Questioning a gun collection size

target tech

target tech

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Has anyone else here ever been forced to move for a job or whatever, and questioned "do I really need all these guns". I am moving out out of north central West Virginia to Canton Ohio. West Virginia has been a great state to live as a gun collector. I had access to a great public range and no tax on guns or ammunition. I also had a great local dealer that didn't send every quality trade in to GB.
But when it came time to move all of this STUFF, I really started think hard about the possibility downsizing. I wouldn't know where to start. How do you pick just a couple favorite children?
I'm sorry, I'm sort of rambling. Just curious if anyone been in this frame of mind before.
 
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Isn’t Ohio a pretty gun friendly state? Or are you just thinking of down sizing? I personally, would think about it for a while. Unless you already have. Ohio is a pretty nice state, besides their football teams! Good luck picking out the favorite kids! I think about my “kids” all the time. It’s tough.
 
Moving a large collection is a pain. Several years ago we decided to downsize. We sold our house and land so all my guns, ammo and reloading equipment was put in storage. They were there for several years before we finished the new house. Handguns were put in storage totes so they weren't to bad to move. I could only move about a dozen long guns at a time. I put them in gun cases and put the cases in a large box that was taped shut. After I got the box in the storage unit I would remove the guns and take the box and cases to get another load. I didn't want any of the cameras picking up that I was storing guns. It took quite a few trips to get them all in there. As much trouble as it was I never considered selling any of them. Thankfully we moved less that 30 miles. I can't imaging trying to move all them to another state.
 
Last year I moved from Marylandstan to Free America in AZ. Besides downsizing I was leaving four large gun safes behind. I had to sell off numerous firearms…mostly guns that really didn’t matter much in that regard.

I went over it all with the movers…they were the movers the Secret Service contracts with for handling firearms. I packed the guns myself for transport and there were no issues at all.

They could not handle ammunition, solvents, chemicals or anything potentially combustible by regulation. For that I rented a 5’x9’ U-Haul trailer and brought the ammunition cross-country myself.
 
I have a gun collection. I also collect antique outboard motors. My house is filled with antique marble tables that I have found and restored over the past 30 years. I also collect old fishing poles, and of course the coin collection that my Grandpa started for me in 1959.

Each collection has a place. No hoarding, just nicely placed and every room looks pristine. Mu wife also has her tea pot and cup collections, also nicely adorned in the kitchen and dining room.

The whole "mess" (lol) is displayed proudly in our home, custom built to fit all the accouterments.

When offered a promotion to move to a crappy state we declined. I wasn't going to start all over. It's all about your priorities. If selling part of my collections were required, my boss can %^%$#@.
 
Welcome to Ohio, it wouldn’t bother me down sizing. Can’t shoot them all and sure some you may have bought was because of the price, not because you thought you wanted them. I have been down sizing and don’t want to give the money to the house so I buy a higher end guns.

Had 2 friends in the city that passed away and each had at least 300 firearms the kids had to sell but kept some desirable ones they wanted.

I have about 30 and shoot every Tuesday morning and some never get shot. Others I shoot frequently. Some I will never sell, way too hard to find. I sorta miss some but they are gone, no big deal.

Good luck, when is the move?? I live just south of Cleveland, the NE Ohio Bunch is Saturday August 19th in N Olmsted Ohio. You are welcome to come, should be another in the spring. Larry
 
Moving is always a pain and never fun. Once its over I think you may regret getting rid of any guns. Is it possible to avoid selling and just moving them with you?
 
I had a small gun "collection" but I'm not really a collector, I'm a shooter. I recently downsized by getting rid of duplicates in calibers. I had 8 -.22 pistols and revolvers. I now have 3. The same with 38's and.357's. I based my decisions on two things:
I took the duplicates to the range and then only kept the ones that I shot the best.
If hadn't shot a gun for a long time it went as well.
I now own guns that I shoot well and shoot regularly.
 
When we sold the farmhouse and acreage I was down to 185 guns. I had started selling of a year or two before.

One day for fun I made a list of my 10 favorite guns and a list of my 10 least favorite guns, and realized they were just assets taking up space and started selling them off. I kept making lists of "least favorites" to sell and doing so.

