Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Ever sold a good hunting rifle and wished you hadn't?

I walked into a local gun shop today without a single thought of buying a rifle. Sitting the rack was a familiar shape. It was a Mauser sporter. Slim, engraved, color case hardened small ring 98, solid rib, double set triggers, and as plain a piece of walnut as has ever been put on a rifle. I had to look at it. When I did I realized that it was a rifle I had sold probably 30 years ago in a fit of youthful stupidity. For years I have wished I would run across it again. That rifle was light as a feather and pointed well enough you could almost shoot quail with it! It hasn't changed a bit. Dang if it didn't follow me home. I know exactly where it is going to be on opening day of deer season and I have nine months to re develop those loads. I wish everybody, that has sold one and wished they hadn't, could have a day like this one.

That's way cool. I've sold a few I'd like to have back.

Getting your old rifle back is terrific!

I sold a mess of rifles & handguns a few years back when we had some tough times financially. Truly do wish I had a couple of 'em back, but they're long gone.

Guy

A tang safety ruger 458 win.

A couple... Rem 700 in 6 mm and a Browning BAR in 30-06 come to mind.

good for you for finding that one. Ato one point or another I have kicked myself for every rifle I have sold.

Too many times to count....

Divorce is not the friend of a good rifle collection.

But with my new bide of 8 years, my safe is not as hungry as it once was. I just added a nice Sako 85 SS 338 fed.

CLB

i traded in a browning a-bolt II in for a win model 70 coyote in 308 win. i have no clue what possessed me to do it. that browning was chambered in 270 win. and grouped 1/2 inch all day every day. i kept the win model 70 for about a month before getting a marlin guide gun in 45/70. why do i have to get bored with firearms so quick???? -keith

Not as cool a story, but I sold my first rifle, a Marlin M60, to a family friend 25yrs ago when I was still a kid to help fund a 12g pump. Bought it back last year - just slightly worse for wear. My 7 old now shoots it when we go to the range.

I let a 99-300 Savage pre war model get away. Could not miss with that rifle.

about a 1000 or more times. Like the brand new still in the wood crate in brown paper packed in selsor 45-90 Win 86..it was given to me as a kid at the El Paso Stock Yards by Bowie Cline..I cut a fat hog some years later and sold it for $150, and that was the beginning of many years of gun trading. today that gun would be worth half a million at least, then the H&H Deluxe .470 double for $2000, it was a wall hanger back then, no ammo or brass available, sold it for what I paid for it..

Sounds terrible but $150 was a bundle back then and $2000 would buy you a new new car or pickup.

YEAH! An Ed Brown Savanna in 30-06!!! I didn't lose any money selling it 'cause I got a great price on it in the first place. However, I would pay $400 more than what I sold it for in order to have it back!!

Which of any of us true rifle loonelys hasn't?

I am: "Guilty as charged"!

How often I think of a certain Remington Mod: 660 in 6.5 Rem Mag, I sold so I could finance a M-700 in cal same. Still have the M700, 30 years later, But in truth, I liked the M-660 better.

I now have a M673 to replace the M-660, but if I ever come across a certain M-660 (serial #1019xx) The serial # is engraved on my brain... You can bet it will return from whence it came...

Edw...

A Ruger 77RS carbine in 358 Win, that I bought NIB in
Ft Hood, TX and sold it two years later when I was "bored"
with it. Ah, to be young again.

Who hasn't???


If a fit of boredom........or the want to buy something else.........I think this is one thing all members here have in common!

I've regretted selling so many firearms that I can't even count them anymore. But just a couple of weeks ago I bought back a .410 side-by-side that I sold to a guy several years ago. I hope I never get dumb enough to sell it again!

Grats Mathsr.

Yeah, the one I wish I had back wasn't anything too special (Mohawk 600 in .308) except it was my first CF and handled about as well as anything I've ever used - shot 1" groups to boot.

<kicks self again>

There is a PF Featherweight 270 with a highly figured stock that shoots bugholes with about anything. I miss her!

"I walked into a local gun shop today without a single thought of buying a rifle".

Sure you did! That's my story too!

Mathsr what caliber? Any close up photos - that's a very nice looking rifle.

Cheers, Chris

Did the same thing 3 weeks ago. I had sold my 243 and it had bothered me, since I sold it, so walked in and bought a new one on the spur of the moment.