Consolidating the gun collection.

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DrDremel

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I have been thinking lately about trimming down the gun collection. Two safes as big as my refrigerator and they are getting tight. I have some guns that I shoot a lot, and others that I have never fired, and others that haven't been to the range in years. Should I sell them and just shoot more with the ones I use a lot. I don;t shoot any 9mm semi-auto carbines since I got a subgun, I don;t shoot the 7mm mausers cause I don't have much brass and the guns are too nice to take to the range all the time. I shoot the FAL, Daewoos, Subgun, 1919a4 Browning, AKs, Rem 700, .22s and handguns a lot, the mausers, lever guns, and others just don't get used. I am thinking that getting rid of a few calibers would be good as well. I have 17 calibers to feed and it seems like I am always stocking up on whatever caliber is on sale or coming into the country. I can get the count down to about 30 guns. It would mean more shooting time, less cleaning of all the guns, and less time reloading. Does anybody else feel this way sometimes?
 
I hear you. I've dropped to 9mm, 7.62X39, .357, 12 guage, and .308. I don't count the .22's, because I have enough to last until my kids are old. My only oddball is a single .25 that I inherited from my grandfather and hardly ever shoot anyway. I've been trying to thin the herd for a while, and it's hard to do when I keep seeing guns I've never had.

Although, I may be adding the .223 soon, If/when the AW ban dies.
 
I know the feeling. But the actual number of guns doesn't bother me as much as having too many different ammo calibers. I have several guns in .308, .223, .22, .45, .40 and 12 gauge. I can't part with them. Of course there is the M1 in .30/06 which I can't get rid of...and my great-grandfather's black powder .50 that ain't leaving. Oh well. Could be worse!
 
"Does anybody else feel this way sometimes?"

Yes. Over the years I have picked up nice guns that people needed to sell because of divorce, disability, etc.

Recently I realized I had guns I hadn't fired for over a decade--I had enjoyed them once but now they were just taking up space. I've been thinning the collection, and keeping my favorites.

Some tastes and preferences change, and some don't. My first love was accurate long-range magnum revolvers. The new S&W 500 makes me feel 14 again. I'm tooling up to load and shoot .500 in quantity. Some AR-15s and revolvers I don't shoot are being sold to pay for this.

One great thing about guns: You can enjoy them for years and when you want somthing else, you get your money back and still get to keep the memories.

JR
 
I'm with HK5, I have sold guns in the past and regreted it every time (well, except for one Ruger). Never sell another, unless my finances really go down the tubes, but if that happens my guns will probably be the least of my worries, and no one else will have the $$ to buy 'em. If nothing else, they will be here for my sons when I'm worm food.
 
I have owned a grand total of six guns in my short gun owning life (bought my first only 3 years ago). Half of those have been sold. I regret getting rid of any of them. Now, at the time it was either keep the guns and go hungry for the week or sell them and be able to eat. With a pregnant wife at the time, food won. So althought it was a good cause, it is something that I wish I could have avoided.
 
At the risk of deserved jabs from Tamara, Dr., I have been doing the same thing for about a year. When I was young and foolish, I wanted one of everything and darn near achieved it.

Now that I am older and foolish, I asked myself what do I use my guns for? I am not a recreational shooter, target shooter, hunter, or plinker. I have guns in order to fight.

Toward that end, I narrowed it to several categories, primary pistol, bug, shotgun, carbine, and rifle. I then purchased several copies of the same weapon. Keeps logistics and number of gunkuens down. They are just tools and less is more.

I always keep in mind the "no favorite weapon" advice and attempt train on other firearms as well. E.g. I've attended a revolver class but do not carry one.
 
I do know how you feel.
It has taken me quite a few years and quite a few purchases to finally come upon a gun that fits me well and shoots well too. The process left a lot of 'not ideal' guns which I didn't shoot as well and are a lot harder to clean than my favorite P99. They just took up safe space and I've sold a few off already. I also had a Colt HBAR sitting collecting dust and I sold that too.

I am limiting myself to the 'big 6 calibers' .22, 9mm, .45ACP, .223, .308, and 12 G

Otis makes a Law enforcement kit that cleans all the above calibers!!!

I also live in Canada so excess guns means excess registrations and responsibilities re. safe storage etc,etc.

I don't regret selling my old guns since I never shot them as well as the ones I do now.

My philosophy: find what works, pick up a few 'spares' and lots of mags.
 
I've been collecting and shooting guns for 39 years. I've sold exactly 3 guns in my entire life. I regret letting them go. Some day I might rent a few tables at a show and thin the collection, but I don't believe it will be soon. I'm afraid a buyer might give me my price and then I'd have to fight him for my gun!:D
 
First consider another safe.

However, if you're getting up there in years, consider how you want to dispose of your collection. Any relatives worthy of receiving some? Any friends (me! me! me!)? Any museum? Is it worthwhile to leave it to your spouse (if any) to sell via a reputable dealer? If no to all of the above for any gun in particularp, then go ahead and sell it now and use the money for something else (house insurance, car insurance, more bullets, whatever).

Just my suggestion FWIW.
 
I have owned hundreds of firearms, but I have just gotten to the point that I know I will never them all. I know what works, what I like, what I dislike, and what i never end up shooting. I don't need more safes, I need less calibers. Less diversity at the range and more practice with a core collection.
 
