What Won't You Buy??
 

Collecting is most certainly in the eye (or psyche) of the collector. There are some features that just have no appeal to me, no matter how "collectable" the gun might be. For example, I own no single trigger, beavertail or monte carlo stocked guns and don't even consider them when they come up for sale (thankfully, in my wife's opinion).

How about you? What features will cause you to walk away from an otherwise nice offering? Just curious.

A Winchester Model 24.

I like small bore Parkers and Foxes. I like the ones with some nice, original condition, and the longer the barrels the better. And I like unique features like straight stocks, vent ribs, double ivory beads etc. So if its bigger than a 16 gauge I am not interested. If the barrel is shorter than 30" I am not as interested. And if it has been fully restored I am generally not interested. The most difficult thing that I have learned is I can't own them all, therefore I have really narrowed my interests. It is not easy but I am trying. And by being so "narrowly" focused I have learned that very few guns meet all my criteria which is a lot easier on the wallet! At least until one comes along that does work for me.

Garry my dream gun would be a 30" or 32" vent rib, straight stock, beavertail, double trigger 28 gauge or with a monte carlo stock! What a gun that would be!

Reggie, we could go to auctions together and root each other on. I'd promise to leave all the beavertail, vent rib (forgot to add that one earlier), and monte carlo stocked guns for you. Those other features of your dream gun...well, now that's a different story.:whistle:

Agreed!!

Single trigger

The BIG guns like 10's and 8's have no appeal for me and it's got to be a really special 12 for me to even consider.

I like a shotgun I can carry for a long time without the need of a gun-bearer or cart.
My preferences are of sixteen gauge and smaller and on the lighter frame sizes for the gauge.

I like the "one offs" and have a few of those but I'm pretty much unmoved by mediocrity or the very common ones... even though I have a number of those too.

Preferences in gun collecting change over time - I like to say mine have "matured" - and we become more, shall we say, sophisticated (?) in our collecting preferences.

At my age, IF I buy more guns they will be classic American side-by-sides with a very strong leaning to those made by Parker Bros. or a Parker made by Remington. (But that could change, depending on the gun.)





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I like them all, even the "NO-NOs" mentioned here, except the Model 24. Had one of those when I was 13, kept it about two seasons. I have Parkers from .410 to 8, 17" to 36" barrels. I have a background in competitive shooting, so I like vent ribs, long barrels, beavertails, single triggers, Monte Carlos as well as those that don't have such features. I have Del Grego guns, refinishes by others, as well as a custom and a single or few. Maybe its time to start backing out.

I passed on a 16ga Model 24 years ago and have always been sorry. I already have one of those Stevens slab sided .410's, so obviously ugly guns don't scare me off :). But I probably shouldn't be on this thread anyway as I'm not a collector; just an old bird hunter lucky enough to own a few decent hunting guns and a couple for the trap range, and happy with those. BUT...I like 28" barrels, double triggers, extractors, splinters, and guns that look like they have been around a while and have a few stories to tell...kinda like me.

I dont know..... Never say never kind of thing. Right now I am interested in GH grade guns. I like that grade of engraving and I want shooters that look good. If the gun has been refinished well, I'll look hard at it and since Damascus barrels hold a warm place in my heart it harder and harder to find one that has not had its barrels "worked" to one extent or another.

Since I want to shoot all my guns I guess I take a different position then a hard core collector. Heck, (dont shoot the messenger) I like Lefever guns also.

All that having been said I really dont spend a lot of time with "sketchy" guns where the seller has not posted significant info or one that is on the "border" of being/not being a shooter.

JMHO

Twelve gauge guns with shorter than 32" barrels.

Doubleguns without ejectors.

Smallbore guns with less than 30" barrels.

Vintage guns with chokes reamed out.

Jamamatics.

410's, 28ga and 16ga have little appeal to me. Upgrades, fully refurbished and customs have no appeal. Guns below a DH Parker, CE Foxes and EE Lefevers at this point in my collector life have little appeal unless they are uncommon like 20ga Damascus Parkers or graded 20ga Foxes.
I gravitate to waterfowl guns especially big bore Parkers and Super Foxes.
Interesting topic.

Guns I can’t shoot although there are exceptions for very early stuff. Honed barrels that are too thin are a deal killer.

Craig ain't joking, of course you all know that. He looked at my 34" VR double trap gun with a trap comb that would work for a balance beam and casually commented, that's too small for me. Jokingly said of course. Craig shops in the men's department for sure :)

I’m not much of a pump person but I have two Model 12’s . Not really much on semi autos either but I do have an A-5 and a Benelli . I’ve lost my intrest in Browning Superposed’s but still have a couple . Other than the R-32/K-32/K-80/K-20 guns I’ve pretty much lost intrest in O/U’s . As to doubles the euro stuff doesn’t intrest me much anymore and I hesitate to say it but Fox and Smith don’t get the looks I used to give them . And as to more Parker’s I’d like a lifter 8 gauge , one or two more 10’s , 32” 16’s both hammer and hammerless , a 32” 20 hammerless and dare I say it a 30 or 32 inch hammerless 28 . But I’m not holding my breath for any of them . Oh yeah I almost forgot I shot someones VHE 16 gauge skeet over the past weekend , I wouldn’t mind one of those if I ran across one . Took a couple shots with a friends DHE 12 34” shooting sporting today and as you might expect I wouldn’t mind one of those but I doubt I shoot it any better than my DH 12 32” pigeon gun .

