Do you have Safe Queens?

Safe queens?

  • I have one or more safe queens and am never tempted to shoot them

    Votes: 59 22.6%

  • I have at least one safe queen but it's very hard to resist giving her a workout

    Votes: 11 4.2%

  • I have "special" guns that I treat very gently and rarely shoot

    Votes: 95 36.4%

  • Guns are tools to be used, I wouldn't consider buying a gun that I wouldn't shoot on a regular basis

    Votes: 96 36.8%
  • Total voters
    261
  • Poll closed .
I have an inherited Sig p250c that gets the workout that my uncle Tim would have wanted. It gets shot every time I go out. Hell it's my HD gun. It was his.

I completely understand if people dont want to shoot their inherited guns, whether it be an antique, or damaged, or too sentimental, I agree with their choice. I shoot mine because it was good enough for Uncle Tim, it's good enough for me, and he would have wanted it.

longhair, my condolences. I couldn't imagine...
 
Lot of safe queens, I am a collector primarily. A gun collection is like a stamp or coin or art collection, just contemplating them gives a great deal of enjoyment.
 
None. Only gun I don't shoot is a Daisy .22 rifle that was my first rifle, and was given to me by my late grandfather. I've been so into "tactical" firearms that it collects dust. That and the old 4x scope is GONE.
 
I won't buy a gun if it's the gun of gun I won't shoot. Just like I don't buy clothes that I won't wear, movies that I won't watch, and so forth.
 
Safe queens?
I have one or more safe queens and am SOMETIMES tempted to shoot them
Click to expand...

I think to myself (about the safe queens) that they do me no good not to shoot as i dont ever plan on selling them. SO, whats the point in never shooting them? Then i take em out, clean em, and look at em in their pristine unfired shape-and put them away. Cant unfire a gun, but can always choose to pop its cylinder (lol) down the road.
 
Safe queen ? Hell I don't even have a safe, wouldn't own one anyway. I figured if you need a safe, your a gun shop owner right ? Cause if your not you've got too many guns, let some one else have some.:D
 
I've got a 7.7jap that's taken three deer, two javilina and an elk since I last fired it. It's popular with friends and family who need to borrow a rifle either as primary or backup for hunting trips. My 700 remmie has been loafing since I took up bowhunting. There's a brass frame 1858 Peitta I'm holding for the widow of a friend. Picked up a couple of extra 58 NMA's just cause they were on sale. Once you get on your second safe it gets easier to hold on to a few extra, the little extra time and oil are worth it to me. My kids all know who gets which gun, which ones I bought for the grands etc. Just cause I don't shoot them right now doesn't mean they aren't filling a purpose anyhow. Investing in firearms is tricky, but if I were to sell my AMT 25/.22 I'd just have to buy something in a few years to teach the youngest grand kid to shoot with, but I doubt it would be as good a gun. So though I ain't shootn some just now I got no problem hanging on to them for a bit.
 
I could truthfully answer "yes" to three of the four options in the poll.
I have one or more safe queens and am never tempted to shoot them
I have at least one safe queen but it's very hard to resist giving her a workout
I have "special" guns that I treat very gently and rarely shoot
Guns are tools to be used, I wouldn't consider buying a gun that I wouldn't shoot on a regular basis
Click to expand...
I absolutely agree with the number four option, but that doesn't mean I haven't or wouldn't.

I have two handguns that are considered safe queens right now. One of them isn't going to stay.

The first one is my Grandfather's old S&W. I was shipped from the factory in 1921 and he bought it used in 1923... kept it some 67 years and gave it to me when I graduated high school. I've had it now for 20+ years. I don't feel compelled to shoot it, but I will always bring it out for some shots if someone in my family expresses a desire to shoot "Grandpa's old revolver." I don't want to shoot it because I have in the past and I have similar revolvers to shoot when I feel the need or want. It's functionally perfect but the finish is worn.

The biggest struggle for me is that cleaning it after shooting it seems to harm it -- it's factory nickel plated and I can't bear the thought of cleaning it and harming the already troubled finish. I also couldn't shoot it and not clean it.

The other safe queen is an expensive handgun that I got a very good deal on and I figure I will sell for a small profit. Because it's not been fire outside of the factory and I did not buy it to own it, I think it ludicrous for me to shoot it. It's in 100% NIB condition and I intend to sell it.

