Reducing my accumulation

T

Travelor

New member
No this is not a FOR SALE post.

My wife, my fellow shooter and best friend just passed away (she was 11 years younger than me and "supposed" to out live me). My children are not really interested in guns like my wife was and I am.

Prior to my Mother's death she was sold her home and possessions when she moved into a assisted living facility. This kept me from having to deal with her passing AND disposing of her possessions during that awful time. I want to plan for this same kindness for my children. But at the same time, I want to enjoy my remaining functional years with the hobby that my wife and I loved.

I am wondering what your thoughts are on how best we, as older shooters, should gradually reduce our accumulation of guns and reloading equipment and supplies. Surely this thought has occurred to others and I am wondering what your thoughts are on this.

Thanks,


(If this looks familiar to those that also read the 6mmBR Forum, it is because I posted this there also.)
 
trim down

Recentely attended an auction from the estate of a gunsmith and shooter. The guns sold well enough but there was so much stuff that went rather low. My plan is to clean up a lot of the excess, and document the good stuff. An old shooter helped me get started reloading years ago when I did not have any extra cash. Time to pay it forward to the next generation. I gave away a fine Redding press & Ohas scale to a young man. He will graduate high school this spring and is thinking Army. It is time well spent helping him and I have to much stuff anyway.
 
Travelor,
First off, let me tell you that I'm sorry for your great loss! My thought and prayers are with you.
I have been having thoughts such as yours. I was raised in the shooting sports and I raised my son the same way. Although my wife is still alive, she recently had a stroke and me, well I'm 56 with a history of heart disease.
I got to thinking recently about what would happen to my guns. My son still loves to shoot, but he is at the age where work and making money is the foremost on his list (maube as it should be) and his wife is a lovely woman, but she doesn't want guns in the house although they have no children and probably won't...I don't know if they even know where kids come from...
My Grandson from my daughter is 8 and loves to go shooting, but I will never be able to spend the time necessary to acquaint him with the knowledge about the custom rifles that I have and the necessary information on how to make ammo for them. It really has been depressing to a certain degree, and is tough to come to a satisfying decision on the matter. I'll let you know what I come up with.
MarkR
 
My main concern is that I don't leave behind any antiques or customised guns that may not be entirely safe to fire using the most powerful of modern manufacture ammunition in that chambering.
For this reason I've chosen not to add any 7.62 NATO conversions of WW2 or earlier bolt action rifles, The only exception to this would be Mauser 98 actioned rifles and then only if the conversion untilized a purpose made barrel rather than a 7.65 barrel with chamber inserts.
Also while the .30/06 conversions of the K98 aren't inherently dangerous I'd want to be certain the rework did not involve grinding away previous NAZI markings or numbers, which has apparently weakened some receivers it the grinding went too deep.

A .32 S&W Hand Ejector in my collection is in fine shooting condition but is of an early model which has the long condemned side swinging spring type hammerblock passive safety, a mechanism known to be the cause of AD if dropped if the block becomes jammed or looses spring tension. A special warning note will be placed in its case.

I choose not to alter any autoloader that has a magazine disconnect for the above reasons. Removing the mag disconnect is a common alteration , so anytime you obtain a second hand auto pistol its best to check for this first off.
I like a light trigger but I don't care for a hair trigger, too much chance of someone unfamilar with the gun having an accident.

PS
Last year a friend brought over a couple of fairly valuable antique handguns he'd found while settling his deceased father in law's estate. No notes of any kind were found with these. The daughter of the deceased had no idea of what she'd inherited.
 
reducing my accumulation

First let me also say i feel your pain.
Your loss is a
great one, and hard to deal with.
One thing you can do, if you don't sell everything off.
Document each firearn with a price. Put it on a tag attached to the firearm.
If it goes to Auction then the family will have something to go by.
The reasonable price Reserve at auction.
That way even if it's only 1 firearm the family will know it's value.
It probably will help the family deal with that small problem.
 
Travelor said:
I am wondering what your thoughts are on how best we, as older shooters, should gradually reduce our accumulation of guns and reloading equipment and supplies. Surely this thought has occurred to others and I am wondering what your thoughts are on this.
Click to expand...

Sorry for your loss. Life sometimes takes some sad and unexpected turns.

First, we should all have a legal will that in some states can be filed with the court. Don't wait or postpone this--we could all be gone tomorrow or next week. Spend the money it takes to have a lawyer draft the will to ensure everything is properly drawn up. Be sure to spell out exactly what your wishes are regarding your firearms, especially if you want them to go to specific people and relatives.

Rather than tag firearms with prices, prepare a list of make, model, condition and serial number. Determine a value for each. Put the list with your will.

If the executor of your estate (named in the will) doesn't know much about guns, leave specific instructions on selling them. Far too many estates containing guns have been sold for much less than their value by people disposing of them with no idea of values.

Your question about disposing of things before we pass on is difficult. Ideally, the timing would be just right in that we could continue to enjoy the things we love until we have to let them go, but it seldom happens that way. The best we can do is try to plan things out as best we know, get rid of the things we can do without, and have a valid will with good, clear instructions that we ourselves craft.
 
Travelor,
I think first, you have to look back on on how blessed you were to have such a good friend and companion,that type of personal relationship has a way of reducing all material posessions to insignificance.Still,I can't imagine life on this earth without one good rifle, a sharp knife,my favorite fishin' pole and a good pair of boots( a well seasoned cast iron skillet comes in mighty handy too).
I would start your transition by selling your least used items first and working your way up the ladder to those you use most.It'll give you something to do to keep your frame of mind positive. Use the cash to do something special in your wife's memory.
Joel
 
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