Well, I finally did what I have thought about doing for the past couple of years. I cleared the gun safe of several guns. I am not going to tell you how many, or of what brand, or model.
Just finally decided that it was time for new folks to enjoy what I have been able to have fun with. Everything was fired as I am no pure collector. And I have to tell ya'll that the folks that wound up with the various items were in many instances very happy campers.
If you are asking yourself why I did such a "fool thing" it was because it was time. There are guns left, ones that my kids have expressed interest in having. There are my favorite shooters. But enough was enough. Fourty years of guns just caught up with me. Besides, all I do now is go to the range and bird hunt.
Bottom line is that I really feel good about doing what I did. It has made my shooting life much easier; not to mention reducing cleaning time.
I will pass this tidbit along to all you folks. One of the guns was a Colt Government Model in 45 ACP. Fired, but in wonderful condition, in the orginal box. And the orginal sales receipt was in the box. Total price paid --- $117.22. There was also a notation at the bottom in my hand writing about feeling like I over-paid for the Colt.

Man! When did you buy it? 1913?

Seriously, when I think of some of the handguns I bought when I was in college, and sold when I graduated...I could cry. Not only for the fine old handguns they would be now, but the price I paid for them then!

Life does go on, doesn't it? I did the same when I retired and I do not regret it. I have what I use and use what I have and the sons both have what they wanted and so do some other folks. I got some pocket-money and it put tires on the Mustang......

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GA Carry member
Vietnam Vet

I envy you. I wished I could do that. But, too much trouble and logistics to deal with. I guess my wife can just sell the lot to a gun dealer when I kick the bucket, which I hope won't be for some time.

I have a hard time getting rid of anything myself, especially guns. The ones that I've sold have usually been duplicates (or triplicates) but I've regretted it the minute I let them go.
Chalk it up to being raised by depression era folk or whatever but it just kills me to know that 'now I don't have it anymore'.
As others I try hard not to think about all the fine guns that slid thru my hands over the years, makes me want to beat my head on a wall,,again.
RD

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Got a Phd from Hard Knocks U

What, about 1968? I think that is what I paid for my first Colt Commander. No one was offering any discounts on guns like that. They weren't easy to find and there was sure no such thing as the internet to aid "shopping."

You can accumulate a lot of guns you don't use any longer over the course of 40+ years. Don't ask how I know.

I have been thinking of doing the same. The real reason is so I can put away the better prices I would get for my wife than she could get. But then I get thinking what would we do with the money? If I dont already have something, I dont need it. Very seldom nowdays do I buy anything at all for myself. I take the wife to town a lot, went to st george today, I didnt enter a store. I just people watch while the wife shops.
Two weeks ago I did pick up a .44 special ruger. I think that is the first gun I bought in 4 or 5 years! Like I really need it! I now have 7 .44 specials! I have a very hard time getting rid of anything. Even old cloths that no longer fit. We could get by with just one vehicle, however I wont give them to the dealer, so now somehow I have two pickups and a car. For me life has always been kind of backward.

Been thinking about clearing the gun safes; myself. I have been "amassing" some firearms for more years [45+] than I care to remember.

I retired a few years ago & realize that I am not going to be around in say 20 years, the wife doesn't need the head ache of trying to sell them off & she also has no idea of the value of the "collection". I pulled my log book out the other day to enter a "new" addition, and found out that I have some firearms that have been "forgotten" and not been out of the safe since the late '70s.

So, my plan of action is to:

1). keep the ones that the kids and grandchildren want
2). keep the ones that myself and the old lady want & use
3). keep the ones I annually use for hunting & shooting games
4). keep the ones I got from friends and family.

You know what we ought to do? We should leave instructions for the wives, significant others, etc. to contact the S&W Forum to let the guys and gals on here help price and sell/buy. I went out of town last year and (it was the first time in 30 years the wife and I left the country) and my daughter wanted me to clean out the gun "room" so she knew what I had and what was special to me and what I thought should be heirlooms. (I have some that have been in the family back 4 generations). It took about 8 hours, and she was amazed at what was locked up. She told me then that if anything happened to me, she would not know where to begin. (I know what her husband would do, sit in the floor like Christmas just happened). I imagine it would be overwhelming for alot of our families.

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James L. "Jim" Rhiner

Since I retired 3 1/2 years ago I have sold about 20 guns I no longer had too much interest in. I tend to sell them when someone I know or online mentions they are looking for something. Now I'm getting close to the core of my collection and I'm reluctant to part with many I have even though I don't use them. Most are either classics or military collectables. I'm at a loss now myself.

That was probably a good move on your part. My fear is having too many guns and the kids grabbing them, walk into a gun store, lay them on the counter, and say, dad is dead, here are his guns...how much will you give me? I've seen it happen a couple times during a visit to the local gun store. Clean outs to benefit yourself can be full filling. Or, it backfires and you're sorry you got rid of X, Y and Z gun.

That's going to be the trick - to live long enough to wring every bit of enjoyment I can from them and then sell them and spend the money before I kick the bucket . . . .

