I’m sure we’ve all done it. Opened the safe and said damn, do I have too many guns? I’m going through one of those periods where I look at the stuff I haven’t shot for a little while and think sell, sell, sell. I analyze why I haven’t shot said gun and away it goes. I have some untouchables that will never be sold but everything else ebbs and flows with my whims. So a couple of questions exist for me:
[ol]
[li]How many guns is too many?
[/li][li]What does gun zen look like for you?
[/li][/ol]
For me gun zen is probably something like this:
[ol]
[li]1911 in 45
[/li][li]9mm duty sized weapon
[/li][li]9mm carry, same make and model as the duty gun
[/li][li]Two AR’s, a 12.5" with RDS and an 18" SPRish build
[/li][li]An Arsenal AK
[/li][li]Bolt gun in a 6.5 caliber
[/li][li]Two shotguns, one security type, another field type
[/li][/ol]
I have children that are very interested in carrying on my love of shooting. There is no guarantee that they will be able to purchase what we have been blessed with. There can never be too many firearms for them.
Edited to add that I agree with your list of firearms. I would add a 22lr.
I’ve gone through that several times. Sold some only to later want one again and spend more money buying! Or I can’t buy them now because it’s unabtanium. And now I’m looking at some of the stuff I have and wondering do I really need that one?
Don’t know what Zen would look like since my interests are in more than just modern defense firearms
Use guns:
2 g19s (main ccw/Fullsize gun of choice)
1 shield(NPE carry gun of choice)
1 14.5-16” ar with lpv optic
1 small AR/rifle of choice and rds
1 long range bolt or gas gun with good glass (308, 6.5, 300 winmag, etc)
1 silencer for pistol
1 mini 556 silencer
1 308/300 silencer
1 shotgun
1 22 rifle
My buddy that really got me into guns said that for every gun you need a purpose- like an actual activity; hunting, a competition, training- something. That said I have a few guns that even devoid of any rational reason, I’d never get rid of:
HK PSP
Browning Hi-Power
Colt Gold Cup
Most everything else has a price on it, though with the gun grabbing not over yet, I’m reticent to part with my LMt MWS or any mags. I still have a bunch of 226 mags and no 226 guns…
Never really thought about it in that way, I’ve opened up the safe and thought “I’d like to trade that Mossberg 500 out for an older Remington 870 or a Benelli M4, replace the aluminum framed 1911 with a steel one, the Weatherby .270 for a custom built bolt gun in 6.5 CM” stuff like that. I’ll think about what purchases I would have made over the years had I the knowledge then that I do now. But no, never thought I had too many guns.
See I don’t want a large collection when I die. I think the biggest thing is having a nice well rounded collection and it all fits into whatever you feel you are comfortable with. So for instance, for me, everything will eventually fit in one safe. Get rid of unsupported weapons or items no longer in production that have no emotional value and stick with more common firearms to acquire components and parts. Also consider the type of environment the future might be, it could turn into some Orwellian nightmare so at least try to give your relatives weapons that are more tactical than Fudd.
I’m not going to claim to be an expert on Zen, but if I understand the concept, the perfect “Zen” philosophy with regard to guns is “Two is One; One is None.”
When I was a kid, I thought I needed a 1911, A Luger, a P-38 and a Webley to satisfy my WWII handgun collection. But in the course of obtaining those I realized I didn’t have a Nambu, a Tokarev and half a dozen other handguns. And when I got those I realized there were a lot of Luger variants and one could spend all their time trying to collect just those.
And so it goes with just about any collection. I used to think I’d just need “one AK” to satisfy my Cold War weapons collection, then I realized I needed a Type 3 to have a true AK-47 as well as an AKM and that I’d also need a AK74 variant. I’d also have to get several varieties of fixed and folding stocks as well.
So while I currently have a collection twice as large as anything I ever imagined I’d want or need, I’m still not even half done if money and opportunity presents itself.
Also I’m a curator as well as a collector, I have guns that belonged to my grandfather and one day they will all be given to a family member. So even if I wanted to distill my collection to practical size, I could never do it.
But within my collection I do have a category of work guns, and I’m trying not to let it get out of hand, I simply have a lot of options should the need arise.
The point of no return is when someone asks you about your guns and you tell them, and then a minute later you tell them about the guns you forgot. After that, it’s down hill. Like asking one of us how many ARs we have; in 556 or other calibers- complete rifles, orphan uppers or stripped lowers included?
I was just reminded of something very “Zen” about firearms.
It was something taught to me at a tender age. I meditated upon its meaning, even laughing at the concept. The more I pondered, though, the more I knew it was correct. Don’t ask me how a person’s mental gymnastics accomplish it. Is there something metaphysical at work or is it just better concentration?
At any rate: there is one zen concept as it relates to firearms that I find absolutely to be true…
…You will shoot much better once you can learn to “become” the bullet.
Yeah, I’ll open my safe and see guns I haven’t shot in a while. But then I’ll take them out and shoot them, and it renews my interest in them. For example, I’ve been shooting a lot of 9mm over the past few years, simply because it’s cheaper and when taking classes, easier to make par times on drills with quicker follow-up shots. However, just over the past year, my interest in my 1911’s was renewed so I’ve been shooting a lot more .45 lately.
I also have a Glock 24C in .40 that I hadn’t shot in almost a decade. But since I’ve got quite a lot of .40 ammo for that single pistol, I’ve been taking it to the range with the .45s every time and enjoying it. The G24C upper swaps out with the G17 upper on my full size Polymer80 frame without an ejector change, and so far, 100% reliability.
I seldom sell guns because I never know when my interests will change, plus as others have said, I don’t know what will be available further down the road. Another good example is my Colt SP1, which I took apart years ago and put more ‘modern’ components on. The slick-side upper receiver sat in my parts box for years since carry handle ARs were long out of vogue. I had actually put it on the EE for sale, but it didn’t move, which was great because the retro bug hit me and I used it to build my retro-ish GAU-5A.
My gun zen is basically owning guns that I’ve wanted since I was a kid, or growing up. They make me happy.
My biggest problem is what to do with all the ammo. If I shot it all it would take a me a few years of real dedication but then I’d probably die of lead exposure.
It’s hard to have too many guns and too much ammo. My list of wants is obviously much bigger than the list of needs. Heck, I want just about every firearm I lay eyes on other than lorcin’s, Hi-points, etc. But that isn’t going to happen.
I try to take a minimalist approach now-a-days. 2 of each flavor that I feel I need for specific roles and a few that are just fun to have on top of that.
It’s funny, a “lot” of guns is such a relative thing. Same goes for ammo.
I get into conversations with folks who have 10-20 guns and think thats a “lot”, and some who have 2-5 and think that is a lot. Some with 100’s who think they don’t have enough.
