Does My Firearm Collection Strategy Make Sense?

[*NOVA*]

I started collecting back in 2011. My acquisition strategy evolved over the past four years.

One rule I follow is that I do not sell a gun unless I simply do not like it or shoot it and has no recognized collection value. Learned that lesson the hard way! My first gun was a S&W Model 10 LEO trade in in near perfect condition. I traded it, plus extra cash, for a Glock at an LGS and regretted it ever since. Bought it for around $250.00 and have not been able to find another for that price. Yes, I realize there are other revolvers out there chambered in 357 magnum and my Model 10 was for 38 special only - still I really miss that gun. :banghead:

My son will inherit all of my collection. Last year I got laid off right before going on a planned vacation. I sold an AR-15 because I needed the money. My son was disappointed since that was his favorite. So my next rule is not to sell anything unless he's OK with it.

Strategy/Philosophy -
1. Obtain at least two platforms for every common caliber.
2. Obtain different types of platforms for different uses and become proficient in the use of each.
3. The firearm must have a practical application; either range toy, hunting, home defense or self defense. Range toys meaning I practice often with them.
4. It would be nice to have at least one firearm made by all the major manufacturers.

So, based on the above, here's what I have and what I'd like to get next:

22LR - Have - Savage Model 64.
Want to get a Ruger 10/22.

7mm Rem Mag - Have a Sako FinnBear Deluxe (AIII)
Want to get (uncertain) a Winchester or Browning?.

9mm - Have a KelTec Sub2K and a CZ75 BD Police.

10mm - Have a Colt Delta Elite and a Glock 29SF.

30-06 - Have a Remington 700 BDL and a Savage Axis.

308 - Want to get a Springfield M1 SOCOM, but what else?

357/38 - Have a S&W 686 and Ruger GP100.

44 Magnum - Have a Ruger Super Redhawk
Want to get a lever action Henry Big Boy, I have no lever actions.

45ACP - Have a SW 1911TRS and a Ruger SR1911.

12 Gauge - Have a Mossberg 500, with a rifled slug barrel and an 18" barrel.
Want get a Remington 870.

What do y'all think? Any major flaw in my approach, in your opinion?

I figure a cowboy action lever gun has both hunting and home defense capabilities and they look like they are fun to shoot, but Henry's are pricey.
What other lever action would you suggest, if any?

 

[xxleafybugxx]

Personally, I don't see the need for 2 platforms in each caliber. I'm all for having guns, and having a lot, but my personal experience has been that when my collection gets to a certain point, some guns Start feeling neglected. I would save some $$ on the gun purchases, and invest more in ammo

 

[the Real Alpo]

What's a platform?

People keep coming up with new terms. Is a platform a manufacturer? Kinda sounds like it. Got a Mossberg pump 12, and want a Remington pump 12. Got a Smith 357 revolver, and a Ruger 357 revolver.

I, personally, see no sense in that. If a gun strikes your fancy, and you can afford to buy it, get it. If it's a Smith 44, and you already have a Smith 44, who cares. Have two Smith 44s.

But buying multiple manufacturers just so you can have multiple manufacturers?

I buy because I want it. I don't worry about how much it is costing me - if I can afford to buy it - and I certainly don't worry about what it might sell for, somewhere down the line. That sounds more like someone that is investing in guns, as opposed to someone that is collecting, or accumulating guns.

If you wish to have at least two 308s, then I'd suggest a bolt for the second one. I'd even go so far as to suggest another Remington 700. Since you already have one in aught-six, you have muscle memory on how to work it. You would not need to learn how to operate a new gun.

I would not get a Henry, for a couple of reasons. First, I think they are ugly as hell. Second, I dislike their advertising. They lie. They have since they came into existence. They say they are the original Henry Rifle Company, from 1860, which is a lie. They said, when they first came out with the Big Boy, that it was SASS-legal, which was a lie. It is now, but was not then.

Look for a used 44 lever. Marlin, if you want to scope it. But get one from before Remington bought Marlin. They are better. Rossi if you want a really nice-handling gun, but get one from before Taurus bought Rossi. They are MUCH better.

What do you consider the "major manufacturers"? I have guns made by 60 different makers, from American Derringer to Zastava. I'm not sure if I've got all the "major manufacturers".

 

[ku4hx]

Your strategy's fine; nothing wrong with it at all. All sorts of people buy all sorts of things for all sorts of reasons and your reasoning is perfect for you.

We buy a particular gun because we like the gun for one reason or another; that's true for everything. Pretty much my only criteria is I can handload for it or can get the dies and such to do so. My wife likes semi automatics with black polymer frames and stainless steel slides. We both like the BHP. I have always liked big bore revolvers and small bore rifles.

Buy what you like; nobody to satisfy but yourself.

 

[ColtPythonElite]

It's your money, buy what you want.

