Is there any rhyme or reason to our addiction?

[Freezer]

   There's no general shooting place to ask so I'll do it here.
    I have rifles and barrels in allot of different calibers for squirrel, coyote, deer, black bear and pig.  Someday I'd like to hunt elk or caribou or if my wife gets to teach overseas hunt there too.  I don't own a magnum rifle and only one big bore.  I feel no burning need for them because most of my rifles will cover any of my hunting needs well.  I own rifles in 223, 7 TCU, 243, 30-30, 308, 270, 280, 7.65x53, 25-06 and 450 Marlin (given to me I didn't buy it nor would I).  This doesn't included a collection of .22s. 
    I  bought the NEF Handi Rifle for the chance to hunt overseas and fulfill a childhood dream.  With one firearm I can do almost anything rifle/shotgun/muzzle loader.  The problem with the NEF is they take so long to break in and even then aren't tack drivers. I also own a nine pistols and revolvers including a Contender with three barrels and I want a 7-30 Waters carbine barrel.  Sure they're fun to shoot but none is fancy or a collector. 
    I'm beginning to think I should sell most of what I own and simplify my life!  An Encore would make a perfect rifle/shotgun/muzzle loader.  Keep the 308 Savage 99f remove the scopes from the others (never sell your Leupold) sell them and build an Encore package.  I love my custom Model Seven stainless in 7TCU but it's a 200 yard deer gun.  Since deer season and bear season are together out here I avoid carrying it unless I've determined I don't want to shoot a bear.
    I hunt with two pistols a Single Six and a 44 S&W Mountian.  I wouldn't sell my MKII target or 10-22 but I don't compete in small bore competition so I don't need the 541T I bought in a whim.  Nor do I need a 357 (not a good hunting caliber) or a 6" 629 S&W nickle plated revolver(too heavy)!
     Yet there are others who buy these big bone jarring, teeth loosing, shoulder bust magnums for whitetail when you can drop one at a distance with a 22-250.  And who needs a 500 S&W that will put a cast on your wrist and ruin your hunting season!  Maybe an Alaskan guide but...
    Am I in an addiction withdraw?  Has anyone else found no reason to keep a safe full of guns that you don't get to take much game with?  My .22s are my favorite guns but I have three I don't shoot!  And don't get me started with shotguns .
    I keep telling myself, I'm not a gun nut, I'M NOT a gun nut, I'M NOT A GUN NUT!
    I truly believe the old cliche "Beware the man who owns one gun..."  But I own at least two dozen!  OK! I'm a gun nut! and I need help.  Do I need a magnum to fill out the collection or should I sell and try to curb this addiction with an Encore for everything and a 308 Savage 99 for a back up?   

    Oh great now I'm thinking too much and got a head ache, I can take two asprin but that will give me an upset stomch   This thinking stuff is dangerous
   

[Tom W.]

I'll bring my truck and be right over! Gotta get rid of the temptations...!

[Hairtrigger]

You are correct... one cannot have too many 22lr rifles and handguns.
Just as long as you have a good woman thqat lets you.

[MGMorden]

Well, just personally, to me, having 1 gun that will swap barrels to a bazillion different things (like a Handi or a TC) is kinda boring.  Nothing wrong with it at all from a utilitarian standpoint, but I'm a details person.  I love admiring the differences in things (and I love collecting things).  That's why I TRY (but have been unsecessful at least with Mausers ) to buy exactly one of a particular type of rifle and once I have one I don't really want another one like it.  My Savage for example.  I've got a Savage 110 in .30-06.  Great gun.  Shoots sub-moa all day long . . . and I'll probably never buy another Savage.  Same with my Winchester 670.  Great gun, but I'm going to try to avoid getting anymore (was tempted by a good price on one recently, but I passed it up ).  I did faulter however with the Mausers.  I have 2 Mauser 98 sporters, and then 2 more in original military garb.  The two sporters are different enough to satisfy me though .  Variety is the spice of life.

So yeah, you don't have a "problem".   You just seem to like guns for being guns (as I do).  Truth be told if one just wanted to hunt and be done with the buying guns part, then a .22LR, 12ga, .25-06 Win, and a .375 H&H would probably cover in 4 guns any hunting anybody would want to do in their lifetime.  I like a lot more about guns than just hunting though .

[BBF]

I have gone through that cycle at least once. Start of with one rifle and shotgun, next thing you know there are about a dozend of them. I get fed up with all of the cleaning and messing with them and get rid of most of them.

A few months or a couple of years later, the closet is dang near full again. Some of the stuff I got rid off I shouldn't have nor can be replaced.

