What to do with it all?

[lightman]

It is something to consider. Thanks to past threads on this subject I have a plan. My guns are in my will, mostly to family and close friends. I have a Master list of them and it has the history of some of them. My reloading equipment and my ammo will go to family also. My Sons and close friends trust my loading experience and skills enough to shoot my reloads. Most of them are labeled. I have already sold any reloading equipment that has been replaced by newer stuff or for calibers that I no longer load for. I've made an effort to become more organized so hopefully my stuff will be easy to find.

Some Friends and I rented a table at the last gun show and sold off a bunch of extra gear like scopes, holsters, spare parts, my belt buckle collection, my knife collection, ect ect. I also thinned out my stash of brass. I mean, does a guy really need five 5 gallon buckets of 40 S&W brass?

Just getting ready but not in any hurry!

 

[Ironicaintit]

I'm in no way condemning your father but sometimes I believe us guys give into the selfish little boy when it comes to our toys. I'm of the belief that it's the non-tangibles we leave behind that carry the greatest value.

We do, and yes he did!
He was an "accumulator" to put it politely. Luckily, there was a lot of good stuff. There was also a ton of, "what the heck am I supposed to do with this?" And "what is this thing?"

But, you're right, of course.
our dads teach us a lot, good and bad....and that's where the value is.
Too bad we don't know that until they are no longer there to learn from.

I wish I could go back and say, "hey dad, here's a label maker, let me show you how to use it"

 

[joem1945]

My will states all and I mean all is to be auction off to the highest bidder and the house sold as well as the stuff inside. I've named the auctioneer as I've been to his auctions and he gets top dollar and advertises his auctions. All the money is to go to a trust fund for granddaughters. One exception is AR15 retro that the kid wants.

 

[huntsman]

We do, and yes he did!
He was an "accumulator" to put it politely. Luckily, there was a lot of good stuff. There was also a ton of, "what the heck am I supposed to do with this?" And "what is this thing?"

But, you're right, of course.
our dads teach us a lot, good and bad....and that's where the value is.
Too bad we don't know that until they are no longer there to learn from.

I wish I could go back and say, "hey dad, here's a label maker, let me show you how to use it"

well at least you can still I went through the "Stuff" turmoil with my MIL and I'm all too familiar with the feelings of futility, but sadly there wasn't gun stuff to soothe the pain.

 

[Hardtarget]

I hope you have a few shooting buddies. If so, consider what they shoot. If some of your gear over laps their stuff, maybe you could funnel it toward them. If wifey is OK with your plan it would be easy for you to label boxes foe each one and later it could be shared out. They would be surprised and grateful to be remembered like that.maybe

Mark

 

[AR-15Nutt]

my wife and i had many discussions over this same topic, well..., she died last Thanksgiving day (same day my Mother died 35 years earlier) when she was alive we discussed making a will and naming the 10 y.o. kid next door (he is now 30 y.o.) as the executor, now we have talked, still no will, those of you who have made out a will what was the attorney's fees? i was told that a general will such as everything to be sold at auction to highest bidder, with some personal items to be given to family, was less costly, a will specifying every item to be disposed of is very costly, not too concerned about the cost, just the pain in the ass of itemizing every single item.

sooo, give me some feed back folks, one of my rifles, a collectible NIB is worth about $10,000.00, my youngest son who is interested in preserving family traditions and history, wants it, he would keep it NIB till he is faced with disposing it, i gave him a standard AR-15A2 rifle about 10 years ago NIB and it is still NIB, my oldest sons son would take it out and shoot it if he got his grubby little paws on it.

soooo.., what to do??

thank you!

 

[tacmedicp94]

There's a local dealer here that is constantly getting items given or willed to his store when people pass. Sometimes it is in their Will, but usually the family just knows to take all of "Dad's stuff" to him. He sells the stuff and either gives the money back to the family or to a local shooting range that does a lot of youth shoots. I think he keeps 10% of the sale. He sells the firearms and components for a fair price and will let you know if he has something "in the back" from one of these situations if you're looking for something similar. You might see if any of the local dealers in your area would work a similar deal with you.

Adam

 

[Bullseye]

My wife didn't give me a hard time when I got my stuff. She can do what she wants with it when I'm gone. I have grandkids, I hope they grow up to be sensible. I'd like to have them get some of my stuff if they turn out as responsible grown ups.

You can't take it with you when you go, and I'm kinda glad I won't have to.

 

[tarosean]

I plan to give everything away or sell off everything but a cheap handgun (assuming I live into old age.)

 

[danez71]

my wife and i had many discussions over this same topic, well..., she died last Thanksgiving day (same day my Mother died 35 years earlier) when she was alive we discussed making a will and naming the 10 y.o. kid next door (he is now 30 y.o.) as the executor, now we have talked, still no will, those of you who have made out a will what was the attorney's fees? i was told that a general will such as everything to be sold at auction to highest bidder, with some personal items to be given to family, was less costly, a will specifying every item to be disposed of is very costly, not too concerned about the cost, just the pain in the ass of itemizing every single item.

sooo, give me some feed back folks, one of my rifles, a collectible NIB is worth about $10,000.00, my youngest son who is interested in preserving family traditions and history, wants it, he would keep it NIB till he is faced with disposing it, i gave him a standard AR-15A2 rifle about 10 years ago NIB and it is still NIB, my oldest sons son would take it out and shoot it if he got his grubby little paws on it.

soooo.., what to do??

thank you!

