Collecting: shooters or lookers?

[WILBA]

I collect and rarely shoot. Although my guns aint mint but are good condition. But i must admit one thing i do still have in my memory the smell of the gun oil when as a 14yr old my mum bought me a webley hawk mk2 with both barrels out of one of the catalouges that use to sell them back in the 70's. So understand why some are drawn to boxed unused examples. Weird that memory and smell still sticks with me 41yrs later

[Jesim1]

I don't get the whole collecting thing - why bother ?

I mean - you collect, you collect more, you die, and they get sold to other collectors - what satisfaction do you get from having them stuck in a cupboard/cabinet etc.....?????

I understand if they are on display and you see them daily like a fish tank or a painting - but guns stuck in a drawer just do nothing for me? Is it just a form of hoarding?

Get them out and shoot them and I get it - stick them in a drawer and never touch them and you may as well be collecting stamps - which is another waste of someone's life!

PS - no offence intended to anyone, we all have our hobbies - and if it brings you pleasure while not causing a problem to anyone else then knock yourself out!

James

[junglie]

i've got to be able to shoot them, got rid of a few near mint condition guns as I'd just mark them in use.

[rovercoupe]

I tend to buy the worst broken guns i can find, its the tinkering and restoring them that floats my boat and once there done I love to shoot them. If i dont get on with them once restored then i sell them on and buy more broken junk!

It has got a bit silly recently the amount of projects sat here.

[Unframed Dave]

I take a mostly different selection to the boinger bash, normally tenish rifles and up to a dozen pistols.

Over the two days they all come out and if anyone there wants to have a play they're welcome.

That way over the space of a couple of years they mostly all get used, or at least fondled. Some legally cannot be shot being well over the 12ftlbs mark.

There's quite a few other collectors attend and much temporary gun swapping occurs.

When I'm no longer able to travel abroad, I intend to spend my summers taking them around country shows and the like for the public to have a look at.

Dave

[Mole trapper]

Definitely shooter first, but with complete rose tinted nostalgic glasses on.
I am trying to buy every gun I could never afford but lusted after through my teens.
I was an out and out hunter, these rifles I now accrue will be used (albeit only occasionally) for this purpose. The strange/sad thing is I will not derive the same unparalleled pleasure from them now that I would then.
I do take great pleasure though knowing that they will be safe till I depart.
Then my boy will probably flog them to pay for a trip to Disneyland or Vegas.

[nige346]

Everything I own gets used, I even started a classic comp at my club to get the gun's out and shooting along with a few other members that have taken to using the old classics, There's something nice in getting a good score with an LP53 or Vintage BSA rifle, I Shot a lovely card last week with an old Hy-Score pistol, The pistol is boxed and mint but at the end of the day it was designed for shooting pellets not sitting in a cabinet.

[sproat]

I like to collect and have quite a few which i shoot in my little range in the garage,like to tinker also,cleaning oiling "etc",mainly i like to collect guns that i like the look of,some old collectables and a few modern replica types. like the crosman 357 but with the old type grips,the s&w 586,Daisy 44 [old grips again] Then the umarex 92f, 911 colt and more,which are just nice to hold and look at,then theres the strange ones such as the cometa indian,record jumbo, milbro couger black major,240 magnum,model 5, differet guns hold a different appeal that to me is what collecting is about

[harry mac]

I collect and rarely shoot. Although my guns aint mint but are good condition. But i must admit one thing i do still have in my memory the smell of the gun oil when as a 14yr old my mum bought me a webley hawk mk2 with both barrels out of one of the catalouges that use to sell them back in the 70's. So understand why some are drawn to boxed unused examples. Weird that memory and smell still sticks with me 41yrs later

I know exactly what you mean with the smell thing. My first evening attending the Army Cadets, when I was 13 (1978), the SI got out the DP Lee Enfields to do a lesson, the smell of those rifles was unique. The next time I smelled that smell was when I bought a mucky old MkII Service from a little gunshop just outside Gosport in about 1995. As soon as it hit my nostrills, I was transported back to that cadet hut.
The only other thing that gets me like that is the Queen song, "I Want To Break Free". As soon as I hear that I'm back in the NAAFI Bar in Herford, Germany, and I can almost taste the Younger's Bitter that was my preferred tipple at the time.

[eyebull]

I know exactly what you mean with the smell thing. My first evening attending the Army Cadets, when I was 13 (1978), the SI got out the DP Lee Enfields to do a lesson, the smell of those rifles was unique. The next time I smelled that smell was when I bought a mucky old MkII Service from a little gunshop just outside Gosport in about 1995. As soon as it hit my nostrills, I was transported back to that cadet hut....

Not exactly a vintage airgun, but there's something very very nice about whatever oil/lubricant they use in HW45 pistols.
It always puts me in mind of serious-looking chaps in brown engineers coats.