What's your plan for your guns when you pass?

F

FoghornLeghorn

New member
I have a sizable collection. My son lives in California and has already called dibs on a few pieces, but there are several guns he's prohibited from owning (in California).

My wife is ok with guns, but doesn't shoot. Even though she has a ten year CCL, she has yet to carry concealed.

The only thing I can think of is to leave detailed instructions for her to list the remaining guns (after my son picks through the selection) on gunbroker. (I don't want her to have to deal with anybody local, face to face.) I'll just have to find a local FFL who will handle all the transaction, including boxing and shipping, for a fee of course.

That will necessitate my taking pictures of each gun, listing said pictures on photobucket, cataloguing each picture with a description, etc. Then all she'd have to do is follow my instructions to list on gunbroker. No reserve. No minimum, kind of thing.

I doubt she would do anything for a while, but eventually she might.

Then, after all the guns have been disposed of, she'd sell the reloading equipment, ammo, etc. I guess all of that would have to be local. Except maybe the ammo. She could sell that on gunbroker as one big lot. There's quite a bit of commercial ammo.

Is your plan anything like that? I know it's an unpleasant thought, but it's always a possibility. Right?
 
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Planning ahead is always a good idea. Another option to consider is auction houses. Around here, you can find estate auctions advertised in the newspaper just about every week that include firearms collections. Then the auction house can take care of the advertising, photos, etc.

Make a list of the firearms that will need to be sold, along with a rough value. That way, your wife doesn't take $300 for a $3000 gun. She may or may not know the value of the guns. Mine really doesn't, but yours might. Whether she does or not, I can see getting easily flustered when dealing with a now-deceased spouse's belongings. The list should help avoid that.
 
What I've done since we never had kids given some to nephews that hunt since most of mine are hunting/varmint rifles. I've sold all but one factory chamber rifles and some of my wildcats I've had the barrels spun off sold actions/stocks.

I have very good friend that in the gun business (FFL) if something happen to me he would handle sell off remaining rifles and reloading stuff.

Just to keep everything legal wife and I update our wills yearly and my rifles
(value) are in that also. My wife hunts and she has few favor rifles/shotguns also.

If there all factory firearms you can get on one of the auctions site mostly like find value or have someone come in and appraise them. You have to remember there is asking price and selling price. I would think you should include your son in detail on how you want to handle things and maybe he could help with some of those details.

We hired an attorney that handles wills,estate planning & probate since we don't have kids if something happened to both of us in our travels, we got to spell out were everything goes and who gets what so your not going to have that 12th cousin from some distance aunt putting claim on your estate.
 
I'm 55. My 2 kids are 29 and 25. I have 1 son-in-law and currently 3 grandkids. I started thinning the herd several years ago by selling many of my guns. None were really junk, but over the last 10 years I've significantly reduced the number owned, replaced them with fewer, but better guns and have put quite a bit in the bank.

I have a few more that I plan on selling or giving to kids/grandkids over the next 10 years. By the time I'm 65 I only plan on having a handful that I actually use. Those will be listed in a will as to who gets them when I pass.

If something happens suddenly earlier, the kids can just fight over them. I won't be around to worry about it.

Spats has a good idea. I use a spreadsheet with all SN's and other info on my guns with a rough value listed. I have it saved on my computer as well as a hard copy in the safe. Be sure to list the value of optics and other custom features etc. I have 4 rifles in McMillan stocks. It is my experience that I can get much more by putting the factory stock back on and selling separately. Same with any decent optics.
 
It is worth putting some thought into planning. There was recently an auction of over 300 firearms (14 Johnson rifles alone, 8-9 NFA weapons, rare historical guns). The husband (owner) and wife were both dead and the local news was quoting a local gun dealer about how there were few valuable guns in the estate and how he felt the police estimate of $1M was overstated. Said dealer had also limited the number of buyers for the auction.

A situation like that really lends itself to the unscrupulous. If the owner had taken a bit of time to better inventory the collection and explain significant pieces, I expect the estate would be much better off.
 
You owe it to your spouse....to give them as much info on the guns as you can ( and major tools, or whatever else you collect...). Same think I ask of her - on her jewelry ....so I know where she wants it to go / and values...

I have a spreadsheet....listing make, model, yr manufactured, caliber...specs on the gun....( and I have photos of my collection / that I update about once a year as well - stored on my computer - and labeled) - but I include:

a. what I paid for it
b. what the current used value is
c. and what the replacement value is ..

...and I list the accessories I have with each gun .....holsters that are specifically for it, conversion kits if I have them, extra grips, etc....grips, holsters, etc I keep in a storage box - and I put them in gallon or quart zip loc storage bags - and I label what they are - same on mags.

I update the spreadsheet once a year ....and I print and put a copy of it in the safe.

I'm only 63.../ my wife knows she can contact a couple of my shooting buddies to help her if something were to happen to me...and I've started divesting a few guns - passing them down to my adult kids....but there will still be 30 or more guns for her to deal with....

I list suggestions on shops that she should consult ....to either sell them to / or to put them on consignment that I know I can trust.

Of course if I were to know my end was near for some reason ....I'd take care of it myself - before I passed, so she wouldn't have to deal with it.

The more unique or extensive your collection is ....the more you need to do to make sure the list is adequate for her to deal with it. If its only 5 or 6 guns, I don't know that I'd worry about it too much...
 
