Gun owner's progression regarding #of calibers

[RetiredUSNChief]

What I buy (have bought already) isn't necessarily based on caliber, though some choices were. I buy guns for a variety of reasons, some simply because "I've always wanted THAT".

What have I ended up with so far?

Two shotguns (.420 and 12 ga)
Five handguns (.22 WMR, 9mm, .45 Colt, .45 ACP, .380 ACP)
Six rifles (.22 WMR, .22 LR, 5.56/.223)


Will I ever thin these out based on caliber divergence? Not likely. Even if they were all the same caliber, there would likely be a few that I don't shoot as often as others, just as there are today.

There is value, in my opinion, in simply owning any given firearm. They are things of beauty, they're engineering marvels, and even if I never shot some of them again I can still appreciate and enjoy these qualities. Plus whatever memories I may have with them.


In the end, we all make the choices we do on what to buy and what to keep based on our own personal preferences. Hopefully, they're informed preferences, but still...to each his own and who am I to impose my values on another in judgment of their choices?

Certainly, reducing the caliber spread is a valid goal, if that's one's desire.

 

[ku4hx]

Most people I know including myself, just buy guns they like for one reason or another. Generally the caliber is an incidental decision after some point. The guys I usually shoot with tend to buy guns for which they load, but once we have a number in a given caliber, we all tend to look more at different designs, features, styles, more options and such.

In many cases we can't really say why we buy a particular gun other than we wanted it. Toys for big boys sort of thing.

As far as reducing the "caliber spread" ... no way. The more the better. Denying yourself a gun you want because you already have one, or more, in that caliber seems a bit like self flagellation to me.

 

[Tanshanomi]

I am slowly learning the folly of getting guns solely because "I've always wanted THAT." In my experience, they end up as safe queens, and I don't have the resources for an ever-expanding collection of novelties and curios. I am trying to force myself to consider what practical application a weapon will have for me, and NOT buy anything that doesn't fulfill one of those roles so well I would be willing to sell what I currently have.

This chart is how I mentally break down my current arsenal. Any weapon I am considering should ideally replace one of these (except perhaps the purchase of a couple of rifles, which I don't own now).



There are lots of weapons that I claim are on my "bucket list" (for instance, the Steyr C9, Ruger Single Nine, Uberti Old West Defense, Savage 1907) that frankly wouldn't do anything new for me. In reality, I am not sure I could bite on them until such time as I have so much money I don't know what to do with it and a glass display case for my living room.

 

[huntsman]

.380 .45 acp are my primary focus with .45C and 20 gauge (slugs) for deer hunting next. 12 gauge, .22lr and a bit of 9mm rounds it out for me.

 

[RetiredUSNChief]

"In my experience, they end up as safe queens, and I don't have the resources for an ever-expanding collection of novelties and curios."

As good a reason as any...but in my view, the only resources required are the storage requirements themselves: physical space and periodic cleaning/lubing. That's pretty cheap, in my view.

 

[Tanshanomi]

"...the only resources required are the storage requirements..."

Let's not forget the purchase price of the guns!

 

[MovedWest]

I currently reload for 3 calibers for different reasons:

44 (special and magnum) - because I get so much more out of the caliber with custom loads
6.5x55 swede - because production ammo is terrible and I can get so much more out of the caliber by tailoring the loads to my rifle
7mm Rem Mag - the caliber is a ballistic sweet spot and reloading lets me increase the range of uses for it

I also plan on reloading for 45 ACP and 12 ga in the near future. Calibers I have that I don't reload for:

9mm
.223/5.56
.22LR
.22WMR

I don't reload for 9mm and .223/5.56 because I don't really use them very often. When I do, it's usually just to put holes in paper.

-MW

 

[claiborne]

I beg to differ. Once I am set up for .45acp, I can crank out a few hundred rounds every night, for as long as I care to do so. Once I have 1000 (or several thousand) rounds stocked, I can shoot them in any pistol that takes that round.

On the other hand, if I load 300 rounds of .45acp, then set up for .45LC, load a hundred, then set up for 10mm and load a couple hundred...then swap over to load .380, and then .357, andso on...that is a major PITA.

I'd much rather have a few calibers with multiple handguns in each, than a larger number of chamberings and one gun each..

You can beg to differ all you want, I am basing my reply on 30 years of personal experience. I load for accuracy and reliability and develop specific loads for specific guns. Very rarely do I find that an accurate load, concerning bullets, powder charge, seating depth, etc... for one gun will be just as accurate out of another of the same caliber.
Heck, if all wanted to do was load fodder to shoot in all my guns, I could buy ammo off the shelf.

 

[MI2600]

I started reloading for the old WCF calibers for rifles I bought back in the '60s. I enjoyed the process, so as I purchased guns since then I also purchased the equipment to reload...except shotguns.

I've only sold one gun, in '64, and still have seller's remorse. As a result, I now can reload a "bunch" of diverse calibers. I foresee no need to decrease what I have collected.

