Collection size?

[eighteenninetytwo]

so this question is fairly arbitrary and I'm just trying to gauge opinions. I recently figured that my plan of converting part of the garage to "gun room" is not going to fly due to various reasons. This messes up my plans of a large wall hanging display and small safe in a secure room. Result will be a larger safe but as they are going to be IN the safe as opposed to having a ROOM as a safe, the display option goes away. Thus I'm probably going to cull the collection a bit. As I collect Enfields I figure I need to have an example or two of each rifle (No.1, No.2, No.3, No.4, No.5 etc) and some of the oddities also that I've garnered in 303 British and 7.62 Nato, but if they're not in a display is there any point in duplication. Do I keep one safe queen and one shooter of each? Do folks generally have safe queens or do you all shoot all your rifles at least every now and then??

[Paulie Lugnuts]

Some of our guns we don't have ammo for, but we have shot most of them. There are a couple of really nice ones we haven't shot because we want to keep them nice, like our Fazakerly No.4 mk2 and our vet bring back K98.

[CA-Libertarian]

Don't do safe queens/wall hangers. All of my firearms are range-ready and I shoot them all.

[NOTABIKER]

shoot it or loose it. like the TV show ,chasing clasic cars.This guy buys a 60s chev convertible then puts it in a garage and never 1 time drives it. he dies and the wife has it towed away for major repairers for not running in 30 years. what a waste. i do understand a rifle does not deteriorate sitting in a gun room. i probably would have a few safe queens if i had enough money.

[John Browning]

I have a few that are just too expensive to shoot. At some point, it doesn't make sense to take a $10,000 gun and devalue it in a minute by what I have to work a week to make. I also have a few with small numbered parts, like a Luger, where breaking that one tiny part would really hurt the originality of the piece.

I really still enjoy owning these guns. Here is one that I will restore to functionality, but will leave alone and never fire.

http://www.calguns.net/calgunforum/showthread.php?t=793402

[50BMGBOB]

I have shot everything in my safe at least once except a war trophy that my father in law brought back with a bad bore. I even keep a few boxes of ammo for everything, even oddball stuff. That being said, I have many I haven't shot in decades and don't plan to shoot anytime soon. Some of the ammo is no longer made. But, it is there should I need or want it.

[Zedrek]

I don't believe in safe queens. I don't buy duplicates because I would rather spend that money on ammo for them or on another gun for the collection.

[Bobby Ricigliano]

Don't do safe queens/wall hangers. All of my firearms are range-ready and I shoot them all.

I will partly agree, in that I don't have any firearms that are not fully functional. All of them work as designed. However, I don't see the need to shoot rare and collectible firearms that are part of a nest egg investment. I choose not to shoot my mint unissued Romanian SKS when I have a beater Chinese SKS to fill that need.

[Armistice]

I only have a few rifles, but as I collect some will be shot less than others. As of now, I shoot all 3 of my rifles

[WASR10]

If I were a collector, I wouldn't consider my collection to be a group of safe queens. However I'm not a collector, and budgetary considerations usually require I sell off any firearms I won't use on a regular basis, or don't find practical.

[eighteenninetytwo]

Interesting comments and opinions. I was thinking that I will drop the numbers I have by about 50%, however, I just made an excel spreadsheet of what I have, what is a keeper (highlighted in yellow) and what I could sell. When I looked at it again, it was very apparent that I'm not prepared to let anything go (just about the whole sheet was yellow) which is actually worth anything except one duplicate No.4 Mk 2 in wrapper and a sporterised rifle or two, so I might as well keep the lot I'll have to revisit the architecture and plans for the room again. Wife will not be happy.

[SKSer45]

there's rifles you shoot and there's ones you just stare at, love it, clean it and repeat while wearing white gloves. Shooting a $90 Moosin Nagant is one thing...shooting a bring back 98k with a duffle cut and papers....that's sacrilegious. I mean if you captured a living breathing Unicorn would you want to ride it and risk losing it? Or would you build it a nice happy home where you can watch it run around, safe and sound to show the world. Easy choice.

[DBADRAT]

Collect, shoot, don't shoot, fondle them, love them all no matter what you do, just enjoy them as you see fit.

[morrell]

Collect, shoot, don't shoot, fondle them, love them all no matter what you do, just enjoy them as you see fit.

Exactly what I would say!

[SacJDog]

I have a small collection so they all get used regularly, once I start buying guns that cost 5k+ or are rare then I might be more reserved in shooting it, but even then I would like to shoot it at least once a year.