When moving time came around, I had a location to place the stacks of guns! I took 2 pick-up loads, and 2 SUV loads to my F-I-L's walk-in gun vault. Most of the long guns were there about 2 to 2.5 years. When I retrieved the last of the dozens of hard cases with 2 to 5 guns in each, I started opening them up. I came to a case that had 2 of my absolute favorite lever actions in it. I was expecting to see the Marlin Guide gun, but the 1873 kind of startled me. I was almost in tears at the fact that I almost forgot it even existed!

I still am selling guns I have no feelings for, but I pick up new friends here and there!

Ohio is still a free state! We have mostly non-restrictive gun laws, and No local jurisdiction is allowed to exceed the State laws! Semi auto AR are allowed everywhere, Full autos are allowed wherever you can afford them. There is no limit on quantities of guns, ammo or safes a person can own!

When I move the ammo and reloading supplies to the condo, I never realized I had 117 flats of shotgun shells! That alone was very tiring to move. This gave me a chance to reorganize my bullets and brass. I put all new 3/4" plywood shelves on the 36"deep by 60" wide steel shelf supports, basically pro warehouse shelves! I built 2x6 supports between the bottom shelf and the floor. Now I didn't need to limit the weight on the bottom shelf. The cast bullet shelf alone had somewhere over 150,000 bullets on it without any sag! That alone was 2 1/8 tons of cast lead!

You have your job to do! But this is a great opportunity to reorganize your whole set-up!

Ivan
 
When we moved back to Florida from PA, I had about 80 guns, probably 18 of which were long guns, and about 12,000 rounds of ammo. I put a piece of plywood on some 2x6s in the back of my suv/ Long guns went underneath, and handguns were packed in gun rugs, cases or boxes and put into sturdy carboard boxes. Ammo was all put into plastic totes or carboard boxes. Loaded it all up and drove 800 miles, stopping only for gas. Did much the same when we moved from FL to PA in 2013, I did not choose to dispose of any either time.
 
I find it amazing, and of course I'm also jealous, of all the guns some of you guys have! Not to mention the ammo & accessories. All my stuff could fit in a U-Haul truck, including the knives, etc.! I should let my wife read this thread! She thinks I have an addiction! My stuff wouldn't make the proverbial pimple on the rear end on yinz guys' stuff!!
 
jeffrefrig said:
I should let my wife read this thread! She thinks I have an addiction! My stuff wouldn't make the proverbial pimple on the rear end on yinz guys' stuff!!
Click to expand...

This is NOT a place of recovery or interdiction! This is the finest group of Gun Pimps and enablers in the world. My wife likes that my hobby keeps me away from other kinds of pimps and dealers!

Ivan
 
I've recently sold most of my guns so my younger wife won't need to deal with them when I get hit by the cosmic beer truck.
 
Ivan the Butcher said:
When I move the ammo and reloading supplies to the condo, I never realized I had 117 flats of shotgun shells! That alone was very tiring to move. This gave me a chance to reorganize my bullets and brass. I put all new 3/4" plywood shelves on the 36"deep by 60" wide steel shelf supports, basically pro warehouse shelves! I built 2x6 supports between the bottom shelf and the floor. Now I didn't need to limit the weight on the bottom shelf. The cast bullet shelf alone had somewhere over 150,000 bullets on it without any sag! That alone was 2 1/8 tons of cast lead!

Ivan
Click to expand...

Are we going to be seeing your condo collapse on Utube or is there some ground level secure storage area?
 
Ohio is a good gun state, Canton is a nice area (relatively speaking). North Canton has a Fin Feather Fur store (one of six stores in Ohio). MANY gun shows. I post the gun shows in the 'bunch' thread.
http://smith-wessonforum.com/lounge/702955-ne-ohio-fall-bunch-august-19-2023-a-2.html#post141791432
There's also the Ohio listing
Attention Required! | Cloudflare
Ohio is a good place for the car enthusiast, many car cruise-ins and car shows.
And if you like rollercoasters, Cedar Point at Sandusky is the place.
 
Interesting topic. I've been doing some herd thinning as we prepare to move south.

As noted, the ammunition is heavier and harder to move. I've been trying to sell off some of the MilSurp ammunition I have, but haven't found takers yet.

My biggest question is HOW to move the guns?
 
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