I shoot for recreation and defense, so I tend to focus on those objectives.
I have a SW .357, G27 .40 and a 1911 .45 just to have those calibers to shoot. I have a .30-30 lever for the same reason. It's just fun I have a full-size Ruger P89 that is the same model I carried on duty many years ago, and I keep it for sentimental reasons. Various historical .22s I inherited, including my great-grandfather's bicycle gun from 1890 and my grandmother's (that's right, grandmother - she was Olympic caliber) .22 bolt and my grandfather's .22 squirrel gun.
I have recently branched into Form 1 NFA just to have the experience with cans and SBRs. Home-built AR15s in various calibers just so they are legal but off-the-radar if you know what I mean. One chambered in 300 Blackout is my current favorite. That thing shoots like a dream and is FUN!! I consider those zombie guns.
Primary defense is two-fold. Ruger compact 9mm for daily carry, and an undisclosed number of identicals in undisclosed locations throughout the house based on where I spend the most time while at home. They are identical just to maintain the feel since this is the model I shoot the most. The only purpose of the ones in the house is to be able to fight my way (if necessary) to the primary home-defense weapon, Remington 870 12ga with flashlight grip. The sound of the action being racked is the only warning an intruder will get. The next sound they will hear is very loud and is intended to end the argument abruptly.
Delorvan wrote:I shoot for recreation and defense, so I tend to focus on those objectives.
I have a SW .357, G27 .40 and a 1911 .45 just to have those calibers to shoot. I have a .30-30 lever for the same reason. It's just fun I have a full-size Ruger P89 that is the same model I carried on duty many years ago, and I keep it for sentimental reasons. Various historical .22s I inherited, including my great-grandfather's bicycle gun from 1890 and my grandmother's (that's right, grandmother - she was Olympic caliber) .22 bolt and my grandfather's .22 squirrel gun.
I have recently branched into Form 1 NFA just to have the experience with cans and SBRs. Home-built AR15s in various calibers just so they are legal but off-the-radar if you know what I mean. One chambered in 300 Blackout is my current favorite. That thing shoots like a dream and is FUN!! I consider those zombie guns.
Primary defense is two-fold. Ruger compact 9mm for daily carry, and an undisclosed number of identicals in undisclosed locations throughout the house based on where I spend the most time while at home. They are identical just to maintain the feel since this is the model I shoot the most. The only purpose of the ones in the house is to be able to fight my way (if necessary) to the primary home-defense weapon, Remington 870 12ga with flashlight grip. The sound of the action being racked is the only warning an intruder will get. The next sound they will hear is very loud and is intended to end the argument abruptly.
+1
As an old Gaelic gentleman in Southie used to say " A lad after me oown (sic) heart".
Back Up! Back Up! ............ [ and to be sure ] Back Up!
Modifying the saying of the long ago Duchess of Windsor Wallis Simpson ~1937:
"You can never be too rich, too thin, nor have too many collectable arms".
Yet another forum newbie replying to a dead thread. I posed a very similar question on another forum just a few days ago. I was looking through some very old gun collection group pics from years past and noticed that almost all of the guns in those old pics I do not own any more.
I have to admit that trip down memory lane gave me a few good chuckles to see all of the crap that I had purchased way back then. The reality is I think most of us evolve over time with our gun choices and preferences. These changes might be subtle... or in my case drastic.
It took me years of owning and shooting a very large assortment of firearms before I finally found extreme focus. My main focused passion for at least a decade now is collecting higher end modern military style firearms. None of them are safe queens... I buy all of my guns to shoot and enjoy. Yes... my journey of gun collecting has been a long and winding road.
I've owned a very large number of guns... and sold and traded almost all of them away to get what I have today. I had sticker shock at first like most newbie gun collectors and mostly just purchased the stuff for around $500 or so. After a few years of that I decided to start trading those for $1000+ guns. After a few years of that I decided that less is more and started trading those for the cost no object guns of my dreams that I own today.
I am just now starting to branch out into the NFA arena and already have 6 cans in form 4 purgatory with many many more to come. I'm going to SBR quite a few rifles and when I am done with this phase 2 of my collecting... I will move on to phase 3... transferable full auto.
Yes... I've had a few selling/trading mistakes that I had to go back and fix years later... but overall I have pretty much no regrets. I once sold a HK USC/UMP conversion in 9mm that I regretted almost instantly. I kicked myself for years for doing this but recently replaced it and brought it back into the fold. I just don't see selling or trading guns as a bad thing as long as you are always upgrading.
I may eventually end up like some collectors with a smaller safe of nothing but class 3 FAs but for right now I still like having a wide variety of my dream guns. It has taken me many years of sacrificing, saving, selling and trading to get to where I am now... but the journey was worth it. I am still not yet where I want to be but I am a lot closer than I have ever been.
You can not imagine all of the grief I've been through over the years from my fellow females for spending so much of my time, energy and money on guns. Their idea of paradise spending 10k was to go on a long European vacation... mine was getting a LRB M25 in a JAE100 G2 stock with a Schmidt Bender scope. I've never had a single female friend take me up on the offer to go to the range to shoot for fun.
