If you could do it all over...?

I wouldn't change much. I don't have a problem with selling guns I don't care for or don't use. Life is a journey, I wouldn't have the first hand knowledge of as many different guns if I had kept them all. I've lost count, but it has been several hundred. I almost always buy used and sell at a profit later if I find I prefer something else. Over the years my taste in guns and chamberings has evolved and changed somewhat.

If I hadn't been willing to sell guns, I'd never have been able to afford some of the nicer guns in my collection. I've made a mistake or two over the years, and have bought a gun a time or two to replace one just like it I sold. But overall there are none I'd want back right now. Over the last few years I've been steadily selling off lots of my guns and using the money to upgrade what I have, or to pay for hunting trips. I don't own as many, but the quality of the ones I do own has improved greatly. And with no out of pocket money. I haven't bought anything new, or upgraded what I own with better optics or stocks without selling something to finance the upgrade in years.

If someone had told me 40 years ago to buy the guns I currently own I'd still not be happy. Some things you just have to find out for yourself, and if you don't try different things along the way, how do you know you have made the right decision. I've sold some pretty good guns along the way, but I strongly believe in the following quote. "Sometimes good things must end, before better things can begin."
 
I don't think I would do it much differently overall. I have never had a fascination with milsurps, hence my expenditures in that area have been minimal. I think just about every shooter needs one EBR or similar rifle pre adult in their household.

Overall, my accumulation has been pretty well planned with a predominance of 22 rimfire rifles and handgus. But I like them the best anyway, so no change in that department. If anything, I would have concentrated on accuracy sooner and had more.

Back when I would buy stuff just because I felt like it are over and I have gotten rid of most of the stuff like that. Most of them disappeared within 12 months after purchase. But I still miss some of the nice 38spl Colt Diamondbacks and Pythons that I used to pick up and sell. Overall, no regets.
 
kraigwy said:
My biggest mistakes was in selling or trading some of the guns I sold or or traded.

If I had it to do over again, I would never sell or trade a firearm.
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Ditto, especially those given to me by my dad.

Those included a Win. mod. 55 (My first real gun, a semi-auto, single shot beginner's rifle that fired from an open bolt), A Win. mod. 250 .22 lever action, A sporterized, scoped American Enfield .30/06, a High Standard Sentinel .22 revolver, a Colt Buntline .22 mag. revolver with a 1.5X Phantom scope, and a Beretta Jaguar .22 semi-auto pistol that I traded for a CB radio, of all things :rolleyes:.

The foolishness of youth :(.
 
I'd have started a comic strip back in the early 1970's titled "Malcom the Mall Ninja".

Malcom could have battled the forces of evil, greed, big giant saltwater fish and disco music.
 
There are two things that I would do differently. First, I would've gotten into the shooting hobby sooner in life. Second, I would've bought a classic gun as my first gun instead of the new one I bought. Oh well.
 
I would have bought a .22 instead of trying to learn on a .357 snub, and a Taurus at that. I'd also have never bought a Taurus or Kimber.
 
"Mistakes are just like horses that we ride.
Ain't no need to ride 'em over,
'Cause we could not ride 'em different
If we tried."
 
I'd buy all the $39.95 Lugers I could that Ye Old Hunter advertised in the American Rifleman in the 60s.
 
And what were you getting paid when Lugers were $39.95?
Me, not much.

I would have followed my Dad's advice and bought fewer but nicer guns.
 
I'd have filled up on USGI 1911 pistols before prices went out of sight. I started my firearms hobby in 1989.
 
I would not have sold my Remington 700 BDL 30/06, that thing had 1/2" MOA.

I would not sell my Colt Python, I still long to shoot that gun.

I would not have been so cheap when it came to buying hunting guns for my kids, looking back they deserved better:(
 
Do different.....Nothing !!

I've had a great time collecting, shooting, reloading, etc ....and am very lucky, because I have everything I want ( primarily in terms of handguns and shotguns ) ... and even though I only have around 50 guns or so, most of them are higher quality ...and have been great fun to accumulate and shoot.../and I still shoot a couple of times a week as a major part of my hobby...

I still occasionally add another gun - that I just can't pass up because its a great deal ...another S&W revolver, another high end 1911 or another Browning O/U shotgun ...but I'm more adding it / to pass it down to one of the kids as a gift down the road in a few yrs.../ my collection is really complete in my eyes. So, Nothing ..../ Its been a great time !! - and will continue ...
 
I would spend more time listening to the ex miltary men (including my father) and civilian salts of the earth people that mentored my journey into firearms.

Their experiences and honesty were priceless to me and their influence on my life can never be replaced or measured in it's importance to me.

Actually having been there means something.
 
Well I've only been in the hobby for about a year and a half, so hard to say that I would/could change much. I can think of two things. 1) start earlier, at least when I was first 21 if not earlier than that. 2) Buy a nice target revolver instead of the s&w 36 I have that I love, but can't CC anyway because I go to school in a different state than my permanent residence and haven't had a chance to get a CHL for either state:(. Hopefully both the target revolver and the CHL will be remedied by the end of summer 2012 though.
 
As far as anything that would have actually been in my control, I wish I would've gotten into the hobby much sooner, however, I didn't have parents/friends that were. I can't really think of anything that I'd change. All my purchases have been well researched, I have everything I need (hardly everything I WANT), and I was raised in a family that had the mantra "why pay more for the name brand when you can get the same thing for half the cost?". My guns aren't junk, but they're far from the top-end stuff. I don't feel undergunned, though. If I need it in the moment, I'm certain that they'll all go BANG! when called upon.

Oh, I would have contemplated getting into hunting sooner, which my brother and I are planning our first soon. It's difficult being from a big city with no one to walk you through the process! Just owning a gun where I live was a monumental and mentally exhausting labor of love at first.
 
Not taken up drinking drugs and smoking. Skipped the first wife and started with the second.
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Precisely! ;)

In regards to the shooting hobby, I wouldn't change a thing. My parents allowed to start shooting at 5 or so, and had my first .22 rifle at 8.

I wouldn't have sold my S&W 3913 and 686 if I could go back, but I can always get them again
 
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