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Waiting for my shill money from Spiral Arm Studios
That is an interesting shell. 2 pellets and a slug.
Self-proclaimed evil Cat-person. Dues Ex Felines
Cato Sicarius, after force feeding Captain Ventris a copy of the Codex Astartes for having the audacity to play Deathwatch, chokes to death on his own D-baggery after finding Calgar assembling his new Eldar army.
Over the years, I've found people collect firearms for very different reasons. I'm curious as to how Dakka enthusiasts build their collections.
For those unable to collect: what would you collect if you could?
As is well known, all of my firearms have been lost through freakish canoe and pontoon boat accidents.
However, if I did collect, I would aim for a broad military/historical/geographic collection. I might have a few modern weapons for functionality, but I'm the kind of guy who shies away from polymer and instead is drawn the gleam of well-used steel and seasoned wooden stocks. If you ask me about Austrian firearms, I think of Steyr and Mannlicher rather than Glock.
I think I’d just want to collect iconic shooters from movies and TV shows I like.
I could of course just buy replicas. And I suspect even in places with more open gun ownership laws a replica is still your only option for some.
But living in the U.K., having a display of replica guns somehow makes me feel like a sad act edge lord. Like a plastic gangster. A kid pretending their water pistol is a real bit of hardware.
Fed up of Scalpers? But still want your Exclusives? Why not join us?
I'd consider myself more of a hobbyist than a collector. I buy guns to
shoot them and try to get good with them. I do a lot of research before buying anything so I can make an informed choice. That goes for ammo as well.
I tend to prefer guns that have a lot of after market support and like to upgrade/customize them. Better sites, better trigger, match barrel, etc. And I prefer new to used when feasible, with some exceptions. New S&W revolvers have a certain safety feature with a hilaryous nickname, and if I wanted one of those I'd get an older one without that feature.
Since I started the more desirable milsurp guns have gone from being some of the cheapest guns available to collector prices, and I'm not interested in them enough to pay that. I feel like I've missed the boat with those.
Often the prop gun is based on an existing firearm. Most Star Wars weapons were, though some are pretty rare.
Many if not most props are non-firing, so that wouldn't count against you.
Ehhh, not necessarily. Most "prop guns" used in movies are actually real guns, possibly just with extra stuff slapped on to make them look sci-fi if necessary. There are several companies whose sole business is renting out guns/making sci-fi prop guns for movie productions. Sadly way too many classic WW2 and earlier guns have been sacrificed to make sci-fi movies.
The blasters used in the opening scene of A New Hope were actually fully functional firearms(Sterling SMGs) and the fight was shot using blanks with aftereffects to make them look like lasers. You can see shell casings in some stills from those scenes.
If you buy a special "Prop" collectable gun, it will be a non-functional because its going to be a replica of what was used in the film.
Self-proclaimed evil Cat-person. Dues Ex Felines
Cato Sicarius, after force feeding Captain Ventris a copy of the Codex Astartes for having the audacity to play Deathwatch, chokes to death on his own D-baggery after finding Calgar assembling his new Eldar army.
Grey Templar wrote: Ehhh, not necessarily. Most "prop guns" used in movies are actually real guns, possibly just with extra stuff slapped on to make them look sci-fi if necessary. There are several companies whose sole business is renting out guns/making sci-fi prop guns for movie productions. Sadly way too many classic WW2 and earlier guns have been sacrificed to make sci-fi movies.
The blasters used in the opening scene of A New Hope were actually fully functional firearms(Sterling SMGs) and the fight was shot using blanks with aftereffects to make them look like lasers. You can see shell casings in some stills from those scenes
I don't know about the "fully functional" part. Lots of prop guns have blank firing adapters permanently inserted because the blanks lack the power to cycle the action.
Because they aren't recoil-operated revolvers don't need that modification, though some get them. One of the Indiana Jones revolvers is non-firing. Obviously Baldwin's didn't have this modification.
