When it comes time to hand your guns down to others

onpoint

onpoint

Active member
Do you have any criteria to who will get any of your guns?

I myself been struggling with just who should get certain guns. Very few take care of guns like I do. My two sons don't take care of their guns in a manner that would have me feel comfortable handing certain guns down to them. I would turn over in my grave if I knew the guns were being neglected. Many of you know, a little rust or a few dings can turn a highly sought after gun into just a everyday shooter that can bring it's value down by as much as 50% or more. Many of the guns I have are no longer made. There are only so many that are still in good shape. When their gone. their gone.

Others I have are of little interest to my sons. They don't look to be traveling or being able to afford high dollar big game(dangerous game) hunts. My wife loves to bird hunt but she only likes her guns. She has no interest in my shotguns. They don't fit her and in her opinion kick to much. She likes her shorter stocked gas auto loading 12ga's.

I would like nothing more then some to stay in the family for many more generation's. Some have come from several generations back.


How about you guys, any thoughts on when it comes time to pass down your guns?
 
I would be a great candidate for your guns. I clean mine after every hunt and appreciate the quality of workmanship that went into the older models.
But seriously my daughter will end up with all mine and the ones that were passed down to me. Worth more than the guns is the memory's that go with them. That is what I think is most important. Your boys will long for those memory's as they get older.
 
My oldest daughter will get my "Sweet 16". She 5 years old and was with me when I bought it in 1992. Her son, my grandson, is 2 years old. I bought him a 1960 A5 20 gauge when he was born. I will give it to him when he is about 15. My youngest daughter is 24. She will get my 1967 A5 Mag 20. I have 3 more Auto 5s reserved for future grandkids. I told both my daughters to get busy. Gives me an excuse to buy more guns. My only stipulation is for them to keep the guns in the family.
 
My dad suffers from dementia and we moved him into the WI State Veterans Home in King two years ago. We sold the house and divided up mom and dad's things as they wished for us to do. They had the foresight to set plans in place amd it went smoothly between the 5 of us siblings.

Among the most prized possessions were Dad's guns. Most of them not valuable, except for us as heirlooms, etc.. For example, dad had an old military Springfield 03-A3. He ditched the military stock and made a new stock while laid off one winter when we were kids. A scope mounted. It's a nice rifle and shoots well, but probably isn't worth much, except for the memories. I'm a lot taller than Dad. The scope and trigger pull on this rifle doesn't fit me very well. I remember one time leaning into a shot and taking a crease over the eyebrow from the scope. Man! That hurt.

Some individual pieces dad had designated to an individual. For the rest it was hard to decide who got what. Some were wanted by certain individuals. I gave others based on what guns they owned themselves. Grandkids also received one.

My two daughters will inherit mine. They both know how to shoot, but live in cities and don't hunt. No grandkids for us yet, but hopefully when they have kids they are raised to respect my heritage and someday value the guns they inherit from me.
 
I'm just going to set the boys down and tell them, make a list of what you want, each of them. Then just for my peace of mind, have them tell me why each of them mean something to them. I like to know the story behind their memories of each of these guns and why they would cherish each of them.
 
This is a serious subject that I'm dealing with myself. I've accumulated enough stuff that it's going to be difficult for me to get rid of it all let alone someone who doesn't care as much who'll do it after I'm gone. That said however, and based on what happened at work after I retired, I've come to the conclusion that nobody will care as much about my stuff as I do and I should just accept that to be the case.
We value our stuff because, besides the cost of purchase, we have had experiences with it that make it mean even more to us than its monetary value. Whoever gets it will not have that history and only your wishes to treat it with respect based on your level of attachment. Maybe they will but probably they won't.
My suggestion? If it means so much to you that "it" is taken care of in a certain manner, find that person that you trust to do it before you're gone and sell or give it to them. If you don't want to or can't do that, accept that the issue won't mean a great deal to you after you're dead and only creates needless stress for you while you're alive. You can't make people feel the way you want them to so I'd suggest you don't waste any time worrying about the care your stuff will receive.
Since you may be looking for someone to take your stuff, see if they want 100,000 fish hooks for me.:cheers:
 
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It's something I've been thinking about often also. I only have one daughter, who doesn't hunt. Her husband hunts once a year with me, but doesn't really know much about firearms. When I bought the last A5. I went thru the safe and picked out 5 or 6 pieces that hold little or no value to me as hand me downs/ inheritance item. Pretty sure I'm going to clear them out shortly.

