That gun you can't own

[Petrol & Powder]

Occasionally I'll be shooting with friends and someone will produce a gun and ask if I want to shoot a few rounds down range.
Well of course the answer is YES!
Generally I shoot a few rounds and the experience is enjoyable. I hand the gun back to its owner with a sincere "Thank You".

Every once in a blue moon the gun will just click with me and I know want it but I can't possibly acquire it.

On one occasion it was a rifle that balanced just right and had a trigger that wasn't great but worked for me. Even with iron sights and shooting offhand I couldn't miss with it.
Another time it was a shotgun that felt like it was made for me and smoked the first target that was thrown.
The other day it was about a 50 year old S&W that I bonded with on the first shot.

Sometimes the gun is valued beyond my budget.
Sometimes the possessor doesn't actually own the gun and they cannot sell it.
Sometimes the owner has no intention of ever selling it.

Regardless of the situation it is always fun and a bit frustrating.

Anyone else have these experiences?

[smokeywolf]

Not quite like that but, wish I had at least one of the cannons (Navy line thrower) that Dad used to own. Also the mint 19th century Gatling gun that stood on a mahogany tripod in one end of his shop and a original Henry that he converted to center fire.

[Mytmousemalibu]

Yup, happens to me plenty. I always leave with that person the comment, "If you ever want or need to sell that gun, please let me know!" I actually did get the opportunity to buy one such example and I happily paid for it! You never know...

The most recent was a shooting club friend has an old S&W revo that was his police service sidearm he carried back in the 60's & 70's. He said there was no way he could sell it, the sentimental value was uncharted which I can't blame him, i wouldn't sell it either but it will likely be passed on to his son some day. I said the offer remains just in case. I'd care for and love it as much as he does. Some guns we just form an immediate bond to and are special to us.

[sawinredneck]

I want my STOLEN Colt Anaconda 6" back!
I can't even think about replacing it with the prices they go for now!

[dbosman]

I own a single shot bolt action .22LR that doesn't shoot for **** and I stopped caring decades ago. I like it.

[Blackwater]

I doubt there's a real shooter alive who hasn't experienced this! Sometimes you don't even need to shoot it. Went by the LGS today and they had a H&K double 12 ga. made in Italy with REALLY nicely figured walnut for a stock, and I just fell in love with it. Then, as usual, I checked out the price tag, and it was $1500. I always get a "deal" there, but not enough to take it home, unfortunately. As "sour grapes theory," I told myself it had a straight grip, and I don't particularly care for a full straight grip. The "Prince of Wales" grip is a lot more my style. It just feels "natural" to me.

They also had a post-'74 Colt DS in .38 Spec., blued with Pachmyr stocks that I would love to have. Mine's a pre-'74, and won't take +P ammo, but I love that little gun anyway. I'd have traded if allowed, but it's a consignment gun. I never seem to get a break!!! I won't even ask if anyone else's luck is like mine. I already know the answer. I think it's a cousin of Murphy's Law???

[Kraschenbirn]

Oh yeah!! A guy down the road...not a 'buddy' but I do drink a beer with him from time to time...has a .300 H&H built on a Brevex Mauser action that I truly covet. He inherited his father's guns but doesn't hunt or shoot...rifle has been racked next to his bookcase, unfired, for the entire 40-some years I've known him. Last time I looked at it closely, it had been wiped down with a sheepskin lanolin pad (that I gave him!!) but the bore was so full of accumulated dust/lint that you could barely see light through it.

Bill

[FergusonTO35]

Yup, a Ruger KGPF-840. It is a GP-100 stainless, 4" half lug barrel, fixed sights, .38 Special (not .357) chambering. Ruger only made them for a year or so, I will forever kick myself for not buying one new in 2002. I do have a 1988 Service Six in the same configuration though. Yeah I'm weird, I like full size .38 Special revolvers. I can't explain it, if you share the affliction no explanation is necessary.

