Why are we so crazy

[Tommy Kelly]

I am going to admit it I'm crazy. I have an addiction to guns. I can never be satisfyed. I will never own all the guns I want. I deer hunt and have over 40 deer class rifles. One is all that I need but I still buy rifles. A few years ago I only owned 1 handgun now I have close to 30. Then you go to shotguns I have over a dozen. What ever happened to one gun and knowing it. I find myself deer hunting and never using the same rifle for 2 hunts in a year. The only time I use the same gun is during our muzzleloader season then I hunt with my 375 H&H encore for 2 weeks straight even though I have 3 true muzzleloaders 2 knight mk85's and a old hawken TC. The 375 H&H doesn't require the extensive cleaning after shooting it so it's my muzzleloader. In the last couple of years I have even gone a couple of times during deer season and only carried a handgun just leave the rifles at home and hunt handgun only. A couple of years ago I decided I wanted to use a 30-30 and didn't have one so I went out and started looking for one. They weren't easy to find in the older 336's with the smooth wood. So when I found one I bought it. I now have 7 336 30-30's 4 35 336"s 2 45-70 1895's and a newer model 308 marlin lever action. It's a sickness and I'm hooked bad.

 

[Skalkaho Slim]

I was the same way up to a few years ago. Had an epiphany of sorts and either traded or sold off virtually everything. My collection is a mere shadow of what it once was. Just a couple of rifles, shotguns and handguns anymore. I've transfered my addiction to reloading. Used to just load when I needed to, now I load to the point at which I'll most likely never shoot all this ammo before I die.

Some days I'm happy with it.

Most days I'm just ok.

Like one who has quit any addiction, the wanting never goes away. I still yearn for a cigarette even after 20 years of not smoking. I still would love a cold beer after 9 years without a drop.

And I'll yearn for new and different guns till the day I die.

 

[32magfan]

I have the same bug. I get a few hundred or even $1K ahead in savings and I buy 1or 2 guns and I'm back to square one. At least I refuse to put anything on a credit card anymore.

I have over 40 handguns but only a few rifles and shotguns. I did buy a Thompson semiauto a few weeks back. I'm interested in long guns but handguns are my real addiction. Most of these are Rugers and many are single actions.

I too have had a few thoughts about selling a bunch and just having 10 or so guns total. I could spend it on a newer vehicle - I drive an 18-year old Dodge Dakota. :shock: Hey, it's paid for... And so are all the guns. :wink:

Happy shooting!!!!

Thanks,

32Magfan

 

[SamV]

I met a guy at the range a few years back. His comments to me struck home. It's probably cheaper and safer than a midlife crises mistress.
Even my wife approves. When others ask her about the gun habit/hobby, she explains that there are worse ways to spend your money and time.

 

[WESHOOT2]

I 'simplified' some years back, as I found no real joy in simply owning a little-used gun.

Now I enjoy those I kept.



That said, I can understand the desire to 'collect'.....

 

[eveled]

It is not just gun guy's who are crazy. It is in our human nature to collect for some reason. You buy one it makes you feel good so you keep buying. How many girls have 100 purses or pairs of shoes? Has to do with chemicals released in the brain.

Literally you get alittle high when you find and purchase something you want. It is like a little dose of heroin. Too bad selling them doesn't release the same chemical.

They claim if you exercise daily for long enough you get the the same kind of high. When they take a day off they get withdrawals.

Ed

 

[Nowata]

I understand collecting...it's sorta like art. But dude, you may really have a problem, maybe a little too much disposable income! On the other hand, I might just be a little jealous!!

 

[ftlupton]

In 40 years and close to a half million trap targets I had close to 300 trap guns(not all at one time), it is an addiction just like drugs. I now have 2 trap guns, 6 handguns and 1 elk rifle and am much happier.

 

[SteveRuger]

HELLO, My name is Steve I an an addict!

 

[Flatbush]

Gee, this thread seemed to have quite a few responses over a short period of time. These are just the night owls...Wait till every one else wakes up!!
Seriously guys, in one word- thanks.

I knew I was not alone on this one.
This is my FAVORITE website ever.

