How Do You Catalog Your Guns?

[Still Shooting]

I have just completed an inventory and catalog of all my firearms. Over the years I have been good at keeping a catalog sometimes, and not so good at others. I know I should keep a current inventory in case the house is robbed, or burns to the ground, but its one of those things that are easy to forget about.

The current list (17 entries) is an Excel spreadsheet that contains the following info:

Caliber/Guage
Manufacturer
Model
Serial No.
Production Year
Optics
Market Value (price range and date of estimate)
Comments

I have taken to using last 60 days sales on Gunbroker.com as a benchmark for market value (range), based on a review of photos for items sold vs. my own guns. I think this time I will also do digital photos of all the guns, to establish the validity of my assessed values, and put the whole thing on a CD. Trying now to figure out if I need a safe deposit box, or just the fireproof box at home.

How do you take care of this for your own stuff?

 

[MIL-DOT]

Two catagories,depending:
In the safe / Out of the safe?
Clean / Dirty?
Rifles / Pistols
Guns I own / Guns I wish I owned.

 

[W.E.G.]

Keeping track of market value might be a fun hobby, but it has little practical value.

Your guns are worth no more than what somebody is willing to pay for them when you die.

Your best bet to make sure your stuff doesn't just disappear into the ether is to find a friend/family person who is younger than you to agree to dispose of all your man-cave junk if you croak before he does. You'll be lucky if you can find somebody you can trust to simply keep up with the combination to your gun safe.

Style of cataloguing is a matter of personal preference.

I keep a Windows folder on each gun I own.
In each folder I keep files consisting of pictures of the guns, internet threads, scans of purchase receipts etc.
That way I just open Windows Explorer, and click to the folder for the particular gun I want to review.
Explorer alphabetizes the folders for me.



I could give a rat's six what happens to my junk pile after I'm dead.

 

[mljdeckard]

I don't ever see myself owning so many that I can't keep track of them in my head.

 

[shotgunjoel]

Keeping track of market value might be a fun hobby, but it has little practical value.

Your guns are worth no more than what somebody is willing to pay for them when you die.

I think that he's more focused on insurance here.
Yes, I have a sheet of paper in my desk with make, model, serial, caliber listed. I like that idea of putting it in a spreadsheet, might have to do that tonight.

 

[jmorris]

I make sure my wife knows she has more shoes than I do guns.

 

[oneounceload]

I have taken to using last 60 days sales on Gunbroker.com as a benchmark for market value (range), based on a review of photos for items sold vs. my own guns. I think this time I will also do digital photos of all the guns, to establish the validity of my assessed values, and put the whole thing on a CD. Trying now to figure out if I need a safe deposit box, or just the fireproof box at home.

How do you take care of this for your own stuff?

Send yourself an email to your email address and place it in a file folder on your email server - you can keep all the data and pics there. keep the data on a memory stick as well; print the data off with pics and place in a safety deposit box if you have one

 

[bikerdoc]

Rifles = days of the week
handguns = days of the month

seriously computer spread sheet with hard copy and receipts in safe deposit box

 

[SGW42]

ATF or someone actually produces little blank booklets for this purpose, and they are available for free at my LGS.

Inside you record make/model/caliber/action/date bought/price paid/seller.

I found them a neat and handy way to consolidate all that information. Took half a day to find all that information (turned out I owned more firearms than I realized), filled them out, then tucked them away in my safe deposit box.

 

[Quentin]

Still Shooting, I also keep an Excel spreadsheet inventory of many items around the house including guns. Pretty much the same info as you except I don't track Optics installed or Market Value.

 

[ColtPythonElite]

Nothing fancy. I keep a list of descriptions, serial numbers, and receipts for guns that have them in my safe deposit box. I keep have pics on my computer, back up hard drive, and a remote storage location.....For the rest of my house, I just have pics stored in the safe deposit box.

 

[Double Vision]

I have a spreadsheet with the pertinent info, adding pics is a great idea.

 

[content]

Hello friends and neighbors // I have the info you described saved on disk.

My list is a-z with pics, by manuf. then sublisted by rifle, shotgun, handgun in order of caliber.
I have a complete list of firearms not up for trade or sale and have sent copies to a few of my gun savvy family members. Along with the gun photo is a pic of the store tag (asking price) and the register receipt with the final price.

All original info is in my safe. Manuals, receipts, schematics ... in a folder with the business cards of two local gun shops that will sell them for my family on consignment if needed. I hope they would want to keep most of them but now they have this option also.

HTH good luck finding what works for you.

 

[Sav .250]

Pictures and a "current" sheet of paper with the ...facts.

 

[Rshooter]

Beckey, Betsy, Sue..

