Phases of gun ownership

L

lockedcj7

New member
It's pretty well documented that hunters go through distict phases in their lifetimes. Some progress more quickly through them, some get stuck in one phase or another for longer than others but the phases are fairly predictable for many folks.

I've recognized that I'm going through a similar transition in my gun collection. At first, I was just happy to be able to afford entry-level, cheap and used guns. As I got older, I was able to buy, sell and trade to get some nicer stuff but they were all utilitarian and there was a lot of polymer.

Now I'm more drawn to old guns with soul. I don't look at them as "used", I look at them as survivors. I wonder what adventures they've been on, what game they've taken and whose butt they saved.

Like taking an old dog on one last hunt, it makes me feel good to get them back into the field. Just wondering if anyone else is or has gone through the same thing.
 
I'm an old fart and I feel the same way. To me, nothing is as sad as a firearm that is perfect, as new and unfired. My favorites are well used, show years of use and carry and have "personality."

One of my prizes is a S&W Model 36 that was owned by a LEO in New Mexico. He passed away and his son sold the gun. The grips are worn smooth and there is little bluing left. What stories that gun could tell! I removed the grips and I found his initials and SS # scratched on the frame. I ran his SS# and came up with his name and found some history on him. I even found his death notice in his local newspaper! The SS number is available as he was deceased. That is a S&W well worth owning! The price was cheap as it was so worn in appearance yet it's worth a fortune to me!

YUP, I see your point!

Flash
 
I don't know that I've ever gone through distinct phases. I still appreciate a cheap (but reliable gun), but one of my favorites is an old surplus SKS i've got that a bunch of soldiers decided to carve their names into the stock. I wonder who those soldiers were, if they got in trouble for defacing the gun, etc....
 
I don't ascribe emotion or experience to firearms. I don't consider them to have "seen" or "experienced" any adventures, any more than my hammers or saws have built houses.

My firearms are utilitarian and I buy and use them for specific purposes. I buy the one that best that fits the budget and fills the purpose, age irrelevent.

I always have and I don't know why I would change.

I see no more romance in buying and using a 75 or 100 year old gun rather than a brand-new one than I do in using an old hammer instead of a new one.
 
OK,Peetza
I do understand what you are saying,I understand the thought process.Spock.
It is not wrong.
But,hmm,I cannot recall the title of the old,obscure movie"Red Sun" maybe..
Western,had to do with a bad guy who stole,among other things,an old line family samurai sword.A samurai warrior was given the quest to recover that sword.
The competition was a bounty hunter who wanted the same guy.

Somehow that sword was more than the steel in a barbed wire fencepost.

I recall an old rolling block,how the corners and wood had worn so much,not by refinish,but by the sand,hands,and touch of being carried and used.

IMO,objects of "Art" like commissioned public building art or some of the more modern stuff I do not understand,take me nowhere.

But some art,is a doorway to the soul,the imagination.I can walk through it,to somewhere else.

An old shepherds 32-20,an original Hawken,A Creedmore Sharps or Rolling Block,An old Peacemaker,a Garand,all can open that doorway.

Provenance.

I get it,that for serious purposes,a Glock,an SR-25,a Bennelli,and an M-4 might very well be the tools of choice,and there will be little,if any warm fuzzy associated.

But,a 1911 or a Peacemaker,a Sprngfield or Garand or a Krag,or Win 86,or a Sharps,an M-1 carbine or a Win 92 carbine....a Win 97 trench gun or an old Wells Fargo Greener coach gun....

There is something there,even if Spock would be confused.
 
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Im not saying anybody is wrong and I mean no offense, I just don't see it.

A gun that's been in the family for generations is another thing, if it were one that held memories, but it's the people in the memories that matter, not the gun.
If its one that some great uncle owned that no one remembers, it's no different to me that an old hammer I found in my basement.

Just as an old hammer that my great-grandfather used to build his first house after emmigrating which his father used and my father used might inspire stories about PEOPLE who are special to me. That hammer might have some meaning because the people in the stories have meaning.

