I mean all the ancillary gun/shooting gear that takes up space in your home?
Mine came over the course of years—cleaning kits, reloading dies, holsters----stuff for guns I no longer own and stuff inherited or gifted by friends and family.
Much of this stuff has the potential for being useful—like a cigar box of spare parts for a 1911, or a bag of leather scraps for crafting odds n’ ends of, well, more stuff.
Every so often I think to myself, if I lost all my stuff and had to replace it, where do I start?
I came up with an abbreviated list:
A firearm or two
A cleaning rod and brush
Magazines or speed loaders
Solvent, oil, maybe grease and patches
Eyes and ears
Maybe a staple gun and a holster if I’m cc’ing
Ammo
Some kind of container to keep it all together and a bag to take it to the range and police brass.
In the real world though, my stuff fills most of one closet, a safe and part of the garage.
That’s a lot of stuff!
At one point I had so many old bottles of chemicals I feared my home being placed on the toxic dumpsite super list, so I boxed all the old stuff and surrendered it to toxic chemical pick up event.
If you have the sames issues, how did you end up acquiring all your stuff?
Years and years of aquiring, and taking care of what I have. If you buy quality and take care of it, it is amazing how long it lasts. I have a whole area in my basement that is four heavy duty baker’s racks, my reloading bench, a couple Liberty Colonial 50 safes among others. And you never know when it will come in handy. Just last year, my father in law came to me and wanted to shoot the “family” 1911 that his dad carried in WW2. Well, it hadnt been taken care of and the springs were shot from not knowing how to operate it and thus being stored for years in some kind of strange half open type of condition. No problem, grabbed my box of 1911 springs that I had swapped out of my various 1911’s, which I replace on a regular basis, and was able to throw a set of springs in it that while well shot, were still very serviceable. A little oil and we were off to my gun club. But it comes from years of trying things. The CC holsters from finding this doesnt work as well as you hoped, or you got a new gun you want to carry. Or as a competitive shooter, trying new things looking for that edge to give me one more X or shave a few tenths of a second off my time. And as they say, two is one and one is none, cause if you are shooting a match and something breaks, do you pack it up and go home or grab your spare? And not all lubes and cleaners are suitable for all purposes, so you have to take that into account. I could go on, but if I had to replace everything all at once, I would have to win the lotto, cause I dont know if selling the house would do it. I have been shooting seriously since I was 12, and now I am 39. Who knows what my stash will look like when I am 78? By that point, I am sure that I will be distributing the “stuff” to my boys, but its going to be all that random stuff that they will have to deal with after I am gone that will be the hard part.
Since my dad went thru the great depression, he kept and handed down a lot of stuff. Dad wasnt compulsive, but he always said “i might need this someday” The mrs and I have a large walk in closet, and yes in one corner is extra parts, holsters, etc., glock gun cases, sig cases (see i can use glock and sig in one sentence), my mrs has a hat fetish that is also in the closet. Range ammo and bags, mags, are in the garage for ease of use. In our shop, one corner is spare parts for the mowers, in another is spare parts for wheeler and scooters. However in the paint cabinet is several old cans of spray paint that do not spray, but I may need them someday. One tool box is dedicated to diesel engine tools from old school engines. Another box is dedicated to tools for naturally aspirated engines, as well as chassis/brake tools/distributor tools. I still have some of my grandfathers hand wood tools, and many of my dad’s tools.
here is the deal folks…I just cant keep all the stuff, because “I might need it someday”…so i start to throw away or give to the neighbors, or donate it somewhere.
Then we keep and cycle scrap aluminum/steel, etc. and that accumulates at the shop, and starts to be an eye sore. We have a disabled friend that scraps out and hauls it all away.
