Do rifles have souls?

[Ray B]

Only the ones that have seen combat.

Just curious, how do you define Combat?

Interpersonal conflict resolution?
Interspecies conflict resolution?
Implementation of designed purpose?
Other?

 

[Hogpatrol]

Ray, Revolutionary War, Civil War, WW1, WW2, Pennsylvania flintlocks to M16s, etc.

 

[Ray B]

In that case there are variations of souls. Wood and steel has much more soul potential than fiberglass and aluminum.

 

[Lakebranch338]

Some do posess something, that of course isnt like a human soul, but a mechanical soul.. sometimes its there right from factory other times its earned.

I like to imagine the rifle looking at the world curiously with its one eye.

Others are just plain stupid.

 

[MS 9x56]

Just curious, how do you define Combat?

Interpersonal conflict resolution?
Interspecies conflict resolution?
Implementation of designed purpose?
Other?

For anyone who has ever been in combat there is only one description "hell on earth"

 

[Bonk]

Souls? No. Character? Absolutely. Every little nick, scratch and blemish has a story. As someone else already said, I do not part ways with a rifle/shotgun I've taken game with. I did that once years ago and I regret it. It was a Rem 700 I didn't trust anymore but I could have just retired it to the back of the safe if only out of respect. I didn't really need to sell it. Lesson learned and I hope that old rifle found an owner that will take it hunting every now and then. It deserves it.

 

[Ray B]

there is only one description "hell on earth"

According to Hank Williams Jr, it's a lot like where you reside

 

[Rob404]

I was at a garage sale many years ago when I was a Rookie fresh out of cooking school, I passed by an old beat up Army Green knife bag with two nice but old Chefs knives and I swear one said Please buy me. 25 years later I still use them. As for Rifles maybe my 1952 Winchester

 

[Eventually_Africa_Again]

I don't know about a "soul" in the conventional/religious sense but there is definitely something there. I recently purchased a 9.3x62 from a gentleman here. Now if you have read my posts you know I hate "doubling up" on rifles, if I have something that does "X" task well then I don't need another one to do the same thing. I have a 375 H&H and so wasn't really thinking of anything in that category but the 9.3x62 came up and it was almost like it whispered through the wires "buy me" so I did. The second it touched my hands I felt a connection to that rifle, I don't have any other way to describe it. I just feel like I "get" that rifle and it "wants" to be in my hands. It's excellent and I would trade almost any other rifle in my collection before I would let this one go. Does that make any real sense? Well no, it doesn't. Practically it's a hunk of metal in another hunk of wood, and dead wood at that. But somehow, someway that rifle speaks to me every time I pick it up, it's almost like shaking hands with an old friend.

 

[MS 9x56]

I don't know about a "soul" in the conventional/religious sense but there is definitely something there. I recently purchased a 9.3x62 from a gentleman here. Now if you have read my posts you know I hate "doubling up" on rifles, if I have something that does "X" task well then I don't need another one to do the same thing. I have a 375 H&H and so wasn't really thinking of anything in that category but the 9.3x62 came up and it was almost like it whispered through the wires "buy me" so I did. The second it touched my hands I felt a connection to that rifle, I don't have any other way to describe it. I just feel like I "get" that rifle and it "wants" to be in my hands. It's excellent and I would trade almost any other rifle in my collection before I would let this one go. Does that make any real sense? Well no, it doesn't. Practically it's a hunk of metal in another hunk of wood, and dead wood at that. But somehow, someway that rifle speaks to me every time I pick it up, it's almost like shaking hands with an old friend.

I feel you. I had that exact feeling when I picked up my Mannlicher Schoenauer 1905. That gun speaks to me every time I pick it up. It didn't matter the cost I had to have it. Like the old saying goes, they can have it when they pry it from my cold dead hands. I have a medium bore addiction. It has led me to several rifles with "soul". I have a BLR in 358 winchester that I love but it has no soul. I have a new 9.3x62 that is developing a soul one experience at a time. I feel it is a classic that was just waiting for the right person to take it on adventures.

 

[Eventually_Africa_Again]

I feel you. I had that exact feeling when I picked up my Mannlicher Schoenauer 1905. That gun speaks to me every time I pick it up. It didn't matter the cost I had to have it. Like the old saying goes, they can have it when they pry it from my cold dead hands. I have a medium bore addiction. It has led me to several rifles with "soul". I have a BLR in 358 winchester that I love but it has no soul. I have a new 9.3x62 that is developing a soul one experience at a time. I feel it is a classic that was just waiting for the right person to take it on adventures.

I'm glad someone understood what I was trying to say! And I'm glad you also have a rifle that you like (the .358) but you don't feel it "speaks" to you. There is nothing wrong with having that, and who knows, maybe years from now it will fall into someone else's hands and "wake up" so to speak. If properly cared for these rifles will outlast all of us after all.

 

[Foxi]

No, guns do not have souls. How do I know this? When I was growing up, my dad owned a Piper Comanche (single engine, light aircraft). When he would file a flight plan, the number of people on the aircraft would be filed as "the number of souls onboard." So when my dad and I flew somewhere, there would be "two souls onboard." If we were transporting a few firearms, it was still "two souls onboard."

