Bart Skelton relays a sad tale at handgunsmag.com of trading away a rare Winchester 1894 rifle for a nice, but decidedly less valuable, Colt single action revolver. It was a half-octagon, half-round barrel takedown gun with a special order front sight that he’d lovingly restored after rescuing it at an auction. One friend lives by the mantra that you never sell (or trade) a gun. Ever. That’s one way of avoiding seller’s remorse, but most of us have developed a hankering for something shiny that we just have to have, only to repent at leisure. So ‘fess up. What’s the worst gun deal you ever made?
Colt Anaconda 8inch Custom Shop
House broken into and along with other things the small safe stolen.
Stainless Colt Commanding Officers model – after I sent it to Wilson’s for a tune-up and some other goodies. I was so young and stupid.
“Question of the Day: What Gun Do You Want Back?”
Right now, nothing. Pretty much everything I’ve divested myself of over the years I’m well rid of. The Jennings J-22, the CZ-100, the FIE .38 derringer, the Taurus 66 that ate firing pin springs — they’re all someone else’s problem now.
I contemplate trading off my S&W 19-3 sometimes. I probably would come to regret that.
The one gun I want back is a S&W 19 (6″). That was an awesome DA revolver that I let go. I asked the guy recently (a friend) to sell it back, and he turned me down. What a jerk!
I have the best trade of the bunch.
I was given a stainless 4″ Ruger GP100 by a friend who was leaving the country permanently and bought an unloved Smith and Wesson Sigma for $100.00.
I traded these for a nice H&K P30.
I traded the P30 and $50.00 for a Spikes Tactical AR15.
Total investment $150.00. JOY!
But you could have had the toughest DA revolver ever built, and instead you got the most finicky semi-automatic service rifle in history. I say you got hosed. ;P
Google “filthy 14″. It’s the SNOPES of AR-15 myths.
The only ones I want back are the EAA Tactical Witness with extended ported barrel. It was 1 of 200.
I would also like back my CZ 75 that I sold when I was stupid.
Thankfully no regrets on anything I’ve sold or traded, I never trade or sell anything i think is special.
The only regrets I have are firearms I’ve missed out on purchasing. The purchase I kick myself about the most is a Ruger Security Six that was in great shape, priced well under what it should have been. I couldn’t afford it because I was out of work at the time.
I have one of those regrets. And it is the single largest buying/not buying regret I have in my lifetime including cars, boats, and women. I was in the proccess of purchasing my first handgun, a Ruger Single-Six with both .22 cylinders in 1976, when the sales guy mentions that he has a really good deal on Pederson over and under shotguns by Mossberg. He handed me one, and it was really, really nice, in 12 ga. good wood, nice clean checkering, great wood to metal finish, just felt right in my hands….. but if I bought it, then no Ruger. So being all of 21 years old, I bought the Ruger. I could have bought and sold dozens of identical Rugers over the years with no problem, but I have never seen as nice an over-under any where as close to that affordable since that day (I seem to recall it was $200). Maybe I have “romanced” how good that shotgun was over the past 36 years, I don’t know, but to this day, I kick myself for not buying it. And I have never had any over-under shotguns in my rack, maybe because I am hoping to come across a Pederson some day and set right a wrong decision on my part.
S&W Model 10. I figured it was a dime-a-dozen vanilla revolver with a perfect finish and an amazing trigger. Now everyone wants one. Including me.
1940 Mauser 98k, laminated stock, original sling. At the time the value wasn’t supposed to be great because the bolt didn’t match. Everything else did though. Traded for an Armi Jager .58 Cal muzzle loader. Been kicking myself for years on that.
I would also like to kick you for that.
I sort of regret the first gun I bought; a Mossberg 500 persuader/cruiser with a pistol grip only (damn TV shows and movies, at least the action was sound). Two years later, it now has a proper stock on it after I had to wait a week to get the proper size stock bolt from Mossberg. So all told, I saved about $50 buying it at a gun show and spent the same getting the stock and stock bolt.
I previously posted that I’ve never sold a gun, and that’s true, but I have had occasion to regret a purchase, and JRP’s comment reminded me of that. A Mossberg 500 pistol grip Cruiser is also the first firearm I ever purchased, and I have also subsequently purchased and installed a “real stock.”
Model 42 Winchester .410 to help pay for a grad-class. I threw in a beautiful hard case for the honor of making a horrible deal.
German made P230 9mm kurz.
I have two, DPMS AP4 .308 & Saiga .223…how could I be so stupid?!
None. I’m satisfied with my trades and sales.
My 1980 Colt Government that I bought new for ~ $200 in 1980. It also had several extra mags, Pachmyr grip and spring housing and a surplus US government, black leather shoulder holster. Needed the money for new golf clubs. Sold it in 1995 for < $600 with the accessories plus a box of ammo.
One of my few regrets in life. I was such a "PUTZ". My son won't let me forget it either.
Yes – This confession was a somewhat cathartic for me.
I want the Savage Model 24. Great over under, walking around gun with a rifle caliber on top and a shotgun gauge on the bottom.
Let my Grandmother give my Remington Nylon 66 to a cousin while I was on the Left Coast.
Hard call here. Especially given that I’ve owned something like 25 or 30 guns in over life time so far. But if I had to pick I’d say my Desert Eagle Mk VII .41 magnum and maybe my EAA Witness 10mm.
The nasty thing about the DEagle was that it was pretty much stolen from my by my mother. Basically, she pawned it while I was driving OTR (I’m a trucker) and didn’t tell me until 2 months later. About the time I lost my job. Even worse was I sold my entire collection, including my Witness 10mm (which was the first handgun I bought on my own), at sacrificial prices to get the Eagle out only to have my mother get herself into critical financial trouble again. The kind of trouble that consumed every time of the money I had got back from selling my collection.
I guess I’m “lucky” that most of the guns I want to buy aren’t for sale in California, or by now I’d have sold some of them to finance the debt! On the down side, that leaves me with not nearly enough guns, so I’ve never sold any one of them.