A reminder to all of us...

[SSGOldfart]

Hording 40K of loaded ammo? Heck son that's just a start for some of the folk here. We don't call it hording either its just having a few rounds on hand.

Never a truer statement,I gave a key to both shops to my boys and had them added to the safety deposit boxes my oldest is to get the largest Uhaul truck and have at it,he may not want all my stuff,my wife gets what ever she wants,and the rest can go to the trash if they don't want to go through it all.I'm sure they will find the guns.

[Land Owner]

I'm sure they will find the guns.

You can only hope they don't find the receipts for the actual purchase prices you paid rather the prices you SAID you paid.

[Reverend Al]

Hording 40K of loaded ammo? Heck son that's just a start for some of the folk here. We don't call it hording either its just having a few rounds on hand.

If you don't have at least 40K of just .22 LR on hand then you're definitely a rookie!

[Reverend Al]

On a more serious note though, I have made an Excel spreadsheet of my guns and approximate market values for my wife's benefit since she'd have no clue of their values if I got hit by a bus tomorrow. I'm doing the same with my larger items of reloading equipment, (Dillon presses, Rockchucker, lube sizers and dies, Hollywood press and swaging dies, etc.) plus the ammunition and components on hand. I've also drafted a Word document with a lot of specific instructions for her regarding selling not only my guns plus my shooting and reloading items, but my 2 vintage collector cars, my current late model truck, some antiques, etc. Not really something any of us enjoy thinking about or doing, but you have to give some thought to those that we leave behind since none of us are going to live forever ...

[Land Owner]

I have a single three tiered fishing tackle box of all caliber gun cleaning supplies, lube dies, top punches, etc., as well as some small miscellaneous items. when I put each of these in a spreadsheet the replacement value amounts to over $1,000.00 IN THAT SINGLE BOX. I asked the spousal unit not to give that box away at $0.10 on the dollar after I pass.

Food for Thought: When you retire, you are faced with a choice, pay Microsoft for an annual license to use EXCEL, WORD, POWERPOINT, etc., or convert to something that is FREEWARE. Plan ahead.

[6bg6ga]

If you don't have at least 40K of just .22 LR on hand then you're definitely a rookie!

I don't waste my time on 22LR.

[beagle]

My shooting partner passed and liquidated his stuff. Another buddy did the guns. Cans and boxes of loaded ammo. No loads listed and he wasn't the most careful reloader so I pulled it and remelted the bullets and reprocessed the cases (mostly 9mm). Man, what a mess. Took me over 6 months working at it hard.

Its a good point though. My wife has no idea of gun values. Tends to overprice on common things. I've been culling the herd lately but still have along way to go. Got some nice pieces that I'd rather see go to a shooter than just some guy at a gun show.

Hard decisions but they have to be made./beagle

[redhawk0]

Some of us, and I'm one, tend to accumulate lots of "stuff" related to our hobbies.

I've been helping a widow go through and convert to cash all of her late husband's reloading gear and firearms.

I can't begin to tell you how much work is involved here. He owned well over 1000 boxes of factory bullets. We're at 52 die sets and counting. Primers, powders, brass, reloading accessories of all kinds. We haven't gotten to the firearms yet. There's well over 40k rounds of factory ammo and close to that of reloads.

Please do yourself and your survivors a BIG favor by at least organizing and labeling all your "stuff". If you've got "stuff" you haven't used in a couple of years find it a new home.


When I got into this as a favor to a friend of a friend it really opened my eyes to what a mess we can leave behind for others to clean up.

Are you gonna make some of it available to us here on the S&S forum? Or are you hording it all for yourself?

Seriously, if you posted some here I'm sure we could help the widow out with some cash for all that "stuff".

redhawk

[Burnt Fingers]

Are you gonna make some of it available to us here on the S&S forum? Or are you hording it all for yourself?

Seriously, if you posted some here I'm sure we could help the widow out with some cash for all that "stuff".

redhawk

I might. I'm still going through stuff. A lot of the factory bullets are partial boxes. From what I can see it looks like he would get a rifle, buy 10 different bullets, work up a good load and then put the rifle in a safe and wait for his next rifle to do the same thing.

I'm also going to be posting a list at the gun club that he belonged to and I belong to now.

I think I have all the empty brass, all 190 lbs of it. I still need to sort a lot of that as it was in buckets of unsorted brass.

I'm doing PT for my knees twice a week right now. That takes two days off the schedule right there. I also have some other commitments that limit me to just a couple days of "mining" a week.

[Thin Man]

The last 4 years (including this one) have laid heavy on me. Each year I have lost a close friend who was a collector - hunter - shooter whose family needed help with disposing of the left behind firearms and ammo and reloading gear. My message to each family has always been the same: your money is no good around me. The help I give you is free. You cannot pay me or give me any gift from the estate for my efforts. I am willing to work for the family, to help them through the loss of a loved one, to get the value of these materials into their hands. I offer my help to them, as I knew their lost family member would have offered to my family if it was my time to go. This work is my donation to the memory of a friend that all of us will miss. The current estate is from a friend of 40+ years. He had around 100 firearms (really great quality Garands, Carbines, Lugers and S&W revolvers) and volumes of ammo but no reloading. I should finish the inventory today if my strength holds out. She plans to sell the firearms in an online auction with a local auctioneer plus a local FFL storefront. Now I'm wondering who will be the one to go next year. Hope it isn't me...