Otherwise, it's just an old hammer that may or may not work as well as a new one but I see nothing special in using it. There's a good chance it has some connection to somebody. Somebody used it for something but I don't know and I have no connection, why should it make me feel good to use it?

To me, it would be like using a WWI helmet rather than a modern hard hat. Think of the "adventures" it's had, the "lives it's saved"!

I don't know, I don't get it.

Maybe if I fought in a war with one of these guns, I'd see an emotional connection.

Just because "somebody" did, maybe? I don't see it. It might as well be an old pipe wrench, to me.

But no, my collection hasn't evolved, except in the sense of "needing" different guns for different/new purposes, such as the state legalizing rifles for deer hunting.
 
nothing wrong with utilatarian functional tools..i have some as well.

but if there was a room with 2 tables

and on one of the tables there were a offering of polymer composite firearms

and the other table had steel and wood ones

i know which one i'd be drawn to more...

now i'd pick, the ones with soul..their siren song calls to me louder
i appreciate diffrent type of actions more now, as well as finishes, weights, and balances, fit and feel,and function

1-2 decades ago, i'd pick the utilitarian ones and not even be interested in classics..no interest in anything not semi auto then. so i guess it does go in phases..

this is not a knock on any manufacturer or model as they are all functional..
but instead my preference.
 
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+1 with Surveyor...

...but an interesting observation; I like wood and metal better than polymer guns too, but I've got a pair of gun safes, one for "collection storage" tucked away and a smaller one in my bedroom that holds 7-10 long guns that I shoot most frequently. Look in the smaller one and all you see is black polymer guns; 22's, 223's and shottie.

So is anybody else like that; Wood and metal collectibles but polymer for the everyday working guns?
 
Only wood and steel here. Of course, being more affordable, that's probably why I have them. But I just don't get a warm fuzzy feeling when picking up anything polymer. Doesn't mean they don't work (they probably work better), but there's something about wood and the weight.
 
Im not a collector and mine are more for using than admiring.
Fine wood and fancy engravings do not increase the value of a firearm for me at this time. Although a nice blued steel and wooden stocked firearm is nice and has a better feel than polymer I will admit.

When I first started purchasing I didnt give too much thought to it other than I wanted ( _____ firearm) and blued and wood were my choice.
Now 21 yrs later most of my purchases are geared towards standardizing of calibers and models in stainless/synthetic and of polymer firearms which will last for many years and that I dont mind scuffing or scratching. I also have slowly sold off almost all my blued guns and replaced them with the same model but in stainless.

So I guess im in a utilitarian stage at this time.
 
Locked - I'm with you. Your "taking an old dog on one last hunt" really struck a chord. My son-in-law, an avid hunter, knows that I have almost no physical ability left to hunt, but he is figuring out how to put together for me what he calls a "gentleman's hunt."

Like you, I appreciate the workmanship and design that went into the guns produced in our "era." Polymer-based parts and guns are the modern generation and I don't dismiss them in the least, but I think that they represent a complete transition from "form" to "function." If that causes more Americans to take up shooting as a hobby, then it is an outstanding transition because it solidifies our stance of protecting our Second Amendment rights.

But that leaves the artisanship behind, which might be a big part of your point. That artisan-built quality I miss a lot, but thanks to Internet re-sale sites I can buy as many old, well-made guns as I can afford for as long as I will live, my wife notwithstanding.

A mistake we might make, as old farts, is to assume that our offspring will retain (other than for collectibles) our values regarding quality and craftsmanship versus practicality, accuracy and durability of firearms. Already I see this change, in the dissing of antique furniture that we thought would be a biggie for the kids.

Bottom line: I am happy that there will be, until I die, enough of us old-timers who appreciate the quality of old, well-made and still useful firearms to keep interest in them and their use alive. For lack of a better expression, it is sort of a 1957 Chevy moment.

