Replace Matching Parts Before Shooting?

[gunbugs]

I personally find it "difficult" to have a gun I'm not going to shoot. I've accumulated about 11 Lugers so far, and am of the mindset to shoot all of them, although not often. I've said before, that I replace the extractor and firing pin with non-matching spares before I head to the range, as those are the most likely parts to fail. If something major breaks, so be it. It just doesn't make sense, for me anyway, to have guns laying about that aren't going to get used, at least once in a while. I've got a Browning M-2 50 cal machine gun that's worth about 35 to 40k, it goes to the range and gets used periodically, about a thousand round a year. It's what I bought it for. I'm personally willing to accept the risk. Others are not. I think most P-08's will far outlast their owners, even if they are shot fairly regularly. If I'm going to collect stuff to look at, I'll collect antique currency. But, that's just me. To each their own.

[Bill_in_VA]

Originally Posted by gunbugs

I personally find it "difficult" to have a gun I'm not going to shoot. I've accumulated about 11 Lugers so far, and am of the mindset to shoot all of them, although not often. I've said before, that I replace the extractor and firing pin with non-matching spares before I head to the range, as those are the most likely parts to fail. If something major breaks, so be it. It just doesn't make sense, for me anyway, to have guns laying about that aren't going to get used, at least once in a while. I've got a Browning M-2 50 cal machine gun that's worth about 35 to 40k, it goes to the range and gets used periodically, about a thousand round a year. It's what I bought it for. I'm personally willing to accept the risk. Others are not. I think most P-08's will far outlast their owners, even if they are shot fairly regularly. If I'm going to collect stuff to look at, I'll collect antique currency. But, that's just me. To each their own.

“Risk” and “value” are mutually exclusive as far as I’m concerned. I own a lot of guns and shoot a lot of guns, including several transferrable machine guns, but I don’t shoot everything I own. It’s not because of the relative value of the gun; my transferrable Thompson is worth more than any ten of my Lugers yet I shoot it regularly. Likewise, out of the couple dozen Lugers I own I have only three that I consider shooters - a nickle-plated 1915 DWM, a grossly mismatched AE, and an import-stamped byf42. I can’t tell the difference between shooting my 1913 Erfurt and my 1913 DWM so what’s gained by shooting both (beyond saying I’ve shot both)?

It’s only original once, and if I break a numbered part, it’s a huge pain searching for a replacement and even if I eventually able to find a matching replacement, it’s not the same to me. Shoot the shooters and collect the collectibles.
My .02