 

[UKWildcatFan]

Everyone goes through a phase where they want and sometimes do buy everything that just looks neat. This can get out of hand quickly but it is formative to figuring out your own wants and tastes in firearm types and cartridges.

Eventually it gets pared down into what your own little niche is. Usually.

This. Well said.

 

[sniper58]

About 10 years ago, I decided that I was going to start at .22 and go up by 2's (.24, .26. .28. etc).
I'm slowly getting there. I got hung up at .30 cal for a bit. I own and load for 10 rifles in various .30 cals.
I had to use my imagination for some of them - .257 for 26 cal, .429 for 42 cal, .357 for 36 cal., .458 for 46 cal
I don't have .34, .40,.48 or .50 .................yet

 

[Doc7]

You need a 260 Rem for 26!

 

[Tanshanomi]

For 34 caliber, you could go with .338 Winchester Magnum.

 

[Trent]

I have a nice collection of handguns, and long arms; including some somewhat odd calibers (5.7x28, 10mm, 8MM Mauser to name a few).

I've come to the point where I'm selling some of those fringe calibers, and purchasing more magazines, and reloading components for 9, 45, 223, 308 and 12 gauge.

Keep the oddballs!

When we had the great "run on guns & ammo" (well, each of them, 08-09, 12-13, etc), the "common calibers" were the FIRST to become unobtainable.

9mm, 45, 223, etc all disappeared off the shelves before you could say "WAIT!"

And the auction prices immediately, in each case, doubled or worse.

I was lucky, relatively, and closing down my gun shop early '09 when the Obama run on guns went down. I pulled $500 a case for 45 ACP (1000 rounds) - which was exactly DOUBLE what I was selling it for at gun shows a few months prior (my cost was 10 something a box of 50). I liquidated about 60,000 rounds of ammo in a month's time on gunbroker, and paid off some debts I'd incurred while running the gun shop.

Meanwhile, each time there is a "stampede on ammo!", it never fails to amuse me when I can walk in to a gun shop with bare shelves and pick up a box of 30/30, or 44 magnum, or 303 brit, and go shooting.

People standing in line 2 hours before a gun shop opens to scalp 22 ammo, I go shopping whenever I want, and I can always find something to feed something.

Heck, maybe I haven't shot that 7x57 mauser in a long time, but the local tradin' post sure had several boxes on the shelf collecting dust! And I even got a heck of a bargain on them because the shop owner with empty shelves had nothing better to do than let me haggle him down!

My friends with "standard" calibers either had to pay through the NOSE to get ammo (or components, because those went extinct right after the ammo did), or take a long hiatus from shooting.

I was out all the time plinking away with goofy calibers.

2013 I was having a heck of a hard time finding 30 cal projectiles, ended up shooting a 7.5 swiss, a 8x57mm, a 7.62x54R, and even a 5.7x28 PS90 in high power sporting rifle competitions under "any" rifle classification.

Yeah. Definitely keep the oddballs, is my vote.

When things get tough it's still leagues easier to find ammo for them.

 

[Jason_W]

I'm leaning toward having no more than one chambering per niche. What those end up being will depend on where we end up settling down and what the terrain and available game in the area is.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to start my rebuilding process with the 20 gauge and the .44 mag.

This


Would look pretty good paired with this


And this

 

[rskent]

Is needing to keep eight of them excessive?

Heck no. Sounds about right to me.

 

[Barry the Bear]

Ive boiled it all down in my collection

Handguns:
.44 mag/spl
.45 colt
.357 mag/38 spl

Rifles:
.444 marlin
.243 winchester for the cubs

shotguns:
only 12 ga

i have no reason to own 20 ga or 410 , nothing wrong with them, just doesnt fit my bill of needs

 

[sniper58]

I have a .257 Wby Accumark & a .25/06 Rem, so figure that I have .26 covered already.
I had a .338 Win Mag, but traded it for a .257 Wby Vanguard that I promptly traded off to a friend.

 

[kato0810]

Any excuse for another gun is a good excuse, including "needing" another caliber!

 

[OilyPablo]

Just got into 9x25.

 

[Agsalaska]

I suppose the same thing has happened to me with the guns I shoot. I am pretty basic and really a minimalist. You know, 9mm, 38spc, 30-06, 22lr, 12 gauge. Thats about it.

But the guns I do not shoot are an entirely different story.

For example, I just acquired an unfired first year production Winchester 94 Big Bore in .375 Win. I got a great deal and could care less about finding the rare ammo. It will sit in my safe until my grandkids are dividing up my stuff. So in that regard I do not care about consolidating, or extra magazines, or anything like that.

 

[rogerjames]

I never grew up around guns. My father was a Vietnam vet and being around guns and hearing gun shots wasn't exactly fun for him. He had an old 12 gauge that I shot once or twice and he gave me an old .410 shotgun on my 16th birthday that his father had passed down to him. I shot .22 rifles at Boy Scout camp once a year and that was about the extent of my exposure to guns for the majority of my life.