I am torn over it. As all of us I am attached to my guns. I wont use the word "love" as they arent human, and I am not going to make them a idol! On one hand I try to justify myself with the fact almost all of them have been good investments and hopefully are gaining value, and on the other hand I am quite sure when I die my wife couldnt get a fraction of the value out that I could. My wife is almost 17 years younger and at some point it will be a very real problem! I just bought another I dont need.

I have a few and the number seems to grow. I don't "need" to sell any of them, but I don't think that it would be wise for me to leave them as part of my estate since none of my kids are into guns. I am in good health and am in my late 50s so I plan to enjoy them for a few more years and then gradually sell them off and only keep a few of my favorites into my (hopefully) old age. Guns, family heirlooms or not, simply don't mean as much to most people as they do to us.

When my Granddad was about 85, he called all of his grandchildren together one night at his house. Laid out on the floor were all of the guns he was willing to part with. This included some good ones - pre-'64 Winchesters, Browning A-5's, a S&W 22/32 Heavy Frame Target, etc. He kept a couple that he wanted to use, but everything else was on the floor. Then, starting with the oldest (me) first and working down in order of age, he had us choose what we wanted. Everyone left happy and there was no fighting among the heirs after he passed away. He lived for a few more years and used the guns he kept. I saw him often and hunted with him every year until he was 90 - always made sure to use the .270 Win. I had picked out when he was with me, and he always got a big kick out of it. I always thought that was about as good a way as any I could think of to dispose of a gun collection.

I do this each year too but am not successful.
I sell 2,3 or 4 items then end up buying something else to fill the void in the safe. Maybe one year I will become as successful as you.

Once you take a cold, hard look at your guns, you really can find ones you can do without. When you sell them, it becomes kind of addictive. A while back I sold off a few dozen RMs, and a couple of dozen K22s. Ok, and a bunch of other guns. I was being owned, not a gun owner. And the cash was nice, too. Not a lot...but people define the word differently.

What I ended up doing was making an arbitrary number and selecting the guns I needed to dump to get there by the end of the year. While I didn't manage to hit my numbers, I was close. Then once you break a set or collection goal, there's no reason to keep others.

But I did discover a strange thing. From time to time I locate and buy a gun that catches my eye. I feel no guilt, and my wife doesn't seem to mind. From time to time, I end up buying back a gun that I would have sold if I'd had it. Oh well.

The real problem is the one Feral has been pointing out. Fellers taking advantage of widows (and orphans). Its a time honored tradition. Riding along the other day my wife made a comment about letting the boys pick over my guns and knives after I'm gone. I told her it was a lousy idea, and they'd take the valuable ones, cherry picking the collection and to no good end. Let them have a gun or two, maximum, then sell the rest. They can buy what they want from the sale. Sounds cold, but its practical. I've already given them the guns with the most family heritage.

While I'm not too concerned with them selling my guns for drugs or electronic toys, it causes hard feelings. If it looks like that will be her intent, I'll dump them on the market myself. Then spend the money on hookers and blow. Maybe its time I enjoy the "better" things in life.

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Dick Burg

As far as collecting goes I've got nothing on you gentlemen. But I have owned more than a few firearms in my day. I don't have the kind of income that would allow me to have 10k or more tied up in guns so I do a lot of recycling. I try and buy a gun cheap enough where I know I can sell it at a small lose or break even if I don't like it. So, it's almost like I'm renting. The most I've ever had at one time was 10 guns, and I found even that small amount to be, somehow, a burden.

LOL

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I drank what? - Socrates

I think the actions discussed in this thread are going to find a lot more favorable feedback from us shooters over 50 than from shooters under 50.

3 years ago, I sold some guns as part of a divorce settlement. I had to make a list of the guns I owned as part of the division of assets, and frankly I was amazed at what I had accumulated during the 29 years we were married. I had, for just one example, 14 variants of the FN-FAL/L1A1 rifle.

I sold about 40 of my guns. Beforehand, I thought selling some of them was going to kill me. I was truly surprised when, after things were settled, I was still alive and and I still had more guns than I would ever use.

I have since taken a hard think on things. I am almost 59 years old, don't hunt much any more. I am now in the process of thinning the herd down a good bit to the guns that are really in my core interest or that I am likely to use. I have no children, and no nephews or nieces with an interest in guns or shooting, so no urge to save some for any of them. I am really curious who I will decide to leave the few family guns I have, my mother's Colt .22 Official Police that Grandpa gave her to shoot a peeping tom, my favorite aunt's .357 Blackhawk she kept, loaded, under her pillow, my uncle's pheasant-killing Browning Auto 5 Light Twelve... A few will go to some buddies if they don't go first, but the rest...

I had bought some fairly nice, expensive (I know, relative) guns over the last 40 years, and a surprising number of them were purchased, admired, put back in their boxes and put away, never having been shot by me or anyone else. I bought most well, being cheap and not afraid to bargain, seeking out the best prices for what I bought and trades that made me happy. Most have appreciated, at least holding their true value relative to our depreciating, inflated dollars.

So now the dust is settled from the divorce and the settlement. I have adjusted to my new financial state, after having had to buy her half the house by mortgaging the home I had already paid off, and paying her alimony monthly. I can pay my obligations, but don't have huge sums to buy toys with anymore.

