Do you ever feel like your gun interests are just too varied to be healthy?

460Shooter said:

As the title states, I'm just wondering if anyone ever feels like they just have too much interests in guns in too many different areas for it to be a good thing.

Personally, I have always been a handgunner. I have a dozen handguns, 9 of which I shoot regularly, and 2 that are older, and finding ammo is a challenge.

I have two rifles.

I have a reloading setup and very shortly all the "necessary" equipment to start loading.

My gun short list includes:
Sig P220 in 10mm
HK P30L
S&W 629 of some flavor
S&W 17-something
S&W K-38
S&W 65-something
Ruger Precision Rifle in 6.5 or possibly 308
Navy Arms Turnbull Case Color treated Winchester 1873 in 357, or 44 mag
Scorpion Carbine in 9mm
Kriss Carbine in 10mm
Maybe a Kriss lower in 45acp
Maybe a DP12 shotgun

I mean I just don't know if my wallet can support this many interests in guns, nor do I know that my home has adequate space to store them all properly. I often hear folks on here talk about how they have dozens and dozens of guns. I don't see the point of having a bunch of guns that I'm not going to shoot, unless it's as an investment. The above guns are just the ones I want to own to shoot.

Do you ever feel like your gun buying habits and interests are just kind of getting away from you? I mean I do control myself. I'm not buying several guns a year and just running up my credit cards, but I'm starting to question WHY I want all these different guns.

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I think that there can come a point where the things that used to be fun can become so demanding on your finances and time that they can lose their appeal. Guns can become that way. It's easy to want more of them, but then when their "overhead" comes into play (ammo, reloading equipment, magazines, etc) and other factors such as ammo shortages and rising prices, then they start losing their appeal as a hobby. That's when it's time to start paring them down to which ones are practical in your life. Those are the ones that earn their place in your collection by serving you in return for your investment of time and money into them.

VTmtn.man said:

Whether you are of a utilitarian or hobbyist / collectors ilk you'll probably be glad that you don't get rid of what you deem to be superfluous or uninteresting at the time.

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Yeah, most of the time. Over the years though, I've gotten rid of a few guns that I never looked back at. Some I even sold at a loss just because they didn't turn out to be as useful (I'm of the utilitarian ilk) as I thought they would be when I bought them. Either that, or I sold them because I needed the money to buy a different gun that I thought would be even more useful. Occasionally I've been right, usually not.

Growing up in hunting country with firearms it is not a hobby it is a way of life. Just looking at my firearms they reflect my life. From a Winchester .22 to WWII Lugers and C-96 to Black powder arms. There are the IPSC guns and Hunting rifles from Sharps to Sako. My 1911 pistols and S&W Pre 1980 N frames. Where to from hear?

I've acquired and got rid of close to 30 guns since 1978 and can honestly say I don't have any regrets, some weren't what I expected and even those I had to sell because of fiances didn't cause me any regrets.

To answer the OP what I own is narrowly focused on my needs so I doubt any of these will be sold and at my age I don't see anything new on my horizon that would cause me to spend my meager funds on anything but ammo to feed what I have.

GBExpat said:

WHEW! Tell me 'bout it ... before I finally "got over it" there were 16 in my Collection/Accumulation. I realized that that was a ridiculous number of M1s to own ... so I sold one. 15. Much better.

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I hear ya. For me, besides the complete rifles, I have two boxes full of parts to build two more complete Garands including two NOS barrels circa about 1950.

12Pump said:

I think that there can come a point where the things that used to be fun can become so demanding on your finances and time that they can lose their appeal. Guns can become that way. It's easy to want more of them, but then when their "overhead" comes into play (ammo, reloading equipment, magazines, etc) and other factors such as ammo shortages and rising prices, then they start losing their appeal as a hobby. That's when it's time to start paring them down to which ones are practical in your life. Those are the ones that earn their place in your collection by serving you in return for your investment of time and money into them.

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Well, I agree to a point.