 

[*NOVA*]

"What's a platform?"

Sorry about that. Being an ex-Navy Avionics technician, back in the day we called an F-14 Tomcat a weapons platform. You are right to point out I should not introduce an unfamiliar term like that.

Also, I appreciate the feedback from everyone, but I suppose I could explain the two guns per caliber idea is real simple - if one gun breaks, I have a back-up. In the case of the 30-06's, one is better in the woods while the other is handled with care.

Major Manufacturers - well I can see for myself that is open to debate and as I think more about, HighPoint is a major manufacturer but I have no desire to purchase anything made by them, so let's just forget I mentioned that, OK?

Collection vs investment? Another good point. I reckon I am thinking of it as an investment because I want most of my guns to be of good quality and reputation. What my son inherits should have value.

Tried my darndest to get the Ruger SR1911 actually manufactured in 2011, but I wound up with one built in 2012. At least it is the same model. I want the Ruger 10/22 50th Anniversary edition for the same reasons. I'm betting that the year they were made will add value AND, God forbid my son needs to sell it, other collectors will appreciate it more
for being a 100 year or 50 anniversary edition.

Thanks again everyone for your replies, opinions and comments. Looking forward to reading more - what is your rationale for your collection?

 

[SwaneeSR]

Nova -

You seem real fired up. Your strategy is your own. I would follow the "best in breed" approach and not worry about every manufacturer.

My approach, since I was bored on an airplane, was to make a top ten list - " 10 Firearms Everyone Should Own". I have many "working" firearms, but not a 1911, Colt Single Action, M1 Garand, ect.

Next I inventoried what I already owned each each department, Shotgun, Rifle, Pistol. Eventually I recorded all the serial numbers and even photographed what I own.

Next I figured out my gaps based on what I like to do. Next on my list is an Over/Under shotgun for shooting clays. However, I have seen amazingly low prices on AR's lately and one or two of those are in my future. Sometimes you need to adjust the plan.

I have a set budget for my hobbies and I balance firearm purchases, hunting, and handloading purchases.

Note - you should consider handloading, the only thing more fun than shooting is filling the brass back up.

Good luck - Swanee

 

[TBH]

I buy and sell firearms so I can find what I like and want to keep. I would be more inclined to have fewer firearms but of better quality. I don't know what type of shooting you and your son like, so my comments are what I like.

I'm a Sig fan. Flocks are amazing reliable. But shooting a Sig beside one is day and night. I have a "X-5 L-1" that is too heavy to conceal carry, but anyone that handles and shoots it falls in love! Had a guy that couldn't keep most of his shots in a pie plate at 15 yds with a P226, but shot a 3" group with my X-5. He asked what's the differance? My comment, $1500.

308? I have a model 700 PSS. Very accurate. I have friend with a 14 year old daughter who can hit steel off a bench at 600 yds. That's a confidence builder!
Same with a 10-22. Match barrel lots of fun out to 200yds.

Last, you're missing a long range small cal rifle. 22-250? You can now get a faster twist barrel to shoot 69&77 g bullets if you reload, 800-1000yds? My next purchase.

Hope I helped

 

[Bigdog57]

The term 'platform' is perfectly correct for firearms. The AR and AK are 'platforms', no matter who built them. Some use the term, some don't. Being ex-military (USAF and USN) I use it.
I began 'collecting' (more accurately accumulating) around the mid 90's. My 60 or so guns run the gamut of types, manufactures and calibers, some cheapos, some expensive, most between the two. I get what I like. Sometimes I sell one that I tire of or just wanted to check out for awhile, like the TC Contender I had for only a few months - got curious about it, tried it, found it wasn't rally my "cup o' joe" and sent it on down the line.
I do have multiples of some milsurps. Mosins, Mausers and Enfields. Seven different Mossberg .22s, six different Remington .22s, etc.
So my 'collection changes with time. I DO NOT 'collect' for resale value or investment.

 

[GBExpat]

Does My Firearm Collection Strategy Make Sense?

If it makes sense to you, it makes sense.

My "Collection Strategy" was more about accumulation and finding good deals on items that interested me at the time (especially if a ready supply of extremely cheap milsurp ammo was available).


"Strategy? Strategy? I don' need no steen-king Strategy"

 

[Normandy]

My collection started out as "a handgun and a rifle from every country that participated in WWII". I found myself with WAY too many guns, and most of them were punishing to shoot. I thinned the herd after that, and have expanded into modern handguns, and a few rifles.
I have discovered the joy of shooting higher quality (but not ridiculous) .22LR rifles, like the Marlin 39A and vintage Winchesters. And recently I have gotten interested in revolvers, especially .357 magnums that I can shoot .38 Special ammo in.

