sell it or shoot it?

"If you can sell it for a significant profit, that might be advisable. Then buy a shooter and use the profit to buy ammo or some other accessory. But if there's no real profit in selling it, shoot it and have fun."



I agree!
 
If it has a turn line, then no longer a collectable. Just enjoy it yourself by shooting it. Life is to short not too. One or two of my now used revolvers were 'never' shot by the previous owner. I always wondered about that....
 
Shooting doesnt mean you have to abuse it. I have a friend that is always turning me on to good deals, good deals for collector peices. He always wonders why I decline. I told him if I own a gun its getting shot. Period. So if its an unfired walther from the 40s I better not own it.

See my signature line for my answer.
 
Well seems kinda useless for me to say shoot it after 25 posts. But please shoot that gun. Every gun I own, I own to shoot. No safe queens here. I baby a couple very nice guns(S&W 27-2 , Colt Python, Diamondback) but I still shoot them. Used not abused.
 
If you get a NIB S&W in the P&R models, I would say don't shoot it and sell it to buy a hi condition shooter and pocket the profit. What you have is a hi codition shooter with box & docs, tools. The box serialed to gun is added value too. I would shoot it myself and leave
the box & stuff alone put aside for when you may sell in future. I you are a guy like me I
buy used Smith in box if gun isn't NIB or near mint I have been known to sell box and contents.
 
I'm not a "shoot it" guy. Most of the guns I've got, I've never fired, but that's not say they have never been fired, just that I haven't for one reason or another.

So, don't do what I do, do what I tell you to do. :D It's a gun. It's not the Hope Diamond. You're not going to put your grand-kids through medical school with it. A pristine Model 15 (dash number doesn't really matter) with box and papers might, MIGHT, bring $750.00 around here. That's a high number actually, as the market is soft right now, and a Model 15 is a pretty mundane gun. (How much did you give for the one you've got?) A run of the mill used one, with holster wear, normal scratches, and aftermarket grips, no box or papers, will bring $450, maybe $500.00.

How important is the difference?

BTW. My 15-2 was also made in 1966.

 
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Your S&W 15-2 is 50 years overdue for a trip to the range. I’d be gentle though, target loads only; if you need to shoot +P get a Model 19. If you can find some Buffalobore Standard Pressure .38 Special, try out a box and see if that old S&W doesn’t come to life.

Note: I tend to be gentle to my S&W K-frame revolvers, but if you feel a need for muzzle flash and recoil, go for it.
 
OK everyone, I guess I'm going to shoot it, I don't really care about the money, although I saw the one on Harry Viezen's that went for $1350, and this one is older and nicer, less of a cylinder line, box and paperwork more complete, that's the reason I was undecided, I use all my guns, nothing sets in the safe, so I know if I keep it then it will get used a lot. I think I'll opt for the selfish route and shoot it, I won't have a chance to shoot a nearly new one ever again. Thanks for the opinions, I'm going out to the range to give it a go right now.
Steve
ps
to answer I paid $500 for it, and Cajun Bass, that's a nice looking gun.
sf
 
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Shot my Colt Python last week...I bet there are thousands sitting in safes because the owners "don't want to affect their value". I sure enjoy that trigger.....:D
 
I'd say $500.00 is a good price for one in the condition you describe. It wasn't a screaming deal, but you did OK. I'd have figured my dealer would have it tagged at $575-600 and if it went fast, great...but if it stayed around the case for a month or so, they'd have taken maybe 10% off. I doubt it would have stayed very long. I might have bought it myself. :) I'm a sucker for diamond grips, and a 4" barrel. :) They look like lost puppies.

The one I've got I paid $400.00 for about ten years ago, private sale. The seller had started at $600, and gradually dropped it when he got no offers. I wasn't planning to buy it myself, but when it dropped to $400, I figured the diamond targets were worth a good chunk of that. I'm too cheap to letter it, but I believe the stocks are original to the gun since it's got the target hammer, trigger, and trigger stop. The target stocks would have made the package. The pictures don't show it, but it has some scratches around the S&W logo, probably from a holster strap. Still a really nice gun.

How'd yours shoot? Silly question really. It's a Model 15. They didn't call them the "Combat Masterpiece" for no reason.

(I think "Combat Masterpiece" is maybe the best name for a firearm, ever, rivaled only by the Colt "Peacemaker.")
 
Hi, new guy here seeking opinions. I was a LEO in the 70's and carried a S&W model 15 sidearm. It went away many decades ago but I always missed it. Recently I heard of a guy with a model 15-2 for sale so I picked it up, wanting to do some shooting with it. Turns out it is a 15-2 made in 1966, still in the blue box with warranty card and unopened accessory packet, nearly flawless except for a light cylinder line. It's so pretty I'm thinking twice about using it. After all it's lasted in nearly mint condition for over 50 years and I know myself well enough to know if I use it, it will get used. So what do you think? Go ahead and enjoy it, or pass it on to someone who will preserve it? can't upload pic, too computer illiterate.
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Well there you go. Someone else had it for 50 years and never got to use it or enjoy it the way it was designed to be used. Never enjoyed poking holes in paper or feeling it on their hip while walking through the woods or guarding the home from bad guys. A waste in my opinion.

You bought it. Now keep it and shoot it. A model 15 has been my HD gun for many years. Mine was a police turn in. My uncle was a Ft Worth cop and picked it up for me. I have shot hundreds or rounds through it. What a nice gun. No way I would sell it. You don't see these much anymore. Too many have disappeared in collections and they only show up when the owner dies and the kiddies sell daddy's guns.
 
Your decision to shoot it is what I would do. For those who choose to accumulate pristine guns, cars, boats, watches or anything else, whether for profit, history, ego or compulsion, more power to you! For me the joy of ownership comes with use. I appreciate fine things, but the above items are made for use, not as objects of art. Even when displayed as art a little wear showing the appearance of age and use add to the historical significance in my opinion.
 
SHOOT IT! To many people question shooting an older gun. I have a Colt Officers Target from 1930, I shoot it every chance I get.

I even owned a mod 15-2 from the timeframe you mentioned. I shot it a lot too. Sold it to a good friend a few years ago because he kept asking me to sell it to him.
 
I have a nice model 15 that I only shoot occasionally, but I do have a model 67 that I shoot the snot out of so I get the best of both worlds. I carry the 67 in my car every day and put a few hundred rounds a month through it. Love that gun, it just works for me.
 
Well it's not 'pristine" anymore, I put 250 rds of wadcutters through it this weekend, boy I love it. First revolver I've fired in a long time. thanks for the feedback from everyone, especially about the "kiddies" selling everything off. I'm pretty sure the only one in my family who would keep my guns would be my brother, and he's older and sicker than me, lol.
 
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