Carl 9.3x62
Well-known member
I like number 4well, I'm not a collector, that's for sure, so why do I prefer older, vs. new?
1. Because, they might be better made. That's not a given, but you know how folks fawn over "pre '64" Winchesters. Well, they don't make new doubles like pre WWI, and new Winchester 1885s aren't. Aren't even 1885s, under their ugly skins.
2. Because, there are lots of varieties of old guns that just are not made anymore. If you rule out the old guns, you void some pretty cool models and maybe avoid some pretty unnecessary and unsightly features (can you say "Marlin crossbolt safety"?
3. Because, old guns are finished with varnish and oils and things that are warm and sensuous to the touch. Not plastic-coated polyurethane, OR WORSE (we don't even want to contemplate going there).
4. Because, most of all, they just might have a soul, some history, and interesting gouge to speculate came at the end of a long fall while scrambling after something that just disappeared over the ridge, but didn't get away in the end. Or maybe, just dropped by a 9 yr old shooting his first "big gun", or who knows? Not me. But I can wonder.
5. Because like other old stuff, it tends to hold its value much better and longer. It may even accrue value, but I do not recommend that you buy a gun as a retirement investment, vs a retirement treat.
6. Because it is so much more fun to hunt to gun shops in small towns you have never been to, or peruse internet pages when you should be grading an exam, or skimming an estate auction or leafing through an uppish-scale auction house catalog, than looking at the modern websites and new-only racks at the "big box" stores like "Sportster's Wearhouse" (sic). You can never discover treasure in a place where everything comes in shrink wrap, and who doesn't want at least the chance of discovering treasure.
7. Because - I don't know - because it's fun to learn about what was (and still is, if you look).
8. Because, it's a chance to walk off the recently beaten path and trace the faint, but still visible path that someone beat down long ago.
9. Because, it sometimes is fun to drive people nuts on the internet, or to prod their curiosities at the rifle range.
9. Because, ,,, I reserve the right to expand up on this list without warning as other subliminal rationales become liminal to me.