can only count them as a collection, and their purpose as a hobby.
 
Reminds me of the movie 'Ronin' when DeNiro's character is asked, what does he prefer weapons' wise, his response "It's a tool, you put it in the toolbox to get the job done."
 
I'm not sure the survey question captures the discussion topic very well, but I answered No because they are not "just" tools to me. I view and admire my guns as machinery, works of craftsmanship, but also as tools in the sense that they have utilitarian purposes for which they are very well suited. If they were just tools to me, I wouldn't need more than a few guns because I could do everything I need to do with only a few.

For example, I may have two different bolt action rifles in the same caliber, same scope on each, one is a full stock and one is a traditional stock. If they were just tools, there would be no reason for me to have both of them. I have numerous examples like this. A CZ 75 and a Browning Hi-Power. If those were just tools, why would I need both?
 
I6turbo said:
For example, I may have two different bolt action rifles in the same caliber, same scope on each, one is a full stock and one is a more traditional stock. If they were just tools, there would be no reason for me to have both of them. I have numerous examples like this. A CZ 75 and a Browning Hi-Power. If those were just tools, why would I need both?
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While in construction I had maybe 8 or more Estwing hammers. Coupla claw hammers and 4 framing hammers, some with smooth faces, some with milled. Had a couple of English style and a coupla light, leather handled trim hammers. More you use tools, the more you realize find you like different ones for different purposes, even if those purposes are very slight. If one goes out in the shed today and looks, I probably have 10" and 12" carbide saw blades with various teeth numbers and grinds. Each one does the same thing, but slightly different. The guy who uses a miter saw one weekend a year won't know the difference, but use one 5 days a week for decades, and you realize, there really is a difference....and while that difference is slight, the product or what they do can be greatly different. Then, you got to have a backup or two in case your favorite breaks down or "walks away".
 
buck460XVR said:
While in construction I had maybe 8 or more Estwing hammers. Coupla claw hammers and 4 framing hammers, some with smooth faces, some with milled. Had a couple of English style and a coupla light, leather handled trim hammers. More you use tools, the more you realize find you like different ones for different purposes, even if those purposes are very slight. If one goes out in the shed today and looks, I probably have 10" and 12" carbide saw blades with various teeth numbers and grinds. Each one does the same thing, but slightly different. The guy who uses a miter saw one weekend a year won't know the difference, but use one 5 days a week for decades, and you realize, there really is a difference....and while that difference is slight, the product or what they do can be greatly different. Then, you got to have a backup or two in case your favorite breaks down or "walks away".
Click to expand...
So true in reference to tools that do the same thing but difference in quality or construction having a great impact on how it does the job. The carpenters always make fun of our (electricians) hammers because we buy whatever home cheapo brand and they have nice titanium stilettos or estwings. We only really hammer staples and nail up boxes and other tasks, but we make fun of their cheapo $6 husky pliers while we use $40 Klein linemans pliers, etc... the tools may look similar but they are very different in terms of quality and how they do the job. Kind of the way a Taurus striker fired will send a bullet at the same speed as a nice high end 1911 but feel very differently doing it, and the Taurus probably isn't up to the same hard use and pounding longevity wise that a higher quality gun is....
 
The only things I collect are experiences and knowledge. Firearms are tools to me, but interesting ones worthy of building a hobby around.
 
I suppose I should have checked "some of both" option. I see them as tools, but I guess it's also sort of a collection and if I'm being straight up it's also a hobby, although for some reason it pains me to refer to it as that and I'll probably never call it a hobby again. It's weird, like ceding ground or something by referring to it as a hobby. It's probably not the right word, interest or pursuit may be more appropriate.
 
DustyGmt said:
I suppose I should have checked "some of both" option. I see them as tools, but I guess it's also sort of a collection and if I'm being straight up it's also a hobby, although for some reason it pains me to refer to it as that and I'll probably never call it a hobby again. It's weird, like ceding ground or something by referring to it as a hobby. It's probably not the right word, interest or pursuit may be more appropriate.
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Ok, let’s for the moment assume shooting is a hobby. Then the gun is a tool that makes the hobby possible.
 
I shoot my guns, hunt with them, carry them. I did vote some of each but really nothing I have is without use. 3C
 
When, after i broke a 1 7/8" wrench, I dropped it on my boss's desk, I told him that if he was going to buy my tools, buy tools that would not kill me. I got new tools. Working as a mechanic for the govt sucks, because the tools go through committee.

My guns may be be collectors. My use of them is not as tools. I respect them and take great pride in them, much as I do my own tools. And while my tool box isn't big enough, 2 safes aren't big enough either. Both guns and tools are clean, cared for.

It's in between for me, though.
 
It is kind of in between for me. I use tools to make my living as a Sheet Metal Worker. Snips, screwdrivers, hammers, tongs, wrenches, etc. The stuff I use at work I am not particularly attached to. I am aware that when I use stuff at work it usually winds up getting lost or destroyed at some point. I accept it.
While I view my guns as tools I also do have somewhat of a sentimental attachment to them. I have a few that don't get shot much for one reason or another. The pistol I carry for self defense gets shot the most followed by any other pistol I might be vetting to carry.
Most of the other stuff I have while not particularly collectible I do like & enjoy. I just don't get to shoot them as often. Pretty much everything I have will be or has been shot by me.
 
Mostly shooters/tools, but a few that might be considered 'collectibles.' That said, I'm going to shoot them, too.
 
kind of an odball. The majority of my interest goes with firearms that are abused, broken, or never manufactured properly. Then working through all the issues to turn them into propper and decent firearms. Kind of like building a car from a kit or doing restorations. Once in a while I buy nice stuff out of the box if I really like the design.
 
Some people might be surprised at how well a firearm, even one that is used regularly in less than favorable conditions over time, can keep its good looks with a little care and regular upkeep. My Browning Double Auto shotgun is one example: I bought it new in 1961 and have hunted with it extensively over the past several decades, in duck blinds, grouse/woodcock coverts, squirrel woods, rabbit trails, pheasant cornfields and even for whitetails in cedar swamps and, forgiving some small dings and loss of bluing in spots, the gun still looks pretty darn nice. Yes, if I fall I'm mindful to take the brunt of the impact instead of the gun and, no, I don't use the butt stock to hold a barbwire fence down to make crossing it easier. You can ride a gun hard but you can't put them away wet.
 
SwampWolf said:
no, I don't use the butt stock to hold a barbwire fence down to make crossing it easier.
Click to expand...
Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! That reminded me of the many times during my youth when I used the rubber recoil pad of my shotgun's butt stock to hold a single-strand (sometimes barbwire) electric fence down while I stepped over it. It never happened, but I had nightmares of the electric wire slipping loose just as I stepped over.:eek:
Oh, and don't worry - I took both rounds out of my shotgun before I used it to hold down a fence.;)
 
I like guns so I have a number of them that objectively do nothing better than others I own, and which I strictly speaking have zero need for, but which give me a great deal of enjoyment to contemplate. I guess this makes me a collector. But I also have guns I shoot, and I buy, to shoot. And I deliberately try to buy guns that aren’t in perfect shape, so I can shoot them and use them and not worry too much.
 
Like many some of my guns are shooters/tools and some are collectors. I do get annoyed though when I do something that damages the finish. Not that it happens a lot, but it inevitably happens once in a great while.
 
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