Sorry for your loss(es). Sucks.

I'm sending you some basic info for AZ via PM. Its not much but its a start.

 

[Ignition Override]

Will give a few things to my brother, although he is about the same age.
My son is mostly indifferent to sports shooting-that's why I'm selling about four of my milsurp guns which have not been used in a while.

Don't forget about Armslist FL, AL etc which lots of people in your state will see. I've made three transactions using it, all FTF (in person) within 2 & 1/2 hours drive.

 

[Sauer Grapes]

I have been giving this a lot of thought lately myself.

 

[ny32182]

I'm not anywhere near having to worry about this, but I'd probably do two things:

1) Find a younger relative or shooting buddy that has the knowledge to act as a consultant for dispersing everything when the time comes

2) If you have 10's of thousands of reloads, I'd draw down that stash through my own shooting. There is currently a guy in the reloading section who is pulling 10k rounds of someone else's reloads he got for cheap with a kinetic puller.

Keeping components in component form will keep them more valuable and much easier to liquidate, since you won't have to find someone willing to either risk shooting your loads, and/or willing to put in the time to pull thousands of rounds. As long as your press still works I don't see the point of loading that far ahead of your shooting schedule anyway. If you discover some problem, you now have potentially a lot more ammo affected.

Components, reloading equipment, and guns should all be relatively sellable for semi-decent money by someone who knows where and how to do it. Your own handloads, not so much.

 

[Sniper66]

This is a very tough question with lots of good answers here. I have a small collection of guns, 20 or so, and I always keep an updated list with approximate value attached. What I don't have is any account of the 1,000s of rounds of different ammo and reloading supplies....presses, dies, primers, powder, dispensers, etc. I'll need to give this some thought. Reminds me that an acquaintance of mine recently bought an entire collection of reloaded ammo and reloading supplies for $1,000. A brief glance at the stuff would suggest that it is worth many times that amount, but the guy who inherited it didn't want to mess with it.

 

[Sauer Grapes]

That's one reason I don't keep much assembled ammo on hand. Most is just components. {Which is a sizable amount.}

 

[thump_rrr]

my wife and i had many discussions over this same topic, well..., she died last Thanksgiving day (same day my Mother died 35 years earlier) when she was alive we discussed making a will and naming the 10 y.o. kid next door (he is now 30 y.o.) as the executor, now we have talked, still no will, those of you who have made out a will what was the attorney's fees? i was told that a general will such as everything to be sold at auction to highest bidder, with some personal items to be given to family, was less costly, a will specifying every item to be disposed of is very costly, not too concerned about the cost, just the pain in the ass of itemizing every single item.

sooo, give me some feed back folks, one of my rifles, a collectible NIB is worth about $10,000.00, my youngest son who is interested in preserving family traditions and history, wants it, he would keep it NIB till he is faced with disposing it, i gave him a standard AR-15A2 rifle about 10 years ago NIB and it is still NIB, my oldest sons son would take it out and shoot it if he got his grubby little paws on it.

soooo.., what to do??

thank you!

I am in Canada so the prices I was charged may be higher or lower where you are but you will at least know what I did.

I am an only child. My parents had no previous spouses or children from other relationships so there was nobody to contest the will.
I was appointed as executor and each of my parents put me as the beneficiary.
This was as simple as can be.

When I brought my parents to the notary to make the will there was some urgency to the matter because my Father had already battled prostate cancer 10 years earlier and was going in to the hospital and the prognosis was not good. He never made it out of the hospital .
My main concern was actually power of attorney and a living will since my mother, at the time, while physically healthy was in the early stages of Dementia.

The total cost was $900 for his and her wills, living wills to make decisions on their medical care, and powers of attorney over their financial affairs.
since both were exactly the same except for the names of each of my parents he didn't really charge me full price.
He also knew that when I would be transferring the property I would go back to see him which I did.

Now as for that NIB rifle you have, It is yours to do with it as you please.
If you choose to give it to the son who will keep it NIB then great.
If you were give it to the other son who would shoot it then great.

Obviously it would lose some value being shot but if it were truely rare and it was shot sporadically while being kept in like new condition it wouldn't really lose all that much value.

I am a car guy and even if I were to ever own a 65-66 Shelby GT350 or a 68-69 Hemi Charger they would still be driven in nice weather.

 

[stilllearning]

My one experience with this was with the widow of a gun collector/hunter. She had a trusted friend appraise and make a list of all guns and their estimated value. As a friend I was given a copy of the list and told that whomever I would trust with the information she would trust as being safe to allow into her home and as a buyer. That's quite a responsibility and one I took EXTREMELY seriously. while neither I or anyone I shared the list (but ultimately not the name or address with) purchased a firearm it did seem a responsible way of handling the situation.

fwiw