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JB (if I may call you that) At what point does one qualify to be a Rifle Looney? I thought of these things when reading the Gun Gack thread. Does one assume the title when he buys 1, 2, or more rifles that he doesn't "need"? Or can one be a Looney if he/she just desires those rifles he doesn't need (in the legal sense)? I consider myself to be Rifle Looney, even though some might not. I have several rifles that I have absolutely no true need for, but couldn't live without. But, before I was 10 yrs. old, I would read Outdoor Life and the stories of Jack O'Connor and others. I bought Shooting Times and Guns and Ammo (some of you remember, the mags that once wrote about guns without black stocks) with the money I made mowing yards and odd jobs. I always wanted a 270 Win because of what he wrote about it. Later, even though I killed a number of deer with the 270 and still have 2 around the house, I was not as enamored by it as he was. One rifle that intrigued me, even though every gun writer could not write about it without mentioning it was a real barrel burner, and that is the 264 Win Mag. And here I am almost 50 yrs. later, and I have a Hawkeye in that magical caliber. Haven't hunted with it yet, might never. And this week bought a Ruger #1 in a 22/250 which I have thought and thought about and cannot come up with any logical reason to own a 22/250, but here it sits.

Am I a Looney, and if so, when did I become one? When I had the desire and read everything I could get hold of about centerfire rifles? Or when I was able to see some of my dreams come to fruition? And I would be interested in knowing if anyone else dreamed about a certain firearm or caliber when they were kids and then later in life able to realize the object of those dreams?

First, one must learn to spell "Loony".😱

JB,

If you don't mind, I'm going to take this one...

You are a certified Loony when you purchase dies or components for a chambering you don't yet own.

Another indicator is accepting free ammunition for chambering's you don't own, and then using that free ammunition (regardless of quantity) as a "reason" to purchase another rifle.





Travis

Or, if you think about selling a rifle to get enough money to buy a better scope for that same rifle.....

Thank You.

I am certifiable then.

Ruger77Shooter,

The others have already suggested several telling symptoms of being a rifle loony, but those occur only after the condition has progressed to far its normally incurable. Reading magazine articles about guns when very young might be considered a "pre-loony indicator." I had definite symptoms by age 8, the year I first recall firing an actual rifle, though by then I was well acquainted with the smoothbores then known as "BB guns."

I must also comment that according to versions of Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, and its British counterpart, the Oxford English Dictionary (generally considered the ultimate authority), "looney" is also an accepted but secondary spelling. The O.E.D. also lists "luny," which makes sense as loony is based on the word lunacy, being crazed by the moon.

However, neither lists "loonie," also sometimes used by Campfire members, but English isn't one of those languages controlled by officials to make sure it remains pure. Instead it's a still-changing and very flexible language, the reason English dictionaries are based on "common usage" rather than, say, the official decrees of a language board of stern geezers. Personally, I prefer "loony" simply because my own training in English emphasized simplicity in use. Not including an "e" is simpler--and quicker to type. .

John: you could just give a reference to an older article you did ( with my, and bourbon's help for ideas...) on " You Might be a Rifle Loony if...."

I definitely fit the bill. Dies for chamberings I don't yet have? Check. Scopes for as yet unknown rifles? Check. Three rifles in the safe that I "had to have" but have not had a round put through them? Check. To the OP, it seems as the you're on the right track to loonyism. Now, go pick up some .225 Winchester dies, because in 5-6 yrs., you might find or build one.

BTDT on both accounts.

Unless, of course, one is referring to the inimitable Joe Don of football "fame".

Luny...I like that

If you ever answer the question, "How many rifles do you own?" with "A few short!" or something similar...

Absolutely no topping that one.
John

Well...1st of all, to those I offended by the misspelling of Loony, I apologize. Even though I feel a little vindicated since it is a 2nd spelling, so I'm on the fence on that one.

When I was on this site a few years ago, I bought a good many 284 Win brass and loaded rounds anticipating the day I would have a rifle chambered for it. That ended up in a bitter/sweet relationship as I have one now. Unfortunately, I bought a Win model 100 in the 284 and so far have not been able to get it to eject the spent brass. But, I have another guy looking at it and hope he can get it worked out. If not, I'll have to look for another one.

At this time, I have the dies and brass for a 250 Savage which I have yet to purchase/build. Not being a man of wealth, I picked up a Marlin XS7 this past week with the intentions of changing the 243 to my long awaited 250 Sav.

And, i am not sure how many rifles I have nor how many different chamberings at this time. Not that I have that many, but it is on up in the double digits. Hopefully then, if I haven't reached Loony status yet, maybe it isn't too far down the road.

