After many years of trying, I finally won the fancy-shmansy Ducks Unlimited Dinner gun at our DU banquet last Saturday. For those of you unfamiliar with this gun, it is a Browning Maxus 12 ga. Semi-Auto. Limited edition #0177. Lots of fancy engraving, gold plating, etc… etc. Seeking advice. What would you do with it?
Shoot the heck out of it? (it’s only a gun, after all.)
Sell it a buy a more “practical” gun?
Tuck it away in the gun safe.
I’m actually leaning toward #1. It is after all, just a gun. I doubt it will actually increase in value over the years. It isn’t really a “rare” gun. Every DU chapter gets one. I don’t like the idea of tucking it away just to have my wife sell it 20 years from now. For the record, that model, without the fancy DU engraving, retails for about $1200.
First I would check with a group with more gun expertise than a bunch of fishermen. But I would lean toward seeing if I could convert it into a more useful gun and a flyrod. Then again, I haven’t had an opportunity to put a shell in a shotgun in several years. My home county has so darn many people in it you would have a hard time finding a place where you can murder a beer can with your .22. Check out the reasoning of this guy on the value of DU guns: http://www.herosarms.com/DU.htm
Thanks for the link, Uncle Jesse. I checked out this guy’s take on DU guns and I have to say I agree completely. I have no dillusions about having this valuable, rare, highly collectable gun on my hands. Perhaps, if I were able to find that one collector who has a lot of DU guns or something, maybe it would be worth selling. On the other hand, it’s just a gun. I can have a lot of fun using it for what it was meant to do…SHOOT IT!
Thanks for the thoughts, DucksterMan. According to my wife I have plenty of guns. She also thinks I own enough fly rods. (Silly, silly girl!)
My “go-to” duck gun is a Benelli Nova. I love it. Real workhorse that can take a lot of abuse. My favorite pheasant gun in a Franchi 20 ga. semi-auto (that I also won at the DU banquet a few years ago). Light weight, reliable and nice looking.
Since I’m telling you about my “arsenal”. I have the 20 ga. pump (real “cheapie” that my dad bought me when I was 14), my Ruger .270 for deer hunting (still wish I wouldn’t have traded my cheap Savage .270 for it), my Traditions muzzel loader and the Winchester .22 I inherited from my dad.
Yep, my wife may be right. I probably have ENOUGH guns but certainly not TOO MANY, right?
Since when don’t guns gain value? Put it to you this way in my cabinet is a Ruger M77R round top 30-06 bolt action rifle. I purchased it in 1979 with scope, sling, flip up scope covers and 2 boxes of shells, all brand new for $212.00 + tax. The rifle has been hunted hard, killed a pile of groundhogs and many deer. The trade in value of the rifle is now in the $400-$500 dollar range, insurance value of over $600+. This is just the average Ruger M77 not a special edition like the TU shotgun you just won.
Use it but keep it maintained. Clean it after every use. As long as you don’t do any major damage to it the shotgun will definitely gain value because IT IS A SPECIAL PIECE not just an ordinary Browning semi-auto.
Sorry, Royce … I didn’t mean to yell like that … but … enjoy what you have in the now. While you have the chance. I put too many of the things my Mother in law was saving “till later”, were “too nice to use”, whatever, in the collection bag when she died. We have a set of Centennial rifles downstairs now that have never been used, because my father in law thought them too good to use. They’ll build value … for whom???
Sell it, add a little money and buy a high end fly rod. Winning a raffle is like found found money. Get something you’ll use. You probably wouldn’t be posting on this site unless you were a fly fisherman. Just a suggestion. Of course you’re not me, but it’s what I’d do.
I would sit back and say If I had a thousand dollars to spend on anything what would I spend it on. if it isnt that shotgun then I would convert it to somthing else. I would look at it as a nice big $1000 bill or perhaps more with the right buyer.
if you are too worried about damaging the gun I would say sell and get one you are not worried about using. If not I would use it. I am sure that there are many people who had wished they won that gun. Enjoy
Use it! I’ve got a Parker and Hale .30-06, and a Weatherby over/under. The .06 has all kinds of engraving and gold leafing all over the rifle. I use it as my elk rifle, and have no qualms about using a work of art for what it was intended for. Same with the Weatherby. I love taking it out for a day in the field. I wouldn’t hesitate at all if I wanted to use it.
It would be like owning a fine bamboo fly rod and not using it…why not, the maker no doubt spent hundreds of hours refining the taper on the rod so that it would cast effortlessley, he might be horrified that you didn’t fish his rod after all his hard work…just a thought.
I too buy a ticket every year at the pheasant forever event. i’ve never won but if I did I would probably sell it if it wasn’t something i liked. I’ve watched for years and never seen one of those DU guns increase too much in value. there are people out there that do collect them and are probably willing to pay well for one.
last year my neighbor won the Pheasants forever gun. a really nice AYA 20 gauge SXS. he shoots mostly trap. what to do, what to do.
I would sel yours and upgrade to something you really want.
I add my voice to those who say use it but take care of it when you’re done. I am one of those guys who loves owning the best he can afford and then using it. The good stuff usuall works better and is more reliable than the cheap stuff anyway, not that the cheap stuff won’t do the job.
Congratulations. I think you should keep it but thats just me. You said you have been trying to win this for years. Now, you want to sell it? I think you would regret selling it.
Well, As for a shotgun, I’m partial to a 20 guage, BUT if it feels good, USE IT! After haveing a FFL for a number of years, And being a hunter’s Ed instructor, I have always preached, if it feels good to hold, shot it. Know, I just got a new compound bow from Mathews and North Americn Hunting Club that retails for $959.00. I won it,I couldn’t bring myself spend that much on a bow or a rifle, or handgun. Yes, the bow feels GOOD and balances GREAT. Yes, I will use it, haven’t bow hunted in 4 years but am taking it up again.