Good! Leave them for me. That’s just what I like and if it has a straight stock even better.

Recoil pads, its going to have to be a smoking deal for me to buy a gun with a non factory pad.

I used to feel that way. Then I realized so many super nice guns of the period had pads added so I have taken that spec off my "do not buy".

The features which hold the least appeal to me in no particular order are:

1. Single triggers 2. Recoil pads " Especially on Grade 3 or higher Parkers" 3. Ejectors 4. Barrels longer than 30" 5. Frames sizes larger than 1 1/2 6. Big bulky beavertail forearms 7. Vent ribs on a SxS

With That said: I own or have owned examples of all those pet peeve type guns. I guess it's just part of the my doublegun addiction.

My preference is 16-20 gauge guns with double triggers, extractors, splinter forearm, around 6.5lbs and those just right sized 28" barrels.

Will do, Mike!

Paul, we should not sit next to each other at an auction. The auctioneer would have trouble determining who had the bid.:rotf: (BTW, you have good taste in guns:whistle:)

Well, I really enjoy your posts. Nothing exciting happening here in the smokies today except picking up a set of 20 barrels after having a dent removed. Where is Bruce today, he always kicks in some meaningful info.? You guys are the best!

Where in the Smokies, Alfred? What wonderful country!

We're in Gatlinburg. Was called back into the military after 9/11 and did another 8 years before returning to TN and retirement to sell real estate. Enjoyed a lot of gun shows and picked up a Parker or two there. Always enjoy seeing what everyone is doing on the forum. Just sold a nice cabin for a client who was a B52 pilot back in the day.

Me too Phil. It all started with my Dads VH that needed fixing. Somehow I ended up with a variety of Parker’s that wouldn’t interest any auction house. I used them to learn how to completely disassemble repair and reassemble making safe shooters of all. There are a few quite nice guns and a few beaters and a group that anyone could take into the field and not worry about a scratch or two but take as much game as limits and ability allows. To answer the question there’s no Parker I’d pass on if the price was realistic and my toy budget could accommodate. Cheers Jack

I won't buy any gun I'm afraid to bring into the field or shoot (probably can't afford it anyways). Likewise I won't buy any old cane fly rod I'd be afraid to fish with.

WINCHESTER 24
 

Wish I had read this sooner. I feel depressed. Just shipped to my gunsmith the stock and forearm of a 12 gauge Model 24 on Friday. Someone put an elaborate checkering pattern on the forearm wood. They thinned the original stock, put a silver cap with a mountain scene on the pistol grip bottom, and added a Pachmayr White-Line pad. But they did not checker it. So it's off to add a period correct red Winchester pad and checker the stock to match the forearm wood.

I have two of them, the custom one and an unaltered one. On both of them the chokes are marked modified and full on the barrel flats. Both are actually improved cylinder and full. Great choke combination and I suspect all of them came that way. I've had great luck shooting them at doves. Not pretty but they apparently fit me well and at 7 1/2 pounds there is no recoil. I would buy a 20 gauge Model 24 in a minute.

Winchesters marked "modified" generally measure out to "improved cylinder". Your gun was probably not modified from its original configuration.

j a you and me must be the odd pair I too like the old Winchester 24 and the stevens 311....these are work horses for sure.....charlie

Both made twenty years apart measure exactly the same, I.C. and Full. I am sure they have not been opened for no evidence of it.

Ejectors on a gun that I intend to use for hunting. They're fine for clays guns, but the only thing I don't like more than searching around for empties while hunting is leaving them to litter up the landscape. Having typed that I realized that most of my using upland and a few of the waterfowl guns have ejectors. I guess it isn't a deal breaker.

I've developed the knack for popping empties into my hand, but on the rare occasions that doesn't happen, I could not agree with you more, Bob.

Bob Brown and mobirdhunter:

I can assure you that cracking my K80 and side swiping the empties as they emerge from the chambers with those powerful K80 ejectors into a shell bucket after a "dead pair" on a clays course gives me great pleasure but.... I hate to miss an empty in the woods/field.

So you're the guy who teaches those college boys and girls to slap their empties, a skill I have never learned after about sixty years of competitive shooting. Do you offer a video? If so, thanks for sharing.

Someone I know who will remain nameless bought his daughter one of those horrible cheap 410 over unders and a 22 rifle for “under $1000” If it were under $500 he still would have paid too much. These guns will never live to be handed down to future generations as heirlooms. What a shame. There is something I avoid.

Ejectors don’t bother me after years of shooting skeet/trap with a K-32 . I’d crack the gun open close to my chest then pull the hulls out the chambers . Same can be said when I shoot the DHE 20 I recently acquired or my VHE 20’s , crack the gun open back close against my chest . Very rarely do I waste any hulls I’d reload .

One of the hotdogs in the skeet game thirty years ago Larry Woo (not one of my favorite shooters) would crack his gun open with the empties flying backwards and the four flunkies on his squad would bat them up in the air one after the other .

There are a lot of Larry Woo stories. I've never heard a flattering one

No, I am not the inventor of that move and there is no video... but thanks. Fact is, it took this ole fart a bit of practice to get it. The kids kept telling me it was cool... a bit arrogant I suppose but it was fun to learn. Learned to catch em both in air on ejection also.... LOL....

That’s EXACTLY the way most people took it when Woo did it except for him and his four wannabes.