So, I'll be 55 this year (yes, I'm a kid compared to many of my colleagues on this awesome board/resource). I got back into shooting back when I joined this group in 2011. As I've gotten older, my very modest collection of firearms has grown. And my tastes in firearms and optics have gotten pricey. Many "lesser" firearms I purchased in the first few years of shooting have been sold and upgraded.

But...I've noticed that my attitude to my collection has increasingly become one of being a steward until I pass them on to the next generation (vs. being an owner). I plan to shoot for at least another decade, but realistically, I will shoot less with age (that's just ME). I have some initial thoughts on who will get what firearms (son and nephews).

Also, I find that I am not really looking to expand the collection much more (though I dig my new to me WWII Luger) and have thought about "thinning the herd" and keeping only what I actually shoot and really appreciate.

Your thoughts pretty much duplicate mine. My collection consists of firearms that I like and enjoy, rather than intended for self or home defense. Due to the general disintegration of society in areas close to me I recently picked up some SD/HD models. That will likely be my last acquisitions.

I am about your age and I collected firearms over the years with an eye on passing them off to my three boys when they left the nest. I wasn’t sure many firearms I bought would even be available when they were adults. They are all grown and out of the house, and 75% of my firearms are now in their possession. I have a small collection remaining but nothing like what I had accumulated over the years. I have no plans to rebuild a collection, although there are a couple of guns I really miss. However, when we go to the range now I can say “hey, make sure you bring the ______, I want to shoot that again.” That helps scratch the itch.

Hmmmm. Foolish boy. I guess I was back then, too. I think what you will discover over the next 20 or 30 years, if you live that long, is you will see a progression. You've already started but it will continue. You will sell off (dump) your junk guns and concentrate on the better pieces. The ones that give you pleasure, both guns and knives. No reason to keep the ones that don't. Keep in mind that none of us can predict the future, but we can control what we carry into it. We all make mistakes, but that shouldn't bother us too much, it just makes us realize we made them and we don't have time to worry about them. Fortunately we move to a place financially where we can afford our mistakes. Well, at least we mature to where we realize we made them and learn to not make them again.

If you watch what others do you can learn from them. I have no idea why I have so many guns and knives. I've not shot anyone or cut them either. Even the ones that need it so badly. I also don't mind upsetting others. Even Democrats!

Yeah, you're still a kid but your feelings on guns aren't shared by any of the people I shoot with and they're all considerably older than you (except for one).

Most of us are still accumulating guns on a regular basis with no real thoughts of where they'll go after we're gone and not really caring either.

Yes, some look to having stewardship over the guns they leave behind, and others have no thought at all about it. There are two evaluations of what a collection would be worth, current "retail," and "trunk value."

My idea is that at the age of 68 I should already be giving my children some guns so they can enjoy them with me while I am still here. Or, so I would like. The one thing I don't want to do is have no plan at all, and I got to witness how that works:

At the local collector/FFL, he told be he was in his storefront one morning when a car began backing into the diagonal parking in front - attention getting - and realized when the driver got out who it was. The wife of an old gun show buddy who he hadn't seen in years.

She had noticed his sign was on and stopped - with a trunk full of her late husband's guns. All stacked in the trunk, no cases, none loaded thankfully. He had passed with no instructions, no will, no method of disposal outlined, so she was on the way to the first pawn shop that was open to get rid to them. Fortunately she decided to pass by and see if he, the collector, was open.

He was, she popped open the trunk, and there were all the guns piled up. They exchanged some idea of what she wanted for them and he began the laborious practice of unloading the wood and steel. Paid her price and began entering them into the book after she left with money.

If he hadn't been open, they would have gotten unloaded at a local pawn, and likely got less.

We read all sorts of posts online about how someone has passed - they are titled I SCORED A STEAL TODAY! and yet those who continue to buy more and more with no thought of them getting thrown in the back of her car to sell off the junk never seem to enter their minds. It's as if their golden years will just continue off into the setting sun with no end.

Visit a VA or nursing home, look at the 15% of residents who are male, and tell me their gun collection is sitting in their shared room down Hall C #315. There is the chance you could live longer than your collection, and hopefully, you won't know they were hauled off and sold for less than you paid for.

I'm going to suggest that happens most of the time.

Plan the sell off of your collection, or plan to fail and add salt to the wound of a widow. OP is doing it right.

I have been curating since I started. I am not really into tactical weapons and I don't really shoot for fun a whole lot except for shotguns. But I don't really have any "cheap" guns and anything I didn't love was sold to buy something I did. Now pretty much everything in the safe is there because I love it or because it's sentimental to me. I have basically none that I'd be ok with not having anymore and I have recently bought guns knowing that I'd enjoy them but also that they would be heirlooms for my 2 sons and maybe my nephew.

I'm not quite 40. I got my first gun (gift) at 13 (still have it) and bought my own gun for the first time probably about age 26.

I have all my guns, knives, watches, and montblanc pens going to a nephew. He qualified himself by me learning he valued anything related to his grandfather, my father especially his military stuff.

I also learned from his wife that he valued one watch I gave him as a present just because it came from me.

I like the idea of thinking of myself as a caretaker of my machinery, whether it be guns, cars, chainsaws, or hand tools. I need to sit down and write out who gets what.

