Reasons for keeping "safe queens"?

You don't have to feed them, buy them clothes, plan on paying for their college education. They don't demand you hate their last love, love their current love, be polite to any of the other guns. They will not wake you at o'dark thirty with a call to come get them from the prom because he's dancing with another girl, ever say "Dad, I/she missed my/her period.", back the car into the garage door, forget to call telling you that they are going to be late, expect you know why they are mad or crying or giggling uncontrollably.
 
I have a (relatively speaking) lot of guns, of (relatively speaking) little value. Most of my guns are “shooters,” in the sense that taking them to the range or even the woods is not likely to reduce their value much. That Mauser already went through a couple of world wars and probably a number of recruits in training exercises… one more ding (which I take care to avoid) isn’t likely to matter much.

That said I have a few that I’ve picked up, that I don’t really shoot. They’re neat pieces of history, a couple are in such nice shape that it’s financially not worth the risk, and some are just prohibitively expensive or time consuming to find or load ammo for. So really, for me I guess it comes down to money. One day I may sell them, but that day is not here yet. I keep them around because I enjoy having them and they may be a worthwhile source of cash one day. (But in general I don’t as a rule buy guns because I expect them to gain in value.)
 
COLTSFANATIC1 said:
Please tell us what you did. Many of us could learn from your unfortunate mistake. As many of us, myself included tinker and work on our firearms.I’ll break down my guns till every last spring and pin is removed for cleaning or maintenance / repair or modification.
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I have a few vintage FN Hi Powers. My guess is that he was working to remove the notorious mag safety to improve the trigger. It is a simple design , but requires great care to avoid scratching the frame.
 
Most of my safe queens were inherited. Many of them were not something that I would have bought for myself but I'll never get rid of them.
 
I always remember those individuals who have regretted their decision to let one or some go. Even when it wasn't an heirloom, or safe queen. I can't bring myself to part with any firearm. The only possible reason I would, is dire financial need.
 
Wildfan99 said:
To me a true "safe queen" is a rare super high quality firearm worth a significant amount of money.
Not necessarily a firearm that the owner just rarely or never fired.

An heirloom isn't necessarily a "safe queen" as much as a firearm with a tremendous amount of personal sentimental value.

IMHO the term "safe queen" is way over used. I think people use the term to try to get more money for the firearm when they want to sell it.
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Well put, Wildfan99:
I don't think I'd ever heard or read the term "safe queen" until the internet came along, and although I have a few guns I seldom, if ever fire, I'm just not sure they'd be classified as "queens" in anyone's safe. o_O
Take for example my first "real" gun - a .22 RF rifle Mom and Dad gave me for my 10th birthday (66 years ago last Thursday). I took it out and let one of our grandsons shoot it a couple of years ago, but other than that, I don't think it had been shot in 30 years.
Another example is the .308 semiauto Mom and Dad bought for me as my first big game rifle when I was about 15. There's nothing wrong with it (other than a few "memory" dings and scratches, but I just don't use it anymore because I have other big game rifles that I prefer - for the last 13 years, that's been my custom .308 Norma Mag (my "retirement" rifle).
Also, I have a nice little Model 63 Smith (a stainless 22/32 "kit" gun) in a kitchen cabinet. It seldom gets used, but over the years it's dispatched many a garden pest and put a half-dozen or so ran-over cats out of their misery.
While all of the above examples have sentimental value to me, and that .22 RF rifle Mom and Dad gave me for my 10th birthday might be considered "collectable" by some people (it's a Model 55 Winchester single shot/semiauto), I wouldn't call any of them a "safe queen." ;)
 
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silicosys4 said:
What are your determining factors in deciding you won't shoot a gun?
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I have a flintlock pistol that you couldn't pay me to shoot. They used steel so thin it's hard to believe and I only bought it to admire. Got a couple of revolvers I bought for the same reason that are probably safe but if a part breaks you are left with a broken gun. I do rarely shoot my inherited guns just to bring back the memories excepting my grandad's 410. If I catch a gopher cleaning out his burrow it gets used.
 