[Petrol & Powder]

Yup, a Ruger KGPF-840. It is a GP-100 stainless, 4" half lug barrel, fixed sights, .38 Special (not .357) chambering. Ruger only made them for a year or so, I will forever kick myself for not buying one new in 2002. I do have a 1988 Service Six in the same configuration though. Yeah I'm weird, I like full size .38 Special revolvers. I can't explain it, if you share the affliction no explanation is necessary.

I hope that liking full size 38 Special revolvers doesn't make one too weird because if that's true I'm REALLY weird. I have that affliction!

[Finster101]

Back in 82 or 83 I can't remember for sure I was working part time at the Rod & Gun club In Fuerth. We got two Sako 7mm mags with a heavy varmint barrel in. Why I didn't buy one I don't know. I have never seen another.

[exile]

I was in a gun shop in Olathe, KS., in 1995 and they had an un-fired Belgian Browning HP on consignment from an estate that they only wanted $ 500.00 for. As I was between jobs at the time, I had to pass it up. Still regret that.

exile

[tazman]

Back in the middle eighties my wife got sick and I had to sell some guns. One was a Remington 760 in 30-06 that was unusual in that it shot every weight of bullet I tried into the same 2 inch circle at 100 yards. I sold that rifle to a friend of mine. A few years later, I told him if he ever needed some money, I would buy that rifle back.
As it happened he did sell it back to me a couple of years after that.
It still shoots any weight of bullet into that same 2 inch group.
I haven't tried to find a particular combination that shoots better since it is my designated hunting rifle and 2 inches at 100 yards is fine for that.

[Firebricker]

I was working in Utah and found a Ruger #3 in .22 Hornet for $600. I get a sick feeling every time I think about it. It was what I was looking for so why I walked out with out it I will never know ! FB

[Tim357]

I hope that liking full size 38 Special revolvers doesn't make one too weird because if that's true I'm REALLY weird. I have that affliction!

Amen!

[sghart3578]

I have that same problem but for different reasons. I live in California and my local gun stores all have a shelf designated "for sale to Law Enforcement only".

That's bad enough but there is always some cop standing there while I'm looking at the forbidden fruit. Fully 50% of the time they will make some a**hole comment like "You can't have that, you'll shoot your eye out kid" or "I could buy that if I wanted, I just don't want to."

Not very good for public relations but the clerks tell me it happens every day.

[WebMonkey]

Any select fire pistol caliber firearm.
Can't afford but sorely wish for.

[Bzcraig]

Yes, a Colt Cobra 38 series 3 that made me shoot like the Sundance Kid! Sold the gun to my dad for a song (young and needed the money) on the condition he let me know before he got the urge to sell it. Unfortunately, I never got it back.

[shoot-n-lead]

I have had that same experience a couple of times, oddly enough, it has been a 1911, every time. I am not really into rifles, except some Winchester and Rossi levers, and I just have just never shot a shotgun enough to have developed a "feel" for any of them...although, there are a couple of Beretta's that it would not take much for me like.

[54bore]

I have always wanted a Freedom Arms model 83 Premier Grade in .454 Casull, but at nearly 3 thousand now days and the little i would actually shoot the Revolver its just out of reach, but man those things are nice!! I have shot a few over the years, one in .475 Linebaugh and the other a .454 Casull, In my opinion there is nothing like them. If i lived in Alaska around the BIG bears i would own one.

[Multigunner]

For me it would be a pistol that the father of a friend actually took off the corpse of a German air crewman he had killed when he shot down the plane while it was making a low level bombing run on an American airfield.
The friend's father was manning a .50 Browning at the time.
The body was found in the broken away tail section, the only one of the crew not incinerated in the fiery crash.

The provenance was pretty much indisputable. Besides the pistol he had kept the German's wallet with all his ID and photos of his beautiful young girl friend. There were other documents as well.

The pistol was a FN1922 in .32 ACP , The young airman had apparently had grip panels made with inlaid silver Luftwaffe eagles.

Its been over 50 years since I was allowed to examine that pistol and the wallet with documents.