That leaves me with a bunch of nice pieces that I have no idea what to do with. Some are classics, and some hold sentimental value more so than $ value.

With that said, it don't have anything to offer you onpoint, but am watching this thread for ideas.
 
With two adult, city-living, daughters, I've thought about the guns, and some other stuff I cherish.

I got nothing. My care for them is MY care, not theirs.

I've picked two out as "heritage guns" for one daughter. The other will just get her proceeds from the estate sale of them.

Maybe, someday, somebody will have them and understand. Maybe not.
 
onpoint said:
I'm just going to set the boys down and tell them, make a list of what you want, each of them. Then just for my peace of mind, have them tell me why each of them mean something to them. I like to know the story behind their memories of each of these guns and why they would cherish each of them.
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That's actually a very neat idea onpoint. :thumbsup:
 
At 54 I hope to have a few hunting seasons left, but I've already assigned a few firearms to each of my kids, along with a short history on each one; when and where I purchased it, what I've hunted with it, and any memorable days spent in the field with it. Some of the guns don't mean a lot to me, others are very cherished, and I explain the difference in the note to my kids, letting them know which ones have sentimental value, and which they could sell without worrying about me rolling over in my grave.

Twenty years back, when my grandfather passed, a cousin ended up with all of his guns by virtue of getting there first and grabbing them. That generated some long-term hard feelings (still pisses me off as I write this) so I want to make certain that my kids are spared that frustration.
 
ckirsch said:
Twenty years back, when my grandfather passed, a cousin ended up with all of his guns by virtue of getting there first and grabbing them. That generated some long-term hard feelings (still pisses me off as I write this) so I want to make certain that my kids are spared that frustration.
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Bottom line that's the real issue because the same thing happened in my family when an uncle died w/o kids. If you care about your stuff and want to limit the potential for conflict and long term hard feelings in the family, what ckirsch is doing is the best way to deal with it. The only other way that's sure fire is give it now or sell it now and give them the money.
 
Watching this with interest as well. No kids, no close relatives that hunt or shoot. I'm pretty sure my wife will outlive me looking at the family genetics.

Most of my rifles and pistols I would be happy to see sold and the cash going to her but a couple of my bird hunting guns have some serious sentimental value. Including 2 that have been in the family for 4 generations. Sad to think I'm the last hunter in the family.

I'd really like to find some kid who needs a good shotgun and is passionate about bird hunting and send it on to him (or her) when I die or can't hunt anymore. Still looking for ideas and hoping I've got another 10 or 15 seasons in me. :cheers:
 
One thing I have done with "special" long guns is to put a note in the stock with my name, a little background on me, the date I got the gun, where I lived, what I hunted, and once or twice--the name and breed of the bird dog I hunted with at the time.

With luck, some far-away day, a new owner will be changing recoil pads and come across the short history of the gun, maybe getting some sense of continuity.

Pleases me to imagine that future owner.
 
Kismet said:
One thing I have done with "special" long guns is to put a note in the stock with my name, a little background on me, the date I got the gun, where I lived, what I hunted, and once or twice--the name and breed of the bird dog I hunted with at the time.

With luck, some far-away day, a new owner will be changing recoil pads and come across the short history of the gun, maybe getting some sense of continuity.

Pleases me to imagine that future owner.
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Great idea I'm going to borrow!
 
My brother and I inherited the lions share of my grandpa's guns including the '53 wingmaster that got me into upland hunting. Some of my cousins expressed displeasure with the fact that we got all of the guns but grandpa knew we were the only ones who valued them for more than monetary reasons. I've offered to take them all and have them appraised and pay for them in full and split the money between all of the cousins.