Last year, I had a bad piece of medical luck, spent a whole month in a hospital, almost lost a leg, spent 6 months off of work. My sense of mortality became stark and real. Much of my old recreational activities revolved around the ex-wife and her family, and loosing that gave me more empty time to fill.

The light clicked. I owned expensive stuff I wasn't going to use, and I wanted to buy a few new toys I didn't want to go into debt for, and I didn't want to dig into my divorce-devastated savings, either. I went through the safe and rifle racks and discovered guns I hadn't taken out of the safe in the 25 years since I bought them and put them in the safe. I found guns I had lost interest in ever shooting. While I might have lost interest in them, they had become even more desirable, and thus more valuable, to others.

In the last 3 or 4 months, I have sold an unfired 5 inch Model 610 from the original batch made, an unfired, 15 year old, 5 inch Model 629 .44 Mag, an unfired 18 year old, .45 Colt Model 625-5 5" Classic, a NIB Model 646, a NIB, 20 year old 2 inch Model 63, a NIB JLD Enterprises PTR-91 semiautomatic battle rifle, a clone of the H&K 91 .308, and a few other quality guns. Buyers got what were basically brand new guns that haven't been made for 15-20 years. I got cash.

I took some of the cash and bought me a brand new Triumph Bonneville T-100, gorgeous, British racing green w/white flashes, wire spoked retro twin that is modern in every way but looks like the bikes I owned from 1968 and then through my college years. Been looking at them for 5 years.

I still have more good guns I plan to find good homes for, which will still leave me a pretty nice pile of mostly older S&W and Colt handguns, and another racked safe full of rifles and a few shotguns. Some to shoot, some to admire and show to friends, some to tinker with and some to swap and sell to get a few I want that have thus far escaped my greedy grasping fingers.

This seems to be working itself into a good case where less is actually more.

A few years ago I found that the only way I could afford some of the higher priced guns I wanted was to sell one I owned or trade one off. That is a real losing proposition.

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SOS USA

Closer to sixty than fifty, and a lot of this sounds very familiar.

Twice I have gotten my "collection" to the point where I felt like unless there was something that 'fell in my lap' that I couldn't pass up price-wise, that there was little or nothing out there that I didn't own or already had owned and decided wasn't for me.

Then I went through much the same situation as Buff with a few differing details. Fast forward 10 years . . . my interests and tastes have changed as things will and I'm once again about at that point. Sold off most all the competition hardware and put the bulk of it in pre-lock Smith & Wesson revolvers thanks to the enablers here on this board and a lifelong friend of over 40 years.

Now I'm more or less back to that point and know of only one item I am currently seeking that I feel would cap off the collection. Now, what I collect and why will be different from anyone else here, and while I admire what many of you desire and appreciate your collections, mine is rather pedestrian compared to many of the true collectors here on the board and likely rather opulent to some who can carry their whole collection in a gym bag.

But I'm beginning to see the viewpoint a lot better of many that realize that their love of the subject and their passion for it isn't shared by anyone in their family. Well, that's the family's loss. Given the state of the economy and my approaching retirement age, unless some contemptible government pogue muddies up my ability to legally sell them off by the stroke of Big Brother's pen, someone (maybe some here) will help fund my "golden" years. I just hope whoever winds up with them appreciates and enjoys them as much as I have.

We don't "own" anything - we just get to use it a while. If the Lord tarries, in a few years everything I presently have with any worldly value will belong to someone else. The natural order of things.

I hit the big 60 last December, or is that sixty, or maybe six oh, but I digress... I started thinning the herd about a year ago. At one time I thought I wanted to be an antique Winchester and Colt collector but realized I couldn't or wouldn't have the funds to build a decent collection. I sold off almost a dozen long guns and a few revolvers and was actually feeling pretty good. Then came the AR-15 craze. Then I "needed" the consummate sniper, er, I mean varmint rifle. Following that I had to join this forum. Argh! What was I thinking? I'm about even in herd numbers but am still looking to thin a few out. The new toys are for play time!

The only way you are going to take anything with you is to send it ahead.

I liked reading this post. I'm at a point in life where my collection is where I want it. Hope the kids like what I've collected and use it once in a while. At least I know the safe will be utilized by one of them.

I've been unloading a few myself. I actually sold more than I have bought in the last few months.

I've got some more to go.

Yep, I hit the big 55 this year, while home on R&R my daughter gave me a Luger. I opened the safe and she was amazed at my collection. She hit the nail on the head when she asked when was the last time I shot them. I answered sadly, "I have not been to the range in two years and some I have never shot". Being a contractor and deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan has put a crimp in my life. I got the money to buy but not the time to enjoy!!

At one time in the 1980's I had a collection of somewhere over 50 Colt single actions. I took me about six years to accumulate them all. Them the light came on and I realized that my collection of guns owned me. I took me six weeks to sell them all. I invested the money in real estate and watched the real estate double and re-double in about ten years. I now have many times over 50 Smith & Wesson revolvers and think nothing of it as I know I can sell them any time I want and would have no regrets. Sometimes it's just fun to start over.

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Living a dream - S&WCA #2364