Can you own too many vanilla hunting rifles?

[hometownhero]

I know realistically you could have one gun to do them all but what's the fun in that.

That is why some guys have lots of other guns. Whats the fun in 5 when you can have 150. Goes both ways. Some like or only want a few some want to collect as many as they can. As long as people still have guns in this country all is well.

 

[Superbrad]

I currently have:

.177 air rifle
.22lr x 2
.223
.243
.257 Roberts
.7mm-08
.308
.338 win mag
.375 H&H
.50 cal muzzleloader
.410
12 gauge x2

I need a semi 12 gauge for waterfowl and the want but not need list consists of a nice 20 gauge sxs and a .358 win..... After that I will be done with purging and acquiring...... I think.....

 

[tigrr]

Every time I get rid of something I regret it later.

 

[GMC403]

I think you can have too many "vanilla" rifles, but it depends on your purpose for owning them I guess.
At one point I had 13 Marlin 30-30's, I'm not sure why, but I was really interested in the different variants of the 336 at the time.

I'm now on the bandwagon of "less is more". I found looking at safes full of rifles that I wasn't using in the field didn't appeal to me anymore. There was a decent sum of money sitting there that could be better used to fund my adventures and other required gear.

However...., owning all the rifles I have thus far, has allowed me to narrow down what I do and do not want in my safe. So I have no regrets.

My current list (and purpose) is:
-----------------------------------------------
-Henry 22 youth lever. (Farm gun, plinker)

-H&R Tamer 410. (Grouse getter)

-Ruger Scout 308 w/ VX-3 2.5-8 (General purpose Deer, Bear hunting, dogging rifle) 150-165gr loads

-Winchester M70 EW 30-06 w/ VX-3 3.5-10 B&C (Bear, Elk, Moose) 180-200gr loads

-Ruger 77/357 (Hiking rifle, just plain fun to shoot)

-Winchester SXP 12ga Field 26". (Clays, upland)
----------------------------------------------
-The Wife and kids have a couple in the safe as well (1x 308, 1x 20ga, 2x 22lr)

Other than a quality scoped rimfire, I don't feel I "Need" anything else. "Want" is an entirely different problem.

What I cleared out in the last 5 years:

17hm2 (x2)
17hmr (x7)
22lr (x15)
22mag (x4)
223 Rem (x4)
22-250 (x2)
243 win (x5)
257 Roberts (x2)
270 win (x3)
7mm-08 (x3)
7mm Rem Mag (x2)
7.62x39mm Soviet (x5)
30-30 win (x27)
308 Marlin Exp (x4)
308 win (x7)
30-06 (x4)
300 Win Mag (x2)
357 Mag (x5)
35 Rem (x5)
358 Win (x2)
35 Whelen (x3)
44 Rem Mag (x4)
444 Marlin (x8)
45-70 Govt (x4)

 

[HChammer]

Some say less is more. I think more is more! Although everything I own gets field time (with the exception of a few handed down guns) or I trade them.. I do regret most i have sold but I sold them because I didn't use them.

In the fall when I'm deer or moose hunting I normally rotate between 5 or so rifles.

 

[Buckmastr]

More is more I agree. I have no use for a $20,000 double. But another minty remington 700? Sign me up.

I'm sure selling a remington 700 is a lot easier than an expensive one of a kind as well. When the time comes...

 

[heronfish]

Here's what I have hanging out for centre fire bolts

6.5x55
270
7mm mag
308
30-06 x 4
9.3x57x2
375 h&h

Then in levers
25-35
30-30 x 2
32 ws
38-55
44 mag
454
45-70

As you can see I have probably too many guns that accomplish exactly the same thing. And this is after liquidating a few others of the same ilk.

 

[bcsteve]

I always find rifles creeping into my safe, but I try to keep redundancy to a minimum and utility to a maximum. Recently turned a few cool, but impractical rifles, into a new, practical one that will not be a safe queen. About to sell a few more to get two customs that will fit the bill for 98% of my hunting needs, and have $$ leftover for a couple new Mystery Ranch packs that I intend to try and wear out!

moving forward my safe will basically contain : 223, 280 Ackley, 308, 338-06, 375 Ruger

You're abandoning the .260 Rem!?! Sacrilege!!!

 

[nick237]

I'm purging right now . Mosty due to the economy, but I'm realizing a stack of rifle cases to the ceiling with none of them ever being used is a shame. It was a fearful thing but once I started selling and acquiring room and less things to worry about, it's almost liberating. I'm hoping to get the collection into two safes and have them all ready to use instead of in boxes waiting for time and a plan.

