Collector or Accumulator? What made you go down the rabbit hole?

[zebra55]

I was 10 when Bill introduced the number 1 rifle, at 14 I was in love with them. Finally got my first one at 22 (post college). That grew to 3 in typical hunting calibers. Back the, I stayed pretty much in all I need for hunting, but.... had to have a lyman then other commemoratives then Rowdy got me started down the non prefix hole and well....

[twriggen]

I'm seeing a lot of display possibilities. I don't remember the last time I saw a 1911 display at any of the shows. We have more than a couple of others that come up from Utah for the Ruger Display show in Boise/Nampa every year in January. Tulsa in November is always worth the drive as well, although that is the show that costs me the most money every year.

Or you can be like Jay and lock them up in a vault that only has one recliner in it...........

[radicalrod]

Radical,
Only a man with your Grit, Tenacity and Mental Instability, could bear the weight of your Chain!
I admire that! Hope you add a lot more Links !!
Terry

Terry you have a way with words....unfortunately you are mostly correct

[t.hinckley]

I'm seeing a lot of display possibilities. I don't remember the last time I saw a 1911 display at any of the shows. We have more than a couple of others that come up from Utah for the Ruger Display show in Boise/Nampa every year in January. Tulsa in November is always worth the drive as well, although that is the show that costs me the most money every year.

Or you can be like Jay and lock them up in a vault that only has one recliner in it...........

Not quite sure my 6 1911's are quite enough for a display, but I'll give it some thought....

[twriggen]

I have done two gun displays in the past. It is not that hard to fill up an 8' table with related items.

[Jwhardin]

t.hinckley, really enjoyed your question at the start and the responses after.

Brought back so many great memories falling down the hole.

Thanks for that, and i haven't found the bottom yet....

Jw. Aka Randy

[SteveRuger]

I have posted before & built a display of my journey down the Sturm Ruger path! It started @ 9 years old on our family homestead in Montana out in the west pasture with my Dad & Uncle Merrill shooting ground squirrels. Dad let me shoot his 1956 flat gate 22, I could not hit anything with the 3 shoots I took but, I told myself I was going to get my own and hopefully be as good with it as my Dad was. Finally at 16 I purchased my own 22/mag single six NIB with a quick draw holster for $108.00 & the store owner threw in 2 boxes of ammo. Back then I made $1.45 hour that was a lot of saving for my dream. That was the start of it all!

[KWend54]

My story is a little different. My therapist forced me down this path after being diagnosed with
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)! He suggested the best treatment for me would be to channel my mental disorder into a hobby! I had no idea what direction to take to start a hobby that would help my OCD but he had a Guns & Ammo magazine in a rack next to the therapy chair with a Ruger on the cover!
So that was the beginning….. I keep it in check until it flares up and I have to buy another Ruger! It’s a heavy burden to carry, but we all have to make the most of our situations and my health comes first!

[rpm enterprises]

At first I would say I was an accumulator. My first rifle was an old Mauser and then an old western field shotgun for hunting. My uncle was very much into guns and at 13 he bought me a colt 1911 to target practice with him. In time I had acquired several Automags, Smith and Wesson model 29s and Colt snake guns Phythons, Cobras, Diamondbacks exc. Later rare rifles that were limited editions that were engraved with gold inlays Browning, Winchester and so on. I also had a fair amount of Rugers but really nothing special. I had kept a safe in a warehouse my in-laws owned and during hunting season a friend had damaged his scope and asked if I had a spare, we went in there after hours. I opened the safe for him to find the scopes. I had other things to do so when I came back he had a pile of guns on the table and asked about buying them. I had no intention to sell but my wife had other idea's. At the time we were getting close to build a house and she said the money from those guns would help during building. So I put a high price on them and figured it was to much and the friend would not want them , well I was wrong, he bought all the ones he wanted that happened to be the majority of my guns. Well I ended up with more Rugers left over. Couple years later I bought a large collection from a Ruger collector out of Vancouver, in all a total of 64 guns. That is when I became a collector. I focused on the early autos that was my true passion but second was the old model 3 screws. Then the memorabilia came into play. I thought this would be easy to collect, how much of that stuff could there be? well I found out it was worse than collecting the guns, there was so much more than I expected. It became an addiction. I have had Rugeritis since the early 1980s and continue to feed the habit to this day. I have been fortunate to aquire several great Rugers and memorabilia. I still have the Automags, few of the snake guns and model 29s but 90% of the collection is Ruger. I get asked how many do I own, the answer is, I don't know., that is a true sickness. But I am in the process of doing an inventory just for my wifes sanity. Time will come when I will start letting go of some duplicates , but I know when I go the wife will be cursing me when she has to get rid of it. My way of haunting her lol. But in all. It's been a fun ride and have meet several great people in my years of collecting. I've always enjoyed the hunt.

[chet15]

Jeff Munnell's dedication at the front of his book published on Old Model Rimfire Revolvers in 1978, which said... "To those of you who prove me wrong."
Being a collector of all things, stamps, coins, rocks, etc., and always looking for some kind of treasure as a kid, I read all of dads Ruger collector books and found one in his collection that Munnell did not talk about in that book. Then started a back and forth phone repoir with Jeff, then Don Findley and everybody else at the time. This was about 1978.
But would not have happened if dad didn't start his "accumulation", starting with his 10" .44 flattop which mom send the $ to him (before they were married!) while he was stationed at Ft. Hood, Texas with the 1st armored division in 1964. After that dad decided to "accumulate" one of each model series that Ruger produced (he never did get the #1 or M77 when they came out), and in 1971 bought me and my twin brother a consecutive pair of Super Bearcats, 91-02xxx range (we were 3 at the time).
Chet15