Do you baby your guns?

Yes, I baby all my guns. There are only certain ones I will hunt with in the rain and with those they are pre-treated with Johnson's paste wax before the hunt and carefully dried afterward. Last fall buddy & I were hunting deer in the rain; he gets out of the car and sets his rifle (that I sold to him) on the car. I cringed, but held my tongue while thinking "I never should have sold that to him". I put a piece of electrical tape over the bore for rain hunting. I am very careful with all my equipment-take care of your equipment and it will take care of you. OCD? Yup!
 
I'm all done hunting in lousy weather. I use scoped rifles exclusively and don't like getting water on lenses and inside gun mechanisms. However, I hunt within 5 miles of the house, I'm retired and can hunt 6 days a week, so losing a day or two to bad weather isn't a problem.

I take good care of my guns, but use relatively carefully. I'd absolutely never club an animal with a gun. Ammo is cheap, guns aren't.

Being a part-time gunsmith over the years, I tend to take better care of my guns than the average hunter/shooter. My shotguns are lightly-scratched from going through brush and bluing is worn off carry points, but they're barrels aren't dinged, nor are any parts rusted. My rifles and handguns may show handling/shooting wear, but are functionally excellent; most tuned to be better than new.
 
OP said:
Example, I bought an ar and for some paranoid reason I didn't want to take it out into the pouring rain. Am I alone in this? Is there a cure
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I was introduced to the AR by my Uncle who had a bunch of them in a big arms room at Fort Knox, KY. I carried several over the course of 25 years, in all manner of weather. Dust, sand, grit, monsoon, dry baking heat, snow, you name it. If I was there, the little rifle was there with me as well.

I still own one, a clone of the A2 that I carried for so many years, and I like the A2 better than the A1 I was issued in the early '70s. It's still the rifle I carry when the weather is apt to go all booger-snot on me. There is nothing there that the weather will hurt.

But, all my rifles (and they are legion) are rifles to be used. Wood stock, plastic stock, if I can't take it out in the weather it's useless to me. My current favorite is a wood stocked Rem700 ADL that was built sometime around 1983. All those scratches mean something and it's the rifle that my grandkids argue about getting when I pass on, because it's PawPaw's rifle. I don't know that any of them drool over the AR, but they lust over that beat-up Remington because that's the one I carry.
 
I try to take good care of my guns but I bought them to use. Scratches are just memories. I hate rust and go to great lengths to avoid it. And WD40 never ever touches my guns anymore.
 
>>I treat mine better than I do the Marine Corps' M16A4s<<

I know I'm showing my age, but when I was in the Corps. we were using the venerable M14! :)
 
No babies,bought them to use as needed.I do clean them regular might be in the creek But they are cleaned & oiled.;):D
 
Just got done building and sighting in a 10/22 for the sole purpose of using the hell outta it.

Tore into the parts tub and installed an old stainless barrel with broken sights, new sights, old dinged and cracked laminated stock and an old yet proven Savage 3-9x that came on a Savage 110 package a decade or 2 ago. Only true upgrade is a VQ hammer.

Built specifically for riding in the truck, hunting the nasty weather, crawling thru the mud and slippin on the ice. Not to mention the beating it takes hunting the thick stuff. Baby it? I think not.
 
1903 stock

hey bama : where did you get a stock of birds eye maple for your 1903, thats great!!!! I love it. I maintain, I wanted a springfield 30/40 in a carbine. so I took my 270 mag in for a trade. Now this weatherby is nice but I hunt with it. the buyer said it was too beat up, for a trade. BS the 30/40 was 1890 vintage, but nice for it's age. I will keep my 1970's vintage Weatherby, and keep searching for a 30-40 side trap. Birds eye maple stock,
 
I use them but i don't abuse them. If keeping a nice layer of oil on them while in storage is babying them, then yes. However, several of the guns were given to me as a present by a deceased relative, so i think it is disrespectful to him to let them rust up.
 
I don't really baby my guns, but I do take care of them. Only guns I baby are my 1943 95% Lend-Lease Colt 1911A1 and my '43 Garand. The other weapons I own are tools and they get used.
 
The only guns I baby are my Arsenal SLR-101S, 1962 Seneca Green Nylon 66 and my Dragunov Tiger. The rest I still take good care of but don't mind if they get dirty or rained on. Don't want scratches on any of them. I want them all to be nice for when my Son inherits them and for his kids to inherit them.
 
I wouldn't say I baby them. I find the grey area between the 'tools, not treasure' and 'I busted my ass to build/buy these, I want them to last me a long, long time' mindsets.
 
Some get "babied", others do not.

The tale of two duck guns...

My Grandpa's Sportsman 58, which according to my Gun Trader's Guide is worth about $700 bucks gets used very gently, and the one time it actually went in a duck swamp, I was very careful with it, and cleaned it very well when I got back.

My Benelli Super Black Eagle II, worth about a $1000 or so, gets beat around hard, it is a working gun.

It's all about perspective.
 
I have "safe" guns and "truck" guns. The "safe" guns mainly get left in the safe and the "truck" guns get treated like the tools that they are.
 
I do baby my scoped bolt guns, but that's mostly because of the scopes! I am more casual with my iron sight guns and very relaxed in fact with the SKS (no eggshells to worry about, it can take it). :D
 
use / not abuse

I hunt, therefore the use can be harsh, I live in Western Washington, that means rain, snow, dirt & dust etc..
Then when we get home, they get the spa treatment and put in the safe happy, knowing they gave their all and were rewarded for their deeds.
 
Yep, I baby my guns to an extent. I'm not OCD on cleaning them after each range use, but I do maintain them and make sure they are lubed and in good working order.
 
Sort of like a new car. Until that first door ding in a parking lot, I am so concerned of a scratch or dent on my new firearms that taking them to the range is almost cause for anti anxiety medication! After the first time they get a hickey on them, the anxiety is gone, and I have progressively less and less of an issue just using them.
 
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