 

[Dogleg]

I'm on the band wagon of saying I should sell 50 or 80 guns; then not doing it. It's hard to let a rifle with a dozen stories hanging on it go.

On the hand, logic tells me I could sell and roll proceeds into fewer and better guns to make new memories. Easy to say, hard to do.

 

[hoytcanon]

I'm on the band wagon of saying I should sell 50 or 80 guns; then not doing it. It's hard to let a rifle with a dozen stories hanging on it go.

On the hand, logic tells me I could sell and roll proceeds into fewer and better guns to make new memories. Easy to say, hard to do.

Hard to do, but once you get rolling it gets easier...

 

[Superbrad]

I'm on the band wagon of saying I should sell 50 or 80 guns; then not doing it. It's hard to let a rifle with a dozen stories hanging on it go.

On the hand, logic tells me I could sell and roll proceeds into fewer and better guns to make new memories. Easy to say, hard to do.

See.... From a different perspective, I was collecting too many rifles and not enough memories...... The proceeds from my sell off and acquisition of better quality rifles still left me with a small slush fund to help generate some memories..... And all of the rifles I have picked up are begging to get a unique memory attached to them....

I also still have the Cooey 84 dad gave me to start off with though...... Unfortunately the coveralls and kodiak workboots that accompanied it are toast though......

 

[hoytcanon]

Double post.

 

[Claybuster]

Every time I get rid of something I regret it later.

The way to prevent regrets is to buy something a lot better. When I bought better guns I stopped shooting the others. Occasionally I would take them out and ask myself why was I shooting this so-so gun when I had something much better sitting at home in my safe. Of several dozen guns there might be one or two I wish I had back largely for sentimental reasons but sentiment isn't enough of a reason for me to keep a gun around if it doesn't have a role to play.

 

[razorbeck]

I have only 29 and a whole bunch of different calibres, I too should thin the herd, but the last time I tried I ended up buying another instead.

Mind you it was in a new calibre sako av 25-06

 

[The Kurgan]

Less is more. I know in this modern world everything hinges on being a consumer and happiness is supposed to come from money and possessions. I've noticed that with fewer possessions brings one more time to do better things with life. Sounds cheesy but I truly believe in it.

Not cheesy at all, 100% true in my case as well.

 

[jjohnwm]

It's a wonderful feeling to be rid of multiple redundant guns, and to free up those funds for a few "perfect" guns and a few nice hunts. It's hard to do, as Dogleg said...until suddenly, one day, it becomes easy to do. Instead of spending time constantly playing musical scopes and swapping optics back and forth to find the perfect match...and wasting more time working up loads for gun #247 which will then allow it to exactly duplicate the performance and capabilities of guns #220 to #246...and keeping track of what each one is sighted in for...well, you get the picture.

Sell most of the iron, and take what's left on some adventures. You'll love it.

 

[j_06]

Had a wants vs needs inner battle that ended with me down to one safe,8 guns and my kid set up with a nice savings. For the first time since only owning one rifle I don't have any dust collectors, everything has a worked up load and is sighted in and there's nothing that just says "meh" when I hold it. They all are either too sentimental or "essential" now. Down to a 30-06, 308, 12 and 20, 2x22's and an old lee enfield just because(isn't it a law somewhere?).

 

[Templar Knight]

I suspect that the vanilla guns will do everything an expensive high end gun will do if it has a decent scope on it . Firearms are like money in the bank as they always seem to be going up in value....

 

[Dogleg]

The way prices have gone up I can take some comfort in that if I liquidated most of them at a fast sale price I wouldn't lose anything. Well, not any money at least.

It occurs to me that that I'm not entirely certain what vanilla plain is. Oh, sure a Tupperware stocked SPS is vanilla plain, and a Darcy Echols rifle isn't, but I don't have either of those. Is a handpicked Feather weight with gorgeous wood plain Jane? It's still a factory gun. Is a Cooper with relatively plain wood vanilla flavored if it's chambered in a 30-06 which is surely plain? Does killing a couple hundred animals with it change that? It's still a factory gun, they make them every day. It occurs to me that a Sako or Weatherby isn't much different than anyone's else's Sako or Weatherby or Cooper. Might not be plain, but doesn't that make it ordinary. Not finding much clarification there. What about Kimbers that don't look ordinary, don't feel ordinary but were bought for the price of remchester?

How about builds ? I'm sure many would like to believe that their 700 with custom barrel/McMillan/ Jewel is completely different from everyone else's 700/custom barrelled /McMillan/Newel but is it really. I'm sure it was put together by a gunsmith worth his Popsicle stick, just like everyone else's.

I'd love to trim out some of the plain vanillas, just as soon as I figure out what they are.