Author Topic: How many "Safe Queens" do we have out there? (Read 1161 times)

Bigeasy · « **on:** December 30, 2009, 11:01:29 AM »

I thought this might be an interesting thread..

I usually shoot every thing I buy. Even old classics should be taken out once in a while; it's what they were made for. That said, I have one "safe queen" that I have not been able to bring myself to fire in the 25 or so years i have owned it. It is a Browning high grrade model 71 lever action in .348 winchester. I have been tempted to shoot it twice - once to see where it hits, once to kill a deer.. Still thinking about it....lol

Larry

Brett · « **Reply #1 on:** December 30, 2009, 11:09:47 AM »

I have a High Standard Double Nine 'Camp Gun' that has more than doubled in value since I purchased it that I used to shoot regularly. I recently decided to put it up so as not to risk breakage since I don't know how hard it would be to find parts. I picked up a Ruger Super Single Six take its place as a shooter.

mechanic · « **Reply #2 on:** December 30, 2009, 11:15:29 AM »

I've got one of my Dad's guns that still looks, and is new. I can't bring myself to ding it up. Other than that, I don't want something that I won't shoot. I had a chance to buy a super nice Franchi shotgun a while back. Engraved receiver, beautiful wood and blueing so deep and dark it was like looking into a pool of water. But I would have been afraid to handle it, so I passed. The old Mossberg works fine.

charles p · « **Reply #3 on:** December 30, 2009, 11:24:02 AM »

Mod 70 Featherweight in 243 that was my son's when he was a kid, a 280 Ackley, a Rem 742, and a Vanguard 7mm Rem mag have not seen daylight this decade.

mcwoodduck · « **Reply #4 on:** December 30, 2009, 12:00:10 PM »

Only one.
1886 Styer Krotchopek.
Only cause I can't find ammo.

Everything else gets used.

TribReady · « **Reply #5 on:** December 30, 2009, 12:21:40 PM »

I feel like I'm about to admit something in a self-help group

but I've got a pre-war (1940) Winchester M1 Garand-one of the first 10,000 produced-- that hasn't been shot. I've shot other Garands, but can't bring myself to shoot this one. No real reason, I just like to look at it and haven't actually had it out to shoot.
I know, I know, I've opened myself up for ridicule and shame

but.... who knows, it may relive some of it's glory sometime.....

Dave in WV · « **Reply #6 on:** December 30, 2009, 12:51:24 PM »

Oddly my true safe queen isn't a nice, pretty, or expensive firearm (but is legal). It's for "social" events that I hope never come my way. I have fired it and zeroed it. Plenty of surplus ammo stored properly.

P.A. Myers · « **Reply #7 on:** December 30, 2009, 01:39:38 PM »

I just can't get around to all of them. I passed on a pristine Model 27-2 [8 3/8] at a steal price. I knew it would never or rarely see daylight. I had to kick my own ass.

GRIMJIM · « **Reply #8 on:** December 30, 2009, 01:43:33 PM »

I have not shot my great grandfather's col police positive, just for fear that something may happen to a valuable (to me) family heirloom. Also a veterli/vitale and a pinfire revolver that I can't get ammo for.

Wyo. Coyote Hunter · « **Reply #9 on:** December 30, 2009, 02:05:56 PM »

Not many really..Haven't shot my Grandfathers Fox in years, but doubles aren't my dish...I guess I pretty much shoot 'em all but the one least used is a mint 5 screw K22. Have had it maybe 12 years and have only had it out once..Have two other K-s so I haven't used it much. Will probably give it to my namesake along with a few others....

torpedoman · « **Reply #10 on:** December 30, 2009, 04:07:47 PM »

double barrel .W.W. Greener made in 1884 when getting ready to fire it going over everything real good i realized it had never been fired and that first round would be pricy when i go to sell (actually my kids got to sell it)

drdougrx · « **Reply #11 on:** December 30, 2009, 04:11:39 PM »

Being the idiot that I am....less than half of what I had a year ago.

Drilling Man · « **Reply #12 on:** December 30, 2009, 04:45:49 PM »

  I do buy a gun once in a while to resell. I have a BAR here now that i'm going to sale, so i "usally" don't shoot those.

  BUT, anything else i own gets shot, and i don't give a rip how much it cost. As for the guns i got from my dad. Well, HE used them, why shouldn't "i"? It gives me great pleasure to hunt with a gun that my dad also loved and hunted with!

  DM

45-70.gov · « **Reply #13 on:** December 30, 2009, 04:56:29 PM »

too many.....i don't want to know

bearmgc · « **Reply #14 on:** December 30, 2009, 06:30:33 PM »

I just sold a Marlin 922 today to help pay for a new metal detector. A SKB O/U Field model used twice, sitting in the safe, a Marlin 375 that doesn't get out much. A Browning B92 Centennial brand new, waiting to dance, but prolly won't, since I use my old Marlin 44mag instead. A few others...

Land_Owner · « **Reply #15 on:** December 31, 2009, 02:38:03 AM »

My son keeps two double barrel shotguns from the late 1800's in my safe that had been shot by the grandfathers of their former owners, and so long ago that it was well before my lifetime.

