Rifles you will NEVER sell

I keep a list of guns current and gone, with stated values, where bought etc. I note there are a lot of guns on there that were marked Keeper or Never Sell. Many of those are long gone.:eek::rolleyes:o_O I suppose eventually most if not all will be sold or handed down. After all I cant take them with me.:( At this point, the last thing to go is probably.... well I don't know. I might know next week, or the week after or....:rolleyes::whistle::D
 
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Would never sell either of these Ruger Model 1s especially the 300 WinMag on the left as it was a birthday gift from my wife. She had a neighbor help her shop for it 20 years ago in Little Rock. It has been with me to Africa 5 times and I have taken everything from porcupine to eland with it. The 375 H&H on the right was something I bought for myself just because I love Ruger Model 1s. Springbuck to Hippo have fallen to the 300 grain billets I use in it.
 
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All of them. I have only ever offered to sell 1 gun in my entire life and it was a shotgun I posted here. If I sell it great if not great. My rifles, no way. All of my guns are special to me in some way or another. Many are antiques or family heirlooms. The remainder are ones I bought because it was something I really wanted and ALL have a story behind them and history with me or my family. Every gun I own, and it’s quite a list, has a special place in my heart. There is a hunt, a family shooting trip, a cousin, grandfather, father, kid, career, friend, or something with every single one of them.
 
My 1916 Erfurt SR 98 6.5x57 stalking rifleis a keeper with most of the rest being somewhat transient if the right circumstances occur. I put my accumulated knowledge and abilities into this one with a truly superb piece of walnut.
 
Sadly that's not really an option in the UK. I have to keep the number of guns I own to around ten, give or take a couple. Any more than that and the police start to make a fuss - upgraded physical security of the house, monitored alarm system with a yearly fee etc. It's just not worth it unless you're willing to waste good hunting money on a safe full of guns you'll never fire.

Well it it still 4 more than our government allows, only 6. And after that a really good explanation why it is essential for hunting (in the Netherlands) to own another one. But better than none.
 
Well it it still 4 more than our government allows, only 6. And after that a really good explanation why it is essential for hunting (in the Netherlands) to own another one. But better than none.

Six is a reasonable number I guess. Worst case I could make do with a shotgun, a .22lr and a .30-06 for all I do in the UK. Then on top of that I fine tune my needs for the quarry - .22-250 for fox, .357 so I can shoot cheaply for fun at the range with cast bullets etc. To use a .30-06 next to houses for foxes would be more dangerous than light, fragmenting bullets from a .22 centrefire though, so it's better that I have more for both safety and practical reasons.
 
Ones that I will never sell, there are two of them one is a old Savage Super Sporter in 30-06. A uncle gave it to me when I was 5 years old. As the stories go he would promise it to anyone who would bail him out after a drunk. A few of my other uncles would ask my dad about it and dad would tell them that they would have to talk to me about it. None of them ever came to talk to me and I didn't find out about the stories until I was in my 20's. I also shot that rifle shortly there after. I don't remember if I hit anything but I took a shot with it but then I didn't shoot it again until I was ready to go deer hunting when I turned 16.

The other is my dads .300 Savage 99. My mom bought it for him and that one will never leave my hands.

As to the rest of them that are in my safe, they are all fair game to end up in someones else's gun safe. None of them ever will as long as I am alive but there is always a possibility of it.
 
View attachment 305023 Would never sell either of these Ruger Model 1s especially the 300 WinMag on the left as it was a birthday gift from my wife. She had a neighbor help her shop for it 20 years ago in Little Rock. It has been with me to Africa 5 times and I have taken everything from porcupine to eland with it. The 375 H&H on the right was something I bought for myself just because I love Ruger Model 1s. Springbuck to Hippo have fallen to the 300 grain billets I use in it.
You have fine taste.
 
Browning T-Bolt: Dad bought it for me and my brother. Unfortunately it was one of the “salt” stocked rifles. It stayed at my dad’s house: neglected. Dad told me to take it a couple of years before he past away. There is pitting on the action and barrel. I want to restock it, have as much pitting cleaned up as possible and give it to my brother.
Interarms Mauser Mk X in .30/06: This was the first centerfire rifle I ever bought for myself. It has taken an elk, a few exotics, maybe six or seven deer and five head of African PG.
Ruger Hawkeye Alaskan in .416 Ruger: I used it on my first safari to take my long dreamed of Cape buffalo and seven head of PG. Not only for that reason, but it has become my favorite.
 
I am not sure I understand the concept of selling a gun after you have it.....
 
I have a few, my Winchester m70 Safari in 416 rem mag, it shoots like a dream, my Mauser m12 extreme 338 win mag, that gun is an amazing machine, my Sako 85 in 500 Jeffrey, Remington 700 AWR in 300 RUM, and my Chapuis double in 470 nitro. Then again I have my collection pretty much paired down to the stuff I wouldn’t sell. I usually keep a couple rifles/handguns on hand for trading material in case I come across something I can’t live without hahaha. I’ve also found that, for me, after I take an animal with a particular rifle, that makes it much harder to part with.
 
