Gun Collections to Envy: 7 of the Most Impressive Ever Assembled

It’s one thing to have a rifle closet at home, but something entirely different to have a gun collection of historic guns (and/or expensive ones) that make you the envy of other sportsmen and history buffs.

Here we present seven gun collections that hit the target square in the bull’s-eye. They’re owned by entities such as the J.M. Davis estate, the National Firearms Museum — and a guy who goes by just the first name “Chris.”

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1. J.M. Davis collection. The late J.M. Davis’ collection still survives, and it is still the largest privately owned gun collection in the world. It’s housed at the J.M. Davis Arms and Historical Museum in Claremore, Oklahoma, and features firearms that, if placed end to end, would extend for more than a mile. The oldest item is a Chinese cannon from the 14th century.

2. @Gun_Collector. Chris never uses his last name, yet the Florida man has quite the following on social media — more than 55,000 followers, according to his website. A collector for some 20 years, his collection runs the gamut from a Springfield Armory XD357 handgun to a Dragunov Russian sniper rifle.

3. The Post Falls, Washington, collection. An anonymous owner and his wife auctioned off 1,000 guns in November, Spokane’s Spokesman-Review reported. Highlights included SKS Soviet semiautomatic carbines and Romanian and Yugoslavian AK-47s.

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4. The National Firearms Museum. This Fairfax, Virginia, site houses more than 2,700
firearms in 14 galleries. American Cowboy notes that the Hollywood Guns exhibit there features the 1878 Gatling Gun that Clint Eastwood fired in “The Outlaw Josie Wales.”

5. The Cody Firearms Museum. American Cowboy also singles out this museum for its completeness. Nearly 7,000 firearms are displayed in chronological order, dating from the 1400s; the museum is one of five within the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming.

6. Weitzenhoffer Gallery of Fine American Firearms. This one’s also located in Oklahoma, at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, and while it may be small, the collection of 100-plus specimens tells the story of the American West. It includes some rare Colt guns.

7. Greg Martin Colt Gallery at the Autry National Center. You want Colts? They’ve got Colts, and American Cowboy says the show-stopping pieces at the Los Angeles gallery include a single-action Colt revolver owned by Theodore Roosevelt and the gun Doc Holliday carried in the "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral."

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