King I think you are on to something. I buy guns to collect/shoot and the condition and or rariety determines which guns are shot and which are not. I have very few that I do not shoot, another being a Remington 1894 with Remington Arms Co written in the damascus. That gun too was made to shoot, but what if I blew those barrels up. I would be sick. So I do not shoot it.
For the careful ones, be careful. A friend took his Winchester M-21 20 gauge with #6 engraving (if not exact, something real close) and let his friend pick it up, as he was holding it someone called his name and he turned sideways and the stock hit squarely on the corner of the table and left a divot about the size of an eraser. It got nasty.
The second careful one was me. The weather was perfect, so what the heck, I'll take one of my "babies" with me for an easy hunt. And it was nice and easy until I stepped on a log thats bark was just sitting on it from some decompasition(and hidden under some cover). Down I went on the gun and I heard the loudest SNAP that I've heard since my mom twitched my brother Scot's and my butt for throwing apples at the neighbor's cat.
Thank goodness this was not a top shelf gun, but what I learned was, at any time crap can hit the fan no matter how careful you are. So make sure that you can deal with the worst if it happens.
Tim
