What Imbues a Gun With "Soul"?

[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.....

[6pt-Sika]

Originally Posted by Daryl Corona

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.

"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 .

[John Truitt]

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.

[Double Lab]

Originally Posted by CraigThompson

"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 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.