What "floats your boat" when it comes to guns?

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Eddietruett

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I was chatting with a gentleman at a Gun Show yesterday when he asked me "how long have you been collecting guns?". I do have a collection of revolvers, but don't think of myself as a collector. It got me to thinking, "why do you like to buy, sell and trade guns?". First, let me say there are the collectors who buy nice guns and put them in a safe just to look at or take out to show off to your buddies and never shoot them. In no way am I bashing you. If that is your thing, then by al means please do what makes you happy. Its just not me. First, I like the quest. I spend countless hours in Pawn Shops, Gun Stores and online looking to buy or trade for something new to me. Sometimes it is just to flip and make a few bucks to feed my reloading addiction but mostly its looking for something to shoot.. I shoot almost every gun I buy. I spend a lot of time working up loads so I know the most accurate load for the guns I own.{that's the fun of reloading}. I have been known to take a gun most would put away in a safe and shoot the snot out of it. I figure any loss of value I have by shooting a nice gun is overridden by the fun I have shooting it. There are exceptions of course. I shoot a lot and at a variety of distances. Just because a gun has a 2 or 3 inch barrel and fixed sights doesn't mean I won't spend hours shooting it at steel plates at 75 yards (the max on my backyard range). I have several no drill scope mounts that I use with Red Dot Tubes just to make sure I'm getting the best accuracy possible out of a new gun. My eyes aren't as good as they were 40 years ago. The more accurate a gun is as well as how much fun I have with it determines how long it stays in my "collection". When I'm no longer shooting something for whatever reason, then it gets sold or traded and the process starts over. I so have some guns that for various reasons that are not for sale and will go to the grave with me, but I've had some that didn't last a week.
Hopefully reading what I enjoy about guns was enjoyable to some and I would love to learn what you guys find the most fun about owning your guns whether its for looking, shooting, hunting, investing or whatever. So, "What Floats Your Boat?"
 
I just love guns and shooting and reloading. I do not collect guns. I buy what I like. Over the last few years I have sold some and bought some. My interests are more toward the enjoyment of shooting than competitions. I have grown tired of competitions. Or more accurately, I have grown tired of the people in competitions. I shoot to have fun.
 
Not a collector either, every gun I own gets shot.

I'm a revolver guy. I have a handful of semi-autos including 2x 1911s but revolvers are it for me.

I'm not crazy about but bore revolvers foursome reason. I'm more info older guns that are different. I like mostly S&W revolvers but I do have others. I own a 4" 1948 M&P I shoot a lot, love that trigger!
 
I collect shooters, and I like to have all my bases covered as far as the classics- Mauser, Enfield, Springfield, Garand, M92, 1911, High power, PP, P38, Luger, all the different frame size S&Ws, Auto5, etc.....

But if a gun is unreliable, I won't keep it no matter how pretty or historical it is.

Got no use for Tupperware myself, though I admit they have their place, just not here.....lol.
 
I don't buy, sell, or trade anywhere near what I use to do 30 or 40 years ago. Nowadays I enjoy what guns I have (mostly handguns), and have my bases covered in terms of guns for a specific purpose (concealed carry, home defense, target shooting, or plain old plinking). Have become more interested in revolvers these days (some black powder and all single action), just because I want to and enjoy having them.
 
A little of everything. "work"/competition/SD guns like AR's and Glocks. US MILSURP like Garands, Krags, 1917 and 1911's, classics like my nylon 66, python, and series 70 gold cup, highly tuned modern rifles like my OBR or M24 for long range play, and the "regular" guns that I hunt with.
 
My firearms are tools. I purchase (and rarely sell off) firearms for a purpose including protection, hunting, plinking, self defense, target shooting, and etc. If it doesn't shoot well, I try my darndest to improve it and have been fairly successful in doing so. And like Eddietruitt, I endeavor to persevere to find optimal handloads for most of them, and to find optimal factory loads for my 22s.
 
I love firearms. All of them. I want to master or at least become competent in as many as I can. I love the physics of ballistics and how every firearm I own is a little different.

With that said and in no particular order for what floats my boat is a combination of:
  • beauty
  • utility
  • quality

My Blaser R8 rifle meets all 3 of the above criteria in spades IMHO.
That rifle floats my boat. :cool:
 
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My main collection is C&R guns. The more funky and weird the better. The story behind their engineering makes me tick.

I particularly like C&R from the times of imperial nations such as 1890-1920. There was not nearly as much communication between nations as there was post WWI. It’s cool to see each nations unique evolution to arms development.
 
Big steve kinda summed it up pretty well for me. I'll add that a primary attraction for me is the mechanical working of firearms. I just absolutely love the perfect little (or big :) ) machines they are. Nothing else really replicates what they encompass as far as engineering ( both mechanical and chemical), artistry and emotion.
 
I’m curious by nature and enjoy having different experiences. I guess that’s the millennial in me because I think “the experience” is what drives them. But I like owning different types of firearms just to play with them for a little bit. If I like it I might keep it, but if not I have no problems trading it for something completely different. It’s the same reason I started reloading; it wasn’t to save money and it wasn’t for high accuracy, I just was curious about the process and figured the best way to understand it was to do it myself.
 
