Let's hear it from the long-time gun owners!

[Alan]

With our community growing every day, I’d love to collect some of the shared experiences we have.

For our seasoned owners and collectors, what advice would you offer your younger self when you first began this journey? Share your insights on storage methods, reliable sites, auctions, or anything else you wish you had known sooner.

 

[pharmer]

1) Buy what you like, don't follow trends.
2) Don't sell off what you have to get something else. Most times you want that stuff back and pay higher prices to get it back.
3) Buy from established vendors, Palmetto State and CDNN for instance have been around since the 20th century.
4) Estate, Sheriff's auctions can be good as long as you know what stuff is worth. Go to the "inspection" with a notepad, write down what you want and a max you will pay. I went to a Sheriff's auction way back, folks were paying over new retail prices for seized guns.
5) I wish I had known 40 years ago that autos would 100% replace revolvers in LE and that great guns would be sold cheap. I recently sold a revolver for $3500 that nobody wanted for $189 in 1989. Joe

 

[A-300 Dave]

Above, Pharmer pretty much laid it out. I might add that over the years my interest changed several times - From rabbit hunting with Beagles, to bird hunting with pointers, to deer hunting, to elk hunting, to collecting WWII weapons, to reloading, to defense, to skeet shooting - just to name a few. My gun collection varied somewhat with interest changes. Now, at 86+ Y.O. I mostly compete with myself on my 200 yd range, reload for 11 different caliber rifles & 7 different pistols and keep my freezer full of venison. Looking back, the varied interest gives me a pretty broad knowledge base that i can draw from when asked for advice. Allan mentioned storage methods - I live in NW Fla with high humidity and one MUST have a full time humidifier in their gun safe (or wherever guns are stored) OR check/oil regularly. The road has been bumpy at times, but I have enjoyed every minute of it. Good Luck

 

[WooD 714]

I wish I'd been into class 3 weapons back then when the price of a new Colt M16 was less than $700 + the $200 tax stamp.