Safe Queens...

Safe queens. The guns that you own that just never seem to make the trip to the range. Now, I don't mean broken guns, or heirloom guns, or guns that are too valuable to shoot very often, or guns that take obscure ammo. I mean the guns that, through no fault of their own, just don't get out much.

Most of the time, at least in my experience, the reason for a safe queen is that there's a better alternative in the rotation. For example, the Harrington & Richardson Sportsman .22LR revolver. I've got two other .22LR revolvers (three if you count the NAA mini, but that's a safe queen in its own right) - a Colt Official police that's a good trainer for a .38 special, and the S&W model 17, which is my favorite .22LR handgun. The H&R just doesn't fit in; it's not as well-made as either the Colt or the Smith; the sights are even more rudimentary than the Colt's grooved topstrap; the only advantage is that, since the cylinder can be removed completely, it is easier to clean...

The NAA mini is another version of a safe queen. It takes .22LR ammo, so it's not that the mini is too expensive to shoot. It's only .22LR, so even the minuscule size of the gun doesn't provide terrible recoil. It's even so tiny that cleaning is a cinch. So why doesn't it make it out more often? Well, quite frankly, it's a single-action, five shot revolver with a 1 1/8" barrel that you need to remove the cylinder to load. It's just not a lot of fun to take to the range for a normal day shooting.

Now, where it does excel is as a novelty. It's a great gun to bring when folks are expecting/hoping for something interesting or out of the ordinary - it's not every day you get to fire a gun that's a third the size of your hand. The Snubbie from Hell™ falls into this category somewhat as well - folks want to shoot it out of a morbid curiosity to discover for themselves the unique level of agony that is setting off a 158 grain, 1300 FPS .357 Magnum round in a 3/4 pound handgun...

I've divested of most of my safe queens; the only ones left have some other intrinsic value like the 3" barrel Colt Detective Special or the aforementioned NAA mini. I had a Ruger Single Six that was an excellent little .22LR shooter; however, I got it the same time I found the S&W model 17 - and it just sat in the safe for range trip after range trip... Some guns, like the S&W model SW99 compact 9mm, have been replaced by other guns (the G30 in this case); there's little reason to bring a carry gun to the range if you no longer carry it.

So what are your safe queens? What are the guns you own that you don't shoot terribly often?

That is all.