There is a difference between what is hobby or sport and what is kept for protection
A competitor or a hunter has different requirements and considerable equipment requirements. Shooters interested in self defense often utilize competition and hunting because they offer not only a gauge for betterment, but also fun and recreation, which adds to time spent shooting which should add to a shooter’s skill set,
However simply keeping a firearm for protection doesn’t require crates and boxes of stuff Perhaps it can even be argued that too much stuff can be a hindrance when home invaders are busting down the front door (dealing with the equivalent of a Large ALICE pack, if you get my drift)
I’ve been trying to pair down my stuff to the essentials—having everything I need and nothing I don’t
Good Lord the amount of “stuff” I have is pretty impressive. I’ve been shooting, reloading and gunsmithing for over 30 years so I have one of a kind tools, tools to fix tools, jigs, fixtures and “stuff” I made for one project. Did I also mention I do hot rods and 4x4 trucks which require “more stuff”. In 1999 I had to move to Hawaii, I called all my gun buddies over and the amount of “stuff” they hauled out was impressive. I still to this day regret the 30 ammo crates of LC-89 National Match Brass and the 50+ ammo crates of 45 ACP match brass that left in the back of two overloaded F-250’s. To that end I was good on Scotch for several years. Every now and then I find something I tucked away in my “stuff” and it’s like Christmas. Still wish I had saved a couple cases of that brass.
I like to do all 3. Hunt, competition, and shoot for the fun of it so I may buy a piece of gear for one situation, but keep it in case I may need or use it again. So I’ve accumulated alot of stuff over 30+ years
The thing that bothers me is moving the stuff I know I like but might use here or there before I pass - before I pass. And that isn’t into stuff that my significant other liked but left before she could move the stuff along… maybe she was thinking I’d do it and left it as a gift… but that brings me back to my stuff and the fact I can’t move that either.
Somewhere in here is the idea I was going to be spending my offspring’s inheritance, but if I still have stuff I haven’t really done my job have I? And “it” just can’t go to the local Sanford & Son, I figure some of this should travel through Soutby’s or at least a local museum if not the Smithsonian.
And worst of all, with this pandemic thingie going on, I may not have enough time to do half what I thought I would if I’d gotten to it 1/3 rd as quickly I imagined - before I couldn’t work on it much at all. Not to detract from the idea some dumb accident could come along any moment now… and, like they say ‘You can’t take stuff with you!’
@Greg35 No particular reason for LC-89 but it was what I shot on my 1991 run through the National Matches. I started at the East Cost Championships, All Navy, Interservice and finally the National Matches at Camp Perry. The thing I like about M-852 brass is the consistency of it. The case volume is second to none it is also heavier and thicker at the base than conventional M-80 ball ammo of the same vintage. An added bonus is that there is no primer pocket crimp. The brass was mil spec in that it was annealed at the neck and not as “soft” as the Federal of the same era. The end result in reloading was consistency, less powder to achieve better results and the life of the brass was stupid long. I have batches of ammo that I have loaded to full house bolt gun levels 40 times that is still rocking. That is unheard of in reloading, yet it keeps going. I have batches of LC-LR from 02 thru 16 that have not even reached half that with 50% failure rate.
That old school M-852 “Not for Combat Use” brown box stuff was awesome especially if you did it in “Mexican Match” where you would take a can and pull the boolits and dump the powder, then re weigh the powder and re seat the boolits or use different boolits. Spent many hours with a kinetic hammer opening rounds and then rebuilding them, the improvements in scores were worth the effort.
I turned one of our rooms into what I call the," WAR ROOM" . Shelves of loading equipment, loading table, cleaning supplies, books, and hidden in the wall is my gun safe. I have accumulated stuff over the years. People have come to me and I inherited some and bought others. A guy has to have a hobby! Okay, it is a living now!
It all got started with an older friend who was a huge gun nut and took pity on a new dad with a huge passion but very small budget. He helped me accumulate quite a bit of “stuff” at what can only be considered “son pricing” with a lot of “take it now, pay me when you can” thrown in. A lot of my most precious pieces where gifts from Him and other friends that have passed on and the latest batch was an estate I helped a family take care off when a collector friend of our family passed away and his family had no knowledge or interest in anything gun related he owned. I guess in summary I have been blessed with generational firearm and related items bequeathments and I hope some day to do the same.