I say sell them. I'm not a collector myself. I buy guns with one purpose: to shoot things. I rarely go to a range. I spend my spare time in a pasture shooting at varmints. I hunt during season and the rest of the year I shoot prairie dogs, coyotes and maybe a rabbit or 2 here and there. That's not to say that I only have one gun, I go out with one of my 3 varminters and just have fun. I'm always trading and selling to get something else. Only one of my guns would never be for sale, but the rest are here on borrowed time :)
Have fun!
Tommy
 
I have a core favorite section in my collection that will always stay with me. Others that were bought or traded for that don't make the core section goes back on the market to fund the next gun wanted. Over the years that has allowed me to get better quality guns that I may not have been able to afford at that time. Once I did regret selling a particular handgun, but that was to a friend who was to resell it back to me (instead it was sold for a tidy profit), but that taught me a lil lesson. :banghead:
 
I have sold guns and regretted it; I have sold guns and never looked back.

The difference is whether I liked the gun or not. If you look at any one gun in the safe and ask yourself "Do I like this gun?" Not "Do I shoot it?"

IF you don't like it and don't shoot it, get rid of it and buy yourself one you do like and will shoot, or use the money to feed the others left in the safe.

El Tejon makes a lot of sense. Not just for self defense shooters but for gamers as well. The better you know your weapon the better you will perform. If you shoot lots of platforms you are more likely to hesitate.

I only shoot 1911 style handguns. I only train defensively with 870 shotguns (Although I LOVE all shotguns).

Take your time in thinning your collection. Make certain of your choices and don't look back.
 
Consolidating?

Not so much that, as I've thought about "focusing".

I know I like 1911's and S&W wheelguns, so what's up with all these Rugers and SIGs and Berettas and such that I've accumulated? I know that I like old milsurp rifles, so how have I wound up with more FBPP's than you can shake a stick at?

I really could be happy with my HK91 and a shorty AR, and plow the money from all the others into more milsurps. Turn the Rugers into S&W's and the SIGs and Berettas and such into 1911's. Heck, the Beretta AR70 by itself could satisfy my jones for a pre-ban shorty AR and a Delta Elite.

This is what happens when one has a sudden attack of fiscal responsibility, I guess... ;)
 
Guy phones the store one day in a big panic.
"I have to sell all my guns." he says.
"What for?" says me.
"The wife says its her or the guns."
"Can't sell her. It's illegal. Maybe in the Middle East." I said.
Anyway, the guy shows up with a bunch of guns he had bought from us, including the documented very last C1A1 ever made.
DR, you seem to be confused about the difference between collecting and shooting. Different things altogether. And you can do both. What does it matter if you don't regularly shoot one fiream or another? Who cares? They're your big kid toys. What'll your kids think of you selling off their inheritance? Keep 'em for the sake of the children. (See there is away of using that line in a positive light.)
 
I would say, if you have to ask if you sell your guns, that you probably shouldn't. Wait until you KNOW what you want to do. Anytime I have done something like that without have a clear idea in my head why I was doing it, I regreted it. If you have a gun that you want to get rid of, sell or trade it but don't sell guns that you like.
 
Hkmp5sd,

It ain't so much that, as that, well, I've had my fun with the Beretta. I'd probably happily trade it for another equally useless longarm. Two possibilities at this past weekend's show were a .308 Valmet sporting a Galil folding stock and a semiauto 1919A6; the owner of the former wanted cash, and my Beretta didn't sell (slow show), and the latter didn't have the boot to make up the difference between his $1,500 gun and my $2,000 gun, and I didn't feel like taking a bath.




Side Note: What the "I've owned twelve guns and never sold a one of 'em" crowd doesn't get about the "I've owned a few hunnert guns" crowd is that sometimes you buy one just to play with; just to say "Yeah, I've had one of those" and then, after a few months and a few hundred rounds, you turn it into something else you want to toy with. ;) An example: I was offered a deal a few months back on three S&W 624's (3", 4", and 6"), all LNIB. I knew I wasn't going to keep all three, but I wasn't sure which one I wanted, and the prices were better if I bought all three together. I knew I could figure out which one I wanted to keep, and let the other two go as trading fodder for stuff I didn't have. I wound up keeping the 3" gun, and the 4" and 6" guns wound up turning into a 2" 64-4, a 442, and some cash. Everybody's happy. ;)
 
In this age, consider it more a re-structuring ;) If by "re-structuring" you end up w/ more guns you will use or more $$ to buy ammo or range time to shoot the guns you use, why not?
 
About Tamara's Side note: There are also people that own several "hunnerts" and still don't sell. Then you can say you DO own one. I seem to go in cycles. I may shoot revolvers for a while, then semi-autos, then rifles. I might have one of my safes open, see a firearm I haven't used for some time and remember I liked it. I cycle it to the front of the safe for a time. I have a good friend that has a large collection too. He is constantly buying, selling or trading. I seem to just buy.:D I have given away quite a few firearms over the years, but have sold exactly 3. I give firearms as presents to friends and family members. My 9 year old grand daughter has 9 guns, 8 of them came out of my collection. If she keeps active in shooting I'll probably give most of mine to her. Maybe she will want to sell some. I don't have any desire to. To each his/her own!
 
MountainPeak,

To me, horse-trading is half the fun, and my funds aren't exactly unlimited.

If I want some other $2,000 preban to tinker with, I'll need to sell one of the ones that's sitting around gathering cobwebs. Simple economic fact. When I mention it, there'll be two Stock Internet Gun Forum Responses: A)"Don't ever sell guns!" and B)"Every time I've sold a gun, I've regretted it!" The answers to both are: A)"I sold 'em for a living for so many years that I probably just don't have the same kind of attachment to 'em that you do." and B)"I've sold so many that I can't even remember what they all were. If I really regret one out of twenty, it's a miracle."

As far as giving guns away, I rarely do that, but I've been frequently known to make some pretty favorable trades to friends, as well as those "Well, you got a hunnerd bucks?" kind of sales. :cool:
 
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