Your tastes might change over time also. The fun part of gun collecting is to discover what you really enjoy, and what you don't (but thought you would). I thought that Star semi-auto pistols would be fun. I don't enjoy shooting them, so they were traded/sold so I could find something I DID enjoy shooting.

And, no two collections are the same. Different strokes for different folks.

 

[bannockburn]

*NOVA*

I guess the only firearms aquistion strategy I have ever had was the same as my stock market strategy: Buy low, Sell high. Other than that I buy guns that I like to shoot, sometimes more than one of the same kind. I dont get them as investments or as collectibles, though over time they typically end up being just that. Buy what you want, shoot what you like.

 

[VThillman]

Strategy? You have a strategy?

My only strategy, if that's what it is: If I see a gun that I didn't know I wanted until I saw it, I make some sort of attempt (often feeble) at examining my resources for the rest of the current month before carrying it away.

Just a month ago I saw a customized Remington rolling block in .22 Hornet - an arrangement that had never entered my mind. I pondered for three whole days.

That probably takes care of the .22 Hornet platform for me. Unless...

 

[cat_IT_guy]

Its certainly up to you, and I think theres no bad guns on your list. That said, some seem redundant to me. For ex the 12ga.... Moss 500 and Rem 870 are both great guns.... but I dont really see the point of wanting both, unless you really just like the variety. Just my $.02. Do what YOU want, so long as you enjoy it.

 

[AlexanderA]

Each collector has his/her own collecting philosophy. Who am I, then, to tell you what to collect?

That said, a proper collection should have some unifying theme. For example, guns of a particular manufacturer (Colts, Winchesters, etc.), guns from a particular era (Civil War, the Old West, WW2, etc.), or guns for a particular use (U.S. military, law enforcement, etc.). Focus, specialize, and become expert in a particular field.

It's a mistake to just accumulate guns at random, according to your whims of the moment. As your knowledge grows, you'll find that you're getting rid of a lot of these, probably at a financial loss.

Some wise person once said that for every gun you add to your collection (at least at the outset), you should get a book dealing with that gun. I'm not sure how valid that still is, with the explosion of information on the Internet. But the point is that first and foremost you need to educate yourself.

 

[kimberkid]

If it makes sense to you, it makes sense.

"Strategy? Strategy? I don' need no steen-king Strategy"

That's kinda where I'm at ... My grandson is the only one that has any real interest in guns; he lives out of state. My daughter married a guy with a checkered past, he seems to be "OK" but with a felony conviction he doesn't have 2A rights so there are no guns in the house.

So I just buy what I want ... Now that I'm older and better established I've been buying guns I wish I hadn't passed on or traded off "back in the day" as well as some of the new stuff coming out ... For instance i traded off a HK-91 for a Tavor & a little cash and got a CMMG dedicated 22 PDW upper for my M-16 ... The Tavor doesn't handle as well as my AUG but it's ok and the 22 PDW is as much fun as my SiG 522 SBR ... even more fun when it runs in f/a .... making it reliable is the trick and something I'm still working with CMMG ON.

 

[Tony50ae]

I guess I don't have a collection, it would be more of an accumulation. I buy guns not based on a particular theme but more of a type. For example, I have two revolvers, one is a S&W K66 in 357. The other is a Ruger Vaquero in 357. One is a double action, the other is a single action. I wanted one of each type. I have a shotgun because I wanted at least one but my other guns are either all rifles or handguns. I like the OP's idea of two guns in each caliber. I have some like that and like he said, if one gun goes down, you have another gun in that caliber. Its been said a gun is useless without ammo, but ammo is also useless without a gun for it.

 

[MachIVshooter]

If it makes sense to you, it makes sense.

My "Collection Strategy" was more about accumulation and finding good deals on items that interested me at the time (especially if a ready supply of extremely cheap milsurp ammo was available).


"Strategy? Strategy? I don' need no steen-king Strategy"

My thoughts exactly.

The only universal requirement of a collection is that it contain multiple items that are categorically the same. Stamps, baseball cards, rocks, dolls, spoons, cars, tractors, model trains, guns, whatever.

 

[*NOVA*]

Nova -
...you should consider handloading, the only thing more fun than shooting is filling the brass back up. Good luck - Swanee

I do reload! 10mm and 30-06 for now, will try others later.

 

[JFrame]

IMHO -- nothing wrong with the "strategy" or the collection as it now stands, and is headed...

FWIW -- I would be tickled pink to inherit such a collection...

.

 

[barnbwt]

I've approached it from an engineering angle which has (thankfully) restricted the sheer number of items in my pursuit. At least one of each general action type or innovation, as according to my discretion, with unlimited room for any gun I find "iconic" or suitably "obscure." My current focus is on semi-autos, since they have historically shown more diversity than manual actions (simply because the global arms industry really took off right before the 20th century, when autoloaders came into their own).

