My Gawd, Timothy!! The Wolverines are in trouble and I'm going to send the Buckeyes to really give them a thumping here in a few weeks. You see what they did to the Spartans yesterday, didn't you? Seriously, I know how you feel. I guess these same guys don't mind all of the 1897 Winchesters having their barrels whacked off to make cowboy shooters. I once saw an beautiful engraved with gold- LC Smith Crown Grade being sold at my club with 18" barrels. But this summer I have been taking a few of my 21s out to the skeet range and shooting them- VERY carefully. One of my buddies had a beautiful old Joseph Lang at the skeet range. A lot of them shoot old classic guns at my range from time to time. I guess it all depends if you intend to use the gun or save it for selling at a later date. I put away several nice guns for years and never shot them. And I got top dollar for them in the past few years as retirement money. That is what I saved them for. Some of my guns I will absolutely not shoot. I did buy an old 21 that is pretty roughed up a few years ago that I always use for hunting. It is fun to have one as my "thumper". But, the next time you run into one of these guys with a 100 year old Colt, start spinning it around on your finger and ask them if you can take it to the range and quick draw with it. When they object, just say, "Hey!! It was made to be used, right?" I remember, a few years ago, one guy on here had taken a classic rifle to the rifle range and while it was sitting in the rack at the range, someone came up, picked it up without asking, looked at it and after making a snide remark about it, dropped it while he was setting it back down and cracked the checkered buttstock. We hear guys on here all the time telling about their dogs knocking them over while they were leaning against their cars, falling down and dropping them down a rocky hillside, driving off after they left it on the roof of their pickup truck and losing them in the woods. It would have been a lot better if it had been a $200.00- 870 that was abused. So, you have to decide what to do since it is your gun. But, as long as people feel the way you do, there will be a lot less grandchildren ending up saying, "Look what my knuckleheaded grandfather did to this wonderful gun!" Good luck.