Thanks, Eddie

At that point where, if you have a rifle in .257 Roberts and three in .243, you can in all seriousness discuss why you need a .250 Savage. As in music, this can be transposed to many situations not just limited to chamberings.

If you have a .300 Win. Mag and a .30-06, discuss why you need a .300 WSM
If you have an 18" barreled lever action .30-30 and a 22" barreled .308 Winchester bolt action, discuss why you need a short 20" barreled 760 in .300 Savage as a "truck gun". Extra points if you do not own a truck.
If you have a 7mm-08 load that stacks 140 grain high BC bullets on top of each other, and a .260 load for a rifle you bought in 2003 that stacks 123 grain high BC bullets on top of each other, discuss why you cannot find rest at night until acquiring a 6.5 Creedmoor to work up a load for 129 grain bullets.

Extrapolate from here....

Done all of that. Or buy a gun for a scope that is going on sale.

Buy a Marlin 336 in a configuration no longer made.

Just a few days later you see on gunbroker the same configuration Marlin 336 in almost the same condition and made within 4 years of the DOM of the one you bought but it's offered for 50 bucks less than what you paid, and it takes a supreme act of will not to buy the second one.

Hello, my name is Jim and I am a rifle loony. I have been clean and sober for 9 days now....

Jim...I haven't made it that long yet. I brought home 3 new to me this week. And I don't just have a Roberts, I have a 25/06 as well, so the only "need" I have for the Savage, is that I "want" one. And I try to keep 4 or 5 extra scopes around here at all times, just in case. I put one on the new to me #1 last night. I'm trying to decide right now if I want to put one of the other extras I have on hand for the 77ST. Either way, I'm now shopping for another good deal on a scope...maybe 2. Because I believe in being ready-just in case.

I keep buying .223 WSSM brass and have no .223 WSSM. Some day!




Travis

I have a pile of 6.5mm bullets yet I own no .264 rifle......

You run the risk of causing a major rupture of the space-time continuum. You wouldn't want to be responsible for that, would you??

Here's another example from my own perilous adventures:

Bought a set of used .280 Remington dies at a gun show around 25 years ago, because I was "thinking" about getting a .280, and the dies were a really good deal. This resulted in a custom lightweight .280, put together by the late Dave Gentry, which was very accurate.

However, a couple years later I decided the rifle could be even more accurate with "upgraded" dies, so spent about 10 times as much as I'd paid for the gun-show dies. The new dies did improve accuracy somewhat, but by then I'd managed to somehow take a number of big game animals with Gentry .280 without any problems. These included what's still my biggest mule deer, and one of my two biggest caribou.

But by golly my .280 was finally the best it could be! By that time, of course, I'd started to get a little bored with it, so sold it to acquire other rifles. Luckily, by then my loonyism had been tempered by a little more rationality, and I still have one of the other rifles acquired, a NULA .30-06, which over the past 20 years has taken more big game than any of my other rifles.

The whole process, however, started with a set of used .280 dies that supposedly saved me a bunch of money.

Working on it

I think the firearm industry owes our generation big time. Watch the profits fall when the milleniums rule.
We are saviours to the economy.
Because I have more dies than rifles, more bullets than future tags, factory ammo for rifles I don't have and worse still, lots of spare barrels plus powder and primers that can be budgeted copiously until I am 157 years old, that makes me a loony before is became fashionable?

I believe that you're well-qualified for Loony status. Enjoy!

Does buying ammo, bullets, and dies to load for someone else count? Just picked up two boxes of 40/82 ammo, a box of cast lead bullets, and a set of dies so I can shoot a Winchester 1886 belonging to a shirttail relative of my wife. Now I have to get tang screws, fore end screws, and a rear sight elevator to finish the gun off.

Guns I have no justifiable use for defines most of the guns I have picked up over the years. Generally, if the price is low enough, the gun is uncommon enough, or no longer has readily available ammo is all the criteria I need. One occasion it has worked out a particular gun became desirable and I realized a tidy profit but more often the gun is traded off on some other oddity.

"Looney" is how I spell the word, probably the result of spending far too much time in and around Canada. I sometimes add an "o" to words like "labour" with an "eh" or "ya know" occasionally tossed in. My wife knows how much time I spent at the local tavern at deer camp- I come home talking like the cast of the movie "Fargo" if I am up there more than a week.

One of these days, I'm gonna own a 6mm Rem so I can use the two sets of dies I have...........

Mark Twain once said that anyone who only knows a single spelling of any particular word suffers from a deplorable lack of imagination!

You no he was rite, two.

Thanks gentlemen. I now know what disease I have and it is one that I don't want to get rid of any time soon. Not that there is a cure for it anyway.

