Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Bought my grail rifle, now sell it?

The Winchester 70 crowd would be losing hair that you even let a 70 like that be exposed to sunlight and the harsh flash of a camera....let alone be put together....A pre64 70 in the box is meant to stay in the box...forever....

Use it.....

JMHO, but that is the problem with the unfired gorgeous safe queens. Their beautiful and desirable, but you pay a premium for the unsullied perfection, and then you take a big financial hit the first time you fire it. If someone is a hunter/shooter, i.e. not a collector, it is better to just buy an already shot rifle and enjoy without flushing money down the toilet.

In other words, if you are going to shoot it, save yourself some money buy a shooter.

I'd also gently suggest that a couple bazillion Remington 700 in 30-06 were made, so, just because its got some really nice wood doesn't make it a collector grade gun.

Again, JMHO.

I don't know if this was mentioned before but you could buy a used factory stock or synthetic and use the rifle with that stock. Wouldn't be perfect but would preserve the beautiful wood.

That is a good idea

Had a #1 w good wood. Sold it.

Am a use it or move it guy.

I bought the one I have on GunBroker for 1200.00 about two years ago. I think yours would go for 2000.00 to 2500.00, maybe 3000.00. A near perfect 300 H&H like yours sold for 2200.00 last week. If you want the money, sell it, or hunt it. I hunt out of stands so I carry my nice rifles out to hunt in a soft case, don’t jack them up that way.

Owning an unfired gun is like being married to a supermodel but never having sex with her because she is too beautiful.
Shoot it, hunt it, enjoy it.

Go shoot it and enjoy it! Guns like that are art, but they are best appreciated as functional art. Take that schit scope off first, and put a real scope on, then go and enjoy the hell out of that rifle! You only live once!

You get a new hunting Dog...keep it in the kennel to look at????

Merlot took more of beating than that shotgun....And I would throw the gun in the garbage can, before I would let him go...Wood and metal...and nothing else...







Addition: Only posted the pic of myself, for someone who mentioned how old my thinking was..
Maybe someday they will post one of themself....maybe, but unlikely.....🤣

How many buy a Ford King Ranch truck and then put some neoprene seat covers over the awesome leather so as to keep it nice for the next guy. If you're going to do that, might as well buy the XL version and pocket the coin difference.

Gotta save the pristineness for the next guy...

First off, beautiful rifle. My take on it is this. If you are a collector, or plan on putting it in a museum then keep it as such. If you are not, then shoot it and carry it with pride. If you can't do that because of what it is. Send it off for someone to make that tough decision.
Unless she is bound to be a jewel in someone's collection or into a museum, I am going to use the analogy that I heard once concerning collecting motorcycles. Not riding a collectable motorcycle is like not banging your very hot girlfriend. In all reality your just missing the point on why it was put here on this earth and just saving that pleasure for the next person inline. Because nothing lasts forever.
She is a weapon, albeit a beautiful one. Shoot her! Just think how pretty she would be laying against a monster buck with you in the background!

if you decide to sell it and are in The Wa. area id be happy to discuss with you

Too many people do that crap. I traded my 16 truck for a new 20 truck in Sept. the dealer said “Wow, you actually use your truck as a truck”. I told him that’s why I bought a truck. My new one has a bed liner in it, but I still use it to haul with.

Lotta of points made here and like I said in my initial response shoot it. When you bought it that was your intention until you ran into to someone who told you it was just for looking at and not for use. He is and was full of sh*t. He made you have guilt thoughts about using it.
First off it may not have been fired but I doubt it because they mounted a scope on it. That eliminates "New" in description to maybe Like new and you sure can't add in the box because it isn't. So maybe your description could be like new with cheap scope in period mounts with the original box including period desk chair with original packing grease smeared on it. The point is it ain't NIB. The value of using it and the pride of being in the field with it should overshadow the stupid crap that guy told you. You need to figure that out and lay it to rest totally. Like I said before how much do you want send me a pm. Magnum_Bob

Rambler214,

This might be what my kids would call a "First World Problem". Of course I'd strongly disagree. You're in a real dilemma. About ten years ago I purchased a left hand Remington 1100 12 gauge shotgun off the internet for a very reasonable price and was super excited to get it. After giving it a good inspection after receiving it appeared that it had never been shot. Could never bring myself to shoot it. I have other shotguns to shoot. It sits in my safe to this day and I'll probably never shoot it. I should sell it.

