Buying guns you'll never use.

[Blackrider]

Being a southpaw, I once bought a superb Left Handed .177 Cal. Theoben MFR. It had a left hand action/bolt as well as the stock, something I had always dreamed of !
It was totally mint and beautiful, I thought all my dreams and aspirations had been answered so I teamed it up with a fine Leupold M8 6 x 42 fixed mag and created a very fine air rifle !

BUT it lived untouched in my cabinet "un shot" for about 18 months until I eventually sold it along with a few others to fund a new Blaser R93 .270.
No regrets, but I sometimes wonder if just maybe I should have kept it ?

[look no hands]

I think you're very tempted as you're not letting on which rifle

If I tell you it begins with a "d" then you'll be wanting it

Pete, this is called collecting, and a lot of members on here have hundreds in their collections they never use. I would go as far as to say there are collectors with over 1000. I now have very few I never shoot, like the Crosman M1 carbine, the Diana Model 1 tinplate pistol and a couple of others, just kept them due to their excellent condition.

Baz

Tell me about it, I already have a collection going, if I shorten the barrel and add a certain silencer to the rifle I already have upstairs then I'll have the rifle I've seen but as usual I'm worried about removing the choke and ballsing up the accuracy.

Pete

[johnbaz]

I've collected airguns for a few years, I wasn't allowed one as a youngster after I accidentally shot my dad in the bum with my very first gun, A Webley Junior rifle (Or maybe smoothbore), I never saw the gun again, It was years before I got another, I had to hide that one from him!!


I now have almost 160 guns but as i'm not getting any younger, I've decided that i'm going to start going through them and selling them off (The ones that I least like first!), I'd hate the wife to be stuck with them if anything happened to me!!



John..

[bighit]

That has got to be the best punchline of the year!

i meant to say if the step dad applied for a license my mate applied for one and got it

[ken69]

Hi all,

Who still buys guns you know will probably never get used after the initial plinking session soon after receiving it, only for it to be put in the cupboard with the other rifles you've always wanted and only dragged out when you feel guilty.


Pete

I'm beginning to think it's an illness as I just can't help it. I move a few on to reduce my collection then get an itch to buy something else. Bought a Diana 34 Professional a few weeks ago, zeroed it and put it in the cabinet promising myself that would be the last. Just ordered a Walther LGV Master Pro from Sunderland Airguns...... oh dear

[cozzamec]

Used postage stamps, buttons, tin cans, bottle tops, hair pins, snuff boxes, empty pellet tins, scent bottles, pebbles off the beach, its amazing what people collect. I have studied the human race for years in wonder how complex we are. If it gives you pleasure to own and look at something every now and then, why not ? As long as you can afford your hobby. One thing about collecting air guns you do eventually get your money back sometimes with a plus. I have given dozens of scrap rifles a whole new life for others to enjoy in the future long after I am gone, BSA's Webleys Crosmans Sheridans Benjamins Bahcos etc....

Baz

Definitely Baz, I wish I could get out more to shoot and take a fair few over when I do, doesn't stop me buying something I like or I've wanted for a while, especially if it pops up at a good price.

[hawkdriver]

"I'm beginning to think it's an illness as I just can't help it"

it is !, its called shooting pox !

[sandyman1963]

As soon as you buy your first rifle you are addicted. I have a few that I have never used would I sell them nope not at all. I try to use them all but it’s dammed hard. I shoot every day after work but there are not enough hours in the day to fire them all.

[MikeHW45]

I'm beginning to think it's an illness as I just can't help it. I move a few on to reduce my collection then get an itch to buy something else. Bought a Diana 34 Professional a few weeks ago, zeroed it and put it in the cabinet promising myself that would be the last. Just ordered a Walther LGV Master Pro from Sunderland Airguns...... oh dear

I reckon your right, I've bought about six this year, 3 rifles and three pistols and there's still a couple more I'm tempted with. Three weeks ago I bought a new HW77 in the summer green laminate finish and told myself that's it for a long time. On Sunday I popped into a gun shop in Brighton to pick some pellets up and came out with an S510. Just cant help it. It actually does my head in thinking about it sometimes!!!!!

