I've sold or traded a number of guns over the years, and with few exceptions I wish I had held onto them.

I thought it might be interesting--and maybe somewhat depressing--if we listed some of the firearms we parted with and now regret doing so.

I'll start:

Ansley Fox 12 ga SxS

German Weatherby Mark V in 300 Weatherby Mag

Browning Safari Grade BAR 338 Win Mag

S&W Model 29 44 Mag 6" (2 of them) mid-1970's vintage

Colt Python 357 mag

A 10 ga Damascus barrel external hammer SxS shotgun

An antique Remington .44 O/U derringer

Browning 9mm Hi-Power with laser-carved Grim Reaper grips

Anyone else?

Browning blr in 243. Traded it for a glock 17 24 years back.

First and last gun I sold. Now I just buy.

Mike

1,000yard benchrest rifle. Stole Polar action slimmed down to fit in a br stock (the action was huge and intended to be a glue-in for rail guns). It was chambered in 6.5 Gibbs, an "improved" and necked-down .270 Winchester case. I once put 10 shots into a 6.855" group at 1,022 yards. I sold it because there's no organized 1000 yard benchrest in Texas. I wish I could get it back.

A German walther PPK and a colt woodsmen sport target model.

My 1927 Colt Woodsman still in the box,my 1st 1903 M/S,all those 08 Lugers I bought for $300.00 ea still in the cosmoline when Reagan was in office.Likewise all the 98 Mausers in the same condition for $150.00 ea. That's just the tip of the iceberg.

My original 44 Mag, she was a 6 1/2" original flat top Blackhawk.

If you ever see 13076, let her know I still remember the times and places we went and that I miss her.

Every gun I ever sold except for a RG 22lr revolver. Damn thing went off & shot me through the leg & I wasn't even touching it.
That's the day I learned about keeping an empty spot in front of the hammer. That was one of those lessons you just don't forget!

I sold a Colt Commander, 70 series, matte chrome with Wilson sights, excellent trigger and very accurate, to a fellow member of my gun club. I don't even remember why.

He brings it to the club once in awhile to remind me of my moment of weakness.

.......... or given away.

In about 1961 my dad let me buy a gun to go jackrabbit hunting with him. We went to a pawn shop and after handling many used .22s, I settled on a Remington Model 550. I believe I paid somewhere between $20 and $25 for it. The 550 was a semi-auto .22 that could fire mixed handfuls of .22 shorts, longs, or long rifles down a tubular magazine.

Over the next ten years I decimated the jackrabbit population outside of Las Cruces, New Mexico (or so I thought). Just drive west out of town through Old Mesilla, cross the bridge over the Rio Grande, and when you topped-out you were in jackrabbit heaven late in the afternoon.

I can't imagine how many jackrabbits I killed, but it must have been in the thousands. Over time I re-blued the barrel, re-did the stock, to the best of a 14-year-olds ability. I cut the side out of an anti-freeze bottle, shaped it and placed it under the butt-plate on the stock, to add a really cool looking white spacer to the stock.

That gun was a marvel.

I stopped hunting wit my dad in 1968 when he died.

My younger brother always coveted that rifle. So when I got out of college in 1970, and was about to move to Texas for my first job, I gave it a lot of thought. Texas wasn't as hunter friendly a State. Not much public land. I would be too busy to shoot much, so I surprised my little brother and gifted him my treasure; the Remington Model 550 .22.

That was in April. In December my new wife and I returned to Las Cruces for Christmas with family. I thought how cool it would be to drive out on the mesa a few times and introduce the jackrabbits to "my" 550, for old times sake.

I brought the subject up with my brother and he told me months ago he had listed it in the paper and sold it to some stranger for $30.

Early 10-22 that I put plastic all over. Clark .45 that shot like a dream. Same with an early Taurus 92.


The stolen guns are another matter.

600 Remington in 308 my first deer rifle.

Still got my Remington 600 in .308 Win. Like you, it was my first deer rifle. Cost me $100, new. I feel your pain. I love that gun. I hunted a ton of game with it in the 60s and 70s, then put it up. I bought newer, bigger, better shooting guns, but I never bought a deer rifle that was better for carrying up and down New Mexico mountains all day long.

After a twenty year gap, I got interested in maybe getting it back out of the closet and taking it on a New Mexico elk hunt near Ft. Union. I sited it in with 168 gr. bullets. The pattern wasn't very tight, but acceptable. On the third day of a five day hunt, late in the evening, two cows fed out of the trees towards us with a 6 X 6 behind them. When they got to about 100 yards, and the bull provided a clear broadside shot, I hit him behind the shoulder. He dropped, came back up on his front legs and I hit him again through the shoulders and that was that. That bull is on my office wall, and my Remington Model 600 hangs beneath him. I got a real kick out of dusting that gun off and taking it on one last hunt. I wouldn't sell it for the world.