Quote Originally Posted by edbear2 View Post
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I personally loved to chase and discover stuff all over the place, online and in the real world, but every time I got to about 20 -25 rifles i would get some sort of guilt pang and sell a few!....I also thought that total was too many to shoot even on a rotational basis. I have (I am pretty sure) 6 now, My long TX200 bell gun, HW80 MK1 (.25), 45 inch and 43 inch IMD's, A Custom IMD I made and an Airsporter Club, so 3 calibres from 1911 to 1999 which do all my needs.

I think I am happier now I had a clear out, I still (before lockdown) would see stuff while out, and have a look and chat, but for some reason was happy to leave it at that, maybe I have got it out of my system.....But
you never know I suppose!

ATB, Ed
I think there are two things going on here.

One is the human predisposition to hunting and foraging. Sometimes it is disguised as someone 'using the market' to find something of the greatest utility to them, like a stylish but economical car, or a home which is good value and in a nice place. But the deep level programming is to get out into the environment and hunt down the scarce thing 'by any means necessary'. I like to go for walks in a forest which borders onto the shoreline and as I am adverse to plastic and other detritus messing the place up, I take a bag and a grabber thing and if I see stuff I take it back and bin it. I was very surprised when the last time I went I met one of my colleagues and his girlfriend and they got really excited about this process, more than me. They go out and aggressively litter-pick now, even in the town. I think it was because its a kind of 'foraging', even if the harvest is literally rubbish. From car boot sales to y-Bay to Sotheby's, its all about hunting down that 'thing'.

Once you have the 'thing' the fun of the forage is done and it's down to the actually qualities itself. If it is a rifle, then it will basically be how good owning the thing is, whether that is performance, fit, quality of engineering, beauty or how much you can modify it before you have to stop.

Human beings in their natural state live in groups of about 30 ish. And in modern times, in spite of some people claiming 1000s of 'friends' on social networks, few people have more than 30 friends that they actually keep up with in any meaningful way. The number of 'true' friends - those who would lend you £50 without asking for it back in a week or who would pick up your kid from the airport when you are ill - is probably far fewer than that.

Your airguns are the same. Its impossible to 'enjoy' owning more than 20 or 30 as there simply isnt enough time or energy in one's life to do so. One can chase down and catch any number of airguns, thousands even, but you cannot really enjoy the ownership of that number. Emptying the inventory means you will have the money and the space to get back out there hunting the odd rifle or the hen's teeth, which is the exciting bit. Lastly, the 'true friends' will number under 5 - the 'shooters' that you reach for when you want to have fun/hit what you are aiming at and you know its going to be good.