 I am at the multiple level again, but now at my age and hunting opportunities, a Thompson Center Pro Hunter would by my choice with no more then three barrels IE, a small cal, one medium and one big boreand I might just use one of them most times.

[bilmac]

I have never had a big income and we moved a lot before I retired, so my strategy was to never get too attached to anything. When we moved I was always buying this and selling that. By not being unwilling to sell you can afford to play with way more guns in a lifetime than if you just hoard them.

[charles p]

My wife has the same problem with shoes.  I once offered to bet my wife and daughter that they couldn't live on one pair of new shoes per month!  They both turned down the bet.  They always countered by saying well let's look at your guns and hunting stuff, club dues, land leases, etc.  That usually shuts me up.  I aught to ask them if they still have any 20-50 year old shoes.

[drdougrx]

There is a cure you know.

Vote Obama........

or......

move to Massachusetts.

[Freezer]

Drdrougrx, your no dang good
    I am a utilitarian.  Though I like pretty guns, I'll never own one, I'd be too afraid of scratching it!  I restocked my Savage 99 and touched up the trigger.  Man it was pretty!  On my first hunt with it I slipped on a shale hill.  It's not as pretty now
    When I moved to Kaliforniastan from the east coast I gave up hunting while I put my wife through school and raised the three kids.  At the time I had a single shot 514 .22, a Win 37a 12 gauge and a 94 win.  These are the guns of my youth and I still have them.  My sons have laid claim to them at my demise.  The next was a Mossberg 5500 MK II that I still have and love though I now have three barrels for it.  I got it 60% off at Kmart for $168 out the door and still had to put it on lay away.  My Remington 700 in 280 was a gift from a man in Montana.  If was in responce to a internet search from a broke butt.  The 94 just didn't cut it out here.  He sent it shipped for $100.  It was his elk rifle.  It is floated and bedded with a trigger job.  He said he carried it more than he shot it and it shows!  But ohhhh doe it shoot!  I've refinished allot of guns for friends and they all say I could make that gun look great, I won't.  Every scratch got there honestly and the only modification I've made was to replase the recoil pad that he tore when if fell from his horse.  I say a prayer for that man who took pity on a broke butt every time I pick it up!  I could never sell it or at least not till I can't hunt any more then I'll find another broke butt to pass it on to.
    My buddies dog tried to eat my nose about 5 years ago, as a friendly gesture he bought me a 450 Marlin!  What am I going to do with a 450 Marlin after I've had three shoulder surgeries and he says he'll be offended if I sell it
    How many guns do we really need.  If I go to another country where I can hunt how many firearms can I take without starting a war or being thrown into jail as a terrorist? 

[bilmac]

I doubt that Obama and his crowd have any intention of letting you keep a "reasonable number" of guns. I expect that they will want to take all of them away from you.

[Sweet 6.5]

  No 6.5x55!! What type of gun nut are you??

You have to fix this at once!

Enjoy them

Cheers

[Freezer]

    Actually I was thinging to changing the 7.65 to a 6.5x55 Swede!  I just can't find a place to rent the action and barrel wrench.  If I do sell off allot of my guns the Swede is one of the must have barrels for an Encore!

[jro45]

Sell my guns no way!!

[drdougrx]

Hey Freezer....you're right....I'm no dang good...wife says it all the time and she's NEVER wong!!!!

(Gonna keep'r so long as she'll have me though!!!)

[Graybeard]

There's no general shooting place to ask so I'll do it here.

Sez who? 

Have you never visited the: Hunting and Shooting General Discussion Forum?

http://www.gboreloaded.com/forums/index.php/board,13.0.html

[no guns here]

Don't know what causes it and I'm glad I don't.  I know that I have more than enough guns and that I'll probably never get around to using some of the ones I have for their intended purpose BUT they are fun to have anyway.  Just like I'll probably never get into any CAS type stuff but I certainly can't if I don't have the guns, besides I really like the looks of a hammer coach gun... and an 1873 with color case hardening... a couple Colt clones and cartridge conversion repro's would be fun to have around too.  I'd really like to have a set of three CZ rifles with the Bavarian mannlicher styled stocks (.22, .223 and 6.5x55) would be cool.  I really think I'll have to send my Marlin 336 back to be switched to the octagon barrel too.  Right now I could really use a target grade 10/22 as well.  Oh and I'm going to look at a couple of DA revolvers today at our Rod and Gun Club.  I can't afford everything now... heck if I could buy all of those I certainly probably wouldn't still be in the AF but I can buy one or two a year to help feed the addiction.  It's better than drinking or chasing women, cheaper and safer too.  Though probably less respectable in certain segments of society but then again I don't run with that crowd.  I'd rather hang around with a bunch of gun nuts and talk crap and shoot stuff and tell lies anyway... 


ngh