I have descriptions of who passed down certain guns, who I would like them to go to, and that they need to be kept in the family if that person cannot or will not take them. I also have specific instructions for who certain other guns should go to. The rest can be divided up or liquidated as they see fit. My youngest daughter is my gun kid and she will have the biggest say in what happens to guns without specific instructions.
 
I live in Virginia, so, obviously I'll be sending them all to NYC.
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I think youre alright ya know that. :p

next, after im gone, I don't care. if my wife doesn't care enough to pick through the few guns I have for herself, then she can give them to my brother, he lives in a free state too.
 
I once asked this same question of a older friend of mine some years ago.
His response and I still remember the quote like yesterday; "Son I'm takin mine with me because God know someone up there needs killin" :D

My youngest daughter will have control over who gets what.
I trust her judgment better than I trust my own in this matter.
She will sit everyone down and talk through it with her siblings and pass the guns along to the ones that will appreciate them the best.
I have many milsurps as well as modern guns and some interest my son and other daughter and some don't.
 
Having gone through this with a good friends wife after he passed away it’s something you better be prepared for.
He had a collection that I priced out using all the resources I could come up with at around 20K$.
A “good” friend that bought 3 Sigs for 600$, two of them were new introduced her to a gun store in town and they gave her what he called a “GOOD” price.
She came down and asked that I look at them. They offered her around 4000 for the bunch. Two of the guns were easily worth that much.
Luckily I got that stopped. When her late husband’s police friends found out (he was a retired policeman) they got involved.
My suggestion is to make a photographic file of your collection.
I take photos of all my guns. Separate photos of all markings. I then use windows paint and mark each one with manufacture, model, caliber, date of manufacture, SN and value. I add photos of the guns boxes and the label on the box and the box with the gun in it. I then place all the photos of that gun in one file with the name of the gun that can be read on the outside of the gun. Like the photo attached, this is one of 10 photos of the gun and everything that goes with it and the file is called Gold cup.
Takes a lot of work but I don’t want my wife to get taken by some low life gun store owner when I go to that shooting range in the sky.
 
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My plans are, my Son gets them all. Probably not going to make my two daughters happy, but it’s my wish.
 
I have a list in a spreadsheet of all my firearms and what I paid for them. That list is about 70 items long but will probably be closer to 100 when I retire.

When I retire I will split that up into three categories - "keep", "hold", and "sell". In retirement I plan to be shooting the "keep" items for fun as well as the "hold" items to either upgrade them to "keep" or downgrade them to "sell". I will probably re-evaluate the "keep" list over time if and when my tastes change and will probably downgrade them from time to time.

One of the reasons I have amassed this collection is to have the guns I think I would like but just don't have the time to shoot and evaluate. I buy them, shoot a few, and put them up for the future.

A number of these guns are things I see as being undervalued which I expect will appreciate well over 15 to 20 years. Looking at current values I have been right much more often than I have been wrong.

I have a few NFA items that I will either transfer to my sons when they are old enough if they have the interest, or sell to capitalize on the investment if they don't have the interest.
 
Take care of it now before you shuffle off.

I work at an auction house and we frequently deal with estates. It is sad to see people dealing with the "stuff" left by husbands, wives, or parents.

You can save your family a lot of heartache by getting rid of those things they don't care about before you are gone.
 
Considering my first wife passed away when I was 24 years old, I lost any hesitancy to discuss post-death topics.

If something happens to me, my wife knows that my family can have first dibs, and everything else will go on consignment with a local FFL that deals in used guns. I trust him, and he likes my wife, so I know it would be handled well.
 
My father is actually near death..
Late 80's with increasing bouts with Alzheimer's.
The one thing we truly shared since I was a small child was the world of shooting. The huge gun show at the Pomona Fairgrounds, cruising the pawn shops...

I am his only son..

He always said, "these will be yours, as we cleaned them and put them away after a trip to the range"
It basically is the ONE thing of my father's estate that I want.
Well, I have been in Florida for 12 years now, and as my Father's mental capacity decreases, it seems he has also now promised all of his collection to all of my nephews (4 of them)

I have spoken to my 2 oldest nephews, and they respect that I was promised the collection, and have asked me if they could have "X" from the collection and I have no problem with that.
The other nephew could care less, but my one other nephew has stated that ALL the guns will be his, because "Grandpa said so"

It will get ugly sadly..:mad:
 
Whatever your wishes, they are only as good as the paper
they are written on. Write a Will. List who gets what.
Keep it current. Especially important if you have any NFA
items.
 
Afterlife.

The ancient Egyptians, amongst others, believed that all of your possessions, your body included, would be needed in the afterlife. The feats they accomplished clearly indicate that technological advancement is not even close to linear. They knew so much more than we do today. The original poster's family will collectively sink to their knees when they find out he's considering foregoing the standard burial plot and going with a 150 cubic foot tomb with which to house *their* inheritance. You're not done with those guns.
 
It will get ugly sadly..
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I know how you feel. My nephew has one of my grandpa's guns that was promised to me before I was born. If I pushed it any further there would likely be things said between me and my sister that would be the last things ever said between us.

Luckily my dad has already given most of his to the people he wants to have them and the rest is spelled out in the will.
 
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