Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Do you get attached to rifles?

Do you get attached to rifles?

Only the ones I keep.

Some yes some no. My 30 year old Model 70 30-06 with the Bansner stock will be here longer than me. Got a couple of 22LRs and some shotguns that I feel the same way about.

My old .270 I bought in the late 60’s will always be with me.
A Browning BSS 20 ga my wife bought me for our first anniversary has a forever home.
A model 19 Combat Magnum left to me by my late older brother will always be in the family.
Several others, including a newby to the herd... a Kimber Hunter 6.5 cm that has been a very lucky rifle. I hate selling stuff, but sometimes I get a firearm that just doesn’t work for me and down the road it goes...

yeah sadly I get attached to about anything I have owned... kinda grows out of taking care of your stuff..

I even do that with the vehicles I drive... hence owning my toyota 4 Runner, since new in 1987.... 32 year so far and 570,000 miles what normal person does stuff like that...

I've gotten rid of few firearms over the last 40 years...my son doesn't care for them tho to leave to him..
would be like leaving him my garden tools...

the few I've ever let go, were given to friends for free...

feel guilty for myself, for even selling them...

kinda got indoctrinated like this from my depression era parents....
"don't throw away anything... YOU might need that some time in the future..."

Only if they shoot well or have sentimental value, such as the firearms Granddad and Dad owned.

Otherwise, they are just trade bait.

Sounds like we think an awful lot alike.

I try not to give a crap about crap.

Just fond memories.

On one of my first deer hunts, it was in the single digits. Some snow fell on my rifle and I tried to blow it off but got too close and my lips stuck to the steel. I as pretty well attached to it until I got enough guts to yank it off. .

That's a whole nuther level of attachment.
But I don't think we want to get into yanking off with rifles, that's a bit TMI.!!!!

If it was given to me = sentimental

If I bought it, just a tool.

Guns are just tools, and I don't get emotionally attached to them. Sure, I'm proud of the work I've done on most of them, but would sell just about any of them for the right price. Exceptions are those special few that work way better than they should, like a barrel that really shoots tiny groups; that kind of stuff is hard to replace for any price. I think out of somewhere north of 150+ guns I've owned and passed on, I only regret selling 2 or 3 of them; I figure that's pretty good odds and it's allowed me to try out a lot more guns, since I often couldn't afford to just buy more without selling some first.

I do still have my first centerfire rifle, a Rem 700 in 35 Whelen, but have kept it because it works so well, not because of any attachment. I reserve my attachments for friends and family, and animals.

That said, I don't have any issue with people who do get attached to their stuff. The only problem I see with that is when people start arguing about their stuff being better, just because they're attached to it. I think avoiding attachments gives one a better perspective on the practicality of any tool.

👍 memtb

I have a few.

First gun I ever owned. Stevens/Savage model 94 single shot 410. Was my birthday present when I was in 4th grade

Colt Scout 22 LR. Paid for it myself. was in 9th grade. Still have the original box and bill of sale. Replaced [but kept] the original grips with staghorn grips. Now has teak grips I made myself.

Remington 121 Fieldmaster 22LR pump. My father bought it in Sept '41. First gun I ever fired. Still looks good. Shoots good.

Savage 99 featherweight 300 savage. Am the original owner[ 1960]. Have a '64 Weaver K4 4x scope with post n crosshair. Shot my best antlers with this one. Still shoots about 1 MOA with my reloads..... if I do my part. This is the one I took to Montana hunting elk in the high thick stuff. Call it 'The Original'.

Model 70 pre-64 270 WCF. bought it used. Used Conetrol mounts to hold a Leupold 2 x 7 on it. Loves Nosler Partitions. Put its share of venison in the freezer. When my son was starting to hunt, he learned that one of the Commandments was 'thou shall not covet thy father's Model 70'. Call this one 'The Classic'.

I have other firearms. but these are special. We have history together.

In a few years I wont be able to hunt any more. Will give them to my son. He can give them to his son.

Will add to their history.

I have three that have no sentimental value, but I am attached just because I like them. A Ruger M77 MkII stainless 223 that shoots minute of prairie dog out to about 300 yds. Also a Barrett Fieldcraft stainless in 6.5 Creedmoor that shoots dime size groups at 100 yds, and a semi custom Remington M700 stainless in 7mm-08 that shoots as good as the Fieldcraft. I am quite fond of those three and plan to have them in my safe when it is opened after I am gone.

I see some for sale that I’d like to get attached to!

No, I don't get attached. I have liked some more than others, but I have more enjoyment trying different rifles. My pockets are not deep enough to keep everything and I don't have the space either. Plus I am so OCD that it would occupy too much time to keep everything clean, oiled, and organized. I look at it like I am its caretaker for a short time before it goes to another home. I have a family member who has 4 safes full of guns and never uses or looks at them. It makes him happy...different strokes for different folks I guess.

Attached?

I have one I bought in 1990, killed a pile of deer with it.
But, the attatchment is it's handling, and how well we mesh.
It's got things i dislike, and I continue to try to find a better replacement.

Quite a few guns that belonged to someone special.
A Berretta 390 and a 760 are the only ones in that category that
get used. And the 760 is a dependable adjustable wrench.
Pry bar, nut rounder, hammer. Used, not really liked. The others are
keepsakes, nothing I would buy myself to use.

By the responses it's evident that there are different forms of attachment. In the OP my thought was rifles that had heirloom status but then there are others that have utility status like the screwdriver that you always reach for even though there are several others in the tool box.
Like the trophies or photos, each brings back memories of past hunts or shots made. (the ones that don't make the shots go down the road).

Most of them not, but I'd be pretty reluctant to sell off a 7mm RM that I'd built out of a '62 M700 BDL. That has just been the luckiest rifle that I've ever carried because game just shows up nicely when I carry it and then that magnum has pulled off some shots that were memorable in themselves. A friend of mine was talking with a guy at a gun show that had one of his rifles for sale listed at higher than new retail. When my buddy asked him about how he could justify that high price tag, the guy said that it was a "Lucky" rifle. I guess that we all have some like that around.