In addition to being a gun enthusiast, I'm also a musician (keyboard player). There is this thing called "G.A.S."...Gear Acquisition Syndrome. Most musicians spend some time wrestling with it. I first opened my eBay account back around 2004. Since then I have owned at least 50 different keyboards or synthesizers, but currently only own about five, and only two or three which I play which are really useful for the kind of music that I do these days. There are just so many damn things out there that I might like to try. But I always just have to ask myself how useful is it going to be and how much of a headache is it going to become! Like guns, synthesizers also need maintenance and repairs and cleaning and all that jazz (pun intended). I'm to the point where I just want to play. If I find a couple of good things that suit my purposes, I'm really not going to spend a lot of time dwelling on those things that I think I should have or bask in some kind of pride of ownership thing. I'm also getting that way with guns. Currently I only own 8, and of all those, my 9mm Shield with the belt clip gets carried more than any other. Occasionally I switch to a 4" 357 when on the trail. Sometimes I carry a little Smith and Wesson 60 in 38 special on trips just because it's so light and concealable, and yet legendary and it's design and construction. My Ruger p89 is probably a little too big for me as I've discovered. I've been considering trading it up to another 357 maybe an old Service Six. The latest addition to my arsenal is the new equalizer which came with six magazines and cost me less than six bills! I'm to the point where I like pretty much all the guns that I have, and yet I would also carry them and I feel they all Heather niches and purposes.... Leaving that P89 since it could arguably shoot just about any 9mm ammo available today for breakfast. The only gun that I keep around that I don't feel has truly utilitarian purposes but is a really nicely designed little thing is my Radom p83 also known as the "Wanad". It's the only gun that I currently keep just because I like it for a number of reasons, not because it has some kind of deeply utilitarian value. I suppose if I didn't have my Shield it would get carried a lot more often. It would jump right into the same niche that the Shield has. In some ways its better because I can carry twice as much ammo for the same space and effort. Usually I switch to that gun for the winter but this year I didn't. I guess that's just my personal evolution. I'm still very attached to that little gun and I don't think I want to get rid of it just yet. I'll definitely get rid of the Ruger P89 before I get rid of the Radom. She can guard that safe indefinitely. 😁
 
I have some older family guns I'll probably never shoot, but will never get rid of. A friend of mine has a collection that is an investment, not sure exactly, lot of original Colt SAA pistols and things like that. You take care of something like that and leave it in a safe for 40 years, not sure how that works out compared to other investments, but it is cooler than mutual funds I'll give him that.
 
silicosys4 said:
In each case it was rarity and condition. They were in each case either low production and high condition, very old and well preserved, or just exceedingly rare to find in high condition.
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I have a few, and this comment applies to me. Some are just older, nice examples of what was once a fairly common gun, but isn't anymore. For instance I have a Smith 25-2, but I don't shoot it because I have a newer 625 as well. I can shoot .45ACP all day in that until it bursts into pieces if I want to, because I could just buy another.
 
I was born in 1957 and the only true Safe Queen I have is a fully engraved 1957 Colt National Match 1911 that my wife bought for my 57th birthday … I did shoot it once, only to prove to myself it is everything it’s supposed to be, and it is.

I took several pictures and this was the best I could get … I guess it’s time to get a newer phone … IMG_1408.jpeg
 
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In my collection i have six Lugers, four are all matching and two are mixmaster shooters. I've never fired three of them and only fired the other one once. I shoot the mixmasters like I hate them. Lugers have so many numbered parts and it only takes one part to break and then the collectible value drops like a rock. Frankly, I am more of a collector than I am a shooter, so many of my other vintage firearms are rarely fired.
 
First of all my guns are not safe queens just saved back for the right time to be shot. Most of mine are odd ball AKs, the type that are not the normal ones seen at the range. These type guns should be a good collection some day, maybe when my kids get them.
 