Yes, I want very, very much to shoot it. But I also want to sell it, so I haven't shot it.

Typically, I have zero interest in buying any firearm that I can't shoot it. I truly believe that. But this was an opportunity that I couldn't pass on, even though I knew before I laid out the cash that I wasn't planning to keep it.
 
Sevens -

Nice story about your grandfather's revolver, those old nickel finishes can be fragile. I wish to heck I had kept my dad's firearms when he passed away in '85, not that they were anything great but they would have a lot of sentimental value to me now. I wasn't into guns then and let his brother run off with them, who since died and I have no idea where they went. :(
 
Thanks. Funny thing about that revolver... it's got sentimental value, sure, but my Grandfather was really not much of a gun guy or shooter. I suppose he bought it because in the 1920's, a man owned a handgun. He was born in 1900 so he would have been 23 when he bought it. He told me where he bought it and the letter from Roy Jinks told me where it was shipped and the two jive nicely.

I really don't know how much he shot it, I would assume that it wasn't a lot. I know my Dad shot it a few times, but he wasn't much of a shooter either.

So there's certainly sentimental value, and I'm tickled that I have some history of it and that it's been in my family now for 87 years, but it's probably not the same kind of sentimental value that a man gets from a firearm that his father hunted with, or doted over, or carried on duty or was pressed in to urgent need or some such thing.

It remains mostly a safe queen because I don't want to wear it any more than it already is. But it's not buried in the safe in a box under receipts and files -- it sits in a rack next to all the handguns I use regularly and it comes out of the safe many times in the average year to be inspected, shown, fondled, and whatever else.

I really don't know how much it's worth. Given the age, it's condition is horribly subjective and I admit freely that I don't have the knowledge to properly grade it.
 
I'm a mix. On the one hand, anything I get in purchase or trade is going to be something I, my wife, or our guests will use. On the other hand, I have inherited my father's extensive collection; of those, there are several I will hang on to strictly for sentimental value, and not necessarily shoot:
  • My father's 1911 .45 he put together from alloyed parts
  • My grandfather's Charles Daly .410 over/under shotgun
  • My mother's Remington Targetmaster 22
Occasionally I regret not having my father's Ruger #1 .300 WinMag hunting rifle; however, I let his best friend have it - he and his children are active hunters (I have no children), so I know it will be passed down and used well.
 
safe queens

I have these safe queens,all like new,with box.
Dick
Picture015.jpg

top mdl.10-5 ser.#D3
30-1 ser.#H3
34-1 ser.#M3
36-- ser.# J3
 
While I don't shoot them all regularly, I shoot all of my guns at least occasionally. The only two reasons that I would not shoot a gun even occasionally are if it is unsafe to fire or if ammunition is not available.
 
I don't really have any safe queens, but there are some guns that I have not fired in a very LONG time (mainly due to lack of free time). I don't think I've fired either of these two Colts in over two years.

GC_in_box1_sm.jpg

delta_elite.jpg
 
Most of my guns could be considered safe queens because my time available for shooting dropped massively and abruptly about 9 years ago.

I have 2 NIB never shot.
One is a duplicate of a 1911 I used to use heavily in matches. The other is a NIB Sig that was overtaken by family medical issues.
Compared to the truck and motorcycle that were sold for the same reasons the guns aren't being used, the guns take up little space.

Life happens.

Fortunately the value of the guns in the safe isn't withering as quickly as if I'd put cash in there instead.....
 
I shoot everything I own ...( I just can't do it any other way ...) ...

I treat everything I own well ... I've been very lucky ( have a great wife that indulges my desire to buy and shoot some nice guns ) .....Wilson Combat 1911's, Ed Brown 1911's, Sig X-Five, older S&W revolvers ...but they just aren't fun to have if you don't shoot them....

This is my Wilson Combat Protector, in 9mm, a 5" gun that I ordered a few years ago ---and it recently went over the 30,000 round mark .../ it has a couple of scratches, if you look close ....but for 30,000 rds ...it will serve me very well for a long time ....

http://thefiringline.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=62367&d=1282241291

Here is Sig X-Five - model with the adjustable trigger -- that I also like very much ...

http://thefiringline.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=62284&d=1281982954

No safe queens here ....

I guess at some point / when you have over 25 guns or so / you are probably a collector as well as a shooter ....but I just get my enjoyment out of shooting everything I own ----not just putting them away.
 
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