How do you view guns? Tool or Heirloom?

Just a fun question I was thinking about. Do you view guns as strictly a tool, or is their an aesthetic aspect to it.

My defense guns are boring looking tools. I enjoy practicing with them, but they are just M&P striker fire guns. My full size M&P is a Flat Dark Earth color that I thought was cool.

That being said, I have a little .22 revolver that is a fun gun, it looks cool. It’s a cheap way to get more out of my range time. When I look at 1911s and Revolvers they seem like works of art to me. There are guns I would like to have just to collect.

Disclaimer- at the end of the day my gun is a tool. Like a car gets me from point A to point B. We all know an old Toyota with a chipped paint, missing bumper, and over 200,000 miles will get you from point A to B. However, some people like to have a newer vehicle, and some people like a sports car with all the bells and whistles. I saw a gun with a Texas flag on it. I wanted the gun, but I would not carry it because I just want a plain gun if I’m a defensive shooting. BUT I wouldn’t mind owning it.

3 Likes

Sometimes they are both. My EDC is a tool. But I have a very nice 1911 that I consider a piece of art.

5 Likes

Both! I have in my collection over 60 weapons including a Purdey 12ga SxS sidelock circa 1881, to a custom Westley Richards .500 Jeffrey square bridge Mauser action, to my first deer rifle (which my father passed down to me at age 12), to my EDC 9mm H&K VP9 SK, to a .50 BMG McMillan TAC 50 A1R2, as well as many others!

And, while I own some very valuable guns, there is not one among them that is a collections piece.

If I can’t use it for its intended purpose I won’t own it!

4 Likes

I’m very similar. My EDC, my rifle, and another pistol are tools and part of my home defense plan to protect my family and myself. On the other hand we have a couple we treat as if they were new born babies…and our son has already laid claim to two of them.

2 Likes

My first boy is on the way and it’s made me think about having a possible gun I could pass down.

1 Like

Strictly tools… I haven’t seen one that I would actually buy & enshrine somewhere. Tools have to serve a purpose. Even something as beautiful as the Honey Badger has to serve a purpose! :wink:
If I had like a family crest though… Definitely pass on to my firstborn then so on & so forth.

1 Like

All are functional, inherited ones are used on special occasion, rest are used as wanted.

3 Likes

Both, as well. Part of our family hunts are “Dad’s gun” days, it is a lot of fun and it feels good to add a few birds to the histories of those shotguns and the men who shot them before us. CCW guns still feel like tools to me, maybe the memories of times spent practicing with them will make them heirlooms to my kids only time will tell?

1 Like

All my Guns are tools, of great importance with out them I would have to use other thing I’ve train with, but my gun are Heirlooms.

1 Like

For the first lots of years, guns were toys to me. It wasn’t until I started to carry that I changed into the tool mindset.

1 Like

Like @Stephen1 said both. They are tools that I hope the kids will take on embrace and share with their families.

I envision them taking their grandchildren out one day and telling them about how great grandpa use to take them to the range with some of those guns…the revolver that saved great grandpa’s life back in his younger days…

So a couple I hope they “relish” and care for with a little more love, but all of them I’m hoping they take as their “starter” armories/collections. :slight_smile:

2 Likes

Every mechanic knows tools are more than just tools. A mechanic can repair a Ford with a cheap import ratchet set, but unless in poverty, that’s not what they’d spend money on or use in the shop.
Quality tools work better and make work more efficient and pleasurable—it’s what a mechanic relies upon to pay the bills and take care of his family.
Some tools are inherited, some tools have stories, some tools are modified or even hand made, but to the mechanic these are real tools, not cheap junk.
I think guns are like that.

6 Likes

I have to go with the BOTH option and add “collectable” as a third. I have my Grandfathers guns and I will have my Father’s, those are heirloom. I have the guns I use regularly that may turn into Heirlooms to my children, they are my tools. Then there is the vast majority of what I own and they are collectable. All of them that have been fired are zero’d at an appropriate distance and all have a fair stock of applicable (sometimes original) ammo. The ones that fall into the “unfired” section are there because I’m too doggone lazy to clean the cosmoline off them or that they are in “Un-fired condition” and the value would be reduced.

Cheers,

Craig6

1 Like

Nearly all my tools are heirlooms—good enough to have been passed down to me OR good enough to pass down to my heirs.

2 Likes

Both.

They are tools, but I always take care of my tools.

I also appreciate the engineering and art that goes into them. On some models, it’s more the engineering, like when I look at old farm machinery. Someone made that crazy machine work! Other times, I have to stop and admire the craftsmanship, especially on older firearms. In some cases, the word “art” is very literal.

3 Likes

The only one that I have that I would consider a “work of art” is 117 years old, and means the world to me. Until last year, it was used, and may be again when I get it back. I am tossing around the idea of retiring her, but it’s hard to see something built to work just sit around… When I hunt with it, it feels like my great grandpa, grandpa, and dad are there with me. If only guns could talk…

4 Likes

They are difficult to retire, I still use an old one on a regular basis. We have a few “Dad’s gun” days on family hunts every year, that get the old guns out into the field again for a day.

2 Likes

I may end up just taking it out on a hunt once a year, instead of all season

2 Likes

As both. I have one 1911 .45 I don’t even take from safe other than to maintain. It has great sentimental value to me but little practical value, though it was carried during WWII by my maternal Grandfather.

2 Likes

That’s an awesome piece of history!