[Geezer]

I have a couple that I have never fired, a few that need fixing before they can be fired. And a fair number that have only been test-fired.

But, heck, that's the whole collecting thing.

Personally, I am not attracted to the whole mint as new in box thing, because I like guns that I can shoot without fear of significantly affecting them, but I can understand why others are.

Each to his own. I can equally understand the rationale of the ruthlessly practical shooter that owning stuff that you don't use regularly to punch paper, drop plates, or take quarry is silly. I was like that for a while. But my tastes changed over the years. They may change again.

[Roundshot]

I now have almost 160 guns but as i'm not getting any younger, I've decided that i'm going to start going through them and selling them off (The ones that I least like first!), I'd hate the wife to be stuck with them if anything happened to me!!

John..

You'll need a couple of tables at Kempton Park all to yourself, John!

[jumbuck]

Things are made to be used, if you're not going to use them then it was a waste of time, effort, money & resources to build them.
Collecting utterly baffles me, you might as well just take a photo if all you do is look at them, & if locked away then they can't even be looked at.

Excellent idea, saves on wall paper!!!!!!

[dvd]

Hi all,

Who still buys guns you know will probably never get used after the initial plinking session soon after receiving it, only for it to be put in the cupboard with the other rifles you've always wanted and only dragged out when you feel guilty.

Typically I was doing a Google search for a certain rifle I've been after for some time (you know the one(and no it's not a 99 Tony)) and up pops one of it's older brothers I've always hankered after since they first came out and are no longer available new, the thing is I already have a version of it in my cupboard upstairs (but without the short barrel and silencer) which never gets used but the little sod is screaming at me to buy it but because it's in a gun shop up north I can't be arsed to go through the rigmarole of all the RFD transfer nonsense and to waste money on a rifle that will never get used.

Pete

I collect 10m spring and SSP guns.
These guns can still be had for much less than what they cost new,however it is the satisfaction and the hours of tranquility spent in my workshop saving one from the scrap bin that makes my day. I marvel at the high level of quality and the solutions to achieve accuracy regardless of cost.
I have saved (and collected)a few guns now and each is shot a few times a year, some more so than others while I think of the many happy hours spent bringing them back to life.
I do not feel guilty at all having so many airguns,..... they provided me (and still do) with many happy and tranquil hours.

[zpaulg]

Get it bought or you’ll only get a sore arse....from kicking yourself down the line!

[Joncaddy]

Hi all,

Who still buys guns you know will probably never get used after the initial plinking session soon after receiving it, only for it to be put in the cupboard . with the other rifles you've always wanted and only dragged out when you feel guilty.

Typically I was doing a Google search fo. r a certain rifle I've been after for some time (you know the one(and no it's not a 99 Tony)) and up pops one of it's older brothers I've always hankered after since they first came out and are no longer available new, the thing is I already have a version of it in my cupboard upstairs (but without the short barrel and silencer) which never gets used but the little sod is screaming at me to buy it but because it's in a gun shop up north I can't be arsed to go through the rigmarole of all the RFD transfer nonsense and to waste money on a rifle that will never get used.

Pete

I think im as guilty as the next guy for buying guns that i never use. I like slightly unusual/different/quirky/ guns, and I find the story or history of the gun as interesting as the gun itself. I also enjoy the finding and buying of a gun that i remember from my younger days when they were unaffordable to me at the time. I recently bought a Stirling HR81 and a Daisy 25 bb gun, both of which I've never fired. This may seem odd, and I suppose labels me as a collector, but surely the whole point of this hobby/pastime of air guns, is about the pleasure/satisfaction/enjoyment that can be acquired in which ever way it's achieved.