A Gun To Last Forever

Buying a gun is a major investment; get a good one, look after it, and it could well see you out, says Diggory Hadoke

- Diggory Hadoke

The thoughtful reader will be struck immediately by the nonsensical nature of the very question: “How long does a gun last?”.

Clearly, a gun stored properly from new will last forever and a day, while a gun left propped against a shed in the elements will rust to ruination in a few months.

We need to be more careful with our definitions of longevity and robustness. We also need to be careful to define what kind of gun we are talking about if any kind of useful answer is to emerge from our deliberations.

Why, even, is the question a useful one to pose? I would offer the following rationales: if you own a gun, how much can you expect to use it before it breaks down or becomes unreliable or damaged?

Equally, if you are planning to buy a gun, what can you learn about the life expectation of each option compared with the purchase cost?

If you are considering a gun for a particular use, what life expectancy can you look forward to based on how much you plan to use it? All these are real, practical questions you might find yourself faced with.

You may have inherited an old English gun and wonder how it will stand up to normal use. If the gun is already badly worn or repaired, obviously its future will be accordingly truncated. So let us consider what such a gun can do from new.

W. W. Greener famously experimented with his actions to demonstrate their strength. In 1878 he reported Dr W. F. Carver firing more than 40,000 shots over 200 consecutive days, then over another two years for a total of 130,000 shots. The gun was still in good order when examined.