I would like to get a consensus regarding present and future  value and the next generation's interest in Schuetzen single shots.  Looks like the younger generation is more interested in modern military firearms or something that will go " BOOM, BOOM ". Also, gun show attendance appears to be on the decline. What say ye ?

I would tend to agree with the declining prices based on a lack of interest and the cost for a young man or women to get into the sport of Schuetzen and or collecting. I think the attraction to the Black rifles is they can be had fairly cheap and the means to create what one wants without the aid of a gunsmith is extremly attractive.

JLouis

George Babits wrote on May 17^th, 2016 at 9:17pm:


/\ /\ /\     What he said.    Either that or it's because I've personally slowed down my acquisition on accounta I don't have an place to put any more.

George Babits wrote on May 17^th, 2016 at 9:17pm:


You might want to take a hard look at the collectable car and motorcycle market. Far bigger in every way and prices are higher in every desirable area.

I chalk it up to what I think of as the John Wayne vs. G.I. Joe divide.  As a Boomer, I grew up watching movies about WWII and the West - both of which were historical events to me - and playing "cowboys and indians" soldier or Dan'l Boone.  (Didn't mind playing an indian sometimes but no one would be a Nazi).

My interest in history, and historical firearms, comes largely from that entertainment, much like my appreciation for classical music has its roots in the Warner Brother's "Looney Tunes" cartoons that populated Saturday morning TV.

My son grew up after the vast majority of westerns had left TV and the movie theaters, and what he and his friends saw on television and at theaters was contemporary to their own lives: Mork & Mindy, the insipidity of The Brady Bunch or the Partridge Family.  All shows about current life.  Not exactly the kind of entertainment that instills a sense of one's own history or leads to an appreciation of and desire to own antiques (be they guns or furniture).

Toss in the following generation, who seem to think that anything more than a year or two old is ancient and who seem to live for the next i-Gadget release, and the market for antiques is dead.

You'd think the above would leave one completely depressed.  Being a student of history (like most of you, I suspect), I know that the guys who came back from the The Great War were largely done with lever actions and wanted bolt action rifles.  Following WWII they took a lot of nice old singe shots and "modernized" them into varmit rifles.

History runs in cycles and, as the children of the people who lived through and fought WWI & WWII,  we came along and re-discovered the original value of the old stuff.

Now we're getting old (or are already old) and that cycle is on the downswing.  But the value in the rifles we collect is only extrinsically in their history.  They also have an intrinsic value based on the quality workmanship that went into their creation and their usefulness as tools.  Those attributes will survive as long as the guns do and they will find new life when a new generation follows our journey of rediscovery.

Prices rise and fall with fashion having said that some of the reason for the declining prices is that all the shooting sports is experiencing declining numbers. Less people interested means declining prices law of supply and demand. 
I have always felt that single shots are something that you come to a little later in life. It requires a sense of history and a curiosity to see if you can stand up to shooters of the past. Younger shooters want to do everything fast and they haven’t acquired an appreciation of history. Those are things that will come a little later. Let them learn on ARs one day when they are in their 40’s somebody will wax then on the range with an old single shot and some will become curious.

40 Rod

I have been interested in guns all my life. I am 81 years old and I have seen interest in them change from one type to another many times. Like many of you I grew up with Hoppy, Gene & Roy as well as several other western heroes. I was fascinated with those Colts & Winchesters. In the early 1960s you could buy them far prices that you wouldn't believe if I printed them. The prices of those guns sky rocketed following the popularity of the many western shows on TV. They got another boost with the advent of cowboy action shooting. But recently I have seen their prices fail. It isn't difficult to figure out why. The men who loved those old guns, like me, all have white hair. Cowboy action shooting, like BPCS is on the decline and the younger guys like the black guns, as has been pointed out. The prices for either those class of guns will not come back. Remember a shooting sport called pistol silhouette shooting? Shooters were paying $1000 for pistols to compete with. I would not like to try to sell one of those pistols today. A good friend told me something over forty years ago. He was much older than me and had a huge collection of guns. He told me, " I have seen prices rise and fall on guns but you never know when or which gun it will be". Don't buy as an investment at this time. Who knows what the near future will bring. My two cents.

Fellows    Thank for everyone's input. The consensus appears to be what I thought---interest in these  works of craftsmanship is waning and values follow this. At my age I have often thought about what should happen to my collection if none of my 5 grandsons is interested. Maybe donated to a museum. These rifles have been a source of much enjoyment both in admiring and in collecting them, getting all the necessary shooting kits and literature back with each gun over a 50 year period. Let's hope the younger generation learns to respect and appreciate these guns for what they are---- a significant part of American firearms history .