Also in there is a CZ CESKOSLOVENSKA' ZBROJOVKA,A.S. BRNO of unknown caliber that has seen much better days and a Sears 12-gage pump shotgun that will no longer lock up due to being shot more times (before 1970) than Carter has Little Liver Pills.

These future wall hangers take up much needed space but I can not part with them.

jlchucker · « **Reply #16 on:** December 31, 2009, 03:41:29 AM »

I pretty much use everything I've got in my safe. I just traded away two, though--a 336 Marlin 30-30 and a Taurus M94 22. I've got two other 30-30's that are in better shape than this Marlin was, and the Taurus was something that I hadn't fired in about 5 years. I traded away both on a new Rossi 357 Model 92. That hasn't been fired yet--I plan to do that between holidays and snowstorms. I didn't have a 357 carbine like that, but lots of guys on this and a couple of other websites have been praising those Rossi 357's so much that I figured it would be something decent that I'd use as a truck gun.

Bigeasy · « **Reply #17 on:** December 31, 2009, 07:19:25 AM »

I was kind of suprised to see that the Safe Queens most folks have are not mint, unfired collectors guns, but tend to be older, already fired guns with sentimentel ties. I have my fathers .44 Deerstalker, first production run. I did shoot it once, to kill a buck up in Maine, sort of to honor my father, otherwise it has stayed in the safe. I would feel terrible if it got stolen out of my truck, or if I fell while hunting and broke the stock...

Larry

Oldshooter · « **Reply #18 on:** December 31, 2009, 07:28:16 AM »

Well you guys sure know how to make a guy sentimental!

I have a Browning Auto 5 Sweet sixteen, that was passed down to me from my Dad, It hasn't been shot much since after he bought it he went to an Auto 5 20 that he used for evrything from geese to dove.

I cant bring myself to shoot it! I do have a box of shells for it, maybe on july 27 I will take it out for a bang or two!

Land_Owner · « **Reply #19 on:** December 31, 2009, 08:52:03 AM »

I started a post on "Favorite Rifles in the Safe" to sort of balance our sentimental values against what we use and carry afield all the time. I truste Bigeasy won't mind my showing the "other side of the coin" to his thread in this way.

Savage .250 · « **Reply #20 on:** January 01, 2010, 02:01:04 AM »

Safe Queens? My term is, good weather....bad weather . I`ve got 2 Savage 99`s that are pre-mil. They don`t see the light of day if it`s "bad" out side. As hard as it was to find those 2, especially where I live, they might as well be safe-queens. Ok, they are.
They both get to the range from time to time and both have taken deer. Sunny weather.

   BigEasy has a Browning model 71 in .348 cal. If I had one it would only get cleaned you can believe that.
   To be a Safe Queen, what ever it is, needs to have condition and be something special
   (meaning full to the owner.) In fact your lucky if you have a SQ. At least you have something worth while to pass on. IMO.

drdougrx · « **Reply #21 on:** January 01, 2010, 07:24:06 AM »

It's interesting...over the last 2 years I've unloaded...and mostly unfired a Walther P-38 comercial, ppk (Ulm). PP in 32acp, a Ruger SBH Mag-Na-Port Predator conversion, a BHP rebuilt by C&C shop with all the bells and whistles, a Browning Baby unfired and still in cosmoline, a P-08 Luger (mauser werk) with all matching #'s inc. magazine and a Weigand Executive Model conversion to a SW M60.

Why?

Oh why....wish I kept all of them. Owned them all for more than 15 years...I'll bet most haven't been shot since the 1980's or early 1990's. Think I'm cured though...I find myself looking at stuff and thinking...what the heck am I going to do with another XXXX...but then....see... there's this 1911 that I've gotta hankering for.......

Bigeasy · « **Reply #22 on:** January 01, 2010, 07:43:32 AM »

Doug-

You have an illness known as "GAS"

GAS (Gun Acquisition Syndrome) can be treated with plenty of shooting and gun magazine reading for short term symptoms. Longer term stabilization of the illness requires frequent purchases of un-needed, and expensive firearms.

Larry

mechanic · « **Reply #23 on:** January 01, 2010, 07:45:57 AM »

Quote from: Bigeasy on January 01, 2010, 07:43:32 AM

Doug-

You have an illness known as "GAS"

GAS (Gun Acquisition Syndrome) can be treated with plenty of shooting and gun magazine reading for short term symptoms. Longer term stabilization of the illness requires frequent purchases of un-needed, and expensive firearms.

Larry

Many of us have that affliction. I've never met a gun I didn't like, and I like some more than others.

drdougrx · « **Reply #24 on:** January 01, 2010, 08:20:25 AM »

Now you know my secret....GAS.....lordy...does this qualify me as a protected class, medicare benefits, stimulous money?

Help.........

My New Year's resolution...a new 45, a rebuilt 41, a new tikka and for good measure...a new

to be determined....

Feel better already!!!!!

45-70.gov · « **Reply #25 on:** January 01, 2010, 12:52:59 PM »

i have regretted selling many more guns

than i ever regretted keeping

i see more safes and safe queens in my future

this thread has reminded me i want to hunt with some of my dads old guns