View attachment 305023 Would never sell either of these Ruger Model 1s especially the 300 WinMag on the left as it was a birthday gift from my wife. She had a neighbor help her shop for it 20 years ago in Little Rock. It has been with me to Africa 5 times and I have taken everything from porcupine to eland with it. The 375 H&H on the right was something I bought for myself just because I love Ruger Model 1s. Springbuck to Hippo have fallen to the 300 grain billets I use in it.

Hunting Africa with a Ruger No.1 is what I dream of....

HWL
 
Hello Wyatt Smith,

Yours is an interesting thread, I’m enjoying it.
My feeble story is that, my father was not a hunter or a gun person.
He liked golf, tennis and sailing, to include watching all three of those painfully boring things on television LOL.
So, I do not have a heart warming description of any “first deer rifle”, given to me by my old pops or anyone else.
I had to buy mine.

That said, my father was otherwise a reasonable man and so, he made sure I was able to hunt and fish, as long as I did my chores and earned decent grades in school.
The first time I went deer hunting, it was with a borrowed WW II, British surplus rifle, caliber .303 that, belonged to one of my father’s friends.
I was 15 then and never got a shot at any deer until 10 years later (and a few rifles later), at age 25.
I was born and raised in Soviet Socialist California, where wildlife mismanagement was invented.

So, even seeing a buck deer, much less seeing one during deer season, between 1967 and 1977, was a truly remarkable event.
I would have compared it to seeing a real live Sasquatch or finding Black Beard’s lost gold, etc.
And as such, my taking of one scrawny little black tail deer, finally after 10 years of hunting them, played a major role in motivating me toward escaping the jack-booted tax thugs of California and settling in The United State of Alaska.

Any way, back at age 16 (working as a cook in a Sacramento restaurant), I bought my first rifle.
It was a Smith-Corona Typewriter Company built 1903-A3 Springfield .30-06 caliber, all original / as issued / not tampered with.
I did not even own a .22 rifle yet at that stage.
Perhaps I should’ve kept that Springfield but, in my early 20’s, I sold it to buy something else.

And so it has gone throughout my life (I’m in my mid-60’s now).
Buy, sell, trade.
At one stage, while I was working A LOT of over-time, I had simultaneously in possession, one hundred thirty something firearms............
Then, I went to Africa for the first time.
Today, 5 Safaris later, I’ve sold almost all of the 130+ guns mentioned, to help pay for the hunting trips and not the least bit sorry.

At the moment, my personal favorite rifle is my Brno Mauser, Model 602 Magnum, in caliber .375 H&H.
It has factory express sights (with larger white front bead added).
The scope is a 4x Zeiss, in Alaska Arms Company, lever rings.
And, I had a professional Gunsmith (Andy Hawk, here in Anchorage), replace the set trigger with a traditional single stage trigger (of South African manufacture).
One of these years, I’ll get organized and have Mr. Hawk replace the Bruno trigger block type “safety catch”, with a Model 70 style, striker blocking one.
Favorite rifle as it definitely is, I likely will sell it some day, when I get to where I can’t stand much recoil any more.

Do I own a rifle or rifles that, I will NEVER sell?
In a word, no.
Do I own one that I likely will keep quite a few more years ?
Yes.

Stay on that front sight,
Velo Dog.
 
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I have several I would be unlikely to sell unless I had a terminal illness and was saving my wife the trouble of selling them,
1. Winchester Super Grade in .375 H&H
2. Winchester Featherweight in .270
3. Krieghoff .470 double

The one I would never sell is a Remington 550 in .22 that my father bought me when I was eight. It has a Weaver 6 power scope.
Not much to look at. LOP was far too long for an 8 year-old so I had to move the scope far to the rear. I still keep it that way since I no longer shoot it.

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Lets see as a left Hander the following rifles took a minimum of 2 years from order to get to Australia and all are great shooters and not for sale!

All in left hand
Winchester 70 Safari Express 375H&H
Winchester 70 Classic Sporter 30/06
CZ 550 Safari Magnum 375H&H
Steyr Mannlicher SM12 9.3x62
CZ 527 Lux 223Rem

and
Sauer M3000 Drilling 9.3x74R/12x12
Savage 99 358Win
William Douglass Double Rifle 470Nitro
 
All of them! I see no reason to sell any of my rifles, maybe pry them out of my clenched hands, I just don't have a rifle I don't use or want to keep.
 
Every gun I own, and it’s quite a list, has a special place in my heart. There is a hunt, a family shooting trip, a cousin, grandfather, father, kid, career, friend, or something with every single one of them.
Even a Canuck!
 
Even a Canuck!
Yip! A Canuck and a trip to Africa with that particular rifle as well as my first pronghorn I got for myself.
 

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