Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Guns you had and wish you would have kept

Had a .270 ULA I picked up from my Campfire friend rdobrow. Crazy accurate, just the perfect rifle (in my memory). I swear I sold it back to him in a weak moment several years ago, but my buddy “doesn’t remember buying it back”. Yes, I’ve checked! 😉😂

I’ve consolidated to 2 big game rifles now, but if I ever had a chance at that one rifle, I’d be all in. (Likely for a bit more than I sold it for!)

But...you can't take it with you. At my age I am thinning the herd. Some haven't been out of the safe for 20 years and I don't want to make my wife deal with them.

I have a Letterkenny SECNAV M1 (in .308W/7.62x51) that I plan to kill communists with... iffi I gets the chance...

I doubt I will ever sell...

Cold dead fingers... kinda thing.

Jeebus, so many mentioned here that could be replaced in about 5 days.

New cost, but what the hell? The HK 91 I sold in about '87 for 1200 bucks equates to about $3350 now. If I had that one back,,, I'd likely sell it all over again.

A few that I didn't buy when I had the chance & actually the cash, bother me way more. And not just because they became highly sought after or some such.

Dpd: My "wish I had'em back list" is so long it would take up a whole page hereon!
But right near the top of my list are a pair of Winchester pre-64 Model 70 Super Grade "Africans" in caliber 458 Winchester Magnum that I foolishly sold.
I bought into and sold, for a pittance of profit, both of these Rifles before it became published just how few and how rare (just 1,226 ever made!) these Super Grade Africans were/are.
Lord give me strength.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Those 788s are all shooters. I have a strong belief that they were discontinued because they were actually better guns than the 700. Having a cheaper rifle actually better than you premier is not good for business.😟
I’ve had that .308 since I was 14. I loved it to begin with, but now it’s considered to be The Old Man’s gun, and it’s priceless! 😎 I always keep my eyes peeled for them, and I have added a .22-250 and a .243 to my battery, purely because they’re 788s!😎 I’m sorta cheap, and pretty picky! Another model rifle probably wouldn’t have gotten a ride home!
Like I said, I get attached to my guns. I have entirely too many. But if they’re shooters, having too many is never enough for a gun nut!

Only a few, like the mint S&W mod. 41 .22 pistol back in the '70's, or two beautiful, all original Mod. 96 Swedish Mausers that I really dig that got sold back in 2018 and 2020. Or the really nice Lee-Enfield #1 Mk III that I always felt a connection to, as my paternal grandfather spent 17 months in France circa 1917-1918 with the Canadian Army. I'm downsizing in retirement and sometimes regret selling off some of what I began calling "safe queens" because I rarely shot them. Back around 2007 I sold one of the nicest, most pristine Mod. 95 Chilean Mausers I had ever seen. That one I only put less than 20 rounds through when I got it in the mid 1990's, then declared it too nice to shoot. It was so nice to just admire it once in a while, but I used the proceeds from it to help pay for my Ruger Redhawk that's still here.

When I was in FT Hood, TX in the early 90s, I bought a NIB Ruger M77RS carbine in 358 WIN for $450. I used it for maybe a year or two and sold it.

William Evans double rifle made in 1898 for a minor member of the British royal family. It was chambered in 450/400 3 1/4 Nitro Express. It has a lot of rose pattern engraving.


This is the only photo I still have of it and was one of the photos I used when I advertised it for sale. I really regret selling that rifle and it would take at least $35K to replace in in todays market.

I'm not really into selling guns. Most I have sold or traded in weren't much in the way of a firearm to begin with and I don't miss them. The good ones I've had and no longer own I gave to my sons.

One that I sold that I'd really like to have back is a Winchester 1892 SRC in 44/40. It wasn't much to look at. It looked like the one rifle Hollywood used when they wanted to throw a rifle on the ground. It had no finish anywhere, on the metal or the wood. The bore was perfect though. Still don't know why I sold it.

I had a 92 in 38-40 that looked that way. The bore looked that way too so that's why it went down the road

High Standard HD Military. In a fit of stupidity I traded it. I managed to make amends sorta by getting a model H (hammerless) heavy barrel in really good condition. I sold and traded a lot of guns I regret.

This will make you sick ..................

35 Winchester model 12's, mostly rib target guns, Trap & Skeet, Duck guns, Super fields and collector quality and some field guns for bird/duck hunting.

13 American classic double guns, mostly Parker's, Fox, L C Smith's and Winchester 21.

Its was grand to collect them and shoot some, miss a few but collectable market is not what it was.

That makes me dizzy.

I've owned and sold so many guns I can't even remember them all.

I enjoyed them all, but have kept the cream. The family guns and the guns that have given me the best memories I still own.

I had a 243 compact M-77 Ruger that my son killed his first few deer with. When he got older I gave him a 308 and sold that Ruger to buy my daughter her first rifle to hunt with. I'd have given her the Ruger to hunt with, but she was left eye dominant and needed the bolt and safety on the other side.

Other than that, can't think of any others that I truly miss or regret selling. I'm satisfied with the guns that I own now and it has taken me 40+ years to get to this point. Most of the guns I have sold along way financed new purchases and I wouldn't own the same guns I have now without the proceeds of ones I have flipped for the past 40 years. So that rational eases my mind. It's been a process.

HK 91 and the Rem 700 classic in 6mm I kilt my first buck with.

Nothing for me. Not a single one.

I just sold my Marlin Guide gun in .450 Marlin today, with Leupold Ultralight 2.5X20. Shot a world class Shiras bull with it 14 years ago and it has sat in the safe ever since.

No regrets.

Yep. Same for me.

My Dad always talks about his 16 ga that he wishes he would have never sold to his brother. Of course, he starts telling me that when I'm hitting prime age to start carrying a shotgun around. I begged him to buy it back but his brother had sold it.

Man, I wanted that gun so bad back then.

Well, obviously you are not unnaturally attached to inanimate objects.


Weirdo.

I had a small bolt action collection, kept a Mannlicher 52 and mauser 66.

sold all these,

Omega
Voere (not mauser)
BAS Majestic
Blaser
Coon Tex magnum

Mausers

Peru -
Venezuela
Lowe spanish with the star marks
Mex intermediate FN