Do you feel more sentimental towards metal guns?

Cheers Tark! Illinois used to be in the US and I'm hopeful they'll return to the fold one day.

 

I still drive old antique vehicles made of steel, with rumbling V8's under their hoods.

Maybe that's why I prefer steel and wood pistols.

 

I'm with ya. I've been known to remove the sideplate on some older revolvers just to admire the craftsmanship and skill involved in their creation.

 

I'm not real optimistic about that. Gunwise, Illinois is about in the middle. Black rifles and Hi-cap mags are still OK. The foid card, in actuality, isn't much more than a minor inconvenience and it's good for ten years. Not expensive @ $5. A couple of years back Illinois was forced by the courts to adopt a "shall issue" stance on CCW. The state did adopt some onerous extra restrictions on type 1 FFLs and they lost a few to Iowa.

We can still buy tracers and tannerite so things aren't too bad. Income taxes aren't too high, license plate fees are low ( $104 a year for everything from a Yugo to a Bentley.) and my property taxes will never go up cause' I'm an old geezer. If only we had a decent Football team...

Time for my nappy nap.

 

Sounds like you're not in Chicago so you've got that going for you. We just passed constitutional carry in Alabama and all Illini are welcome

 

I have some J and K frame S&Ws that are just beautiful to look at, and are smooth as butter to operate. And I have a S&W Shield. It's almost as ugly as a Glock. Square, solid, nothing pretty about it. Just a compact handful of reliable firepower. It's the one I carry.

 

Illinois refuses to recognize ANYBODY else's CCW permit. I live 20 miles from the Iowa border. They went constitutional carry a year ago Monday.

 

Every bit as ugly as far as I'm concerned. However, both my wife's S&W Shield and my Glock 19 are, as you wrote, "compact handfuls of reliable firepower."
Besides, if you've seen many of my other posts on THR, you know already that I'm not just about "function over beauty" - to me, "function" IS "beauty" when it comes to guns.

 

I'm attempting to be detached from all material possessions yet I do carry some sentiment for certain objects if they have been with me for a long time. Once you let one go, it becomes easier for the next and so on. Doesn't matter what the composition of them are.

In a past life I used to collect custom knives. I was quite attached because getting to know the maker added value to me. Sadly those makers have passed. Even though their works were still cherished the knife as an object became just that, an object with memories. I didn't need to keep it to retain the memories of the good times with them and at shows. It actually felt good knowing that I was able to pass along their works so that they can be enjoyed.

 

Sentiment, no. But i sure like the looks of this



Versus this



Though i will say i do have more sentiment towards MY metal guns because they were my grandpa's.

 

Being sentimental about a gun or other object is for me about it's history relative to me and/or my family. So, it probably wouldn't have anything to do with the material of construction.

I'm not a fan of polymer guns, though.

 

Steel is real...wood is good...but I do own some Glocks.

 

As time goes by, I've sold off guns that I didn't like - both metal and polymer. Ruger SP101, LC9 and LCP, S&W M34 snub, Sig SP2022 9mm, Glock 17L, 21, 23, and 41, CZ75B, Colt Govt Series80 in stainless. All good guns that I didn't enjoy enough to keep. Kept Ruger 22/45, S&W 637, 686+Pro, Shield9, Glock 19,26, 30, 30SF, 36, CZ 75SA, Colt Series70, Baer SRP, RIA 9mm 1911s, and a host of others. If I enjoy shooting it, I keep it. If not, I don't need it.

 

Sold the Colt and CZ, but kept the RIA and a bunch of Glocks. Clearly a man of good taste.

 

Sentiment should be more about the story, not the book.

My sentimental guns are all wood and blued, because that was all that existed at the time they were acquired by the person who wrote the story that now accompanies them.

 

YES !!!

 

I was never a Glock fan, and my interest in plastic guns went down from there. I tried to like newer plastic guns, but no cigar.

I don't own any...

 

Yes, I love them. I am not saying plastic isn't ok. Personal preference.

 

I only use tupperware to store food in the refrigerator, never wanted a tupperware gun. Tupperware guns seem to be holding up better than the headliner in my old truck. The fabric glued to the foam fell down and could not be glued back up. The headliner foam has deteriorated to the point it has no structural integrity. At least the chicken wire to which the foam was cast on is still good. And that more or less is what I think about plastic guns.

 

I shoot plastic framed, aluminum framed and steel framed guns.
When shooting a 9m.m. or .40 S&W, I prefer guns with an aluminum frame since I find the extra weight makes for steadier shooting. In revolvers, it is almost always steel framed, but about the same weight as the aluminum framed pistols. I usually shoot .38 Special because it is so pleasant, but also shoot .357 magnum on occasion.

However, my off duty carry guns for the last 6 or 7 years have been plastic framed, a GLOCK 42 and SIG 365. They don't rust which is important in FLORIDA and are light enough to conceal in a pocket holster and not print when wearing cargo pants.. They are at least as reliable as any metal framed pistol or revolver I have ever used.

Jim

 

Sentimental? No. I value guns given to me more than ones I just bought, and I value quality metal guns more than plastic ones. But it’s not really sentiment.

 

My personal opinion, on the whole, is that in general the polymer pistols have proven themselves to be very reliable, maybe more reliable than the metal pistols you yearn for.

When I was a kid I had a 1967 mustang. It was a good car for a 16-year-old kid at the time, but I've grown up and now I drive a minivan.

If you like it, keep your metal gun. I got a bunch of them too, far more metal than plastic, but it's unlikely I will buy any new metal guns. The plastic guns are just so much better overall.

 

The only guns I feel sentimentally about are ones I inherited.

 

I'm also sentimental about guns that were gifted to me - like the .45-110 Shilou-Sharps my wife gave me for our 25th wedding anniversary. It's wood and metal of course, but that has nothing to do with my being sentimental about it.
I'm also sentimental about the Browning Auto-5 "Light 12" my brother-in-law gifted me when he contracted macular degeneration and lost his eyesight. It had a broken stock, so I replaced the stock with a synthetic one, and I'll be using the shotgun come pheasant season - just like I have every year since my BIL gave it to me.
Naturally I kinda sentimental about the Model 55 .22 rimfire my mom and dad gave me on my 10th birthday - 64 years ago. It's wood and metal, and that doesn't have anything to do with why I'm sentimental about that gun either.

 

I'm a C&R guy and I much prefer my classics over my modern plastic guns, but the plastic guns work better for certain things like CCW. I appreciate the DESIGN of all of my guns more than the materials they are made of.