Collecting vs shooting

gunbugs · 03-09-2017, 10:28 PM

As I have mentioned before, I shoot my "collectible" guns, but I take precautions. I remove the commonly broken numbered parts, extractor, firing pin, perhaps the holdopen, and replace them with non-matching spares BEFORE I shoot. Then, barring any catastrophic failure, I put the matching originals back in the gun when I get home and clean it. Folks have mentioned cracked frames, broken breech blocks and such, but I am willing to risk those, as I think those are rare occurances. Plus, my intuition tells me that the guns that suffer major failure were abused at some point, such as firing British machine gun ammo, or bad "hot" handloads or some other tom-foolery. But, that being said, I like to shoot old guns, and don't care if that offends a "collector". I have 40,000 dollar guns that go to the range, and I rather enjoy shooting them. It is why I buy them. If I want wall hangers, I can get those cheap. If others want to buy guns and NOT shoot them, thats OK too.

View Poll Results: Collectible or shooters?
I ONLY buy shooter Lugers	4	6.78%
I ONLY buy Collectible Lugers	10	16.95%
I buy shooter and collectibles - but concentrate on shooters	6	10.17%
I buy shooter and collectibles - but concentrate on Collectors	16	27.12%
I buy whatever fancies me	11	18.64%
I have both, but never go shooting	1	1.69%
I have both, but shoot maybe a couple of times a year (both types)	5	8.47%
I have both, but shoot only shooters	15	25.42%
I have more than 3 shooters and more than 5 collectors	13	22.03%
I have 1 shooter and multiple collectors	8	13.56%
Multiple Choice Poll. Voters: 59. You may not vote on this poll

03-09-2017, 10:28 PM	#17
gunbugs Lifetime Forum Patron Join Date: Sep 2013 Location: Fairbanks, Alaska. Home of the best moose. Posts: 672 Thanks: 371 Thanked 1,202 Times in 407 Posts	As I have mentioned before, I shoot my "collectible" guns, but I take precautions. I remove the commonly broken numbered parts, extractor, firing pin, perhaps the holdopen, and replace them with non-matching spares BEFORE I shoot. Then, barring any catastrophic failure, I put the matching originals back in the gun when I get home and clean it. Folks have mentioned cracked frames, broken breech blocks and such, but I am willing to risk those, as I think those are rare occurances. Plus, my intuition tells me that the guns that suffer major failure were abused at some point, such as firing British machine gun ammo, or bad "hot" handloads or some other tom-foolery. But, that being said, I like to shoot old guns, and don't care if that offends a "collector". I have 40,000 dollar guns that go to the range, and I rather enjoy shooting them. It is why I buy them. If I want wall hangers, I can get those cheap. If others want to buy guns and NOT shoot them, thats OK too.