Lost a good amount of handguns in a house fire. Most were easily found and replaced. Most of those are in the process of being worked on; triggers, Novaks, etc.

Had two that were somewhat problematic. 4" blued Smith Combat Masterpiece, Models 15-3 and 18-3 with matching grips, excellent condition.

Many people responded. Wrong barrel, wrong grips, refinished with a rattle can or they wanted to fund their retirement.

Was not going to settle for less that what was destroyed.

Stopped by the smiths to pick up a couple today. He had a presentation case sitting on the counter. Flipped the lid open and there they were.

Immaculate. Came from an estate sale. He'll clean them and do a function test. I'll pick them up later in the week.

That is very nice to hear ulsterman. I am sorry about the fire. I can't even imagine what would be like to go through.

We were lucky. Although most of the house was destroyed, non-replaceable items were in the opposite end. We had good records and a good insurance agent.

I certainly hope this doesn't to anyone but if it does, just relax and take in very slowly so nothing gets missed.

Thanks for the reminder - I just went through all my records and made sure everything was up-to-date.

I'm glad to hear you were able to recover most of your important belongings. It must have been a very difficult experience.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: 4x5,

Sad to hear about your misfortune. When I was in my early 20's we had a fire at my childhood home, from a newly installed heating system.

I lost thousands of slides and negatives that I'd taken since I was a teen. All of my USAF photos, my two days at Woodstock, as well as tons of childhood photos.

Still miss those to this day. At least firearms can be somewhat replaced. Maybe not the EXACT gun you lost but a good facsimile.

quote:

Originally posted by ulsterman:
We had good records and a good insurance agent.

What kind of records did you keep? Knowing what you now know, is there anything that you would have done differently with regards to record-keeping?

No changes, we had everything more than covered.

For firearms: Pictures, in depth descriptions, pics of the serial #'s and model @'s. Detailed list, and pics, of accessories, holsters, mags, etc. With the mags we actually had several different manufacturers so we took pics of their names on the mags. Ammo: We had a simple spread sheet show ammo by manufacturer, caliber, bullet weight, jacketed/hollow point, etc. Copies of receipts for work done on the guns; triggers, refinishing, etc.

Example: Lost a full sized M&P .45 with Novaks, APEX trigger, grip wrap, VMII and a Nightengale holster plus Nightengale mag pouch and a R.C. Lean holster. We had receipts for everything, including the accessories AND the installation for the trigger and grip wraps. If we didn't have what I listed, we would have only been allowed to claim the handgun.

We have several copies of all inventory lists, including one in our safety deposit box.

The only thing was most of our ammo was stored in one place. That is not the case now.

Word of warning; Be careful what you say and who you say it to.

Our claim was delayed because someone called the Fire Marshall and said "I heard him say he was going to burn his house down"

What I saw was in response to a question "What would you do if your home was destroyed?"

Sorry about the loss. Can you share what insurance you have? Sounds like its very good coverage. I have NRA insurance for firearms but they don't cover accessories or ammo.