 

[Jayhawkhuntclub]

Well, I guess I don't have it as bad as some of you. :shock: I try to limit myself to two gun buys a year. Sometimes I have to sell something to do it. But I never go into debt for a gun (or anything other than a car or a house). Sometimes I see a gun that I really would like to have and turn it down. Then when the auction's over, I feel pretty good. And when I win the auction, I have this weird feeling of doing something wrong. Of course that feeling goes away when I pick up the gun. :wink:

 

[Don Lovel]

so that is where all the 35 Rem caliber Marlin Levers are stashed at

 

[SteveRuger]

so that is where all the 35 Rem caliber Marlin Levers are stashed at

To show how bad of an addict I am I have one of them two! J/S 8)

 

[mohavesam]

Cheaper than collecting muscle cars or loose gemstones (wife #1's vice).

But then running my '68 GTX to the gun show isn't necessarily a bad morning...

My monkey is any as-new K22. :shock:

 

[m77hunter]

I don't have a gun problem, i have a lack of funds problem!!! :(

 

[contender]

I will say that to be an addiction AND a problem, it must take away money & time from the family.
That said, if you have the money, and you spend the time with family, realize you have a heck of a retirement fund.
As noted above,,, you could be wasting your money AND your family life on a mistress.
Miss Penny likes to say that I'm working on her inheritance.
PS; Keep buying as you still have a ways to go to catch me.

 

[BearStopper]

There was a day, as in my Grandpa's heyday, that most families could only afford a few guns. He only had a 30-30, 22 revolver, and a SXS shotgun. In the day and age of plenty, we have to be entertained constantly with new things. I am to the point where I can hardly think of a gun that I want bad enough to get excited about. The upside, as Contender pointed out, is even though we may be gun poor, I have never once taken a significant loss on a gun sold. So, if you buy smart....the sport comes close to paying for itself in the overall equation.

 

[stantheman86]

Everyone has their "thing", just that ours happens to be firearms 8)

+1 on what Contender says, lots of people waste money on things they'll never get it back from. At least guns hold their value if you take care of them. Even a beater $200 Security Six, you could probably at least get that back and then some in a few years if you don't want it.

I know guys who dump 10's of thousands of $$$ into cars, it makes them happy so I say have at it! If they sell the cars they'll never get that money back, no one cares what you have "into" a car, just like no one cares if you have a Super Redhawk with "$2,000 in custom work into it", it's still a $500 used Ruger.

It is an addiction, I have piles of Ruger and S&W DA revolvers, now I'm getting into SA stuff. I have guns I bought 2 years ago that haven't seen their first round yet, so yes, I have way more than I "need". At some point I will sell some or all of them, or my (future) son will get a decent collection of shooter grade S&W and Ruger revolvers lol

I just sold off nearly 100 military rifles over the past year, I too had an epiphany and I just did not need them, I truly didn't. I used the money to pay off crushing debt, and free myself of what would have been years of monthly payments for credit card settlements. Paid my car off, got some headway on student loans. Now I just have rent, utilities and other expenses. No more credit cards, nothing. There was a time in my past when I opened up new credit accounts just to pay for more guns. I didn't want to have to deal with debilitating payments just to have 100 pieces of steel and wood sitting in my basement, most of which hardly got touched anyway.

I do have a lot of handguns, and I'm still adding more but for the first time in my life I have a collecting "focus", which is Ruger firearms. I'm no longer all over the map just buying stuff on impulse. I shoot everything I own and have no safe queens. I got my life down to a few calibers, and pretty much specialize in .38 and .357 revolvers, with some .44's thrown in 8) I might add a .41 some day...........but my days of having over 50 different calibers is over.

I even refuse to buy a .40, I just don't want one. I have my Ruger P90 .45, which fills the bill for the rare times I actually feel like shooting a semi auto.

 

[akhooters7]

so that is where all the 35 Rem caliber Marlin Levers are stashed at

To show how bad of an addict I am I have one of them two! J/S 8)

me too

 

[Jayhawkhuntclub]

Generally speaking, if you are going into debt to buy a gun, then you have a problem, IMHO.

