Firearms as an Investment

 I am sure you have heard at least once that firearms are an investment. If not, maybe you had the thought yourself. That idea is true. Firearms are an investment in more than one way. 

Selling 

The most obvious way that firearms are an investment is money. Can you get more money than you paid for the gun? Yes, if you are willing to wait. Buying a gun with the hope it will be worth more is like playing the stock market. It can happen, but you need to be willing to wait. Most firearms do go up in value with inflation. Some brands go up in value more than others. Perazzi comes to mind.

Some firearms can and will become collectors’ pieces. This, of course, depends on the history of the firearm. Colts tend to be good collectors’ pieces because they have “gone out of business” more than once. So older Colts are coveted and sell for as much as new Colts. Arsenal no longer makes SLRs so they sell for as much if not more than SAMs. Are they a better rifle? I personally don’t think so. Honestly, if you bought a SAM pre-covid it has doubled in value. 

Even amongst collectors’ pieces, minor things decide the value. The Springfield M1A can be worth more if it was a military piece vs buying a new one. In the case of my Savage 99, caliber is a factor. My Savage 99 is no longer made, but one in .308 WIN is worth more than mine made in .300 Savage. A still common caliber for a no longer manufactured firearm. Whereas the Nagant Revolver, which is a military firearm and no longer made, is relatively inexpensive. Due to a ban on Russian imports, they are worth more. Unless you have one that was never converted to double action. 

Life 

Everyone knows that if you buy a gun, you have a way to defend yourself. Of course, you need to practice. Shooting is a perishable skill. Buying one though, does give you better odds should something bad happen. Not just for the home, but out in public. By no means does that mean you will have to shoot someone. In some (not all) cases just having it is a deterrent. As my history teacher put it, “the biggest thing that keeps someone from randomly attacking a person is not knowing if they are armed.” 

Another aspect is having a gun gives you a way to take game. To put it in layman’s terms, you have a hunting tool. As a hunter, 90% of my firearms have taken some form of game. That includes my handguns. I have killed rabbits and snakes with nearly all of my handguns. It is less practical than my rifles, but possible. Hitting the right place or using the right ammunition is all you need. 

Memories 

To me, this is the most important investment. Shooting is an activity you can do alone or with others. One of my fondest memories is taking my nephew out and having him shoot my .410 shotgun. That was how I learned he was left-handed. I traded a different .410 shotgun I had to a friend of mine. He wanted it to take his kids shooting with. When I was managing a shooting range, I literally watched kids grow up as then went out with their parents. One man told me, “Shooting is what my son enjoys, so I will take him to shoot whenever I can. His brother loved baseball, so that’s what I took him to do.” 

My stepdad is the reason I have an unhealthy attachment to my 2 favorite rifle calibers. When I bought my first gun, he came with me because he knew more about them. I bought my Remington 700 in .308 Winchester. Many years later he gave me my Ruger No. 1 in 22-250. That cartridge is a laser. He also gave me my first .410 shotgun. A small single shot, mainly useful as a snake gun. These are items and memories that will, hopefully, be with me until my grave. 

I have many more firearms that have memories or people attached to them. A Nambu pistol that my Grandfather picked up in the Marines. My .22 LR rifle I bought off a friend. They stopped making that gun before I was born. I could hit squirrels with that rifle at 200 yards. A few years after getting that rifle that man became a hunting buddy of mine. I learned a lot from him. 

Yourself 

Believe it or not, buying my first rifle set a course for me. I was between jobs and the range I liked to go to was hiring, so I started working there. I was at that job for over 10 years. Since that job I have been working with firearms for over 15 years. Over 20 years if you count military service. Most of the friends I still have are because of my work. I met a lot of great people and learned a lot of skills because of that Remington 700 I bought almost 20 years ago.