[30calflash]

A good friend of mine started liquidating a few years ago when he was started having problems. He is and his wife are older, they have no relatives close by so he decided to start thinning the herd. It was a good thing as his wife now has medical problems and he is spending most of his time with her. I'd say he sold off more than half of his fireaarms, reloading I don't really know at this time.

I met another man who was in his 60's years back at a gunshow. He was a commercial caster and had a table of cast for sale but always had 2 racks of long guns F/S at either end of the tables.

I saw enough of him to ask about them and his reply was he had over 300 long guns at the time and didn't need them all. He especially did not want his wife to have to go thru all of this if he passed unexpectedly. He was planning ahead, which is a good thing. He thought 20 would keep him out of trouble until he met his Maker.

So, you can hoard, collect, acquire, whatever you want to call it but remember we are all only part time holders of all things we 'own' here. Find some folks you'd like to gift things to, use the things you have and decide which you really want and have plans for all the other items. And maybe start the selling process yourself. You can't take it with you.

[largom]

Do to age and health reasons I have already started disposing of a lot of my "stuff". Like most wives my wife has no interest or knowledge regarding guns, shooting, or handloading and would take 10 cents on the dollar for it. I have sold 3/4's of my guns and have been selling reloadng/casting items here. Still have a ways to go but I would rather sell here than on eBay.

Larry

[jmort]

I am right there with you
Have not started on reloading stuff but have sold all the guns gathering dust
Everthing left gets shot except the safe-queens.
Next to go will be the safe-queens.
Don't shoot them, but I like having them, but to what end?????

[Burnt Fingers]

Well, I've most of the stuff transferred to my house. Not the firearms as those will be done later. I've got the reloading and ammo moved.

Luckily my wife went out with me this weekend and we were able to finish it. I'd be lost without my wife. As we were talking with the widow after we had loaded the truck she asked if I was into bullet casting. It seems there's more stuff in a workshop.

There wasn't as much as I originally thought as the deceased kept all the empty bullet and ammo boxes and the empty powder jars. My wife and I filled three large garbage bags full with broken down bullet and ammo boxes.

Now that I have it all here at the house I need to sort it out. One surprise was a Redding six hole turret press. It's got some rust and the ram is frozen but it's soaking right now.

The good thing is my wife was firm in her belief that his mess couldn't be any worse than my mess. She admits his mess was MUCH worse than mine.

I've paid the widow $1000 up front since it's going to take me some time to sort and sell this stuff.

[bdicki]

You don't have to die, you just have to move to a new house with less barns.

[FISH4BUGS]

I can't imagine hording 40K rounds of loaded ammo.

Really? I know a fair number of machine gun shooters that have that as STANDARD inventory.

[SSGOldfart]

You can only hope they don't find the receipts for the actual purchase prices you paid rather the prices you SAID you paid.

Well I'll be gone so what differences can it make ??

[Mr_Sheesh]

I'm single ATM, but if married, why in the world would you KEEP receipts to be found? Seems as wise as smoking atop a huge open barrel of FFg Black Powder, or beating on a 10# blob of Mercury Fulminate. I for one can find lots wiser things to do

40k seems a good number of rounds to keep on hand, though; Means you don't HAVE to reload every week, though you still CAN

[dverna]

My friend asked me to help his wife if he passes. I dread the task...but not as much as losing him.

He has cases of factory ammunition, a number of guns, and some very expensive shotguns. He has bequeathed me his Silver Seitz but I will sell it and give the proceeds to his widow.

[LEADLUBBER]

I am 40 now, and I can’t tell you how much a gift of a nice firearm and reloading components would mean to me if I was so lucky.

I am not a “black gun” aficionado as are most my age. I don’t hate them, but I have never kept one for long.

I appreciate the higher quality, more craftsman-made guns ( pre-64 Winchester’s, older S&W’s, etc.), or any other guns that were cherished by their owners for some special reason.

Gifts of these types to us of the “younger generations” will have a lasting effect to keep the hobby and craft alive during this upcoming time of more gun-ignorant future generations.

Let’s be honest, lots of millennials and younger generations won’t give $.10 on the dollar for “old guns”, reloading, or casting equipment, and likely won’t ever care about them either. This will have to likely be taught by those of us in our 40’s and 50’s now.

Another point is that if someone gifts you a gun and doesn’t need your money in return, I would say you probably do the most honor to the person and their gift by keeping it and or passing it as a gift to another worthy owner.

Living here in Colorado now, after moving from Texas, shows me that according to gun show tables here, this must be one of the worst “old hoarder” places to be. Lots of rich older guys who are apparently telling their wives they are “selling all their collections” who drag the same way-overpriced inventory from one gun show to the next. I know of several of these “collectors” and I have a very good memory, so I recall which dealers had what guns from show to show, and many aren’t even turning 10% of their inventory in a year or more. I think many of them are doing this to either brag about their collections to those who are interested or brag later to their friends and wives about selling something they own for more than the normal market value.

I also believe there will be a time in the somewhat near future where many of these items will lose much of their value, because of a lack of future generations having as much interest in them and also not having enough expendable income to buy at “normal prices”. I foresee this happening with classic and collector cars as well. Once most people have never read about and ridden in a big block SS Chevelle, they will cease to value them as much as a 450hp brand new Camaro that can be bought for the same money, financed through a bank, and have a wife or girlfriend who inevitably likes the new car much more as well.