In fact, in many films the guns that are flung around the set are hard rubber copies. The "hero" weapon is used only in closeups where the detail is necessary. The same is true with swords, knives etc.
When I started digging into props, I was surprised how many productions (going back many years) simply use replicas. They are cheaper and safer, and they mostly featured in background shots. A bunch of the M-16s in 80s action films are replicas.
I agree that the wholesale destruction of vintage Mauser C96s to make non-firing Han Solo blasters is abhorrent.
Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote: Quick question on the hunting theme? When out hunting with buddies, is it usual to share the goodies where some have luck and others don’t?
It depends on the type of game and how one defines "hunting." By that I mean the seasons can be quite long (if you hunt deer in Michigan, it's about three months long if you include every option), so while you may have bad luck on that big weekend, there's a lot of time to remedy it.
Typically, people will be generous, especially if storage is a problem. Serious hunters live off of the stuff, but also pass it around.
People around here will also offer gifts of game meat to those who don't hunt but are known to like it.
Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote: Quick question on the hunting theme? When out hunting with buddies, is it usual to share the goodies where some have luck and others don’t?
My in-laws (grandfather and uncle in law) are big on hunting and fishing, they love sharing their catches with family. So much so that even the non-hunting family households have an extra fridge or freezer space.
Because a deer, or a big tuna haul, are just too much for someone that also does regular grocery shopping to eat.
Also venison burgers - you need to add a little ground beef so the patties will have enough fat content to hold together, but they are absolutely delicious.
Does anyone have a firearm that they have never fired?
I have a reproduction Remington 1857 revolver I received as a gift, and I have yet to fire it. I have the munitions, but have simply not gotten around to deciding which gunk I will use to seal the chamber front.
Of course, given my luck, it will fall into a lake as soon as it take out of the house, just like all my other firearms.
Got an 'antique camel gun' in Afghanistan just for gaks and giggles. Would be terrified to actually attempt to fire it, though my Dad who has a lot of black powder stuff has tried to get me to do so.
Every time a terrorist dies a Paratrooper gets his wings.
My brother has the1896 ACME double barrel 12 gauge shotgun that was passed down our family for generations. He could get it functional with a couple parts but he'd have to manufacture his own shells for it, and that's more work than he's willing to put into it.
Just Tony wrote: My brother has the1896 ACME double barrel 12 gauge shotgun that was passed down our family for generations. He could get it functional with a couple parts but he'd have to manufacture his own shells for it, and that's more work than he's willing to put into it.
Whatever you do, don't try to hunt road runners with it!
Especially of late, ammunition supplies have been an issue.
Has anyone had much difficulty with this for primary firearms? I remember in the "trough" when store shelves were totally bare and 9mm was trending towards a dollar a round, which was 5x the normal price.
That's now over, and but for inflation, we might be at pre-Covid prices for many calibers, but I find shotgun ammo in particular hard to come by. Which is weird, because so many sporting goods stores (i.e. not dedicated gun shops) sell it.
I've been having problems getting specific 12 gauge shells as well. Specifically the Federal shells with the improved "flight control" or the multiple varieties of reduced recoil, 8 pellet 00 buck I would like to try in my semi auto shotgun. My own testing has confirmed that the 9th pellet "flyer" that doesn't stay in the pattern is legit and not just "Fudd Lore". I've got a few boxes of full power 8 pellet Critical Defense but have not tried them yet, and I'm not satisfied with my accuracy when rapid firing the full power shells.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2023/06/23 23:12:41
Slowroll wrote: I've been having problems getting specific 12 gauge shells as well. Specifically the Federal shells with the improved "flight control" or the multiple varieties of reduced recoil, 8 pellet 00 buck I would like to try in my semi auto shotgun. My own testing has confirmed that the 9th pellet "flyer" that doesn't stay in the pattern is legit and not just "Fudd Lore". I've got a few boxes of full power 8 pellet Critical Defense but have not tried them yet, and I'm not satisfied with my accuracy when rapid firing the full power shells.
