doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Collector Guns for hunting?

Don't hunt with a gun that would embarrass your dog!

I collect SxS's and have many that I will not take into a duck boat. I will however take them pheasant hunting.

My rule is if a gun has much original condition and is very collectable, I try to keep it that way. I have had a few SxS's restored and am more likely to take one of them out in rough conditions than a museum piece.

Mark

You must do as your conscience dictates. If it were my Purdey I would hunt with it, really enjoying it, and if it ever got the worse for wear send it back to Purdey for sprucing up. Like the English who made it intended for it to be.

Hope you enjoy it, buzz. I couldn't if I didn't use it. Just me.

SRH

Well... once you acquire a gun, there are two possible outcomes. Actually three if 'passing it down' means something to you. I have no kids, so that one doesn't count here.

Either you are going to sell it someday, or you are going to die owning it.

If you end up selling it, that means it didn't mean anything to you anyway and it was simply an investment. If you don't shoot it, all you get to do is look at it.... and fret about how much money you have 'in to it'... when in fact that money is spent, as in gone, and recovering it someday is a matter of conjecture.

I don't have that worry, since I don't buy guns as investments.

While I try to be careful,there is hazard everywhere and guns get signs of use when used. Yesterday, I got a target chip in the buttstock of my trap doubles gun. Crazy Quail was the game, and it just happens. There is no preventing it.

Shoot it and enjoy it, or insure it and fret...

You sure can't take'um to the happy hunting ground with you.

I had a buddy send his Purdey to Purdey for sprucing up. He felt like a spruce tree fell on top of him after he got the bill. The bill was 50% of his low 5 figures' original cost. According to him, there was nothing that he considered major done to the gun. No re-stocking, re-barreling, etc.

Ouch! He should have gotten a quote up front.

I'm better off not owning one like that. Actually, my most expensive gun is a 3" chambered Super Fox in about 80+% condition. It hunts ducks and geese. I just don't need to own one I can't feel comfortable hunting with. I keep toying with the idea of one day ordering a CSMC Fox. If I ever do, it will acquire patina. I promise you.


SRH

A pleasure. One of my friends is a cabinetmaker/antiques restorer raised and trained in France and he gets some way-out-there stuff in for fixing, including the occasional vitrine. I learned a hell of a lot hanging around his shop.

The whole hunting with collector guns debate, as well as the one going on in another thread about restoring beat-up old guns for hunting use, reminds me of a job he had in there. It was a very nice mid-18th century-vintage sofa with a badly broken leg. Careful, probing questioning of the client revealed that the client and his lady friend broke it while ... um ... using it a bit too vigorously. When my friend and his crew got done with it, it was better and stronger than new, and none of the repairs showed. It was expensive, but the client could afford it and it was the right thing to do for the antique, too.

Most of us hunt with guns of values that fit with our economic worth. I know when I start to think about buying something of more value than my comfort zone, I think about whether or not I'd enjoy taking it hunting more or less than a less expensive gun. If the answer is that I'd be uncomfortable taking a gun, of that value, hunting, I chalk that gun up to my gee-wizz list.

Stan: I might be better off not owning that one too, at least for hunting; however, I am a collector and would classify myself as that. I have several guns which I do not take hunting....that does not mean I can't enjoy them. I take these sorts of guns to the gun club and shoot skeet and sporting clays, and that's how I enjoy them. Several of these guns would not be classified as collectors by some, such as a mint Grade I Browning superposed .410 and a 20 bore Pigeon grade Browning superposed in 97% condition. These guns, plus several others I own are too nice to drag through the swamps of the Northwoods, and the mesquite thickets of West Texas. I have other guns I hunt with and my go-to gun is a 20 bore, Browning superposed grade I, which I brought brand new about 15 years ago, had Ken Eyster choke it to shoot Remington Express 7 1/2 shot perfectly at 25 yards. It throws a beautiful pattern in both barrels with these Boomers, which I use on Ruffed Grouse. The gun probably isn't worth $1000-$1500 now as beat up as it is, but if you have feathers and get up in front of me using that gun, you would stand a good chance of not making it to your evening roost. Well, enough on the hunting guns. My point is people collect a lot of different things for a lot of different reasons and the Purdey we are talking about I purchased at what I felt a very reasonable price in a depressed economy and at a time when the stock market is so volatile it just scares the crap out of me. In other words, I would rather be in the Purdey market than the Stock market right now. At least I can feel it, shoot it, admire it and even hunt with it if I choose and it's not going to disappear like a fart in the wind like some of my stocks have done. Take care, Buzz

Sounds like a win/win to me, buzz. No argument from me.

All my best, Stan