Some modern guns have at least some soul. My 48 year old Krieghoff has been my companion on a daily basis for at least 30 years. My S&W K-22 has ridden in my cars and trucks every day for at least 40 years and saved my life once. It has a bit of soul.

Soul is not entirely in the mind of the beholder. It comes from different places.

A brand new Parker in 1911 might have lacked 'experience', and might have lacked an owner as it sat on a gun store shelf. But it still had plenty of soul. The character it would gain over the coming years of use would round out its soul - but the care and thought that went into its making ensured it had soul from day one.

Similarly, I don't believe any amount of beholding will ever imbue a Winchester 24 with soul.

Phil, You are right about the guitar with wear marks I call character, also a well worn case with faded and worn patches of concerts from long ago, you look at that case and pause and wonder, some good times for sure! gary

"If" that were 100% true and etched in stone so to speak , you guys wouldn't try to find BH and above grade guns in almost never used condition and rather look for Trogans or such that have almost had the life shot out of them . Provenance while nice to have for resale or bragging is nothing more then a verification that someone who was deemed important owned the object at some point , it adds nothing to the use ability of the gun or object . Provenance adds nothing to me liking or disliking an object .

to me it has nothing to do with grade or that stuff.

there are just some Parkers that I pick up and there is no connection/ no feel to the gun.
Others I pick up and I can instantly feel a connection to the gun. Like its got something special to it. You can feel the extra quality come out. Like shes got no misses in her and She is telling you she knows what to do.
Hard for me to put into words.

to me those are the guns that have soul.
each of us will be different. thank goodness or else we would all be fighting over the same guns. :)

for me soul can be found in any gun and any make. some have it, some don't.

. Not , that gun picks up no soul sitting in a dealer rack still brand new and unused no more then a new K-80 would in Ottsville PA or a Purdey sitting in the rack at Audley Street .

I disagree with Craig. Many guns have soul on the maker's rack. Think about a long barrel 28 gauge Boss, an eight gauge Watson, a well appointed Galazan Fox, all of which can have plenty of soul before they fire a shot. Dr. Truitt's statement means a lot to me. Some Parkers seem to have been ordered by people who knew which end the shot comes out. Others seem to be built for the hardware store rack.

To each his own Craig. I agree with John T. in that some guns you pick up just speak to you in their own way. I think the phrase most often used is "I can shoot this gun". I for one don't look for pristine high grade guns as I'm not a collector but a shooter. If they were owned by a famous person/shooter even better.
Let's say for arguments sake , a Rem 700 comes in to the shop you work at and you buy it because it was what you were looking for in either caliber or some other criteria used for buying rifles. After owning the rifle and taking some game with it or just punching holes in paper you find out it was one of the rifles shot by Carlos Hathcock in his career as a sniper. Even better he had X number of confirmed kills with it.
Are you telling me that rifle would'nt mean a little more to you than an off the shelf M700?
With all due respect, if it does'nt, then you don't truly understand the "soul" concept.

I think there is a big difference between looking for a mint condition collector's item and that gun that has developed "soul" over a life time of adventures together.

Could that lifetime of adventures together be displaying that mint condition collector's item at collector gun shows and vintage events?

Sorry to bust your bubble John, but my K32 has soul, at least IMO.