I've been thinking about the fine line between practical usage and having a vast collection of historical firearms. It's easy to spend thousands on milsurp that may be neat to own, but in the case of some calibers or finicky designs, not easy to use. On the other hand having 20 AR's in varying configurations isn't exciting either.
The reason I was thinking about this is I have a few grand into milsurp that I've come to realize is difficult for me to use effectively. My eyesight is poor and I can't focus on anything past 75 yards. At 100 yards I am just pointing the rifle in the general direction of the target and squeezing the trigger. Despite this I only own one modern scoped rifle. I suppose I am not questioning my collecting decisions. To make matters worse I live in MD and have a limited number of options.
Guns you regret buying general
Bumping with a few murica pictures
I agree completely. 5-10 useable, modern, fully outfitted guns max. Currently selling all of my redundant guns. They simply aren't effective in the real world and are just money pits. It's also really nice to not feel pressured to buy every old/unique design out there. Much more fun to try 1 or two new releases each year and keep them in and out of rotation depending on how they perform when fully decked out.
>>29711836
I've struggled with this myself, and my solution was to go for a mix of practical and fun/historical guns. Sometimes they end up being the same gun. Like a .357 Winchester 1892- interesting historical design, but modern build and in a common caliber. Useful for target shooting and even hunting with the right loads.
But as for your particular issue, there's a few possible solutions. For example. you can mount (non-destructively) a scouting scope on a K98K or similar rifle. That helps with making it more practical for you, but still keeps it an interesting historical design.
If you look about, you can find K98Ks that were re-chambered postwar to 7.62 NATO and .30-06.
>>29711836
Had a Hakim, sold it since the gas valve was full open and I couldn't find a key for it. Got an m48 and threw a scout scope on it and enjoy the hell out of it
>>29712294
I wish that I had taken this mentality earlier. For a while I was trying to collect every variant of mosin and SKS. Probably spent 3 grand just on these two alone. I am finally losing the urge to buy this shit because I can just barely shoot a pie plate at 100 yards and I want to do better than that. Started looking into capable modern guns which before I thought were boring because I want to hit something.
>>29712375
Thanks for the scout scope suggestion. I have a m44 and m39 that are more accurate than I am so a non destructive scope mount would make me feel a lot better.
Currently have 4 mosins and 4 SKS and the shit of it is that I can barely hit anything with them. My hakim is very finicky and expensive to feed. My only decent rifles are my x54r VEPR, pre Clinton a2 AR (once again not great for optics), and one of my Russian SKS which shoots dead on. The others all have canted sights.
I feel like an idiot. 12 rifles and only 3 of them are worth a damn. Hopefully I can get most of my money back
>>29712581
Well, the good news is that SKS have gone way up in price in the States, so you should at least make your money back on them (but I'd keep the Russian and look for a scout scope for it). Mosins have gone up in price too, so you'd probably sell pretty quickly if you price them at what you paid.
>>29711836
I live in frederick, you can give the guns to me if you don't want them
I gave up on the practicality thing a long time ago
It made my head hurt to think about forcing myself to not want what I wanted
At this point I'd be happy to own 1 of every gun to have ever existed
Buy what you want. I have one AR in a mildly tacticool setup; free float rail with a muzzle brake and micro dot. Super effective but I rarely shoot it. I have AKs of various flavors that I collect, an M16A2 clone with an A1 clone in the works, Enfield's, whatever. I get an itch so I scratch it. I only built my AR because I realized I had no practical guns. I have one practical gun, so the rest are fun guns.
I suppose whenever I get a dedicated carry gun that will also be a practical gun. For now I carry my 1911
Also, nice pic of me :^)
Don't over think things OP
If you like it just buy it. You don't need to justify everything you buy.
>>29711836
I dont regret buying any of my guns. I regret not buying a few, and I sometimes regret paying so much for some of them, but I don't regret buying any of my guns.
>>29712375
I agree with this anon, I'm mainly a C&R and Milsurp collector (you think 8mm mauser is hard to find, try 8mm lebel or 7.7 jap). But I've also into tactical stuff (fellow MD bro here so yeah not many options on that front). Only thing I'm not into is Fudd hunting rifles.
I think alot of people fall into the milsurp "meme" when it's actually not for them. You have to be certain type whose more into the history and collecting for collecting's sake than shooting to buy these types of guns because you probably won't get to shoot them that often.