One of the reasons I dislike the Taurus Judge (and its clones) is the spike it caused in .410 ammunition prices and the subsequent shortages. This stuff used to be cheap and plentiful, but now it's considered "premium self-defense ammunition."
From what I've seen those are extremely picky with the shotshells, pretty much unusable with ammo it doesn't "like" (can't hit center mass at 3 yards and jams every shot). With shells it does like, it seems to reliably do what it is advertised to. So some of that shortage may be due to people experimenting with different brands to find what works and doesn't.
Regarding "premium self-defense ammunition", some of those are intended exclusively for the Judge style handguns. The Critical Defense load posted earlier with the slug would be one of those. It seems to work well out of those guns but that unrifled(sp?) slug is going to keyhole out of smoothbore shotgun and possibly zip off into the neighborhood if used in a self defense situation. Hopefully people are careful reading the box!
I have a few guns I've never shot. Mostly because I've had limited time since COVID lockdown. Running a business, teenage kids activities, caring for an elderly parent, 40k, combat robots, etc. There's only so much time.
Slowroll wrote: From what I've seen those are extremely picky with the shotshells, pretty much unusable with ammo it doesn't "like" (can't hit center mass at 3 yards and jams every shot). With shells it does like, it seems to reliably do what it is advertised to. So some of that shortage may be due to people experimenting with different brands to find what works and doesn't.
Regarding "premium self-defense ammunition", some of those are intended exclusively for the Judge style handguns. The Critical Defense load posted earlier with the slug would be one of those. It seems to work well out of those guns but that unrifled(sp?) slug is going to keyhole out of smoothbore shotgun and possibly zip off into the neighborhood if used in a self defense situation. Hopefully people are careful reading the box!
What clearly happened is that the demand curve shifted and the industry was not prepared for it. For decades .410 was light load often used to train young hunters. The archetypal single-shot Fudd-style shotgun was perfect for kids learning to shoot and hunt.
When the Judge came out, that dramatically altered the market and while we are starting to see new products in response, I don't think production has yet caught up with demand.
A secondary result is that people have rediscovered .410 in general, which is a nice, light cartridge.
As it happened yesterday I went to a gun show. I'm sure many people consider these to be unregulated arms bazaars where all manner of heavy ordnance changes hands. They are not, and the same laws apply as at a brick-and-mortar store.
Moreover, firearms are not even close to being the main item for sale. Maybe 10 percent of the table space will be firearms. The rest will be food, camping accessories, furs and pelts, lots of clothing, and random knick-knacks.
Yesterday's purchase included a video game player, cotton candy, and - as an afterthought - some surplus Russian rifle ammo. We almost bought some artisan pickles but that would have put us over budget. (Pro tip: Always go to the show with a budget.)
There are a fair number of vendors that use the shows as their main sales option - home made jams, salsa, barbecue sauce, seasonings, jerky - there was a period when I mostly went to see a cheese vendor (alas, he retired).
And yeah, you don't want to kill all the young bucks before they get to maturity, but there is a good argument against only allowing larger bucks to be taken. Namely because it creates a selective pressure for smaller antlers. This is why for salt water fish a lot of species have both a minimum and a maximum. Not that there is enough hunting in CA to actually thin out the large bucks, but it would be an issue in other more hunter dense states.
Animal husbandry isn't my thing, but surely you would want people to shoot the smallest and sickest? Not the biggest and fittest?
Moreover, firearms are not even close to being the main item for sale. Maybe 10 percent of the table space will be firearms. The rest will be food, camping accessories, furs and pelts, lots of clothing, and random knick-knacks.
Is that a new phenomenon? Here when a show for one thing (say toy soldiers) starts to see sales of other stuff it is normally economic stress but also a shortfall in buyer/sellers of the normal stuff. Or have the shows always been so diversified?
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2023/06/26 10:28:07
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