Who puts their name on their guns.

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SamT1 said:
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I just cannot resist the urge to respond ...

I think that that is horrible.

After seeing that you had done something like that to one of your firearms, I would never let you even touch one of mine.

S'just me. Your rifle, so you may do with it whatever you wish but I am repelled by that.
 
Only an extremely short-sighted Goober who never wants to be able to sell it, and doesn't care whether his financially desperate widow or brother can sell it for cash to buy their critical pharmaceuticals.

I'm 62, and my wife was almost widowed a Second time last October. I never believed that excellent blood pressure (checked two days before the Attack) could allow a chest artery to become 100 percent blocked. Gonna note approx. gun values for her.

But we have the freedom to do ugly things to any gun. Maybe I should inscribe my name on the nice slides of my German-proofed Sig P228, 225 and CZ Compacts?
 
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Way back when I was a sales rep, I was in a store in Iowa when a shotgun came in on a trade. They were tearing it down to clean it up and under the butt pad in the recess for the action bolt were two different Iowa hunting licenses from 1912 and 1913.
That got me to thinking and I've put a business card into a recess in the stock on some of my firearms. As for marking them? No thanks. I have photos and serial numbers listed both on a file on a CD and in a safe deposit box. The box also has a list of the scopes, their serial numbers and the value to replace the firearms for insurance purposes.
 
I'm not an anal person and don't care that much about nicks and scratches on guns, but I'd still never engrave or carve my name in any of them. Not even on the Red Ryder I had as a kid. Even family heirlooms and beaters have a price tag on them, and I wouldn't want to ruin my off-springs' ability to sell something someday for a fair price.

I do meticulously keep track of the serial numbers of all my guns and any expensive tools I have.

I remember when a buddy bought a .22 at a gun show from a dealer and found a name and social security number carved under the butt plate when he took it home. We joked that the guy was lucky we weren't interested in stealing identities.
 
The two that i have permanently marked were built specifically for me.
If their next owner doesnt like it, they can replace the $3.00 sideplate on my flinter, or the $50 lower on my AR.
Problem solved.
I, however, happen to like it. I suppose it tails back to the days when my mod 12 was one of a dozen others in the gunrack at the clubhouse.
CCI primers gave away adhesive backed nametags for you to stick to your fore end to help identify your gun in the rack.
Remember?
 
If you glass-bed a barrel, you can put a piece of dymotape on the bottom with your name embossed on it. Remove it and a mirror image of the writing will be in there forever ready to be held to a mirror. It might be enough to charge a criminal who gets caught with it.
 
:thumbdown: No, never. I would never engrave my name, or ever popular Social Security number, on a firearm. I have seen so many guns ruined, IMHO, by doing this. I speculated that the owners were just too lazy to keep a record of serial numbers, and it was just a lot easier to whip out the old Dremel, or a nail, and scratch identifying information on the firearm. Several years ago, I noticed a mint appearing Winchester Model 62 rifle hanging on the wall at a gun shop that handled a lot of high end guns. I thought the price at the time was quite reasonable. I asked to look at the little rifle. Found that a former owner had proudly, but not professionally, engraved his Social Security number in the finest billboard style on the left side of the receiver:barf: ------ It was a No Sale!
 
My impression was that Serbian snipers using scoped Mausers for shooting at newlywed brides in Sarajevo were the only ones who did such "trench art".

But as usual, I stand corrected.
 
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SamT1 said:
Yea that’s about the only shot at getting them back, but I’d bet over 90% are put back in circulation for cash money or even pawned once the dust has cleared.
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The proverbial dust never clears. Once a serial number has been entered into the national database as a stolen gun, car, VCR, watch.. it stays there until it's removed by being found. You can't pawn a stolen gun without flags going off.

Chicken scratching your name on a gun does nothing in aiding its return or preventing its theft.
 
Jesse H said:
The proverbial dust never clears. Once a serial number has been entered into the national database as a stolen gun, car, VCR, watch.. it stays there until it's removed by being found. You can't pawn a stolen gun without flags going off.

