I personally don't like the term and don't use it. Although it's probably just part of the vernacular for most/some by now, my mind equates it with snobbery from people who seem to have a [bleep] ton of money to spend on high end guns, and think only people who acquire said high end guns are collectors. While I have high end guns of different makes in my collection, I have more that were used for their intended purpose. The ones that got used are at least just as interesting to me as ones that never served or served very little.
On the other hand the gray rat thinking works out for me. I love to work on, fix, etc old rifles and people thinking these guns are almost worthless makes it so I can obtain projects and parts. A gun has to be in pretty sorry shape before I'll go monkeying around with it.
