While you often hear someone say they regretted selling a firearm, have you ever regretted a time when could have bought one but passed on the opportunity?

I have one in mind now but I just can’t bring myself to pull the trigger, pun intended.

I have a Coonan that I bought right after Coonan went belly up. I paid over retail, but not that much over. I had almost bought one while they were still in business, and now, I wish I had bought a whole truckload of them!

Savage 250/3000 Model 99

Around 1987, 1988...I wish I would have bought several HK 91, 93 & 94 rifles.

2.5" Colt Python

Long time ago I was in a rural gunshop near Marquez, Texas, getting some minor work done. Up on a rack was a single shot rifle with a Martini action.
Pretty little rifle, and I remember that it was in an odd caliber. I swear I think it was 14 caliber, but maybe my memory is off and it was a 17 caliber. I thought about that gun often, but when I went back to try to buy it, the old gunsmith had died and the shop was closed.

I wish I'd have bought every 788, 600, 660, Mohawk I saw back in the late 70s. My 788 was $88 from CarterCountry but being a kid had me struggling for funds.
Same goes for the $100-150 Marlins at the gun shows and pawn shops.

Could be that it was 14 caliber. There are 10 and 14 caliber cartridges and the Martini actions have been used to make a lot of customs. Eichelberger did several in each including what is listed in Cartridges of the world as the smallest wildcat cartridge 10 Eichelberger LR a 22lr necked down to .103 inches

Got a Rockola 30 Carbine for $170 and could have gotten a dozen, wish I had bought more.

22 mag Ruger all weather in the boat paddle stock...I wanted one and almost bought one a couple of times over the years and just never have. Truth is I don't have much of a reason for it any longer but wished I would've bought one.

A Beretta 686 Silver Pigeon 20 gauge when they retailed around $1,200 new.
A near perfect Winchester Model 12, 20 gauge at a estate auction 15 years ago. I stopped bidding at $825
The gun sold for $975.

Matching pair. 22 LR and 22 Mag Winchester lever actions in the late 1980’s. Both like new. $150 each. 20 guage Winchester model 21 “duck” 3” magnum side by side when I was a teenager. $300. At the time that was a lot of money for a high schooler.

The Gibsons in Kerville had a Ruger no. 1 b in 257 weatherby mag for years. I wanted it so bad I could taste it, things just never worked out for it. Maybe one day

I kinda wish I'd bought a Marlin bolt gun in .280 Rem on one or two occasions I saw them available. It seems like they were an XL-7 at some point and just an X-7 at some other time, but I could very well be mistaken. Those rifles were reputed to shoot really well and were very inexpensive at that time. Try finding one now.

Rem 700 Sendero 338RUM and a 264wm that were both under $1k at a gun show

Staccato P "tuxedo" when they came out in a short run--- no more two tone factory guns from them now...

As far as 'could' goes-- I was at the Special Operations Warrior Foundation (https://specialops.org/) Dinner when they auctioned off Charlie Beckwith's Colt Delta Elite which I wished to hell I could have afforded!!

When Glock moved into the market and police department started replacing all of their revolvers you could find revolvers that were practically new for about a hundred bucks wholesale. I bought hundreds if not thousands of them and sold so many that I lost count. I wish that I had bought even more and kept them instead of the select few that I held on to.

When I was in 9th grade my parent wanted to get my older brother a rifle for his birthday so he could go deer hunting with me. He was mildly interested in guns and hunting but not gungho like me. I found an ad in the classifieds of the paper for a guy selling his gun collection for medical reasons and figured that surely he would have something for my brother. I called him and he said he would put something together and to come over. My parents and I went over to the house and rang the doorbell. Immediately two large dogs start barking. A man toting a shotgun and a flashlight backed up by two German Shepherds appears at the door and asks if we have any weapons. My dad says he has a Swiss army knife. The guy lets us in and leads us to a heavy vault door which he unlocks and reveals a stairway to the basement (this is southwest Virginia). We descend into his bunker and the pegboard clad walls are floor to ceiling filled with all sorts of guns. Lots of AK variants, ARs, SKSs, handguns, milsurps galore. This is assault weapons ban era, so not stuff I'd really seen before at gun stores in rural Virginia. He leads us to an SKS still in the cosmoline and says this is just the ticket for my brother. I say what about that M1903A4 with the 400$ tag, he says no that'll blow a hole in the deer and you'll lose so much meat 7.62x39 is much better. I tell him I kill deer with a Rem 700 30-06 but he insists we get the SKS and my parents who are paying for my brothers present go along. My dad recognizes him for being a fellow Vietnam vet and they chat a bit about the war, it seems to put the man at ease a little as he was rather nervous. I wish I had been more insistent on the 1903A4 or one of the other various milsurps he had. The SKS was fine though, my first experience with milsurps. My brother never killed anything with it, and I shot it a lot more than he did. It's just one of those flashbulb memories that really stood out and I always wondered what the back story on that guy was. Looks like a 1903A4 goes for a few thousand at least now.

I was picking up model 21s when they were still under 2k. I sold one to a dealer two or three years ago at the Dallas Safari Club show for $42,000. Now that you brought up model 21s I sure wish I'd bought a lot more of them.

65x55, my go to rifle was a “ butchered” Eddystone Arsenal 30-06. I have taken Whitetails, Mulies, elk, Antelope and various varmints with it. Finally had to have it rebarreled due to having no “lands” left. New barrel doesn’t shoot as well as the worn out one did. Hand loading, I haven’t found the right load for it.

Although I have a safe full of different rifles of different calibers, I miss MY gun.

Model 64 Winchester .32 Special. Back in the 80's friend of mine had it and offered it to me for $400. As I didn't have any cash with me at the time I offered to come back the next day with the cash. He agreed. The next day I showed up with cash in hand but he had changed his mind.

In the mid 80's Dominion Arms in VA has lots of surplus guns. They were selling Chicom SKS for $95. I has never seen one before but wished I would have bought one. I did buy a M1 Garand.

Mid 90's Walmart was selling Beretta 390's for $325. I should have bought 2, 12 gauge & a 20 gauge. I did buy them but much later and for more money. Both have been great guns.

Early 2000’s buddy called me from FTW gun show on Sunday. Guy had 2 crates of new old stock SKS rifles for $75 each. Still had cosmoline on them and in original crates.

When I was in college, I had an opportunity to swap my S&W model 1500 in .243 for a Ruger #1 in .270. My dad talked me out of it because it was a "single shot". Before my dad passed, I always regretted not making that trade. Now that he is gone, I am somewhat glad I didn't because the .243 is the only rifle he ever gave me. It was a birthday gift when I was in middle school.

Just last year, I flubbed up on buying a early Weatherby Mark V wood stock in .270 Wby caliber with Zeiss scope for $1,000

As mentioned earlier, H&Ks rifles.

Also Saiga or other russian guns that can no longer be imported.

Also a pair of matching Weatherby rifles that I sat on and should have bought.

Other than that, I buy what I want for the most part.

How about MR-7.

Just checked gumbroker to see if there are any available. Yup, there's one available. Two days to go, 12 bids so far and it's up to $805.

Why isn't there a "kicking-your-own-[censored]" smilie??