I do not have any duplicates at this time; were my budget somewhat more generous I would have duplicates - perhaps triplicates - of several outstanding pieces.
It makes sense from the standpoint of practice. If you have two of your favorite carry pistols for example, you can pick the best shooter for business, and shoot the the other to pieces in practice and drills.
The same could be said for long guns whether they be for protection or for hunting. All firearms, even the best designs produced of the best materials with superior fabrication and fitting, have finite lives. Be it several thousand or a hundred thousand rounds.
Sure there are plenty of examples of some that go around the 100K clock more than once with only minor parts replacement. But personally, I would rather carry a piece that has proven reliable with a few thousand rounds than one with 10,000 or more rounds through it. A catastrophic failure is an irritation or inconvenience on a firing range. Much more than that if your life is on the line.
------------------------------------------------
http://ussliberty.org
http://ssunitedstates.org
It makes sense from the standpoint of practice. If you have two of your favorite carry pistols for example, you can pick the best shooter for business, and shoot the the other to pieces in practice and drills.
The same could be said for long guns whether they be for protection or for hunting. All firearms, even the best designs produced of the best materials with superior fabrication and fitting, have finite lives. Be it several thousand or a hundred thousand rounds.
Sure there are plenty of examples of some that go around the 100K clock more than once with only minor parts replacement. But personally, I would rather carry a piece that has proven reliable with a few thousand rounds than one with 10,000 or more rounds through it. A catastrophic failure is an irritation or inconvenience on a firing range. Much more than that if your life is on the line.
------------------------------------------------
http://ussliberty.org
http://ssunitedstates.org
Seriously though, I think it is very practical to have a duplicate of your carry gun for sure. Right now I am trying to decide which of my guns to keep for Home/Self Defense and carry and which not to, as I am going to put most of my gun and knife collection in storage for safekeeping because it has become too much of an investment not to care for in the best most secure way possible. Clearly I need a defensive pistol shotgun and rifle as well as a backup gun. As far as a rifle I can't decide between my Ruger Mini 14 or my custom built AR. I like the Mini because it is so easy to clean and up close I think it beats the AR for good bullet placement, but accuracy suffers greatly at distance and the AR has all those Rails to hand lights and lasers on. I may keep my good old Winchester 94 .30.30 around too in case I need something heavier than 5.56 but mostly just to shoot for fun because I don't hunt (I support hunting and think it is one of the great American traditions and I love venison, I just don't like to kill anything myself unless it tries to kill me first or if I need to protect my animals or if I am really hungry and flat broke hehehehe