If you do not use the firearms, they do not cost you anything out of pocket. You do not have to use a firearm to enjoy its ownership.

Of all the firearms that I own, I use just a fraction of them at any given time. I do not want to "reduce the herd" as I may get around to dabbling with those firearms again at a later time.

Unlike the airplane that I used to own, guns do not cost me any on going maintenance and storage costs. With the plane, I had to pay for airport storage space and there was a required annual maintenance inspection. I had to fly the airplane a certain amount each year to maintain proficiency with my ratings.

With my firearms, besides that I have some storage space set aside in my house and some folks will put a dollar value on that, they cost me nothing out of pocket on an on going basis. If I do not shoot them, no cost incurred.

Same with ammunition. If I do not use the gun much, I do not need much ammunition on hand. Just enough to shoot it once in a while.I can then go out and replace the ammunition if it has been shot. Yes, I've made some capital cost in reloading gear, but again, if cost me nothing to keep. Dust it off once in a while to replace the ammunition that I have shot.

The advantage of reloading, I can keep equipment and components on hand to reload obsolete cartridges that I cannot buy cartridges for. It is difficult to put a realistic value on that if factory ammunition is just plain not available.

Shooting and reloading is a past time for me. It gives me pleasure in my fee time. I bet I spend less per year than some guy with a golf club membership and greens fees for the privilege of playing 18 holes of golf several times a week.

I have a friend that has had a LOT of guns. I mean a LOT. He will work up a handload for a particular rifle. Gets it to shoot well under an inch, then sell it. Likes the challenge and has the money to do it. So, he's got the bug for a 700 Remingon in .220 Swift. Looks and looks, finally finds one. Went to put it in the safe and there was already one there that he had bought and forgotten about.

At one time I had maybe 70+ firearms. I ran out of space to store them and got tired of paying insurance on guns I never used. Most of them went away.

I guess we work to buy stuff we want. And you can justify anything you want to justify. Just remember that most families during the depression in very rural areas got by with a single shot shotgun and a .22

Nah. I'm a big fan of doing what I find fun and what my family and friends find fun at the time. 15 years ago, I was all about deer and varmint hunting. Good times. I began to be a rifle accuracy enthusiast, and also muzzleloader to take advantage of extended seasons. Then I transitioned to pistol, even becoming an NRA instructor and helping lots of folks get their CHLs.

Then a family member got into long range target rifle and F-Class. That's a lot of fun also. More recently, friends and family are doing more action pistol and may be leaning toward tactical rifle.

So, I may not ever make High Master in any discipline, but I have made Expert in a number of them, as have friends and family members. I also helped a couple friends shoot perfect scores (200-20X) in a national NRA event. At my age, declining vision and muscle may prevent me from likely making Master (or equivalent in the non-NRA stuff) in anything. So what?

When the time comes, I'll be good enough to kill that deer or that coyote or that prairie dog or that foreign invader or anything else in the Jeff Cooper sense of firearms proficiency. And so will most of my friends and family members. We'll never quite be as fast as those super-speed IDPA guys, those tricked out 3 gun guys, or those tactical rifle ninjas. We'll never be as accurate as the guys winning benchrest or F-Class matches beyond the local level. But we're pretty good.

Are you? I look at the equipment as supporting skill development. My most useful equipment has been a selection of air rifles and air pistols combined with an at home air gun range.

12Pump said:

I think that there can come a point where the things that used to be fun can become so demanding on your finances and time that they can lose their appeal.

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The wife and I can both vouch for that. We were seriously into IHMSA competition back in the early '80s. We'd work all day Monday thru Friday, but when we got home, we'd either build ammunition or go down to the gravel pit and practice on silhouettes I'd cut out of tarpaper until dark. Come Saturday morning, we'd head out for a silhouette shoot somewhere - no closer than 80 miles away, and sometimes 200 miles away. Monday morning we'd start again.
IHMSA was real fun for a couple of years, but when we realized we'd turned it into a job, we quit. And that's the reason we've never taken up Cowboy Action shooting even though we've been to a few matches and been tempted - we KNOW how we are. We're both retired now, and we just plane don't want any more "jobs," especially ones that cost money.