I'm 43 and bought my condo 11 years ago in a nice middle class neighborhood in South Florida. About the second year living there, my girlfriend (now wife), came home from work in the middle of the day and walked in on a robbery in progress. Fortunately, the 2 guys in our bedroom walked out with a pillowcase full of our stuff, but didn't lay a hand on her. I immediately wanted to get a gun, but her sister had been murdered by an ex-boyfriend, shot multiple times and she was afraid of guns and didn't want any in the house. Not knowing much about guns myself and respecting her wishes, I ignored the gun thing and installed an alarm system.

Several months later a nosy upstairs neighbor noticed a stranger lurking around our front door and acting suspiciously. She confronted him about what he was doing and he was looking for and when he couldn't give her any names, he took off. Turns out my wife left the house late that day and saw him sitting on the steps outside our door and thought he was waiting for one of the neighbors or something. After that incident, I made up my mind that I was buying a gun and because she knows I tend to do my homework before jumping blindly into something, she reluctantly conceded.

I started reading this forum and others, read a couple books, and went to a gun show so I could hold and handle multiple guns. I chose a Ruger SP 101 as my first gun because of the simplicity and reliability of a revolver and my wife and I have both have relatively small hands and that had a comfortable trigger length.

My first trip to the range I was nervous as hell. I knew about all the RULES for safe handling but I had never done with a bunch of other people around and my first time at an indoor range with all the noise and activity was a little intimidating. I managed fine but wasn't sure if gun ownership was really for me. I soon went back again, was less nervous this time and actually had some fun.

Eventually took my CCW class and got my permit. My wife went to the range a couple times but she wasn't really thrilled but at least she had a basic familiarity of how to load/unload, aim, shoot. The SP 101 was a tank and not ideal for CCW in hot South Florida so I eventually sold it (shouldn't have, I miss it) and got an XD.

Well, it eventually became a hobby, and I soon recognized the importance of 2A rights (something I had previously been ambivalent and ignorant of), and joined the NRA. I eventually added a 1911, a snub .38, an AK, a couple Mosins, a Garand, and an AR.

My active participation in the hobby has been quite dormant for the last 3-4 years due to the birth of my son, but now that I'm kind of figuring out the daddy thing and learning when and where money is free, I'm starting to try to become more active shooting and gradually adding some more toys in the future. My wife is still not very interested in shooting and has no desire to carry, but she allows me to be a responsible gun owner and she has expressed on more than one occasion that she felt much more comfortable knowing I was carrying.

I still feel like a newb on many gun topics, but I've definitely evolved.

 

[WestKentucky]

I'm going the other way and adding calibers, the more odd the better. Reloading for me is so relaxing that I enjoy it as much or more than actually shooting. I have only gotten rid of a few calibers, and plan to not get rid of any more. I do like interchangeability of components though, for example 30 caliber can load 30-30 or 308 and so forth. Or my 30-30 brass becomes 7-30 brass. Next on the list is probably 6.5 grendel but then I'm back into contender barrels after the grendel, considering 357 max or 35rem to mate up with my 357 bullets.

Currently loading
32acp pistol
32sw pistol
32swl pistol
38spl rifle/powderpuff
357mag rifle/pistol/powderpuff
256 win mag
44 SPL pistol
44 mag rifle/pistol/powderpuff
7-30 waters rifle/pistol
30-30 rifle
270 win rifle

Soon to start 9mm
Hope to start 357 max
Intend to start 6.5 grendel in 2016
Already prepared for but not loading 45acp until I inherit the gun
Already prepared for 223 as well but waiting for a deal on a youth gun for an ultra compact game gun.

Have also loaded
223/556
243
308
22-250
40sw

At this point I buy dies as soon as I buy a gun, except 9mm because I knew it would be an expensive entry, but dies are to be ordered this month.

 

[WestKentucky]

About 10 years ago, I decided that I was going to start at .22 and go up by 2's (.24, .26. .28. etc).
I'm slowly getting there. I got hung up at .30 cal for a bit. I own and load for 10 rifles in various .30 cals.
I had to use my imagination for some of them - .257 for 26 cal, .429 for 42 cal, .357 for 36 cal., .458 for 46 cal
I don't have .34, .40,.48 or .50 .................yet

Sounds like you need 338 lapua, 10mm in a carbine, 480 in a lever action, and 50bmg because...well hell because 50bmg

 

[mgmorden]

Nah - I been shooting handguns for 13 years now (shooting in general for 24) I like adding different stuff whenever possible.

The way I see it is if I already have one of something - why do I need another? Variety is the spice of life. Already have handguns in .22LR, .32ACP, 7.62 Nagant, 7.62x25, 9mm Makarov, .380ACP, .38 Special, 9mm Luger, .40 S&W, and .45ACP. Also have a .45 cal cap and ball revolver.

There's about a 95% chance I'll have a .357 SIG by the end of the year and about a 50% chance I'll have a 10mm .

My rifle caliber list is longer .