Ewe, not you, sheesh!

I got 2 pre -64 model 70`s in 264 win mag.s, I don`t even use them I just keep them for my collection, but sometimes I wonder why don`t I try one for hunting ?

I have three 264’s, you can’t hunt with more than one at a time. I have four 7 Rem mags too. Damn, I need to sell some!!

I have done that - but hey, I did shoot up the ammo!

Looking back, I can pinpoint the first outbreak of my loonyism. Growing up in the rural South where 'shotguns and dogs' was the traditional and accepted method for deer hunting, I knew no one that owned or used a dedicated deer rifle. We had 22 rifles for plinking and the small stuff and shotguns for everything else.

In the mid 60s when I was still in my early teens, I saw a picture of a new product from Remington in an outdoor magazine. It was a M600 Remington. I knew nothing about rifles, but for some reason I KNEW I had to have one. It would be many years before I could buy one, but eventually I did. I have owned, and still own, many rifles and more than my share of M600s, but that first affliction can be traced directly to that ad for the M600. My friends looked at me as if I was 'loony' when I talked abut the M600 and other centerfires. Their ultimate goal in life was to get a new Remington M1100......

I am a Rifle Loony! I have little regard for shotguns or handguns, using them only when a rifle absolutely cannot be made to do the job properly.

As a follow up, I walked into a local BBQ restaurant a few years ago that had old signs and advertisements plastered all over the walls. Just inside the door was an original poster, about 18"X24", of the first M600 ad(complete with vent rib and 35 Rem, 222, 6mm, etc., calibers). Apparently, it was used to post in gun and outdoor stores back then. I tried everything in my power to buy that poster, but they wouldn't even consider it.

I had some 8x57 ammo that I came in a lot of other stuff I bought at an auction. Had to have an 8mm, I bought a Mexican Mauser. but I don't like that Mauser. Bought a bunch of bullets so I have to get another rifle - I need to get a another 8x57! Should I look for a 700 classic or another Mauser or both?? Desperate need for one as soon as possible. Then I'll need to work up loads. Then I'll need to...

Don't have the proper cast bullet mold (AKA mould) , am looking for such. Getting anxious.

Signs of a certifiable loony:

- I wore out my dad's Gun Digest before I started Kindergarten and before I could read. At the time, I thought I needed a Browning .22 Auto. I must have been able to count because I remember MSRP being $350.
-I wore out several copies of Cartridge of the World and Bolt Action Rifles before the age of 10.
-In school, I skipped recess every day to read Jack O'Connor books and peruse the archived American Rifleman copies in the school library.
-As a child, I kept a list of every gun I thought I should own. This list included Matched Ruger 77s in multiple cartridges filling all gaps between .257 and .338, a .375 M70, a .416 Hoffman because of an article George wrote about his cartridge, a double rifle because Craig Boddington led me to believe I needed one. Additionally, Venturino convinced me I needed a collection of Colt SAAs. I also had shotguns, varmint rifles, etc. on the list.
-I dreamed of being the CEO of Remington because at 9, I genuinely believed I could improve Remington's product line.
-I wore out a Ruger Single Six before my 18th birthday.
-Instead of applying high school graduation money to college expenses, I went straight to Gibsons and bought a T/C muzzle loader
-When it came time to get married the only thing of value I had were guns so I had to liquidate a few to buy a ring.
-As a young, commission sales guy, I calculated commissions in terms of how many rifles and shotguns I could buy.
-I bought (and sometime still do some times) perfect rifles for specialized hunts I may never go on. Once I have the rifle dialed in for the non-existent hunt, I sometimes feel I need a spare.
-I sometimes buy a rifle and don't make time to shoot it or mount a scope, two years later, I realize it hasn't been fired and sell it, two years after that, I buy the same rifle again.
-I often find myself with oddball ammo. In years past I would build a gun to fit the ammo. Recently, I was proud of myself in that I sold the ammo at a fire sale price to keep from building a gun.

I have 10mm brass for the yet-to-be-purchased Colt Delta Elite, I have scope bases for rifles that I've never had but might, I have dies so that I can load for my friends' rifles, I have ammo that...

Well, I've turned up several guns I don't remember buying........BUT, I remember every gun I have sold......I'm resisting a 7MM-08, but I have ammo for it.......284 dies, but no 284......

I must be the tight ass vetsion of a looney.
I ponder the cost of loading a new cartridge before buying a gun.