Not everybody thinks that way. On another forum, a man posted about how he planned to be buried with his revolver. This wasn't just a run of the mill shooter, but a fairly rare and desireable example.

I expressed my "caretaker" opinion (it was a public discussion forum for crying out loud). He replied that this was his deeply held religion based on the ancient Nordic beliefs of his ancestors and he required no "lecture" from me.

OK.

I don't need to sell anything for lack of money and I don't know of many better cash investments in these inflationary times. I mainly own S&W, Colt and other older collectible firearms in mostly high condition.

I've been setting up at gun shows to further my collection for over 20 years so I know what I'm doing I think - rburg may disagree but I have taught him much about collecting high grade S&Ws for fun and profit - remember the Mellon engraved outdoorsman?

I've got a trusted friend that my wife can depend on if I go tits up and I'm also tight with a local auctioneer who does a great job with online gun auctions. No reason for a poor widow woman to get taken advantage of and the guns/knives are all gravy anyway.

I'm not a "collector" per se; the vast majority are working defensive guns with no extrinsic value. Because neither my wife nor daughter are shooters nor have they demonstrated any interest in starting, I have a friend who has agreed to be my "gun guardian" when I croak. He'll make sure that they are disposed of fairly.

quote:

Originally posted by doublesharp:
in mostly high condition.

rburg may disagree
and the guns/knives are all gravy anyway.[/Q
No reason for a poor widow woman to get taken advantage of

Hold on there a second. You call that junk you put up for sale at gun shows "high condition"?

Of course I disagree. You'd expect no less.

And the poor widow woman is the same one who berated you for buying those guns to begin with.

I'm not saying my wife has a better plan, hers is significantly worse. Mine plans on just letting our sons come in and pick and choose. Breaking up sets and what not. I've explained she'd be better off letting David Carroll come in and pick them all up and haul them away for auction. Sure, he'd skin her for maybe 15%, but its better than my sons trashing them in a moist basement.

I'm there, also. I have a pile of Glocks and some AR's, but the rest of what's in the safe is quality, historical, or uncommon stuff that I acquired and am preserving to pass on to my son.

This is a great discussion. I'm 68 and need to think about what I'm going to do with my firearms, proactively.

I'm beginning to think of this firearm distribution exercise as equivalent to a 401k RMD so that its done with some kind of plan and enjoyment.

If I croak with all my stuff, the wife knows to call Rock Island or James Julia to auction them off. Otherwise if I dispose of the ones my daughters don't want they all get sold one day and I spend to money on something stupid and fun!

I am about to turn 49. I really only have 2-3 firearms left that I would like to have. I honestly don’t know what I plan to do as I get older. My wife and I have no children. My niece and nephew on my wife’s side know absolutely zero about firearms and their parents don’t own any. My niece and nephew know firearms and I may leave each a gun, but I don’t know if they deserve to get everything. As I get older, I may sell some off. Just not sure yet or there yet.

I've been collecting guns for probably close to 50 years, as my budget would allow. My fascination with the older S&W revolvers was my main interest. I've thought about thinning the heard sometimes but then I always remind myself that once you sell it...you don't have it anymore.

When I croak the wife knows who to call to auction them off but I've asked her to let our daughter have at them first.

This has come up before, and I've has to admit to thinning my collection. Widowed here and now over retirement age this supplements my retirement. My boys not only don't share our enthusiasm (understated, as dictated by their wives), but live in communist territories. I recognize this would be a problem for them if I get hit by the comet tomorrow.

Work p/t at local shop and have been taking one at a time in for consignment. Even now there is a pristine HK USP Elite 9 sitting there.

I'm at the point (67) where I am ready to get rid of everything I can live without. I want to retire with the few firearms I enjoy the most and the $ the others will bring. I'm a realist and know that having more than I enjoy daily shooting is a waste of both time and reloading. I have several that I am very proficient and accurate with, but the others are impulse/gotta' haves. I can eat steaks everyday for years off of them.

I am over 70 and have been passing on to my two sons most of my collection (primarily antique, vintage, and military stuff from the Civil War era to WW2). Always with written histories, provenance when available, estimated values, etc. Fortunately my sons share "blued steel and walnut" virus I have carried around all my life.

Past few years have included cataract surgery (eye lens replacements), shoulder surgeries, elbow surgery, wrist surgery. General loss of strength of grip and hands, much more recoil sensitivity. Add in some arthritis and gout, I don't get out into the woods and mountains much anymore.

Two tours in Vietnam with a 1911A1 as a constant companion. 24 years as a cop, 11 in uniform with a .357 revolver, the remainder in plain clothes with either a .45 auto or Browning Hi Power. 20 years in CMP competition with M1, M1903, and M1A rifles.

My preferences are probably clear. Also clear is the simple fact that I cannot reliably handle my preferred instruments. Daily carry now is a S&W .38 Special revolver.

Everything else goes to the boys, or the grandkids. I'll keep a good .22 rifle, 12-gauge pump shotgun, a hunting rifle, and a half-dozen "must have" handguns.

Couple of perfectly good Sig pistols that I enjoy owning, but not very practical for me anymore. The springs are made for gorillas, not for tired old men.