I think I might be a bit of a collector...

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Pops1085

New member
So for context, I come from a family who owned guns, but never used them other than once a year during deer season. I don't know if I ever even cleaned my rifle before I turned 18.

Anyways, the old lady is constantly going on about me having too many guns. So I have this constant internal battle giong on in my head about whether or not I really NEED that extra handgun and end up selling one I do like for something else. 6 months down the road, I end up buying it again because for some reason I just have to have a Beretta 92. (Nice thing about Berettas is they don't depreciate much in my experience)

I think I'm just at the point where I'm going to say screw it, I'm a collector and embrace that I like a little variety in my life.

The Beretta is an example, It's too big for me to carry except in the winter, and the 9mm is too small to hunt with, I can't shoot it as well as a 1911, and yet I just love 'em. They might be my favorite handgun out there. I've ended up buying and selling 6 or 7 of them over the years, and regret selling them every time!
 
Anyways, the old lady is constantly going on about me having too many guns.
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to me, that is the issue you need to resolve, before you worry about this or that gun. I'm not going to do relationship counseling, and this isn't the place for it, but if someone is getting on you about something its more important to fix the why before the what. Or so its always worked that way for me.

Good Luck.
 
I'm not a collector, more of an accumulator;) But "collector" implies more gravitas and is a term people understand, whether it is guns, stamps, or whatever.

In any case, guns are my hobby and I long ago quit trying to justify purchases as somehow "needing" this or that gun. Your spouse does not understand, and if you've been married for more than a few months, likely never will. So if considering yourself a "collector" makes the situation somehow more acceptable to you and/or your wife, be a collector. Fortunately for me, my wife knew I was a gun guy when we met, and in the 30+ years since, has never given me any grief about what or how many guns I've bought or how much gear, ammo,etc. I've bought.

BTW, I've owned a couple of the Beretta 92s. Excellent pistols. FWIW, I've bought, sold, then bought guns of the same model again myself. Way more than once.

Best of luck to you.
 
I am also an accumulator and not a collector. I have "affordable" firearms that all look almost new and perform flawlessly even though they are not valuable. I have both revolvers and semi-automatic handguns as well as bolt action, semi-auto, and lever action rifles with capacities between 7 and 30. I only have a pump action shotgun as I sold my single shots and gave my old pump to a grandson. I have stainless, blued and even plastic firearms. I have a little of everything for variety and my wife gave up years ago and understands as best she can. My guns have cost me between zero and six hundred dollars with most being in the two hundred to three hundred dollar range.
 
Ha, I never really thought about it like that, but I guess I'm becoming an 'accumulator' as well. Until about 6-7 years ago I viewed my guns as strictly utilitarian; none cost me much over $1000 with the vast majority coming in at less than $650.

But then I found that while I had all the guns I thought were necessary, I still wanted a few more. And most of the ones I was interested in didn't have a real use as far as my standards were concerned. Guns like a SA M1 Garand. Or a new Colt CQB Govt 1911. Or even a Kriss Vector carbine.

None of these guns will probably be true collector guns in my lifetime, and none would probably serve a realistic purpose in my 'collection,' but I still want them (and another dozen or so others).

Fortunately, all I have is a GF who can say whatever she wants about my guns, but has no real say in what I buy.

Good luck with your situation. Hope it all works out.
 
I need every gun I ever bought. And no I don’t have a problem. It’s just that I feel like I need one more. That’s it really just one more. Oh and another gun safe. There’s no room left in the others. Just saying.
 
Space is my nemesis I simply don’t have enough of it and when you are “collecting the whole set” as I tell people, this is an issue. :)
 
In any case, guns are my hobby and I long ago quit trying to justify purchases as somehow "needing" this or that gun.
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I believe some of us get into trouble when we misunderstand what our hobby really is. I had a friend at an indoor range for a decade or so. I saw him nearly every week...eating doughnuts, drinking coffee and talking. I think I saw him shooting once in that time. He knew a lot about and collected some specific type of Colts revolver. His hobby was guns, but wasn't really shooting guns.

When I started shooting, I promised myself that I wouldn't become a collector, that I would only own what I could shoot regularly. I have not kept that promise.

I have arms I haven't shot in years because I know I can't replace them <--- I don't consider that especially rational. My wife considers my hobby to be a minor vice, but is more or less happy that given my choice of potential vices, I chose a benign one.
 
When I started shooting, I promised myself that I wouldn't become a collector, that I would only own what I could shoot regularly. I have not kept that promise.
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We all start out that way, don't we?

I'm a collector. I don't mind admitting that anymore. Anyone who has more than 2 range toys (one rifle and one hand gun), one small carry gun, a hunting rifle, and 1 AR or AK (and that's stretching it) is a gun collector. That's a total of 5 firearms - beyond that, how much shooting are you really doing with all those "other guns"?
 
We all start out that way, don't we?
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You might think that, but the fellow from I school I started shooting with was a collector at heart right out of the gate. He was obsessed with keeping everything in perfect condition and perfectly clean. Cleaning was so burdensome for him that he came to regard shooting as something like a transgression.
 
I accumulated a pretty fair amout of firearms over the years. The S&W bug bit and at one time I counted 45 of them in the safe.

Rifles are another story. I would buy a caliber for a certain use so accumulated a few of them too. This winter I finally sold off a 700 Classic in .300 H&H that I bought for a hunt. Beautiful rifle and I hated to sell it but I no longer hunt big game. If I start again I'll buy another. For rifles I favor Remington and Winchester, always have. Down to 4 centerfire rifles now and only 10 S&W revolvers.

As I've gotten older if I realized I wasn't using a gun I'd pass it on to someone who would use it.
 
I'm not a collector, more of an accumulator
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Me too, although I have accumulated a pretty fair collection of Winchesters over the years (some clean, others not). My problem with collecting is that I want to shoot the guns, not just look at 'em! So I have my Winchester 1897, 2 1885s (a High Wall and a Low Wall), a 1892, 3 1894s (real 1894s, not the new stuff), a 1903, a 77, a 43, a 52C, a couple of Model 70s (pre-war) and couple of Model 12s (20 and 16 ga). Probably have way too much into them, and I'll cry when my kids sell them when I'm too old, but right now they are fun to have. It's easy to get nostalgic and remember old friends and old dogs when you handle old firearms.
 
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