Collection Strategy

[robctwo]

The therapist on our team has a good tag line for emails:

"I have CDO, it's like OCD except the letters are alphabetical, as they should be."

I started with Dad's 10-6 when he passed away. I'm collecting S&W revolvers by calibers to shoot. 45 Colt & ACP, .38/357, .22. All my guns are shooters, even when I bought a NIB 19-3 4" it went to the range. Has about 5-6,000 through it now.

I've got a few in the 3 series. 19s in 4&6", 18 & 17, 14 looking for a 15.

I'm also collecting Ahrends retro combat grips, because I like shooting with them.

 

[Gunsandguitars]

An S&W Model 15 was the first handgun I ever shot, way back in '75 at Lackland AFB. Hooked on Smith's ever since.

Like a lotta guys, I've loved and lost, especially in my younger years. Bought lots of guns, but a washer would give out or a car would need repairs, or a daughter would need a prom dress and out they'd go, traded for cash to meet family obligations.

Que Sera Sera.

As I've aged, and we've become more financially stable, I can hang on to my goodies a little better.

Collection strategy? Hoping to be in the right place at the right time and have the disposable income to allow me to purchase whatever prize I luck onto. All of mine are shooters, including my prize piece, a Model 27-2 6" nickel with a red ramped front sight, 98% easy. $600 out the door from a pawn shop in a neighboring county. Beautiful gun.

Good luck on your journey. It's fun, and affords hours and hours of enjoyment.

I mean, wheel guns are real guns, right?

 

[Frank46]

Collection strategy??. I started out with a plain jane model 10HB, then a model 36, 624, 24-4,24-3 and lately a model 15. Love the 44 special cartridge so that explains the 3 44 specials. Also like the 38 special so that explains the other 3. I have no rhyme or reason as to what I'd buy next. Guess you could say I'm an impulse shopper. Nice S&W's are like potatoe chips, you just can't have one. Frank

 

[fyimo]

I'm not sure it can be called a strategy with me as I seem to change with the weather. I started collecting any top condition S&W revolver that was P&R and then I got the N frame sickness, and then the S&W 22LR revolver plague, and then etc, etc.

 

[palmetto99]

Picked up an ex-leo model 10-6 some 20 years ago becuase it was cheap. Was not hooked. Let a very nice 19-4 2.5" go. Added a 60-9 a few years later and started to get warm and fuzzy anout K frames. Picked up a couple more police trade ins (15-3 and 19-4). Added a shooter grade 14-2 and then a 66-5. Oooo, a 28-2 for a good price! Then the 60 no dash for an EDC. I had never seen a 581 and it was at a pretty good price. Then the 36 because I didn't have one. No reason to any of it.

 

[zelda]

l have my 28-2 and 15-2. Dad has a 27-2 l may be able to borrow from him. Likely a permanent loan. l remember the terrible 2's raising my daughter. Smith & Wesson 2's are less stressful

 

[opaul]

Then there's the other stuff that comes with the 'stradegy', nice holsters (vintage of course), dress grips, vintage box with circa correct, packing paper a plus and instruction manual...there is really no light at the end of the tunnel......is there?

 

[Jim Fuller]

Ya know, It's so funny. I started with a strategy, I thought I had a strategy, it changed each time I looked at a different gun. This obsessive compulsive behavior NOT a strategy. And BTW, if coveting is still a sin... I am NEVER gonna see Heaven

 

[S&WIowegan]

It all started when I got my first Daisy Red Rider BB gun as a little kid on the farm. I couldn't cock it like the cowboys so I learned to hook the stock behind my knee. Graduated to a Winchester Model 62 and a bolt action .410(which kicked too hard). That 62 totally eradicated the pigeon 'problem'. It helped to have a shooter buddy the same age.

College and girls slowed my gun fetish down but the Army got me going again. Then yrs. of grad. school, work and babies interfered. Moved to Iowa in 1988 and discovered gun shows.....the rest is history.

I'm both a shooter/competitor and a collector. The fit, finish and esthetics of S&W Hand Ejectors are what grabbed me......never liked the 19th century guns.

Buy the absolute best quality you can to collect and buy good shooters. Keep them separate.

Have fun and enjoy!!

 

[rsv1mos]

Love this thread, not much interest in 1950/60 vintage model 34's and 36's.

Less demand keeps the selection high and the prices low for those of us that really dig the revolvers that we grew up with. That is, if you consider asking prices for decent examples in the $500 to $700 range.

 

[IAhunter]

Started out in an attempt to collect each of the issued or authorized sidearms of the USBP. That is now stalled, in favor of K and N frames.

 

[Hoosier45]

First S&W, also 1st revolver was a shooter 25-5 4"...9 months ago. I'm 22 and addicted for life. I own 6 now and my first year isn't over yet. Strategy: have a small list of "dream guns", then 3-4 "shooters" to buy, then "bad*ss" guns like 2.5" 19's, 3" Horton's etc that I want. Hopefully stop at 15!!!
Will always have a soft spot for 45 Colts, as I own the 25-5, 625-7 3", 625-5 5" classic, 625-6 PC Hunter, and a Custom 1/1 25-5 nickel 2.75" thats just sweet. But now I want some 357's.

 

[Mule88]

I just started off finding random neat S&W's here and there and started buying them. Alot of times id just run into a old great condition guns and when opportunity knocks...its usually doesnt knock twice!