The one gun I did not get was the 7mm-08 grandpa built before he died believing he had one last elk hunt left in him. The uncle who got that one has no kids and doesn't hunt so the gun sits as a wall hanger for now but I've expressed to him how much harvesting an elk with it in grandpa's honor would mean to me. He said I could borrow it anytime and when the time comes he will gift it to me because he knows I will treat it with the reverence it deserves.
 
My wife's grandfather on her mothers side gave all the guns to his only son. He had a drug problem and died a few years back(young). His second wife who got along with NOBODY ended up with all the guns, that were left anyways. Nobody's know if he sold them or not for drugs. Anyways..their GONE!!! Grandpa died on the prairies of South Dakota hunting. He shot a big mulie, tried to loaded it by himself and was found in the back of the truck where he was called home, his summer was over. To think that the guns that he carried for all his life, the meals they put on the table for the family...ALL GONE!!!

Don't let that happen to your guns!!!!!!!!!

Think about your son's or daughters spouse...and what would happen to those guns should your son or daughter passes away. IMO, they shouldn't be passed on to their family, other then blood related grand son's or grand daughters. It's just not right that people who have no kin to the guns, just walks in and scoops them up.

Onpoint
 
Hobie1026 said:
I'd really like to find some kid who needs a good shotgun and is passionate about bird hunting and send it on to him (or her) when I die or can't hunt anymore. Still looking for ideas and hoping I've got another 10 or 15 seasons in me. :cheers:
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I have spent soem time thinking the same thing Hobie. Find a way to pass it on to someone that will appreciate it and maybe help them start or build on a new passion.

Kismet said:
One thing I have done with "special" long guns is to put a note in the stock with my name, a little background on me, the date I got the gun, where I lived, what I hunted, and once or twice--the name and breed of the bird dog I hunted with at the time.

With luck, some far-away day, a new owner will be changing recoil pads and come across the short history of the gun, maybe getting some sense of continuity.

Pleases me to imagine that future owner.
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Kismet - that is a wonderful idea and one I will be using for sure. Thanks

I have given this topic a lot of thought over the years and that is odd as I am still relatively young and would hope I have 25-30 more years of chasing birds and hunting in general for me. With just one daughter she will obviously get all the guns with a history to them but in all honesty I expect I will slowly trim the herd so to say to a more managable number at some point. I do have a niece that is starting to show some interest in hunting and hopeful that desire will grow in her.

One thing I have done to help in the case of an untimely departure by me is to put all the guns in to a spreadsheet with some details of where they came from and also what their approx value is so my wife knows what to do with them.

Great topic and thanks for bringing it up.

Matt D
 
I've been seeing pieces come up on Gunbroker that auction and the proceeds go to a youth shooting/hunting program of some sort. I think NRA has a similiar program. There might be something along those lines interesting.

I have a couple key pieces going to my daughters and close friends. Ths others I suppose will be sold. Thats the neat things about guns, its one of the few pieces of quality that can go to another generation and you can feel teh miles they've logged, experience the craftsmanship of another time, and soak it in. At least with most. I don't know what you do with a plastic gun....
 
Some great ideas on how to pass on some history with a firearm. I think it's neat to know some of the heritage of an older piece. I don't have a ton of guns, but I'm lucky my son has an interest in both bird hunting, and old shotguns. Because of him I've learned about Bernadellis and Model 24's. If you want to pass on a firearm with some history, maybe you can find a young hunter who shares your appreciation. Getting involved with PH may be a way to meet some younger hunters. I know a few here on the Iowa Forum are involved with High School trap teams. They may be able to help some lucky kid in your area. Or maybe a friend has an up and coming younger hunter to suggest. Passing on the history and appreciation of a favorite gun may really spark a life long passion in a new hunter!
 
onpoint said:
I'm just going to set the boys down and tell them, make a list of what you want, each of them. Then just for my peace of mind, have them tell me why each of them mean something to them. I like to know the story behind their memories of each of these guns and why they would cherish each of them.
Click to expand...
That should help. I have struggled with this issue myself. I have seven sxs and my sons and grandsons don't care for sxs. One Grandson did shoot the little 20 I have when he was getting started. Shot his first duck and pheasant with it so may send it his way. The rest I will probably sell as I will need the $!!!! Rifles will go where they will as nothing fancy there.
 
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