I'd like to disagree with you, if I may.
By far not every weapon has a soul and not every human has charisma.
But guns with souls and charisma do exist without a doubt and I own one.
It is a 100 years old Sauer and Sohn driling in the old German infantry caliber 8x57 IR
He accompanied me to black bear- and boar hunts when I was a young guy.
I got it from my hunting teacher, we call that Lehrprinz.
It was the gun of his late father and I exchanged the calibre for the more modern 8x57 IRS because the gun had deep rust scars and than a Kahles scope in 3-9x42 (before Zeiss Ziel-vier 4x32 I think).
I always use it when hunting in the woods and dense stuff.
The grips are worn down like the gun of an aging Texas gunslinger from gone days.
Good old soul.
I can feel it, whenever i hold this gun in my hands.
If I could only own one gun, it would be this one.

 

[MS 9x56]

I'd like to disagree with you, if I may.
By far not every weapon has a soul and not every human has charisma.
But guns with souls and charisma do exist without a doubt and I own one.
It is a 100 years old Sauer and Sohn driling in the old German infantry caliber 8x57 IR
He accompanied me to black bear- and boar hunts when I was a young guy.
I got it from my hunting teacher, we call that Lehrprinz.
It was the gun of his late father and I exchanged the calibre for the more modern 8x57 IRS because the gun had deep rust scars and than a Kahles scope in 3-9x42 (before Zeiss Ziel-vier 4x32 I think).
I always use it when hunting in the woods and dense stuff.
The grips are worn down like the gun of an aging Texas gunslinger from gone days.
Good old soul.
I can feel it, whenever i hold this gun in my hands.
If I could only own one gun, it would be this one.

View attachment 345561

And some people say that guns cannot speak. Truth be told some people just cannot hear when they are being spoken to. I believe being a hunter opens our consciousness to communication that cannot be heard or seen but only felt. Anyone who has hunted long enough knows what I mean.

 

[MS 9x56]

No more a storage for memories. When you look at a gun you've had you think fondly of what you've done with it.

I spend a lot of time wondering what adventures it had before I owned it as we are truly only care takers until their next owner comes along.

 

[chashardy]

Do rifles have souls? A very philosophical question. The easy answer is, of course, no. Rifles are inanimate, mechanical objects.
But the question brings up an even more fundamental question of whether any of us humans really has a soul, or is that something we created?
I think, perhaps, it's better to ask whether a particular rifle, after being painstakingly made by a brilliant craftsman in London, or Italy or America, and finished to a fine gunsmith's art, and handed to its first purchaser who takes it to Africa or Australia or Alaska for the hunt of a lifetime, or many such hunts, and it gets a few nicks and scratches but still brings down the cape buffalo or moose or grizzly that the owner will never forget, and then it gets passed down to the owner's son and grandson, who heard the stories of those hunts, and the rifle becomes trusted by each of them to make their hunts memorable---does that rifle, with its nicked, scratched walnut stock and blued barrel, its gun powder and gun oil smell, have some essence of every human who handled it? Absolutely.

 

[Pondoro]

Not sure about souls...but I wish that at least 3 of mine could talk to me...especially my vintage .475NE that I strongly suspect came out of Africa (accompanied by an ancient box of cupronickeled solids) and my 1906 vintage Mannlicer Sch. that I positively know was in Africa early in the last century..

I shot ele with my old .475 last year and that same evening while cleaning it my thoughts focused on what it had done in the past and by whom.. At least I know that he cherised you...barrels being spotless and all..

 

[MS 9x56]

Not sure about souls...but I wish that at least 3 of mine could talk to me...especially my vintage .475NE that I strongly suspect came out of Africa (accompanied by an ancient box of cupronickeled solids) and my 1906 vintage Mannlicer Sch. that I positively know was in Africa early in the last century..

I shot ele with my old .475 last year and that same evening while cleaning it my thoughts focused on what it had done in the past and by whom.. At least I know that he cherised you...barrels being spotless and all..

You see it does talk to you

 

[Terry Blauwkamp]

Rifles may not have "souls", but they do have attitudes and personalities. I also really think most of them are Female as they tend to change their minds at the most inopportune time.

 

[CBH Australia]

And once we discover the ghosts of our guns, we stop being their owners, then we become only their curators only to keep them for next generation.

I had a mate who did not have kids of his own but made it known he would leave things to his Niece/ nephew,. He had a property and was as shooter, we had a lot of fun there. He lived rough but you could see he was smart.

He had a few rifles from his family members, used to say he was Just the custodian of those rifles.

He also used to say “We leave this world the same way we come into it, bald fat and with a mild Boob fixation” if you said Happy Birthday he would say I’m not having anymore Birthdays as he did the last time we spoke. He was shot hanged of many birthdays being just 44 whenever he fell ill and never recovered but he left a legacy for the niece and nephew and he was thinning on top so I reckon he left this world , Bald, Fat and with a mild Boob fetish.

 

[Juan Loco]

Probably not the way the preacher looks at it, but...
I build rifles for myself and friends. During every build I will get a scratch, busted knuckle, something that causes blood to be spilled. A drop or two on a rifle gives it a part of me. So...ya, they gave a something that non- shooters will never understand.