Those with high value firearms, do you bring them to Africa to hunt with?

[uplander01]

I wouldn’t own rifles that I didn’t intend to use. My intention is to use every single one I buy, regardless the cost. I want a personal story attached to each one, and I document it.

 

[Red Leg]

I am +1 with everyone who believes firearms should be used - particularly those designed for hunting. If I am looking for an investment, I buy stocks or a house. If I were a collector, I would buy coins which are literally slabbed in plastic to prevent even a hint of wear - how Colt, Winchester, and Parker collectors would seem to like to treat there collections.

I admit that I do not have a bespoke English gun, but I do have several from excellent American custom gunmakers, and a number of valuable British and Continental SxS shotguns with which I travel by air very often hunting quail, pheasant, or competing with pigeons.. My William Evans Paradox has accompanied me to Namibia. Of course my primary travel rifle is an R8. It is far less than a bespoke double, but still a meaningful investment.

 

[Tex .416]

Any horse too fancy to ride is too fancy to own.

 

[bashaw]

why own it if you're not going to use it to hunt

 

[Russ16]

I use all my guns in one way or another. There are a few shotguns that only see the clays course and a spared from rainy days and thorny places. That’s partly to save them and partly because when I start packing for an upland trip I just naturally grab my go to gun.

 

[318AE]

I’ve traveled to Africa with each of the four brands you mentioned, none of which were built bespoke for me - I purchased them all in the second hand market, at a substantial discount to what it would take to commission new (especially for WR and H&H; Rigby has more approachable entry points, and Jeffery is simply newer back to the scene).

The majority of the price of a bespoke gun is the custom fitting, built to your exact preferences, and the experience of having that gun made just for you. Upon delivery, whether you have scratched it or not, its resale value is substantially less.

As a financial endeavor, buying a bespoke gun with the intent to resale (whether showing signs of use or not) is abysmal. Buy it second hand, and you can likely get your money back out should you choose. I like guns with some character or patina -mine all travel, and its never been an issue.

 

[WAB]

Yes, I see no point in owning a firearm I won’t use.

I have to add to my comment. This penchant for not refinishing vintage guns is a uniquely American affliction. In the UK and on the continent, it is routine to send your fine firearm back to the maker for routine maintenance. This would include cleaning, checking pins and springs, lubrication, and when needed refinishing wood and re-blacking barrels. To me this just makes sense. I cannot understand the collectors mindset.

I am evaluating the purchase of a single family H&H Royal in 2 1/2” 12 ga. through a gunmaker friend in England. This gun has certainly been refinished more than once. If I buy it, it will be used extensively and will hopefully need to go back for a tune up again. This is what they are made for!

 

[roverandbrew]

I have to add to my comment. This penchant for not refinishing vintage guns is a uniquely American affliction. In the UK and on the continent, it is routine to send your fine firearm back to the maker for routine maintenance. This would include cleaning, checking pins and springs, lubrication, and when needed refinishing wood and re-blacking barrels. To me this just makes sense. I cannot understand the collectors mindset.

I am evaluating the purchase of a single family H&H Royal in 2 1/2” 12 ga. through a gunmaker friend in England. This gun has certainly been refinished more than once. If I buy it, it will be used extensively and will hopefully need to go back for a tune up again. This is what they are made for!

I agree with you 100%

 

[baxterb]

I have to add to my comment. This penchant for not refinishing vintage guns is a uniquely American affliction. In the UK and on the continent, it is routine to send your fine firearm back to the maker for routine maintenance. This would include cleaning, checking pins and springs, lubrication, and when needed refinishing wood and re-blacking barrels. To me this just makes sense. I cannot understand the collectors mindset.

I am evaluating the purchase of a single family H&H Royal in 2 1/2” 12 ga. through a gunmaker friend in England. This gun has certainly been refinished more than once. If I buy it, it will be used extensively and will hopefully need to go back for a tune up again. This is what they are made for!

I'm happy to be corrected, but isn't this part of the reason that wood is always left slightly proud relative to metal so it can tolerate refinishing when needed and not eventually undercut (for lack of a better phrase) the metal?

 

[CZDiesel]

I don’t have anything in that price range but my Winchesters are $15+ and I’ll be taking three of them if that counts? No point in having one if you don’t have stories to accompany them…

 

[318AE]

I have to add to my comment. This penchant for not refinishing vintage guns is a uniquely American affliction. In the UK and on the continent, it is routine to send your fine firearm back to the maker for routine maintenance. This would include cleaning, checking pins and springs, lubrication, and when needed refinishing wood and re-blacking barrels. To me this just makes sense. I cannot understand the collectors mindset.

I am evaluating the purchase of a single family H&H Royal in 2 1/2” 12 ga. through a gunmaker friend in England. This gun has certainly been refinished more than once. If I buy it, it will be used extensively and will hopefully need to go back for a tune up again. This is what they are made for!

This is a really good point. Model 70 collectors scorn any touch up to the blueing, stock finish or even replacing an eighty year old recoil pad with one of the same type. British guns are mostly valued at their maintained level, not their originality.

 

[Woodcarver]

I had a lot of people look at me sideways when they saw me using original Colts and Winchesters to shoot SASS matches. To me, using the originals was what made the matches more fun. Carrying the Chapuis DR hunting elk in the mountains was one of the reasons I bought it. While I do have a few collectibles that only get looked at, most were bought with the intent to use. As it says in every post I make, Life's too short to hunt with an ugly gun!

 

[Tally-Ho HUNTING SAFARIS]

Why do we own beautiful rifles….i assume to use them?

 

[K-man]

To put it another way, how many of you own a $60k or $80K pickup? do you leave it in the garage, or drive it? Maybe there are times and places you don't, but it doesn't stay in all the time. same with a fine gun.

 

[VertigoBE]

Isn't there also a saying going something like:
You wouldn't "save" your wife/girlfriend for the next guy, right? Enjoy your fine things while you can.

We will all too soon be sitting on a couch or in bed, with our biggest accomplishment of the day being to reach the toilet in time. While you are sitting there, would you rather be looking at a pristine rifle in its original box, or caress a well-worn and cared for rifle you shared many adventures with?

 

[grand veneur]

Yes I know it’s what these firearms were designed for. But I’m still curious because that first scratch must hurt.

Those who paid $20,000, $50,000, $100,000+ for a quality bespoke firearm, do you hunt with it in Africa? Does it come along with you in the land cruiser and get beat up when in the bushveld.

I’m particularly thinking of the likes of Rigby, Jeffery, Holland and Holland, Westley Richard’s etc.

According to a well-known rifle-maker in Germany, 2/3 of his luxury big bore rifles do never see Africa, at least not in their final finished state. Some are simply plain delivered for hunting and then after put into finished luxury condition. I have no problem with that, in my opinion expensive rifles are built to be used.

The pictured rifle caliber 12,7x70 Schüler cost around 20,000 US dollars 30 years ago. I don't know what it would cost nowadays, but I am sure a lot more. It was some times in Africa and it will do that again.

 

[KJE81]

I would not buy or order a rifle that I would not hunt with. Thats what they are made for after all and the scratches that might me incurred from the hunting would be a kind of memory of the hunting for me.