 

[berettaprofessor]

I have a gun inventory file set up in Quicken listing each gun, purchase info, serial number. Quicken lets you attach notes and photos to each entry, so it's a good way to keep pictures of each gun along with the gun info. The only scary part is that it keeps a running tally of the inventory cost!

 

[tazbigdog]

I usually put in:

Caliber
Capacity
Action
Stock
Barrel
Twist Rate
Sights
Overall Length
Weight
Serial Number
Who I bought from
Date of sale
How much
And any other special notes, like grips, commerative series, etc.

 

[AethelstanAegen]

After I got my C&R I was required to keep track of those in a bound book...I thought it an excellent idea and so I keep a second book for my non/pre-C&R guns. I keep it seperate from my guns in case I ever needed to report thefts, etc. Pictures are an excellent idea and I have now added a few pics of each to the books.

 

[ElToro]

excel sheet by make, model, caliber,serial , optics, what i paid or gift, what i thnk its worth, when i bought it when i think it was made, gun shop or ffl that handled the transfer. have also guns i have sold, and teh ffl that handled teh transfer outbound is well. just n case a gun ever comes back and the police for some reason ask me about it. also a pic of each gun both sides

 

[madcratebuilder]

I've been using a software program called "Gun Safe" for the past ten years or so. I think you can still down load a copy for free. You have predefined inputs for most info, plus you can add your own. It allows you to track selling and purchasing info, add photo's.

Looks like it's been pulled, they recommend NM Collector Software, a $20 program that is similar.

 

[Brian10]

For the guys keeping computer records, I recommend storing a copy online somewhere like emailing yourself a copy. Your home computer could be easily stolen, break, or corrupt over time. It is only a matter of time before a hard drive fails - that is fact.

I send myself an email with an inconspicuous title. If I want to find it, I search for something like "Daniel Defense" and it will come up because of the contents of the email. The misleading email title is just in case my email account gets hijacked. No one wants to wade through the 10,000 emails I have in my inbox.

 

[courtgreene]

I both love and hate this tread. I love it because it inspired me to go get my spread sheet on. I hate it because I KEEP HAVING TO ADD TO IT! Stop with your good ideas!
I already had what was required for C&R, but have now gone and made an inventory for everything. Now, off to add who gets them when I cease to exist by each firearm.

 

[ForumSurfer]

Trying now to figure out if I need a safe deposit box, or just the fireproof box at home.

While I don't catalog as extensively as you, I do work in IT and disaster recovery.

• Don't depend on physical media. CD/DVD media will melt will it sits in that fireproof box in the event of a fire. I've seen far too many customers retrieve a tape/cd/dvd from a vault, only to find that nothing is on it. CDs and DVDs have a shelf life, but sometimes Murphy happens.
• Simply email that spreadsheet to yourself and archive it. It will never go anywhere. If you wish, register for a gmail account simply for that purpose. Conspiracy theorists will object, but they will also object to anything short of being carved in stone.
• Create a dropbox free account. Same deal.

Now you have your spreadsheet backed up in two separate places accessible from anywhere, anytime and any place as opposed to a cd that you have to keep up with.

 

[Picher]

I do too many spreadsheets at work, so simplified my guns spreadsheet columns. I took the time to write down every gun I ever remember owning, then had a column where I wrote a 1 if I still own the gun. It adds the number of guns owned at the bottom.

The gun model, serial number, and description of unusual features is one that wraps around. Then, there's one for present worth that adds at the bottom. So, I can tell the approximate value and number of guns I own at any time.

 

[nmGunCollector]

Version 2.3 of NM Collector Software now available

Hi Everyone,

I noticed a post in this thread referring to NM Collector Software so I thought I would post this update announcement here.

Changes in NM Collector Software version 2.3.0 (see complete history of changes here)

* Clearly marked first field on Identification Tab as the Bar Code field

* Improvements to Events tab

*Improvements to Maintenance tab

*Clean up, reformat, and improve functionality of Collection Types and all List Edits Screens

[*]Fixed bug with one insert right after another losing data from previous

[*]Fixed issues with data not being saved unless tab was pressed after
each entry

*Improved existing collection types by changing first [Bar Code] field to Unique ID

[*]Ammo

[*]Home Inventory

[*]Whistles

*Created new collection types for:

[*]Licenses

[*]Subscriptions

[*]Recipes

[*]Passwords

*Created new reports to more easily report out on new collection types:

[*]Simple Inventory (all Identification tab fields)

[*]Simple Inventory with Notes (all Identification tab fields plus Description tab Notes fields)


Clay Pryor
NM Collector Software | any collection any platform