Chicken scratching your name on a gun does nothing in aiding its return or preventing its theft.
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Pawn shops are not required to check the SN in most places. I know that varies state to state though. How many private sale guns have you run numbers on before you bought them? I’ve actually had to forfeit a gun that I bought off gunbroker from a pawn shop, the original owner came across it on there (very rare setup) In the archives a few months after I bought it. I tried to raise hell accusing the owner of not knowing the S/N until he saw it on there. The police swear it was reported about 3 months before I bought it.
The recovery rate of stolen guns is around 15% at best. Most recoveries are crime related. Almost none of the guns that end up back in circulation to non criminal folks get found.

Police and game wardens don’t run numbers on guns in your possession during routene stops, I’d bet they are a lot more likely to run one with someone else’s name on it.

Where I live, a gun with my name on it would have to travel 45 miles before anyone would have good odds of ever selling it even 10 years after it was stolen. It’s pretty easy to call a pawn or gun shop and ask if they’ve seen a gun with my name on it. If it’s as repulsive to the average guy who doesn’t use guns as tools as it seems they’d be sure to remember it along with anyone else on armslist or any local traders.

Resale value is of no concern. I expect my boys to fight over the guns that are my favorites. Anything I’ve bothered to mark has it will have lots of field wear anyway so value won’t be there on a collector basis anyway. There’s plenty of pretties in 100% condition to sale. I don’t mark anything that doesn’t spend significant time riding in the pickup or loose around the house. I think some of you have told your wife guns are an investment so many times you forgot that the average field gun is not a good investment and it would be a horrible idea to hunt, carry or use anything you bought as an investment. You’ll never get your money back much less make money on anything you move down the scale in percent condition.
 
Like many others, I used to mark my tools and other possessions with "permanent" markers. The pawn shop removes that with Goof Off.

Names can be ground off or obscured easily. Doing that to a gun serial number is a felony.

But you can do whatever you like with your tools.
 
I've found a few guns with a SS# engraved on them; recently a 3-screw single-six in otherwise excellent condition. The engraved number lowered the value by about a $100
 
SamT1 said:
I wish someone near me would do stuff for that kinda money. I’d like to get my boys names engraved on theirs. I’ve been quoted $150 to simply put a name on a gun.
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I've had my wife's initials engraved on a few of the guns I gifted her. It seems like I had a jeweler engrave one of them, but I usually just take them to a local trophy shop. I don't remember what it costs, but it's never been very expensive.:)
 
I was promoted to Lt. in January of 2002. So this was sort of right after 9/11 Guns 040.jpg Guns 044.jpg Guns 047.jpg and I had been working down at Ground Zero. I had a lot of feelings going through me. My Super Blackhawk was a good shooter, and as a gift to myself for getting promoted, I had a complete custom job done on it. Action and trigger job, (it now breaks clean at just over 2 lbs), drilled and tapped, flat stainless finish, with chromed flames down the barrel. I really pimped it out. I figured this would be passed down to my kids, and hopefully to theirs, and so on. Just kind of leaving my mark in this world. So I had a Maltese Cross with my initials in the center put into the backstrap. What it did to the cash value of the gun was not a concern of mine...I didn't consider this an investment. It was "my treat to myself" to reward myself for hard work, and to help heal. I've taken many deer with it, hope it stays in my family for generations, and that someone long down the road remembers what the initials stand for, and who I was. This is the gun I use in my avatar.
 
I've never done it, but I do have a gun that has the original owner's initials on the bottom of the trigger guard. Kind of annoying, and not something I would do, but it's there.
The initials are "L.W." and my friend teases me that it was Lawrence Welk's gun before I got it. Darn kids, get off my lawn.
 
my gpa engraved his name on his 32-40 Winchester hi-wall. its mine now after his passing.

it belonged to his father and he passed it to me his grandson.

I'm glad he did it., its one of the few real things I have from him.his name being on it just makes it more cherished.

ill never sell it in my lifetime and I would hope my son would not either..

that being said I prob would never do it to a gun I owned.

my gpa was a different kind of man,a gun was a tool to him,he also marked all his tools..
 
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