I really don't think there is a right or wrong way to collect guns. I think each of us has to follow our own path. We all have to find what floats our boats and gives us ownership satisfaction. I truly love this gun collecting hobby and will remain a range rat till my dying breath.
Last edited by dirtyharriet on Fri Oct 30, 2015 5:46 am, edited 1 time in total.
A woman who is drawn inexorably towards more powerful guns is somewhat against the grain of stereotype, especially considering the popularity of silly video demonstrations of women 'failing' when handed shotguns and large calibre pistols. Good for you. If you find something you love to do, provided it hurts no one, it is to be pursued as far as it might take you.
On the subject of persuasion... I'll offer a personal example of a modest success, in seducing a woman towards firearms use that is. My wife had never fired a weapon of any sort until a couple of years ago. She was staunchly opposed to guns of any kind, airguns included, feeling they served no proper purpose while being altogether too likely to encourage dangerous behaviour and terrible accidents. One afternoon I was using a very weak vintage Webley air pistol, an early 1950's 'Junior' model, for some idle campsite plinking, and she suddenly (and VERY unexpectedly!) asked if she could give it a try. A bit of red wine in her belly probably helped, as is so often the case where seduction is concerned. Regrettably I had but a few pellets left in my pocket having enjoyed a fine afternoon by a river, knocking pine cones further and further from me across some sand. Nonetheless, after 5 shots she was hooked. Tentatively, like a trout, where one must be ever so delicate in one's ministrations to the line lest the tiny hook pull free, but still hooked.
Fast forward a couple of years, to her husband, myself, wandering into the area of tinkering with pen guns in .22lr. My wife had shown no interest in my firearms, but when I showed her my third edition experiment in a pocketable 'pen', a gift for someone else, she asked "Is that for me?" Well, how could I refuse? I told her that it was not, but that I would make something better for her. Something even more like a pen, more delicate in size and less suspect in appearance. A true product worthy of 'Q' of Bondian fame. I made it over the following few days, and while my ideas are not yet fully mature, it did the trick. While she may never fire a live round from it, she knows that it can as I have tested it thoroughly. And she got an enormous thrill from firing rounds from which I pulled the lead and dumped the powder, leaving only a small explosion. Enough to satisfy without being too violent.
So another brick in her wall against shooting sports has been pulled out. Who knows, perhaps in several more years I might actually get a rifle pressed up against her cheek? It might happen. My wife of 15 years ago never would have considered the possibility. Last month she said she might, in a few more years, when her kick boxing training is solid enough and she finds herself perhaps looking for a new hobby.
Consider how you ask your friend to come and try shooting. See if you can't find some way to make it seem interesting, even dangerously subversive. Appeal to their inner rebels if you think that might work, allowing them feel you're letting them in on something they're not supposed to be doing. Because men say it's inappropriate, for example. Try what you think might work with them while not being too tricky about it. It's not hard to make shooting seem fun, but it can be challenging pulling the focus away from the macho aspect for some folk. And perhaps start with the lighter calibres if you still have such guns at all. Might even be worth buying a Pac-Lited Ruger 22/45 and putting a tiny suppressor on it, in a nice colour scheme to tempt them into the fold.
To many to list so just my favorites. For shotguns my Remington 1100 12 ga I bought 50 years ago. Best wheelgun is a Colt Agent model in .38 Special. Best auto handgun is a tie between my .45 ACP 1911 and my Sig P229 in .40 S&W. Best bolt rifle is a Remington 700 in 300 AAC Blackout. Best AR is a Rock River AR 10/7.62. Best black powder rifle is a .50 cal Thompson Center muzzle loader with set trigger (love that set trigger) I bought 30 years ago. Best .22 rifle is a Remington 552 auto I bought 40 years ago. Best .22 pistol is a Walther P22.
I put the most rounds through the P22 suppressed with standard velocity CCI .22 LR.
I tend to at some point regret most of the guns I've sold in the past, especially a .28 ga double barrel I used to chase behind my uncles beagles, and a Ruger 25/06.
hatsan pcp in .22 , 25 ,30 cal. all QE... DQ 50 cal wish it was threaded.
some old rem single shot 22
A old mauser in 8mm I purchased 40 years ago .
A ar15 I bought well used in 78 .
friend bought it new in late 60s I think.
My late uncles 9mm luger 1939
and a remington 1911 .
Of all of them the pcp are my favorite ,
It's not about how much you earn but about how much you spend .
The best days in life are casting a line & just sitting there waiting for it to move
I have a full-size Ruger P89 that is the same model I carried on duty many years ago, and I keep it for sentimental reasons. Various historical .22s I inherited, including my great-grandfather's bicycle gun from 1890 and my grandmother's (that's right, grandmother - she was Olympic caliber) .22 bolt and my grandfather's .22 squirrel gun.