What Imbues a Gun With "Soul"?

[Kensal Rise]

Gentlemen:
The thread on the recent Fall Southern raised an intriguing question about certain guns having "soul."

So... rather than divert that thread onto a side road, I thought I'd post a new topic focused on a gun's soul.

As we can all agree, many Parkers have it. But a K-80 apparently does not. Neither would some plastic stocked Bennelli semi auto or Turkish box lock. Maybe even a thoroughly flogged and varnish slathered Trojan or Fox Sterlingworth would lack soul.

So... if we limit the issue to double guns for the sake of brevity, the question is:

Exactly what IS "soul" as applied to a Parker or other double gun?

And... which guns have it? And what guns don't?

[Big D]

Well, this will get me lit up, but here goes.

Reproductions don't have soul. IMHO, Almost nothing Japanese has soul.

[Pay Dirt]

I believe the first link in the "Soul Chain"
is the environment in which the gun is forged.
Organizational culture imbues soul.

[Fishtail]

It's a quality that is all but impossible to define in quantitative terms.

It's like asking what makes one woman attractive and another not.

It's like trying to explain why someone would restore an old tractor with a flathead four cylinder engine when he could buy a 4 year old Mahindra diesel for less money.

And it's possible a plastic stocked gun could have soul....let's suppose you carried it for 10 years in Alaska then through an Arctic nightmare that you barely lived through where it was your only means of survival. Plastic or not, by the time that was over it would have soul.

[Phil Yearout]

Originally Posted by John Campbell

Maybe even a thoroughly flogged and varnish slathered Trojan or Fox Sterlingworth would lack soul.

I don't know; in the world of vintage guitars the ones with the wine stains, wear holes in the top, and that look like they have been dragged behind a pickup truck for several miles are often referred to as having soul, so ...

[Dean Romig]

And yes, even an abused Trojan or Sterlingworth can have soul. It depends on how well it served its master and how that master reciprocated. But that's just a small fraction of what imbues soul to something inanimate.





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[Double Lab]

To me "soul" is defined by a gun that has been through decades of use, has been crafted by hands that had attention to detail and by methods deemed crude by our modern manufacturing techniques. Provenance also adds something special to that "soul" in my opinion, whether the previous owner was a farmer from Kansas or a professional shooter back in the day when shooting was a spectator sport. The little dings and scratches add to that. Patina, if you will.

[Autumn Daze]

Thanks Daryl. My thoughts exactly.....

[charlie cleveland]

to me any gun could have soul just like a beautiful or plain jane person has a soul...i m sure no one will admit it but that first gun for most of us was a stevens or westernfield or mongeromy wards or...i have several guns that are not parkers and everone of them has soul...its in the eye of the beholder...remember that first bb gun did it have soul....charlie...

[Researcher]

It is all in the mind of the shooter. I'm sure when I watched Col. Davies take six Ptarmigan in six shots on a covey rise, this Model 12 had plenty of "soul" --