How Many Firearms is Too Many?

[Little Dutch]

The title states the general question.

How Many Firearms are too many?

I know the answer is N+1 with N being the number one now has. That is the theoretical answer.

But then comes practicality.

If one take an number of firearms, there must be practical limits.

Storage. Storing 5 guns is easy. 50 is harder. 500 much harder.

Different calibers. At some point there is too much overlap in usefulness and then having to maintain an ammunition depot.

Then there is shooting. I would venture to say few people go shooting once a week. But lets say once a week. If that person shot two guns every week, that is 100 guns. With the same logic, 500 guns would take 5 years before you shot the same gun again. Does one get familiar with shooting a firearm well when they have lots of choices or does it become novelty?

So, what is COAR opinion of what "enough" or "too many" is?

I?ll address 2 of the things.
First, the ammo struggle is real. There?s a category of people who load for dozens of cartridges, some more than others of course, and stockpile components when they go on sale. Storage space for that alone is a problem.

The people with hundreds tend to take ?a few? with them to the range at a time. That guy in the lane next to you who showed up with 5 revolvers likely does that at least weekly with a wide variety of different platforms and cartridges. It may be a 1911 variant day at the range. Perhaps it?s simply old S&W revolver day. Maybe it?s Lugar day. It could be .45-70 day tomorrow.

I can?t speak for everyone categorized above, but the ones I know are proficient with many different firearms, in many different styles, in many different cartridges. It?s all practice, and so long as you are practicing well it?s not difficult to get passably good with a lot of stuff.

Storage is a problem and often involves an understanding spouse. At some level it?s not terribly hard to convince them a strong room is a better idea than multiple safes, but convincing them the spare bedroom in the basement has to be where it goes might be a problem.

that said, the correct number is n + 2, with the caveats others stated earlier.

ETA: one of these guys had a concrete strong room poured when they were doing his basement. It’s got a concert ceiling too. The steel door on it is amazing. Someone dedicated and prepared would get in eventually, but he’s the one who told me to store my torch tips in the safe to make it harder on a would be thief. I think about that sometimes and chuckle. I do, however, keep my torch tips in a safe,