Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Guns you should have grabbed, but walked.

Not exactly a gun, but at the Harrisburg, PA show back in the 80's a fella had a complete, and I mean complete, Armorer's Chest for the M1903 Springfield, circa 1920's. Everything was there - all the tools, gauges, and spare parts, in a chest about half the size of a coffin. The price tag was $1000 as I recall and I didn't have that much folding money in my pocket. After thinking about it (obsessing on it) as I continued on down the aisles, I decided to go back and see if he'd take a check, installments, title to my car, left nut, anything, etc. Sure enough, a new owner was loading it onto a dolly...

I picked up a 1924 Remington model 17 20ga, the precurser to the 37 a few months back.

There was one in the classifieds a few months back, 1200 if I'm not mistaken. Went quick.

I've always wanted a 257bob.

I've picked up a couple wood/blued mountains lately for really good prices locally, they thought they were the plain jane bdl. One was a 280 with leupold vx2 for 550. No brainer.

A Marlin 1894 41 mag. for $300.00 in a pawn shop back in the 90's

.303 Brit double rifle around 1998.

Wasn't yet into doubles and had no idea how rare it was. Actually found the seller a decade later and asked about it but it was long gone by that point.


Honorable mentions...

Sold a HK P7 when they were going around $500, now they look to be $3000+

Would have loved one of the used McMillan M40 stocks from the USMC but those shot up before I could find one.

A couple of years ago I was perusing the used shotgun rack at the local Scheel's. Found a very lightly used Benelli 20ga. Montefeltro priced reasonably. Perfect wood, metal was 99% and fit like a glove. Set it down and walked thru the store a while making my way back to the rack 2 or 3 times. ALMOST pulled the trigger and was going to put it on the credit card. Decided to wait until the next day and come back with the cash and of course, it was gone! F$%K! I knew that was gonna happen! Took a week or so to get over that dumb decision.

Elk Country

One can’t buy everything

Savage 99 octagon barrel in 30-30

Rem 760 in 35 Whelen

The most painful one and not really my fault, Searcy double rifle in 375 flanged. Local shop had that and several other doubles as part of an estate they were asked to consign. Asked shop owner the pricing and he said he needed time to research value and pricing. A friend and I left numbers for him to contact and he said we had the first right of refusal and would call us when he was ready.

A couple months go by and he still hasn’t priced them. I contacted Searcy and gave him the info on the rifle. He said in good condition it should start at $5400. Meantime, there was a fire at the shop but an employee said the rifles and our numbers survived the fire. We made sure to check that out.

A few weeks later heard from a UPS driver that all the doubles sold. Not having received a call I contacted the owner and he said our numbers were lost in the fire. He told me he sold the Searcy for $1900 and the Army Navy 470 nitro my friend wanted for $8000. My only shot at owning a nice double came and went.

JM

Countless beautiful Damascus shotguns sitting on store shelves when I was a kid for extremely low prices. Getting dumped as they could not handle modern loads. Those were the days though where I was earning about 75 cents an hour. It one even sees such today it fetches top collector dollars.

Back in the early 1990s a local (but high volume) sporting goods had Russian laminated stock SKSs for $69.99. Had cases of them. The ones I saw were either as new or very close. Neighbor told me I should buy some even if I had to take a second mortgage. Said buy all I could. I just didn’t see anything there worth having so passed. Dang.

Ruger #1 in 45-70. I had just bought a #1 in 35 Whelen. I got talked out of it by a couple of people here. Ended up buying a left handed Win M70 in 270. We figured, what the hell am I ever gonna shoot with a 45-70? Up until recently we had to use a shotgun in my county. Last year they made it legal to use straight wall rifle cartridges for deer. I sure wish I had that 45-70 now.

$1200 ULA 308 Winchester.

Young, newly married, just making ends meet - came upon a Winchester model 64 Deluxe rifle, $600. It was immaculate. I really did try to come up with $600, but we just didn’t have it. I wish now I had just called my Dad and said, “I need $600, I’ll pay you back when I can” and bought that rifle. I guess I was just too proud to do that. I’d sure like to have that one to do over.

At a show, early 2,000's, I was in the market for a Rem 700 .22-250. Checking a table a guy walks up with his departed dads Dirty Harry S&W 29 and the partial box of cartridges. Does the deal with the vendor.
$500. I didn't know the value of that gun so I just stood there watching, but my spidey senses were telling me that $500 was a steal.

There were only 3 rds. out the box. Gun was really, really nice. It also came with box, papers, etc. Should have listened to my spidey's.

A 3-gun set of Sakos; 26” .375 H&H, 24” .30-06, and 20” full-stocked .308 for $2,200. Pristine 2” S&W M10 for $350.

You HAD to bring those up.

Mid 90’s I walked away from a Dakota in 270. It was freaking beautiful. Was buddies with the shop owner and he even offered it at a price I’m embarrassed to mention.

I was 19 or 20 and about flat broke. Still, I shoulda swung it.
Ended up buying a Springfield 45 that may be the biggest POS I’ve ever bought. That only adds to the regret. Lol.

Traded it in on a Security Six 357 that was great. Like a dummy, I sold it😳

A couple decades ago I should have loaded up on the $79 norinco SKS type 56 carbines.

At my LGS I could have taken an original Rigby in .416 from the hands of a proffesional hunter for the price of the new Brno in .458 he wanted.

KYNOCH, the only ammo maker producing cartridges for the .416 had closed their facilities some time before and he could not find one single cartridge at that time.

But what would I do with such a gun, stupid of me thought!!

Pre-64 Model 70 in .358 Winchester for $799. Went back after sleeping on it and guy ahead of me bought it.