Regrets...


Stock Photo.

S&W Model 915. The first handgun I ever owned. I bought it the day I got out of the Army.

I occasionally regret having sold it. I think that's odd because it was one of the most inaccurate handguns I ever owned and it wasn't just me that had problems shooting it. Nobody who tried firing that particular handgun could hit with it. I ended up giving it away.

I think if I had to do it over again I might have kept it just for sentimental value but I absolutely never would have carried it and I wouldn't have invested in it. magazines or good holsters or anything like that for it.
 
Have bought, traded and sold several hundred guns in my lifetime. Started when I was 10 years old. Do I wish I had kept them all? Yes, I do........However, I like my Wife better and I doubt she would have put up with it all.
 
Regrets? Where to go to school. Major. Passing on a cool job because I was "in looooove." Getting married.
 
I’ve sold and traded quite a few I regret however the one I regret the most might seem silly to you all. It’s a model 10-5 that had no sentimental value and slight pitting in its standard 4” barrel. I don’t know why that one bothers me so much but I even reached out to who I sold it to years later (on here), and I don’t remember the answer I got but I still don’t have that gun. It was my favorite shooter and my most accurate S&w (in my hands). I’ve sold 66’s, a 27, 28’s, 686’s, and many others but it’s that stupid 10-5 that i want back the most.
 
Wish I would have mortgaged the house and bought a pile of food company stocks the week after covid shut down the country. With restaurants and schools closed, lots of food processors were near failing. When schools and restaurants opened back up, the companies were right back in it and growing to keep up with demand. Those food company stocks I did buy, doubled in just 1 short year. In hind sight---I would probably be retired now and not looking at another 5 years.
 
Back about 35 years ago, I had a chance to buy a Johnson Automatic Rifle in very good condition for $150.
Same seller, a 1917 Enfield, same condition, same price!
Thought I needed the $ for something else....
 
My first handgun was a nickel 4" Colt Python bought new in 1974 when I was 16 years old (actually my dad was the "legal" purchaser). Sold it in 1983 to scrap up money for the down payment on my first house. Fortunately I sold it a good friend so I still get to visit it once in a while.
 
My father a few years ago sold some machine guns that he had bought back in the 80s because they were either duplicates or "too much work".....

Gone were an Uzi, and HK sear, and - this one hurts - a M2 .50 cal. I finally convinced him to not sell any others as they are just going to go up in value, save them for when he really needs the money, not because they had increased in value so much since he had bought them.

Also, we had a family friend who passed on and we could have bought his collection at a really good price, but we convinced the widow to sell them on the market for the most money. We couldn't have afforded the whole collection, but I regret not buying his Lahti.

Finally, we passed on a Japanese Type 92 - their version of the Lewis Gun - that was a veteran bring back from Iwo Jima with impeccable provenance, including a jar of sand cleaned out of the gun from the island. At the time, 8 grand seemed a bit steep....:o
 
ajgunner said:
Wish I would have mortgaged the house and bought a pile of food company stocks the week after covid shut down the country.
Click to expand...

If you had done that every stock would have tanked and you'd be mentioned in the evening news.

Local Investor Killed by Wife After Losing House​
 
Kevin J. said:
My first handgun was a nickel 4" Colt Python bought new in 1974 when I was 16 years old (actually my dad was the "legal" purchaser). Sold it in 1983 to scrap up money for the down payment on my first house. Fortunately I sold it a good friend so I still get to visit it once in a while.
Click to expand...

Look at it this way. You just changed one asset for another. I sold a boatload of guns and ammunition and a car to keep from losing my house when I was out of work. And if faced with the same situation I'd do it again. Luckily I got my mortgage paid off years ago.
 
If you can believe it, Knott’s Berry Farm used to sell guns. Really! Their original theme was The Old West, and that included an old style gun shop.

I was visiting my recently un-estranged grandfather in 1969, when I was 15, and he took me to Knott’s. I was really too old for it at the time but he didn’t know what else to do with me, but all was forgiven when I saw that gun shop.

I had just been getting into guns, and was a voracious reader. I had just seen an article in one of the gun rags about .45 Colt SAA Cavalry guns, and wouldn’t you know it, the Knott’s shop had one!

Almost no finish, but crisp, clean, all matching, sharp markings and inspectors cartouche, and that 7-1/2” barrel, all for the princely sum of $200! They also had a cartridge converted 1860 that some knucklehead had nickel plated, but I only had eyes for the SAA. I begged my grandfather to buy it; I had the money in my savings account and would of course paid him back, but he didn’t think I knew what I was talking about and refused.

I was so mad!

The following year I was visiting him in Sarasota, FL and I told him that Colt was now worth $500. He still didn’t think I knew what I was talking about, but my birthday was near so he took me to a pawn shop that had an awesome selection of old guns and he quizzed me on them. I blew him away, knowing every model and even closely estimating the prices, so he told me to pick out one for my birthday present.

I settled on an unfired .32 nickel Colt Pocket Positive ($125 in the original box!), so I did ok, but I still think about that SAA that got away, especially when I see what they are going for now.
 
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I mentioned a couple earlier, but have thought of another one I sort of regret. A 1964 Colt Python, blue, with a 4" barrel. One of my "grail guns." The rarest of the rare, a "shooter" grade Python. Most I see are pristine examples that I wouldn't have wanted to shoot, but this one was already scratched up a little. I paid $800.00 for it. Took it home, flitzed it a bit, Ren Waxed and got it looking presentable enough to take to the prom. Man I liked that gun. It wasn't any better than any other 357 I'd owned before or since, but it was a 4", blue Python one of the two guns I'd wanted when I bought my first handgun (the other was a Model 19, it won out because it cost about half what a Python did even then).

Then I lost my job, had to sell a bunch of guns, and finally the Python went on the block. At least I sold it for more than I paid for it, and it went to a young Marine, just back from the sandbox. I figured he'd paid for it "over there" and cut the price a little for him.

A few years later, I was selling another gun on our local "gun for sale" board and got an "I'll take it" from a guy who's name seemed familiar to me. Yes, it was that young Marine. When we met up I asked him if he still had the Python...(maybe he'll sell it back to me). No, he'd kept it a few months and sold it to someone else. Drat.

I've got a couple of the "new" Pythons and really like them, but I still wish I had that '64, in blue.
 
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