 

[akhooters7]

so that is where all the 35 Rem caliber Marlin Levers are stashed at

To show how bad of an addict I am I have one of them two! J/S 8)

me too

 

[Bear Paw Jack]

I watched the "Book of Eli" with Denzel Washington again this weekend. It's a good movie, set in a time 30 years after the "Flash". The country is still in very bad shape and people are killing each other for stuff they need to live or just to get something to trade for. A girl that started following Denzel, at one point ask him what it was like before the "flash". He said people had more than they needed and didn't recognize it. They threw stuff away that people consider very valuable now. I'm getting to the point that it's getting harder to get out and do as much hunting that I'd like and have probably had my last moose hunt. Not sure I need 2 375 H&H's or 3 338's etc. But I like them. It's a real quandry. Considering moving out of Alaska in the next 4 years or so and even moving them out is tough, cause you can't move some of them through Canada, especially handguns and semi autos. Lots of things to think over.

 

[DGW1949]

Most grown men has responsabilities, and that sort of thing should be took care of before anything else. I have always been keenly aware of that. Still though, sometimes it's hard for me to keep my needs seperated from my wants....and I do slip sometimes.
My own personal problem with the gun thing is that I have a weakness for older, nickled-plated handguns, so the times that one comes along that fits into my idea of a "good deal", I'm just as likely to pounce on it as not.

Maybe my weakness is due to vanity, maybe it's lust, or maybe something else....dunno.....but whatever does cause it, it seems to be bigger than I am....if ya get my drift.

Wow, this makes two confessionals that I've done here on the forum in the past few days. So, ya think maybe there's hope for me after all?

DGW

 

[stantheman86]

Guns are the cheap part..........paying for all the ammo, targets, etc. is where you spend the money!

I have a safe full of guns but then I have to spend $300 for a 1,000 case of "cheap" .38 just to have something to shoot through them, and then that's gone in a couple weeks.......

I don't reload, I hardly have time to even tinker with my guns let alone go shooting these days.......but hopefully that will change.

It makes me happy and gives me something to look forward to. I don't work my life away to not buy things that make me happy 8)

 

[ProfessorWes]

Almost anything can be an addiction, when it comes right down to it.

...I love collecting guns, and Ruger single-actions in particular, but my collection is limited by lack of space and funds. Especially now that I've got a monthly car payment again. Besides, I'm reluctant, especially in this economy, to buy something I don't absolutely need...especially since when it comes to guns, I've probably got "enough" for my purposes already.

A couple of weeks ago I had a momentary lapse of self-control and bought another 5 1/2" .44 Special flattop, this one a Bisley, to go along with the original Lipsey's I already had. First gun I've bought in almost two years; the last one was a Henry .22 Lever Octagon Frontier that I actually bought for my dad. (I'd already bought one for myself, and Dad liked mine so much that I bought another for him.)

And I kept asking myself the whole time I was filling out the paperwork: Why? Feeding one .44 Special is expensive enough, given ammo prices (and handloading isn't really an option for me, living in an apartment as I do). And it's not like I have a lot of time for range trips these days, between work and family, to shoot the guns I already have.

But hey, sometimes you just gotta feed the monkey... :lol:

 

[stantheman86]

I knew I had a sickness when I bought a beat up Service Six with the sole purpose of just using it to shoot Blackpowder .38 Specials :lol:

When you have a gun for EVERY single purpose, it's a sickness 8) I have a winter carry gun, a summer carry gun, a windpants gun, a shorts gun, a car gun,a garage gun, a GP100 just for 180 gr. .357, a 6" GP100 set up for Bullseye matches with Federal SWC .38's because it has super light springs (I have yet to ever use it as such :P ) a "target" .44 Super Redhawk I haven't even fired in over a year........and so on and so on!

I've bought "carry guns" that have yet to see any kind of carry (it's become a handy excuse), I've bought "range beaters" and "plinkers" that I haven't even fired yet, so much for the range beater part hahaha

But it's fun, I admit I spend WAY too much money on guns.........but I pay the bills, I hardly ever drink, I have no real bad habits, I have other hobbies like running and fitness so that I'm not 100% a "gun nut", so I don't have any guilt about buying myself a gun here and there.

 

[Jimbo357mag]

Y'all speak for yourselves, I don't have a problem. "...and you know it." 8) 8)

 

[kelbro]

I thought I had a problem until I read this thread.

I'm feeling much better now. - John Astin

 

[JEFraze]

HELLO, My name is Steve I an an addict!

Hello Steve

My name is Jason and I also have a problem


lol

 

[gunman42782]

I wonder if we can get a disability check????