To shoot or not to shoot.

Go find a mod 58 in shooter grade.

I see nice examples around the $750-$850 price range.

Keep that 99%+ gun in that condition. It's that last little 1-2% perfect condition that gets the big bucks.
 
I am a confirmed shooter. I like new or newish guns and will pay for them, but I will certainly shoot them. I may be hesitant to carry certain guns much, because I don't want holster wear on them, but only because I have identical replacement beaters that I can carry.

I still say YOU shouldn't shoot them - YOU bought them for investment.
 
You will not enjoy shooting the Model 58 enough to make de-flowering it a wise financial move.

They are not fun to shoot. I carried one for 13 years and speak from experience. Keep it NIB and sell it to someone who wants it that way.

There are enough shooters around if you feel you just have to shoot one.
 
If you sell them the money will soon be gone and you will have nothing to show for it. Keep the guns! If you are a shooter shoot them, a collector , then just look at them. Life's real short friend, I would take both to the dance and have a good time dancing with them. Especially the model 58. Mine gets to go dancing whenever we can. To really enjoy them to thier maximum , start reloading.
Welcome to the forum from Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Gary
 
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I look at it this way: if you invest in a pristine, top dollar gun you will devalue your investment by shooting them. Their optimum value potential will be lowered.
However, you can invest in a nice "shooter grade" specimen and shoot it to your hearts content and as long as you take good care of it you will likely not devalue it one bit. It's optimum value potential is much lower than a pristine unfired example, but it will remain unaffected by use.
Let the serious collectors spend serious money for the virgins. They did quit making them so NIB guns are getting scarcer but they did make more than one of all the models. Consider that you could have several nice guns for the price of one NIB/LNIB safe queen. You'll also have more fun and get more bang for the buck with the experienced gals! ;)

John
 
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Comrad said:
What could their top value ever be? I think sometimes we think our guns will one day be the next Colt Paterson in value when in reality so many people are collecting and keeping guns in very nice shape the values just never amount to much. It's the stuff nobody cared about that have the value because nobody saved any.
Shoot gently and wipe it off when you're done.
Click to expand...

I'd agree. It's easy to look at a $1,500 P&R N-frame and think that it is worth 5x what it was in 1979. It is not. Inflation alone ate away a good chunk of that gain. You'd need to get almost $1,000 to break even, so you really made $500 after sitting on this "investment" for 35 years. The $500 gain isn't pocket change, but it's unlikely to make a real difference in most of our lives. Perhaps if you had purchased 100 of them back in 79 and kept them NIB it would be a different story.
 
Thanks for all the input.
I do reload 41 Magnum. It is my second favorite round to load for with 45 Colt being my favorite. Most every firearm I own is a shooter and I am more of a shooter than a collector. I believe expecting my first child is what has me seeing things a bit differently. I will probably post the Model 58 on the classified section soon.
 
Memcdowe41/45 said:
...I believe expecting my first child is what has me seeing things a bit differently. I will probably post the Model 58 on the classified section soon.
Click to expand...

Well, be careful about that. Any Dad can tell you kids have a great way of burning through lots of money for seemingly little things. You can't believe the scope of it until you are waist-deep in it, and then it is too late. It is a "life sentence."

Might not hurt you to set a couple of nice things aside for yourself for a "rainy day" - like when the first one goes to college and you are shoveling money out the door like you had it to shovel. :D

Congratulations and good luck!
 
44wheelman said:
Go find a mod 58 in shooter grade.

I see nice examples around the $750-$850 price range.

Keep that 99%+ gun in that condition. It's that last little 1-2% perfect condition that gets the big bucks.
Click to expand...

I agree. "Shooter grade" Model 58s aren't to hard to find, if you look.
 
Welcome to one of the best forums on the net.


I would keep both and take them to visit the range, and would handle and fondle them carefully. Shoot them, give them a bath, oil them up and put them away for a nap.

I purchased mine to shoot and to hand them down to my family members when I pass on my grandchildren will enjoy them too.

I'm making an investment for the future gun ownership in my family. But I get to shoot them first.
 
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bananaman said:
JUST ME! I would not own a gun that I was not willing to shoot
Click to expand...

+1. I think the amount of joy you would get from using one or both might outweigh the profit you make selling down the road. Anyhow, your going to make a great profit selling them in the condition they are in, fired or not. I'd go shoot the 58, since I'm sure you have other 357s to tie your fancy. Just go shoot the one you really want to, leave the other alone.
 
If you bought them for investments don't shoot them. Every time you handle them you run the risk of damaging them. I had a 4" 19-4 awesome condition, pure safe queen. Taking it out of the safe one day a mishap spilled it from the box and put several light scratches in it. I only have one dust collector now. Soon you will see it on the forum for sale. Have no use for guns I won't shoot. The price of shooters is going up fast enough you can still make a little something on them.
 
Any thoughts on what I should price them at if I post them in the classifieds? I've been monitoring gunbroker auctions for a bit but am interested in you guys thoughts.
 
A few years ago, I purchased an unfired 100 percent in the box U.S. Property Colt Service Model Ace .22. Loved looking at it and handling it. Agonized over shooting it. Finally sold it to a real 1911 collector before I took it to the range. I wish now that I had not sold that gun one way or the other.

Last week I picked up a pristine new old stock 6946 in the box with papers from my FFL. I took it out of the box and marveled at the unfired except at the factory gun. Not a mark on it. Factory inspector decal on the side. Holding it, my finger falls perfectly on the trigger, and that trigger is amazingly smooth and light. (.38 Special song plays thru my mind "Takes us back to that same old feeling again....)

Was going to the range Friday and agonized again over weather to fire a LNIB gun. Remembered something that another forum member said on another thread about weather to shoot it or not: "Someday SOMEBODY is going to shoot it. Might as well be you."

Friday night, after sitting in a dark box for years, that 6946 roared! I could not do it again if I tried, but after the first round was a little high, the next 6 shot into the shape of a happy face! I think its a sign.

IMG_1580.jpg
 
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If those guns are truely NIB un fired, then I would not shoot them.

I would buy other fired used guns to shoot.

And I say that as a person that has NEVER bought a gun for an investment, I buy them to use, but I have had unfired S&W's I bought as spares over the years, for the guns I carried, or hunted with, held in reserve.
 
They are TRUELY unfired. I purchased them from a man that purchased a large lot of unfired firearms at an estate sale. I have searched for any type of indicator that would lead me to believe they had been fired and then cleaned and have found none.
 
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I hit bad times fourth years ago and figured I part with two that a could replace when things got better. One was a python 6" blue, colt series 70 gov 1911a1 in nickel. Both were discontinued before I could replace them. I screwed up.
I will never do that again. Both were new guns and had problems I should of returned them.
 
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