FV
 
Ok, so, are we talking about appreciating quality and craftsmanship or are we talking about "soul" and "taking an old dog for one last hunt"?

They seem... unrelated.

One is real and quantifiable. The other is Anthropomorphism.

I don't have a problem with either one, they're just different.

I very much prefer traditional, woodstock, well-made guns, although I do prefer stainless to blued.

Even that preference is life-long though, there hasn't been any "evolution" or phases of my collection.
 
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At the risk of being an old-aged smart-ass, there were no stainless guns, that I recall (or that anyone I knew could afford), before I was into Police Practical in 1973 or so, except for the Chiefs Special of 1966.

The first stainless I ever saw was a 3" Model 66 that a FL Highway Patrolman kicked our butts with in a PCP match. Most of the rest of us used K-38s or equivalent; HKS speedloaders were God's Gift to combat shooters at the time - the peak of efficiency.

They were good times. Never forget your good times, nor to tell your children and grandchildren about them, no matter how foreign that may seem nowadays.
 
I have never gone through any phases, have always been a Steel and Walnut man, and a milsurp collector. My first rifle-purchased 1967-was a milsurp, and my most recent-purchased 2010-was a milsurp.
 
As I've aged, I am drawn more towards firearms that I consider beautiful or elegant. Right now my favorite is a single shot, falling block rifle. It's elegant. Not really appropriate for hunting in east Texas, but I love to hold it and work the action.
 
I have always been a collector and mine are more for admiring. As I had more disposable income as i age thus my big collection with a lot that I have never been fired. It would bring some of you salty old guys to tears.
I have about one of everything old and new and many calibers including obsolete. 40 years of accumulating.
 
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I dunno. I'm 40 and I will always appreciate fine craftsmanship and history behind a firearm over something new and cheap anyday. if money was no object I would probably only own high-end firearms. I dislike cheap guns, well, because you get what you pay for. i'd rather save my money for the more expensive firearm than give in to my urges and get a gun because it was too good of a deal to pass up. with that said, when I look at an older firearm I do wonder what life it's lead. was it a safe queen? did it go on a lot of hunts?
 
Woody55 - ditto. My next-most recent purchase was a beautiful early-'70s Ruger No. 1 in .45-70 from a want-his-autograph builder of trophy competition guns who was reducing his collection. It's not a $50,000 European custom gun, but I love it just to look at it. I plan to shoot it some and then to pass it on to my son-in-law, an elk-hunter. Most recently, I struck a deal for a Springfield trap-door in .45-70. It is just about the last thing in the world I need, at my age, but it will be fun to shoot and to pass on down, and importantly it will give me a small sense of redemption for having foolishly traded away my grandpa's Spencer Repeater about 40 years ago.

I'm blessed that two of my three children appreciate firearms and their history, for their own sake, rather than just having an attraction for the latest product, and that they intend to make marksmen and hunters of my grandchildren. Here's to the older, hand-crafted and tuned firearms of yore. The art isn't yet dead, but with robotics and lasers it seems to be on life support. Soon, old farts like you and me will not be able to justify the use of the human hand to hone a firearm's components, if a machine can do it even more accurately. Fortunately, we have lived in what I believe were the best of times.
 
I'm mostly into the buying used stuff, but I've got a few new but nothing over $480 so far. Soon, I'm gonna start saving for either a BFR or S&W. Probably gonna take a year atleast to get that much extra money.
 
Yes. Ivebought more in the last two years- some my wife knows about;)

I buy according to purpose at this point in my gun life- about four years now. I will admit that economic issues drive me somewhat since those could affect food availability, cost, etc and the consequences of increased unemployment and it's concomitant issues.

The result of so many "what ifs" then has resulted in several purchases then.

My criteria is to buy the best that I can reasonably afford, but must be quality.

However, many guns are just plain cool and great to shoot.

Someday I hope to buy guns because looks, quality, etc that I don't really need:D
 
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