A) Heartless cruelty after a sham “show trial”. ;) I just added this emoji for people who can't see through simple words.......
B) The shameless desire for power over helpless guns which were innocent.

The Garand “Special S. Grade from the CMP had been stored over in Greece, and had no apparent visible wear.

The Sig P228 had almost no wear and such nice blueing.

My resolve was to sell them and no longer own a gun simply to preserve a generally virgin condition.

A guy on a different gun website recently had access to Quite an estate sale; was offered an all-original, all-matching, near-mint Belgian FN Para Folder FAL 50.// (?) rifle for only $3,000! Naturally a pre-ban.
I suggested that he go use it at least a few times.
 
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.308 Norma said:
I don't think I'd ever heard or read the term "safe queen" until the internet came along
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I believe the term was borrowed from "hangar queen": an airplane that never flies, being stuck in a hangar for perpetual repairs. Kind of a disparaging term, actually. You're not praising a gun by calling it a "safe queen."

This is a term that would be used by shooters, but not by collectors. To shooters, a "safe queen" is a gun that has no utility. Collectors would have trouble with that concept.
 
Even with my backyard shooting range (and my contiguity with the ancestral family farm) I just haven't gotten around to shooting all of the firearms in my Accumulation.

Much of that is because when I answer the call to grab a rifle (and/or handgun) for a walkabout on the farm, I tend to pick one of my "regulars" for the stroll.

Now that I have acquired a few suppressors, my Walking Guns line-up will change a bit ... again. ;)
 
I have some guns I don't shoot, but in this state to sell legally they must go thru the transfer BS. It's something I don't care to do cuz of the travel, expense and hassle just to get it done. And I enjoy showing them off to my fellow gun friends who only have one or two guns and I can show off 40 or so, give or take.
 
I have three safe queens and don't shoot them because I want to keep them in the same condition as they were when I got them so I can pass them on. One is a nickel 6" M29-2 that was a low production commemorative and originally a closed market gun; another is a M520, a non-catalogued special order that was a limited production. Both are as new and unfired since the factory. The third is a "war gun", my stepdad's WWII Colt Model M. It's been fired, both by my stepdad and by me, but it's been years since it was loaded. It's the oldest firearm I own. I have plenty of other guns I can and do shoot.
 
I used to only keep guns that I shot. Now that I am older I don't shoot so much. But I have regretted selling many guns and it is harder in this state now. I have a couple now.
 
I have only one "safe queen" and it is about 80-90 years old. It is a S&W “Mod. of 1905 – 4th change”, in .32-20, with a 6" barrel. When I found out several years ago what its "book value" was, it got "retired". Also, the only ammo I could find were some rather expensive LRNs that are relatively low powered.
There is another that may have been a cop's duty gun around 1900-1920. It has lost almost all of its bluing, the barrel has stamped on it “Colt. D.A. 38” and I have shot .38 Specials through it. What I couldn't figure out was why its accuracy was so off - until it was pointed out to me that the cylinder was NOT locking when cocked. It has been "retired" because of that but it was the gun I saw as a child lying on a shelf under the cash register in my grandfather's store. Even if unusable (safely), I'll keep it.
Here are those two.

S&W .32-20 rt.jpg Colt D.A. rt.jpg
 
Old-ish practically unfired Model 36 I bought from a friend in another state when I moved to AZ, thinking it would be a good carry gun since my first gun was a 4" 686 Plus, not exactly concealable on a munchkin like moi... but a couple of range visits with it disabused me of that idea, I can't shoot it accurately enough to imagine 5 shots would be enough, and it totally kills my hand. But it is so beautiful I don't want to part with it -- original wood grips and the original bluing is still perfect. Plus there is a bit of sentimental value as the friend I bought it from is my original self-defense mentor.

P.S., current carry gun is a 3" Colt King Cobra, perfect for me. :)
 
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