I Periodically offload the toys I no longer use. Currently I only own six firearms. I provide the basic firearms training at my club and will offer help to any member who needs basic repairs or a little advice on more advanced technique. If someone is short of ammo I will help them out. This pays off in being asked to try their latest toys. I've shot over 130 different models and variants over the years. A decade ago I was a member of the new gun of the month club. Making friends and being helpful is much less financially stressfull.

Hi...
To answer the OP question...In a word, No!
I have and shoot handguns, rifles and shotguns.
I shoot rimfire and centerfire.
I shoot revolvers and automatic pistols.
I shoot lever action, bolt action, pump and semi automatic rifles.
I shoot pump and semi automatic shotguns.
About the only type of firearm I don't own or shoot is black powder. I just don't care for the cleanup hassle.
I used to shoot handguns competitively but as my eyesight declined I was no longer able to be as competitive as I wanted to be.
I think about getting into some other form of competition like cowboy action or rifle shooting but I fear my eyesight just isn't good enough to make it worth my time.
So, I shoot for fun with my son and friends

I used to, but then started to narrow my interests a little more. Makes things a lot easier, honestly.

I don't think it's possible to get enjoyment from one single discipline. I enjoy shooting precision rifles to improve my shooting and so on, but there's something about a milsurp which always gets enjoyment from me. I don't usually care how my groupings look, I enjoy the time using a firearm that's almost three times my age and still functions well.

460Shooter said:

As the title states, I'm just wondering if anyone ever feels like they just have too much interests in guns in too many different areas for it to be a good thing.

Personally, I have always been a handgunner. I have a dozen handguns, 9 of which I shoot regularly, and 2 that are older, and finding ammo is a challenge.

I have two rifles.

I have a reloading setup and very shortly all the "necessary" equipment to start loading.

My gun short list includes:
Sig P220 in 10mm
HK P30L
S&W 629 of some flavor
S&W 17-something
S&W K-38
S&W 65-something
Ruger Precision Rifle in 6.5 or possibly 308
Navy Arms Turnbull Case Color treated Winchester 1873 in 357, or 44 mag
Scorpion Carbine in 9mm
Kriss Carbine in 10mm
Maybe a Kriss lower in 45acp
Maybe a DP12 shotgun

I mean I just don't know if my wallet can support this many interests in guns, nor do I know that my home has adequate space to store them all properly. I often hear folks on here talk about how they have dozens and dozens of guns. I don't see the point of having a bunch of guns that I'm not going to shoot, unless it's as an investment. The above guns are just the ones I want to own to shoot.

Do you ever feel like your gun buying habits and interests are just kind of getting away from you? I mean I do control myself. I'm not buying several guns a year and just running up my credit cards, but I'm starting to question WHY I want all these different guns.

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I will go a bit against the grain here. If I was feeling this way, I would not hesitate to sell at least half those guns / calibers right away. I believe in travelling light and don't like having a lot of stuff laying around that doesn't get much use. I would standardize on just one of each ammo type: pistol, rifle, shotgun, and rimfire. In my house, any gun or ammo that gets bought must be one of: 38/357 mag, .308 Win, 12 gauge or 22LR.

Three days ago acquired a first 'TGI' Hungarian AMD-65, with the "SA 2000 M" under the receiver.

Traded my only M4, AR type plus some cash. It certainly reduces needing so much extra loot.
Thanks again Armslist TN! Could be my eleventh gun deal initiated by a huge number of beady, glistening TN eyes scanning their website.

Kendal Black said:

I am narrowing my interests. One day I realized that I owned more guns than some smalltime FFL's. I saw that made no sense. I started selling off my collection. "Collection" may be too dignified a word. It signifies order and purpose, but what I had was an accumulation.

