I guess I'm a junk owner

[Sheepdog1968]

Glad to hear you are happy with what you own and it is working well. Whenever I'm temped to spend money on expensive firearms, I take a deep breath and remind myself what I have works well and I'm happy with it. I may upgrade at some point but for now I just try to enjoy what I own.

 

[Hookeye]

Some stuff does work better than others.
Internet keyboards might suggest otherwise.
Doesn't mean it's true.

Am I a gun snob? Some say so.
My dad was a dealer for decades, I've done the gunshop/gunshow deal myself.

Certain brands or models I steer clear of.

Don't care if others have had great success with them (whatever that success really is).
If I've seen multiple failures............it's a no go.

And I mean legit failures, not operator errors.

Some of us have seen quite a bit, and were paying attention during the process LOL.

 

[jmorris]

I guess I have some highfalutin guns too but I don't think that makes them snobby...

 

[sappyg]

Guess that would all depend on how you define "prestige" - for some that is a Mossberg, for others it is a Kreighoff or a Purdey.
If you like what you have and it works for you, go have some fun with it.

Well said.

 

[kituwa]

My most used shotgun is a old (1903), US arms made by Cresent arms,SXS 12ga. It is a usmade gun,quality made but not fancy,was an everyday gun in its day i think. It is still tight and shoots well,mod and full choke. It is a hammer gun so it is slow but so am i now days. I love double guns. If i was able i would have a fancy dbl for sure. Not because mine isnt good enough or so i could keep up with the Joneses but just because i like fine guns. It wouold probably not be a new gun, something like an old big name classic. I love the long slim grips and the small sliver forarms. I would sit on a stump and admire the slim gracefull lines, the fine line engraving and hand cut checkering on walnut from the days when even a mid grade gun had beautifull figure in the wood.To me a good dbl handles and points like magic. I would bthink back and dream of my teens when i haunted the fields and fence rows busting quail that was very plenifull back then. And my favorite of all,,standing on a stump listening to my beagle running a rabbit and waiting for it to circle around.In those days i shot mostly 16 ga paper hulls that had that smell i can remember well after all these years.Most people would think my gun a junker,,but to me it is special.

 

[oneounceload]

Hope you checked the chambers properly on that gun - most of that time were NOT 2-3/4" or built for the pressures of today's ammo. Remember, the length of the hull is the fired hull. Crescent also made a lot of "hardware store" brand guns and built guns to a wide variety of price points. Glad yours is working well, but if it is indeed a 2-1/2 or 2-9/16" gun, shooting 2-3/4 will put a lot of unnecessary pressure and could make it go KABOOM, so be careful

 

[LoneGoose]

MCgunner, your first post brought back so many great memories for me. Doves in Florida and Tennessee, ducks & geese out west, quail in Tennessee when there were some, grouse here in Ohio, pheasants in South Dakota. My first shotgun was a 1400, and a dove killer! It got stolen, as happens sometimes.

Wing shooting has always been my favorite kind of hunting. Thanks for the memories.

 

[kituwa]

Oneounceload, yes i checked the chamber and it is 2 3/4. I am sure it was as you say a hardware store gun. They came in 3 types of barrels, twist, damascus and armory steel. Mine is marked armory steel. I do not have a problem with useing damascus barrels though. I pretty much only use light target loads anyway. I also have a 14 ga muzzle loading dbl that i shoot as much or more than i do the 12ga. The stocks on these two guns feel almost the same with the cartridge gun being just a tad heavier so they point the same and i find that nice. One day i hope to find a LC Smith that i can afford.

 

[Captcurt]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

I have had some cheap/junk guns in my time. The main one that comes to mind was a 12ga Westernfield pump that had about 1.5" of the barrel cut off basically making it a cylander bore. You could fill a truck bed with the quail and rabbits killed with that gun. Bought a used Marlin bolt action 22 when I was 15 that looked as if had been dragged behind a truck. Think I gave $27 for it. With a 6x Weaver it was one of the best shooting 22s that I have owned. That is saying a lot. I have had a Marlin 2000, a couple of CZs and a 52B Winchester.

Sometimes junk works.

 

[Hookeye]

Inexpensive and cheap are not the same thing

Guns with dings and dents, you can hunt hard and not worry too much about.

Don't care what a person shoots, as long as they shoot it well.
Have heard many folks try to equate their lesser rigs to pretty standard known good target stuff.

Laughable.

No, your Romanian trainer .22 is not going to hang with an Anschutz BR50.
But if you're putting squirrels in the pot regularly, do you need that higher evel of performance?

There certainly is "good enough".

Yeah, I know guys with the $$$$$ rigs, that never shoot them. There are weirdos across the spectrum.

Like the guys who talk about how good their lesser stuff is...........and they never show up at a match. If it really was as good as they said.............they'd be whipping our arses.

Shooting isn't cheap. If one could get fantastic performance for low expense, we'd all jump on it as that would allow even more shooting.

There is however, a fair bit of truth to "get what you pay for".

Started out with decent stuff. Tried a lot of others over the years.
Was fun, but wasn't cheap.
Am content to run what works.
Never subscribed the any gun magazine, or what fuels them..........advertising........not a slave to needing the latest and greatest.

My buddy has a Mathews Heli M bow. Said he's getting the new Halon.

LOL, I run a skeleton Blackwidow recurve made in 1972.
Have had new ones custom built, but for what I do...........this one works fine.
Plus as a kid I always wanted one.

If it works for ya, and keeps it fun...............that's good enough. Just be realistic in what its performance really is.