However rifles are different than shotguns. I could take that shotgun out today and shoot it and have lots of fun with it and likely never have to do anything to it to make it shoot better. Modifications like putting a recoil pad on it would be a minor sin, but installing a thin wall choke would be pure blasphemy. Neither mod however would be absolutely necessary. At least not for me.

Your pristine 1969 Rem 700 on the other hand might require some serious modifications to make it field ready. It's pretty standard today to pillar bed the action into the stock, free float the barrel and sometimes upgrade the trigger. To really know if your rifle needs the mods it needs to be shot. It's been my experience that most rifles do. Others I'm sure have had different experiences. Mods/improvement such as these would make your rifle more field ready, but likely worth less in the open market.

I'm not sure what I'd do in your situation, but thought I'd mention a few of the potential "land mines" you might run into if you decide to shoot it, and especially if you decide to depend on it in the field.

I hope this helps you, at least a little bit, with your FWP. My hope is our children still have decades to worry about such things.

Nice rifle.

Do what you want with it. I've bought MANY rifles that interested me for various reasons. I bought them, handled them, looked at the various features they had, then put them in my closet and never fired them. Finally, I decided to sell them. I got my satisfaction from just by handling them. It is ok in my book to research a gun, look for the gun ( at the right price), Buy it, handle it, then sell it. My wife laughs at me when I do it. She tells me, "You enjoy the hunt for the firearm more than the firearm itself.". I think she is right.

One example: 20 years ago I got interested in the action of the Enfield No. 4, No 2 303 British. I found a nice sporterized Longbranch ( just some forearm wood removed, but great bore and overall finish) after about 2 year " hunt", I got it -and a 1/2 box of factory Winchester rounds with it. I cleaned it, fully disassembled it, and put it back together. Then shot the 10 rounds. I sold it a month later. I had the opportunity to handle the rifle, and gain an appreciation for it. My needs of curiosity were met (exceeded), and I was perfectly fine selling it. No regrets. It was a very enjoyable process, from " the hunt" to "the outgoing sale.".

I think I made $50 from the sale too, so that was a bonus. The chance to handle an iconic firearm was , as they say, " priceless.".

On the other hand, if you want to shoot it, or hunt with it, do it. I remember reading that Elmer Keith had a Hoffman-smithed rifle with "fine engraving" ( in 300 Hoffman? 300 H&H??). He used it at least for antelope hunting ( source: "He'll, I was There"). He liked a fine rifle with extras which aided nothing to the functionality of the firearm, and used it, because he Liked it and wanted to.

So, no issues from me if you want to sell it. If your curiosity needs were satisfied with actually finding and handling your grail gun, take a bunch of good pictures of it to look at in the future, then move it along. Maybe someone has a similar curiosity factor and you can feed their need. Or, shoot it, and oogle at the quality of stock and workmanship. Whatever floats your boat. As someone wrote earlier, "...first world problem."

Remember, it's just "stuff."

I owned a like new Al Biesen rifle. I hunted it, but I was always worried I was gonna jack it up. I eventually sold it. I have an Iver Henriksen rifle I hunt with. It’s not too bad looking.

I'm reading this thread and chuckling along the way. I do just the opposite- I love good looking wood so much I make gorgeous stocks for my favorite rifles and carry them when I hunt so I can enjoy them. Some of them have been scratched, fallen on, dropped, and gotten dinged, but it is usually quite easy to repair whatever small damage is created and bring the wood back to almost new looking. In fact, I just built a 26 Nosler that will become my "do everything" rifle and I dropped it in my favorite fiddleback walnut stock just so I could carry it in the woods again. Killed an elk with it this year too....

In those quiet moments sitting in the woods waiting for something to show up or just enjoying the view, there is nothing quite like having some nice wood and warm clothes to make you feel like you've arrived ..... of course, when your buddies all slobber over your prized possession it doesn't hurt either...

Bob

Ok. This is exactly what I had thought. The guy at work offered me $2500 for it, and I would be making out pretty well. But I am going to hold onto it and plan to hunt with it. I am going to wait to shoot it until I am ready to take it out, just in case, but that is the plan. And thanks for the tip with the soft case. I usually hunt from a climber.