Well, I bought a 1911, my only 45 acp,
then bought dies. Looking at brass prices, I decided
factory was the way to go. Bought a case.
Still haven't loaded any yet

Been there done that. How about using dangerous game rifles like a 500 BPE, 450-400 3 inch NE or a 416 to hunt deer just because you can.
I recently bought 2 Ruger #1's an international in 7X57 (I have at least 6 rifles in that caliber) and a 6.5 Creedmore. They were a good deal and that's my story and I'm sticking to it.
I have new dies for a 22 Hornet and 100 rounds of new brass. I have had these items for almost ten years. I do in fact have two Hornets both Pre64 M70's but found 10 boxes of new ammo at an estate sale and have never worked up a load for the Hornet.
I love custom rifles and have a hankering for a 6.5X55 maybe with a full Manlichner stock. I have two 7MM-08's the previous half dozen 7X57's the Creedmore and two 264 WM. What will the Swede do that these won't??.......NOTHING.....BUT that's not the point now is it.

Chit! I guess that makes me a loony. You know what they say though, "first step in getting over an addiction is to admit you have a problem."


BS! I can stop buying rifles anytime I want!

Maybe having 10 -270`s qualifies.

This thread and many others I've read have helped me understand that I am like many of you. That's good as I figured my buying, building, shooting and selling was something a bit odd. I started with a great Savage 99 and have had one or many more Rem, Win, Ruger, Kimber, Sako, Weatherby, Tikka, T/C. 300 Savage, 7mm Mag., 270, 264 Mag, 270 WSM, 7mmWSM, 300WSM, 308, 6.5 CM, 338 Mag, 338 Federal, 444. Still have a 788 308 and Sako 6.5. Just mounted and bore-sighted a new scope today...can't wait to shoot it! Tomorrows another day, won't stop...keeps me going! Mac

Does your local gun shop have you on speed dial? That might be an indication.

I have just acquired a 25 Gibs . I am trying to find an average sale price. I have searched the web with little to no success. I have noticed there are not many out there, maybe it's the wildcat thing and reloading issues. Is there a market for these rifles? Let me know if anyone has information.

Melton
I can help on THAT one.
It's the reloading, wildcat thing.
There is NO market for it! Sorry!
I NEED it. Send it to me! I'll borrow the money...somewhere.
Gene

Mavrick,
I am willing to get rid of it. sale or trade. If you have to rob a store I'm not picky

I'd really like to, but I have several (6) in the gunsmith's now, and I am afraid several may come out at the same time and I won't have the capital to cover as it is.
FWIW the wildcat part doesn't bother me.
Gene

Hell, I had no idea that Loony membership was so lax. Turns out, I am not just a partial Loony, but a full member of that select club. I could tell stories, and my wife could tell a few as well (that I'll loudly deny, while nodding), but I wouldn't want to shame any of you partials. Although I am impressed by a few of the stories here. Some of you have a commitment level that is venerable.

Ruug -

In your OP you said,

"Am I a Looney, and if so, when did I become one?"

I know when my 'loonynees' started. I was @ 10 YO when my Dad 'borrowed' a sporterized rifle in 303 British. I didn't know then or now what rifle it was. He leaned it up against the door 'facing' to pick up the next AM when going deer hunting.! ! !

That did it. I was enamored with good looking rifles EVER SINCE! ! !



I DON'T have a PROBLEM. - I NEED every rifle I own. Just ask my wife, I've told her WHY for every one of them.

340 - My difficulty (not problem) is that I DON'T WANT to quit buying good guns.

Jerry

I know when I made the leap, It was Steve Timm's fault.

For years I had known that a m700 in 30.06 was all the rifle I had ever need. Then I started to reload and started reading the reloading manuals. I started to read the cartridge descriptions, pour over the ballistics info. I could see how some cartridges ( and rifles) were more "right sized' for given applications. I read Steve's description of the 358win in a nosler manual around 1988 and I thought, A short light 358 win would be just perfect for my hunting in the Adirondacks. I bought a few 358's not were just right, so I built one, not quite right either. Built another..Still not exactly right.. Third build.. perfect. In between those builds I probably have gone threw a hundred rifles and 20 customs looking for nirvana for moose, elk, deer from box blinds, deer from tree stands, long range ( for me any way) deer, F-class. etc

noKnees

"I know when I made the leap, It was Steve Timm's fault."

Yep, he's a sorry scoundrel, along with JB, Wooters, Sundra, JOC, Hagel, Carmichael, et.al. et.al.


Jerry

I have 5 - count 'em 5 - 7x57s and am thinking about adding another to the stable at some point. So my loonyism is very narrow.

Stuck at three, but they're all Maser 98s, including a beeyootiful Mannlicher stocked item. Although, a friend has a Remmy mtn. rifle that is pretty sweet. And he hasn't used. Hmmm.

BRO. you N E E D h e l p, lots a help !

Jerry