I'd rather buy nicer guns, and drive beater trucks
Don't give a flip about trying to impress anybody.

I love to shoot and hunt, so that's where I focus my time/energy/funds.

If I was smart, I'd have been clipped at age 16 and have a couple of big safes full of nicer stuff............rather than have 3 kids in college next year.

Yup, I like nice guns a lot. Just don't have a lot of them

 

[Jason_W]

Expensive shotguns are beautiful works of art that often feel incredible when shouldered (never owned one, but have picked up a few).

Are the people who own them afraid to hunt with them? I couldn't imagine taking a $10,000 o/u into a northern New England blackberry bramble or cedar swamp. Seems a lot like driving a Rolls Royce down a washed out dirt road.

 

[Onward Allusion]

Hey, if it's working for you that's all that matters. I used to be embarrassed owning Rossi & Taurus, but I was young and dumb at the time.

 

[Manny]

Fancy wood & high polish blue does little for me. I like plastic, composite, laminate, stainless, matte blue, weather resistant working guns. Generally ugly in appearance but purpose built and beautiful in their function. I'd likely have little interest in most of the OP's guns as he may not care for mine, but I admire much more than fancy guns, pristine from being kept in safes or on display, guns that have "seen the elephant" as the old saying goes. Been put to use harvesting game, fighting for freedom, protecting hearth & home, spending countless hours on the target range digesting uncountable rounds in formal practice, competition or just plinking targets. Pretty is nice, performance is everything. I'll admire in passing occasionally the fancy for the artistry it is, but I won't lust for it.

I won't judge your "junk" guns, or pretty guns if you return the favor and don't judge my ugly ones. To each their own, and if what you have serves you well & makes you happy that's OK by me.

 

[Deltaboy1984]

If they work for you and put meat on the Table your fine.

 

[huntsman]

Fancy wood & high polish blue does little for me. I like plastic, composite, laminate, stainless, matte blue, weather resistant working guns. Generally ugly in appearance but purpose built and beautiful in their function.

Funny thing back in the "day" good wood and high polish blue came on "working guns", in fact an economy model SXS from pre-WWII era would have beautiful walnut, polished blue and deep case colors. Not too bad for a gun that was made for a price point, but back then Men worked hard for their money and expected quality even if the gun cost less than $20.00

 

[DNS]

Don't care what someone else thinks, but then again I'm getting up in years, cantankerous, and ornery.

Don't like my 870 synthetic or H/R Pardner?

Imagine what that means to me...

 

[oneounceload]

Are the people who own them afraid to hunt with them?

Not at all. Most of the folks I know with those guns use them regularly, including NE grouse thickets. The guns were made to be shot and enjoyed

 

[HKGuns]

You own what you can afford and use what works. Are there better shotguns? Probably, but that all depends on your intended use and if a so called junk gun works then you have to be satisfied.

I have nice guns and some junk guns. They all shoot just as well as I do.

I'd never suggest anyone to go into debt or let their kids go hungry to buy a so called nice gun of any kind.

 

[ApacheCoTodd]

Hi, I'm Todd and I'm a junkaholic...

According to a recent poster, one of my favored pistols is junk, it being a CA Target Bulldog, add to that;

a Mac-11,
an AMT Hardballer Longslide,
a Llama .38 Super,
and an Ortgies .32

And I'm sure others yet which greater minds than mine consider to be "junk".

Still, I dig 'em all or wouldn't tolerate them.

Remember, one man's junk.... is just his free opinion (usually unsolicited at that!) and it's worth every penny.


Todd.

 

[kituwa]

There is an 870 pump, a mossburg 500,a win.1400 and several others in the housew,plus rifles and handguns,most of those my kids use. But most of my personal guns are old ones,very old. That is because those are the ones i prefer. I have an old winchester 67 single shot .22 that was made in the 30.s and a remington 512 made in 1951,,i love those guns. There is not one piece of plastic on them other than the butt plates. Pure machined steel and walnut. Not fancy by any means but they are solid as the day they were made. More than likely less than $20 when they sold new. If they made a .22 nowdays that was made like those cheap priced working mans guns, they would cost a fortune now.When i hold one of those old .22 rifles or my old SXS guns, i think about who owned them and all the hunting trips they must have gone on all those years. Now i do admire classy high dollar shotguns and would own a few if i were able. I have nothing againt anyone that can afford them.A new Benneli auto or even a rem 1100 auto or 1187 are nice guns but dont do anything for me at all. But a Beretta O/U,,,yes i could get into something like that with a big smile on my face. Or one of those cased sets, an O/U with 12,20, 28 and 410 barrels, yep, thats my dream.Will never happen but until then, i am very happy with my old guns i do have for sure.

 

[donkee]

My junk shotguns are Winchester 1200, Winchester 1300 defender, Mossberg 500, and an old JC Higgins 12GA bolt action that belonged to my Uncle.

The 1200 and the 500 also have smooth bore rifle sighted slug barrels.

No problems whatsoever. They work for me and that is all that matters.

 

[eastbank]

i,m looking at a BT-100 sitting in my gun room that i bought used(mint condition) and have fired over 20,000 rounds thats at least 800 boxs(i do reload-mec 9000g) and with no repairs or trips to the gunsmith, just cleaning. at 4.00-4.50 a box thats over to 3200.00 just for ammo.this is not a post to run down any ones firearms, just show that a well made firearm will last thru thousands of shells with out any problems and still be able to be sold with out loosing much money, i was offered more for my BT-100 than i paid for it. the main expense will be the ammo. would i take my BT-100 to the field, yes if it had a safety i would use it hunting turkeys. eastbank.