I'm interested in all guns, but primarily handguns.

I shoot my guns. Collector guns are just dust accumulators to me. I have a few I have behind glass because I like looking at them, but 2 of the three I shoot, the 3rd isn't safe.
 
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Not a collector because I shoot them. But a few are cult guns. S&W 60 & 60-4 in 38SPL, 681 357MAG and a 696 44SPL. Also a 4 screw 17 from 1959. On of each three generations of single stack 9mm pistols
 
Eddietruett said:
the most fun about owning your guns whether its for looking, shooting, hunting, investing or whatever
Click to expand...

Pretty much all the above.
I do not have a very big collection, in fact this morning I was wiping down my firearms & realized that I have only two that have never been shot by me. My Grandfather's SXS Parker & my Dad's 1895 94. Both (to me) too valuable to currently take out shoot........maybe someday. Otherwise, my tools are my toys.
 
What doesn't? Like George P, I appreciate fine shotguns. I'd start collecting Ljutics if I won the lottery, probably add a Perazzi and a Kreighoff, a Silver Seitz, an Alfermann, and visit the Kolar facility on the other side of the state, too.

But I also like old Colts; I have been lucky to have owned a few, (a Trooper, 2 Pythons, and a Cobra) and stupid enough to have sold them. (Well, I had to give the Trooper back to my Dad when my reloads cracked the firing pin on his Python...)

I like building guns; I built my self an XM177E2 clone back in '90, an AMD-65 in '06, and an AR pistol back in April. I've helped friends and my Dad with AR and AK (and one FAL) builds. I built a few CAR's for a friend's unit in the Army. (Between the XM177 and the m4's issue)

I like rebuilding abused guns; I bought a Win. 94 that had been in a fire from the gun shop I worked at, and rebuilt it. I'm giving that one to my older son for Xmas this year. I bought an Ithaca 37 from them also, and that one sits next to the bed for things that go 'bump' in the night.....

I collect Mosin Nagants. Initially because they were cheap, but I grew to like them. I've even hunted with some of them.Add in milsurps in general, I've had Enfields before and Mausers (still have a Turk)

Did I mention S&W revolvers? Yeah, I like them too, though I only have one right now. I've owned many over the years, though.

I like unique designs. Don't own any, closest thing I have is the Cobray SxS .410/.45 derringer, but I love looking at guns like the Darne sliding breech SxS, M. K. Jurek's target rifles and pistols, the Bronwing T-bolt and SA-22. The Manville Gun. The Nagant revolvers. The Savage/Petengill Navy. The Dardick. The Gyrojet.

Military small arms development fascinates me. The M249 Para was issued after I got out, but it fascinates me, a belt fed that short. I did fire the earlier M249. The CETME Amile is another one; a tiny MG42 copy in .223, fascinating. I find in interesting that no one has improved on (though many have tried) the 'ol M2 .50 BMG. The AN94 Nikonev. Interesting design. All the combination SAW/ Individual rifle concept guns in .223 (and 6.5, 6.8) being developed around the world.

I had a 'Assassin's gun" collection going for a while; an Iver Johnson cadet .22 and a Cobra.

About the only guns I don't have interest in is the Lorcin/Raven ilk, though I had a Jennings .22 for a while.
 
It all depends. When it comes to surplus guns, I like bolt actions. I don't go for the pretty ones, I like the War Horses, the ones that wear their history.
I like 22 cal rifles, bolts and autos.
I like revolvers of all types.
I kind of like ARs too.
I also like full size service pistols.
I do have a problem, and that is lack of focus when it comes to guns. If I like it, I buy it.
 
First, every gun I obtain, I intend to shoot. I'll admit that I have not shot every gun that I have obtained though.

I have passed on an S&W Model 544 (44-40 N-frame Texas Wagon Train Commemorative) once because it really needed to be left in the un-shot condition. If it had not been a commemorative edition, I'd have bought in a heart beat. I just needed another cartridge to load for.

I have gone through various phases and "themes" of collecting/obtaining firearms. The latest has been 8-3/8" barreled Model number S&W revolvers.
 
GunnyUSMC said:
I do have a problem, and that is lack of focus when it comes to guns. If I like it, I buy it
Click to expand...

I guess this is me as well. I like lots of them. My issue is I cannot in any way buy one of everything I like. When I wanted something in single action I bought one, now I want more. When I wanted a 1911, I bought one, now I want more. When I wanted and AR....... you get the idea. :)
I like them all bolts, lever actions, revolvers, semi-auto, rifle, pistol. I do not have anything I will not shoot. I guess it must be a shooter for me to own that is the only constant. So far at least. I do not consider myself a collector. My safe pales in comparison to most around here.

-jeff
 
Matching handguns with the necessary accessories,,,
Nicely ensconced in a lined wooden case.

They don't even have to be the same cartridge,,,
I like matching pairs of .22 rimfire/centerfire pistols just as well.

It's them being in that wooden case that floats my boat,,,
The wood case just exudes old school elegance.

Aarond

.
 
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