For many years I bought guns because they were interesting mechanically or conceptually. That is how I got the Browning Double Auto, a marketplace bomb that, if you look at it just right, made sense in its own way. I sold it the other day.

When I really look closely, the guns I have a use for are very few. I like a .38 Special for daily protection and a 12 gauge riot gun for things that go bump in the night. I would love to be a good rifle shot. I am not bad but I have shot alongside people who really know what they are doing. Viewed in that light, my scoped .308 is either a challenge to be overcome and mastered or it is there in the corner as a concession to my vanity, mocking me.

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Kendal, I have a Browning Double auto. The reason that gun was conceived was because back in the day trap shooters had
to shoot holding their guns down low and not at their shoulders. The browning double auto was brought out to shoot doubles
in trap. It also is a fine field gun. When they changed the rules to shoot trap with the gun mounted and up against one's shoulder
the whole game changed and trap guns became huge heavy guns. Then they made them so they would shoot high. I have two
busted up shoulders and bought the double auto to shoot close non-handicap trap which it does quite well. I have shot quite a
few pheasants with mine as well. It also is one of the fastest firing semi-auto's ever made.
Z

I live in a pretty rural area where we don't have ranges with guns you can rent to try out. Consequently I've owned a ton of different handguns as I tried to figure out what worked for me.

Eventually I've settled down, and what I do now is take a % of what I save off each paycheck and out it aside for buying something new. I never buy anything on credit anymore, or I'd walk out the shop with half their inventory.

You can also try to focus more on competition as opposed to equipment too I guess.

Shed said:

I live in a pretty rural area where we don't have ranges with guns you can rent to try out. Consequently I've owned a ton of different handguns as I tried to figure out what worked for me.

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Ha! I've been there! What's more, I goofed up the one time I did try out a handgun before I bought it. We were in Cabela's in Boise a few years back, and I was looking at a Glock 43, but couldn't decide. So the guy behind the counter advised me to head on over to a local, indoor gun range where they'd rent me a Glock 43 to try out. That's what I did, and I loved that little 9mm from the first magazine full.
However, and this is a big however, I didn't go back to Cabela's to buy the gun because I knew I could get it cheaper back home at our favorite LGS in Pocatello. But I didn't do that either. When we got back home and went to our favorite gun store, the owner (a friend of ours) showed me what he carries - a .40 S&W Glock that I don't remember the model number of, but it was the same size as the Glock 43.
I guess I must have some teenaged hormones or something running around in this old man's mind, because I decided to buy the most powerful of those two little Glocks. And I never did learn to shoot it! The danged thing hurt me every time I pulled the trigger! I developed one heck of a flinch before I took it back and traded it (and some more money) in on the Glock 43 I should have bought in the first place. Oh well, at least I learned I can't handle a .40 S&W in that small of a package, and I'm getting over the flinch.

When they get home...they don't eat anything unless you take them out. So, keep 'em. Soon you'll have good reason to get out the very ones you're "no so sure" about now. RANGE TRIP ! Your shooting buddies will be jealous.

Mark

I think some people here, including me, are materialistic.

I have really cut back and have sold pretty much every gun that I just do not shoot. My favorite part of guns is shooting them, and one day I looked around at all the ones that I had just gathering dust and decided it was time to part with them.

So now I have fewer guns, but they're the ones I truly like and truly like to shoot, especially my muzzleloaders.

I used to be involved in too many aspects....IDPA, USPSA etc. Now I just target shoot for fun, do Steel Challenge once a month
and take an occasional defensive training class. I also do lever action pistol caliber Silhouette.

Post 8 sums it up. I've put together a pretty diverse collection, many of which are guns I don't need but simply enjoy shooting. While my gun needs are met, I'll still add a gun from time to time but do so while being financially responsible. No one is being harmed by my hobby, and I have a great time with my kids at the gun club we belong to.

It's not "getting away from you" until you realize that with a purchase of only 10,000 cases, you can have wildcats with your own headstamp...

I am one of those that has a few guns. The reason is the same problem I have with Dieting. I can resist anything but temptation