do any of you guys/girls worry about wearing the finish off of your nice smiths or other nice guns....I have a couple of new kimbers that that I have only carried a few time for fear of messing the finish up....and as far a my smiths go, I don't even think about carrying any of those except the S&W 340pd that I have carried daily for over 2yrs now....with plenty of holster wear. What are your thoughts about carrying/holster wear on your guns?

I don't worry about it at all. A carry gun is a tool and while I don't abuse them holster wear and surface blemishes happen. I don't worry about the finish on my wrenches either.

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Regards,
Guy-Harold Smith II

If you are afraid to carry and/or use a pistol because of possible finish wear, then you have the option to have it refinished in one of the new aftermarket finishes that are almost indestructable.
I can see making a rare antique pistol a safe queen. However, turning an everyday common pistol into a safe queen doesn't seem to make much sense. They were made to be used.

I've got a few safe queens that will never get fired by me. But, I've got shooter grade duplicates of most of the safe queens that I bought just for that reason.

Class III

All my guns are shooters since the metals I invest in aren't ferrous.

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Age + Treachery = JohnnieB

I wouldn't worry about the occasional wear marks or blemishes, around here we call that character. On the blued guns you can always put a little oxpho-blue (cold blueing) on those wear marks just before the next gun show & sell them as ...

I contend that a well maintained S&W revolver has the longevity equivalent of a well maintained Volvo 1800.

(The world record so far on a Volvo 1800 is 2.8 million miles, and still counting. )

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Lost it all in a boat accident

I take good care of all my guns and holster wear doesn't bother me at all.

My goal is to wear the finish off my two carry guns and shoot the barrel's out of my Cooper 223, 20 VarTar, and 221 Fireball. I should live so long.

why let the kids wear them out after im gone?

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WILL WORK FOR AMMO!

My stainless guns seldom show wear. I handle one of my S&W 1911 guns several times daily, seven days per week. It gets shot at least two days per week and this has gone on for a year. It has been dropped three times. Yet it shows ZERO wear.

I have a model 66 that was carried daily for about 5 yrs and shot thousands of rounds before being placed in the safe. Virtually no wear is visible.

I have a model 19 that was carried for a year, shot maybe 500 rounds and it shows a good amount of wear.

As said, wear gives character but I want my guns to be used but with less character.

I only have a couple that I worry about finish wear, but these hold more sentimental value to me than others. To solve my dilemma, I found duplicates of them so that those could be used for their intended purpose.

A fun is like a new car, why buy it if you're gonna worry about a few dings?

About 1956 I had a Colt Commander in 45. After about 1500 rounds of hardball it began to rattle pretty good.

Guns where made to shoot. I have a model 10 i bought and carried for 20 years. Doesn't look real pretty but still shoots good.

When I was a guard at lockheed we had company guns that we passed on to the next relieveing shift. That meant they were passed on to another guard at least 3 times a day, sometimes more. The clyinder was opened and closed, gun holstered, unholstered 21 times a week = over 1,000 times a year!
When I started in 1965 only a couple high security posts were armed. That fall the watts riots started up, they armed us on all posts and for the most part we stayed armed ever since. (I retired in 2,000). The guns they armed us with were 4" colt offical police`s. I checked the manufactor dates and they were all from around 1952 so that batch probley were bought for the korean conflict. We did latter get a batch of s&w 586s and then a big batch of stainless ruger speed six`s. We always had a few colt detective special snubs too available, but only a couple times did people use them. Maybe a pregnant guard or a captain might wear one. I was partial to colts and still wore them up to retirement, although they sold off almost all of the rest of them by that time.
Only a couple times in all those years did I witness someone cleaning those guns! I NEVER seen rust on any! While burbank and palmdale california for the most part is arid (dry) climate, I know over the years I also got completely drenched too.
Of course they got fired hardly at all. Some guys would possibly take them to qualify with, but I never did, I always did my requals with my own personnal guns.
Those old colts didnt look all that bad when I retired 35 years later! We also had some 6" officers model matchs that had to date from world war two or before, but they were just to practice with in the past and I think the company must have sold them off shortly after I hired in. All our guns were marked LAC on the butt followed by a 3 digit number.
It always boggeled my mind how so many guards handeled those guns and you never would see rust on one. Yet we always can see used guns maybe 5 or 10 years old that look a 100, and they couldnt have been carried or handeled but maybe a 1/10th as much and probley not even near that!

Growing up, it would have been embarrassing to show up to go hunting with a brand-spanking new gun. Might as well have left the price tag dangling on it, ala Minnie Pearl. Nobody had new guns back then. Consequently, one got used to guns having scratches, nicks, dings, worn-off bluing, etc.

I guess I carry that forward to this day. Except for the ones I've bought in the last few years, all my guns show some use, some a lot more than others. Shotguns really take a beating.