If you have owned firearms or shot for any length of time one common theme you will ALWAYS hear and chances are you may have said it yourself is......"I should have never sold that gun."

So I submit you should always have a cooling off period before your sell one of your guns. Now this is not say its never worth selling something you don't like but just be aware you always run the risk of "I should have never!"

Case in point.

I have the Marlin 39A pictured below. I have had it for a very long time. Its a JM stamped pre Remlin gun. Out of the box it had the new style extractor and that extractor didn't work right. It also had a plastic rear sight IIRC. The point is while very pretty we didn't get off on the right foot.

I did change out the extractor with the old style one and I put a set of steel buckhorns on the rear. I was going to get testing the sights and stuff but......real life goes by FAST. So anyway Over the years I figured out I didn't particularly like the rear Buckhorn and I didn't really like the rifle with the couple scopes I tried on it so It sort of just sat for a decade or so.

Over that period I thought about selling it and listed it like twice especially when they started bringing real money but I just never could bring myself to actually sell the gun, its just too pretty and I am glad I didn't sell it, especially to fund some tactical tupperware or some such.

I finally had time a little while back to revisit this gun and between not liking it scoped, not liking the buckhorns and go figure vision doesn't get better with age I decided to give her one more go.

I bought a Skinner rear peep sight and BAM!! it all came together. The gun was running great ever since the extractor fix, it was light and handy without the scopes and now it had a set of sights I just gel with and love. They also fit the "personality" of the rifle.

So what started out as a rocky relationship has turned into one of my all time favorite .22's, and that story has happened to me more than once.

So the moral of the story is selling one of your guns isn't inherently bad or wrong but just give it some thought so you don't get a case of the "I should have never's" down the road.

Take care, Shoot safe.
Chris

I've regretted every gun I've ever sold. Recently had to sell some to pay the tax man. Sucks. I agree with your cooling off period LOL. Good idea.

Nope. No "cooling off" needed. No regrets whatsoever. Even the rarest of them.

I am kind of on the fence with the thought. As much as I really liked some guns I had in the past, and have said I wish I never sold something, I did so for a good reason at the time. As I get older, my tastes change and with some arthritis/tendonitis, the changes start to become mandatory.

I agree 100%. *If* I still had every firearm I’ve bought I’d need three Liberty Fat Boy safes..there are three or four got aways though. Man I wish I had them back.

I am pretty nostalgic so I do miss some guns I've sold. But really I probably miss the time that I had those guns moreso than the gun itself. The time gets associated with the gun, somehow. Most guns I've sold I would never shoot nowadays, anyways, and they have been superceded by better guns. Or at least ones that I like more. Furthermore, I can't think of any guns I've sold that I couldn't go out and find another one today if I wanted to replace them.

I am blessed to have never sold a gun out of true necessity and typically the money went right into another gun. That definitely salves the wound.

I usually only sell a gun to fund another gun or optic that I want more. So far, no regrets whatsoever.

people get to attached to objects, never had a regret, just go buy something else. if I dont shoot it I sell it.

I regret the Dan Wesson point man that I sold

quote:

Originally posted by cslinger:
If you have owned firearms or shot for any length of time one common theme you will ALWAYS hear and chances are you may have said it yourself is......"I should have never sold that gun." <<snip>>

I have said this more times than I care to remember! These days I don't part with one without VERY serious consideration, and taking a few weeks minimum to mull it over! I just cannot afford to replace them like I used to, and the ones I sold are only getting more and more expensive to replace.

I’ve had a few that I sold to fund something else. For instance I sold an AUG Special Receiver, USR and to put with cash I had to buy my AUG A2 … I had a small collection of Valmets that included a M-82 bull pup, M-78 308 (sniper?) 24” barrel, integrated bipod, clubfoot stock, 76 223 tube folder … problem was the guy sold the M16 before I had all my money together… one that I kicked myself the hardest was my Stoner SR-25 Match, I bought it brand new, in the box, I don’t even remember what I sold it to fund … the only reason I sold it was it had become a safe queen because hitting inside the 10 ring out to 500 yards it required almost no effort as long as I was reading the wind correctly and 500 was the limit of our range and if I wanted to shoot further it was 225 miles.
Anyway I missed the SR-25 enough that 15 or so years later I bought another and it too became a safe queen although my eyesight and muscle memory isn’t what it used to be.

I have solved that problem, I haven't sold a gun in years. Bought plenty

I am not collecting so only have a few regrets over many years but boy those regrets are painful!!

You pick as your example my first "real" gun (I'm not counting BB or pellet) and still one of my all-time favorites. I had a Golden 39A from about 1967 and shot it through my teens and early twenties. Somewhere in my twenties I sold it. I don't even remember when or why, other than needing some cash and not shooting it much anymore. I absolutely regretted it later in life, but got some absolution when my girlfriend at the time surprised me with a new one. JM stamped, but not quite the same as Marlin had added the safety. Still, happy to have it, and won't be selling it. They're beautiful guns and straight shooters.

Definitely some I wish I still had but horse-trading my collection also got me some unbelievable deals. Some I don't miss but some I will. I think cooling off and thinking about it isn't a bad idea at all though.

quote:

Originally posted by 12131:
Nope. No "cooling off" needed. No regrets whatsoever. Even the rarest of them.

I think of myself as the custodian/curator while a firearm is in my possession. I enjoy them mostly and don’t really have regrets by the time I have decided to sell them. By that time, I want someone else to enjoy them and usually my interests have shifted. I’m pretty deliberate when it comes to selling and have my mind completely set by the time they get listed. In the end, I find chasing things is far more enjoyable than the owning of things.

Love the 39A, want to find one to add to my rimfire collection.

Glad you found a great solution to make it stick.