-Manual action
--Bolt action
---Straight pull (M95, K31, one day a Lee Navy or Ross)
---Turn bolt (turn bolts bore me since my 700SPS is so accurate, but I'll eventually pick up a VZ24 or Swedish M95, probably make an Obrez for the "Mosin slot", an Enfield or Springfield if they aren't stupidly overpriced even more than they are now, and either a MAS 36 or Madsen M47)
--Rolling Block (I have a 7mm Remington, but a Spencer repro would be cool)
--Tilting Block (I plan to build a little 22LR bicycle rifle, but I'd love a Martini-Peabody, and failing that a Martini-Henry)
--Falling Block (Sharps' are too big/clunky, I'd want something svelter)
--Lever Action (got to get a nice 1886 in 45-70 or 50AK one of these days, and a 357 & 22LR of some stripe would be pleasant as well. A Savage 99 or Winchester 88 would be pleasing, too, for a non toggle-link variation)
--Slide/pump action (Ithaca M37, but nice pump rifle & 870 would be nice)
--Muzzle Loader
---Wheel lock
---Match lock (a repro of one of those funky Japanese ones would be nice)
---Percussion (Howdah, obviously)
---Flint Lock (a historically-memorable repro musket w/ quality barrel)
-Autoloading gas operated, long & short stroke
--Rotating bolt (AK, AR15, AR18, AR70, FNAR/BAR, FND/BAR, F2000)
--Tilting bolt
---Rear tilting bolt (FN49, FAL, SKS, BREN, VZ37)
---Side tilting bolt (Goryunov)
---Front titling bolt (VZ52, VZ58, UK59<best gun ever designed>)
--Falling block (none made, so far...)
-Autoloading recoil operated
--Long Recoil (Browning shotguns, GM6 Lynx <I can dream>)
--Short Recoil (Browning pistols, Browning machineguns, MG42, M82,
-Autoloading blowback
--Delayed blowback (G3, STGW57, MP5, Reisling, FAMAS if we ever get kits)
--Straight blowback (Uzi, CZ26, VZ61, PM63, Swedish K, Suomi, PPSH, etc.)
--Hesitation lock (R51, Model 51, and hopefully my 1911-conversion)

Oh yeah, and don't sell anything unless you actively hate it

Seems like an insanely long list (and it is, I guess), but compared to the task of trying to assemble every variation of some subset of guns like Colt's or S&W's, it seems far more limited in my view. Except for the fact that, unlike a set of production guns, firearms innovation is always progressing, so there will always be more to add to the list, even if I have to make/reproduce them myself (can't do that for a "historical" collection). And since each of these dozens of action types was made by at least a half dozen nations at some point in history, it is easy to diversify within them to explore how various players approached these design problems. "Firearms Genealogy Museum" would be a fun name for my approach

TCB

 

[*NOVA*]

... a proper collection should have some unifying theme. For example, guns of a particular manufacturer (Colts, Winchesters, etc.), guns from a particular era (Civil War, the Old West, WW2, etc.), or guns for a particular use (U.S. military, law enforcement, etc.). Focus, specialize, and become expert in a particular field...

I've read lots of good replies, but I liked yours in particular because I think you nailed it. A collection with a unifying theme! I admit I don't have one yet. Now you got me thinking how much I like my Sako rifle made in Finland and how I'd love to have a collection of Sako and Tikka bolt action rifles. They have a history, are extremely accurate, beautifully made, valuable and fun to shoot!

 

[Neo-Luddite]

At least two in each caliber--I'll go one better and say twin weapons are my own personal strategy--two of each. The logic of common spares parts and common mags/other extra/optics/ect. makes good economic sense. But as you are doing, two weapons to eat each kind of ammo is a solid plan.

 

[buck460XVR]

It's your firearm collection and your strategy. Only needs to make sense to you. Like your strategy, I owns firearms for a purpose.....i.e., range/hunting/SD/HD. That said I don't put a "needed" minimum number on calibers or platforms. I know what I like and I buy and shoot those. Period. That's why the majority of my firearms are revolvers in Magnum calibers. So are the majority of my rifles. Cheap and easy to reload for. My sons have their own tastes and buy what they want, altho they too will inherit my collection. They already know who gets what and are happy with it.

 

[Agsalaska]

Well, I do things completely different. I could care less about multiple options in popular calibers and don't need a practical purpose for any of them. I guess I do have a couple of options for the only real purposes I have for guns(hunting, SD, Plinking) but beyond that my purchasing is completely random.

I dont even have a need to shoot them. In fact I have probably not shot 90% of the guns I own and have absolutely no plans too. Some are good collectors but others are not. I just don't shoot them.

But, generally speaking, if I see a wood stocked bolt, lever, or falling block rifle, a nice shotgun, or a nice revolver, in good condition and a good price, I will usually buy it. Especially if it is in an odd or obsolete caliber.