Getting older, what is your firearms endgame?

[TX-Dennis]

I am the same age as the OP, but my situation is somewhat different. My only son is VERY interested in guns. He is more of a "gun nut" than I am. In fact, he is the reason I got back into shooting after many years without owning a single firearm. So my plan is obvious. Keep everything and leave them all to him.

If I were in the OP's situation I would consider thinning them down a bit, but I don't own as many and none of mine are collectible or especially valuable.

 

[lhump1961]

I did not read all the posts but I think you pick out your favorite dozen or so, sell the rest and enjoy your retirement. We all enjoy having our stuff and get great satisfaction from it but as life goes on priorities and interests continue to change. You should be able to raise 30k plus depending on what you have by letting 50 of the 70 go. That's not chump change! All those years that your guns brought you happiness and now they can pay you back with even more happiness. DO NOT let someone else who doesn't appreciate them sell them for you when you're gone!

Keep your favorites and let the rest go.

 

[BigBoy99]

I did not read all the posts but I think you pick out your favorite dozen or so, sell the rest and enjoy your retirement. We all enjoy having our stuff and get great satisfaction from it but as life goes on priorities and interests continue to change. You should be able to raise 30k plus depending on what you have by letting 50 of the 70 go. That's not chump change! All those years that your guns brought you happiness and now they can pay you back with even more happiness. DO NOT let someone else who doesn't appreciate them sell them for you when you're gone!

Keep your favorites and let the rest go.

That is exactly what I have been doing. We have reached the point in our lives where we can no longer keep with the work required to own a full size house. (We are both in high 70's.) Consequently, we have bought a condo and are in the process of moving into it. Over the past few years I've been selling the firearms which are not the real favorites and keeping the ones which are as there are no family members who are interested in them. So far it has work very well. I watch the "Want to Buy" ads and respond to them. I probably will end up keeping about 20 or 30 favorite ones. (Way down from the about 350 I started with.) I have made provisions with a good friend who will sell the ones which are left when I'm gone. My wife will be assured she will get top dollar for the guns, not some fly-by-night who will give 10 cents on the dollar.

 

[TTSH]

p.s.,

I should have added to my post above that I plan to take at least some of my beloved 3rd Gens with me into the afterlife. You never know, after all.

Take some plastic? No way! Where I am most likely headed, they'd melt before I got through the door!

 

[bill2000]

I'm 67 and have been whistling past the graveyard on this question for some time now. My collection isn't large. I also have a fairly large traditional folding knife collection.

I think I'll decide what I want to keep for myself, then ask my wife and two sons what they want. Then I'll sell the rest off. When to start is the question for me. Attachment is a terrible thing.

 

[petepeterson]

I'm not quite ready to sell of the stash, but I have been more judicious about what I buy, as opposed to grabbing anything that catches my eye.
I would say in the past two years that I've sold as many as I have bought. That's quite a change for me. I guess I'm leveling off at the top of the ski slope. It's all downhill from here!

 

[Arik]

If your kids aren't anti gun why not sit down and ask them?

Would you rather me keep them and you sort through them after?
Are there ones you'd like to keep?

If they don't have any interest I would slowly start selling now and use that money for other things. A few years ago there was an older guy who put most of his collection on consignment at my LGS. It was a lot! If you were interested the LGS gave you several typed out pages full of names, dates, s# and descriptions. Head a lot of surplus firearms that he collected when they were cheep. There was many thousands of dollars. He used that money to take his wife around the country for a year long vacation

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[Sixgun100]

Glad this topic came up, as I have pondered the same question. None of my family members are gun people. Spouse, kids, grandkids....none. Some are down right anti-gun. I don't have a huge collection, but some cherished firearms (S&W Model 58, 581, 65 3 inch, etc.) Lots of good advice here that I will consider, when the time comes. Thanks for the information!!

 

[HOUSTON RICK]

After experiencing my wife's surprise liquidation of my 100's of LP's while I was out of town for the a quarter of the price of what some of the individual LP's were worth, you might want to be the one to sell some of those guns. The music has since been replaced on CD and MP3 but it is not the same, and a small fortune wasted. I have a list of my gun prices on an attachment to my will, this is periodically updated.

 

[TTSH]

If your kids aren't anti-gun why not sit down and ask them? Would you rather me keep them and you sort through them after? Are there ones you'd like to keep?

If you are that distant and detached from your adult children's interests, desires and feelings, you may have to do just that. I think most of us would prefer that it be a little more personal, loving and obvious than that.

For literally years, my old man (long R.I.P. now) made it crystal clear to all of us to whom he wanted his guns to go. Some he gifted while he was still alive, some were bequeathed after he passed. No one was unhappy with what they received and we all cherish them to this day in memory of him.

If you have to ask, it's not quite the same heartwarming family experience.

 

[Arik]

If you are that distant and detached from your adult children's interests, desires and feelings, you may have to do just that. I think most of us would prefer that it be a little more personal, loving and obvious than that.

For literally years, my old man (long R.I.P. now) made it crystal clear to all of us to whom he wanted his guns to go. Some he gifted while he was still alive, some were bequeathed after he passed. No one was unhappy with what they received and we all cherish them to this day in memory of him.

If you have to ask, it's not quite the same heartwarming family experience.

Yes but not everyone is going to be into what you're into. My dad has hobbies I can't even attempt to be interested in. Putting myself in a parent shoes I don't think I would have even thought about having it a heartwarming family experience. I'd probably just go....you want it? Here! But that's because I don't view guns as anything but guns

His kids may just not have an interest in guns. They know em, maybe wouldn't mind owning one but not enough to go and buy one. It doesn't have to be a heartwarming experience.

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[TTSH]

Yes but not everyone is going to be into what you're into. My dad has hobbies I can't even attempt to be interested in. Putting myself in a parent shoes I don't think I would have even thought about having it a heartwarming family experience. I'd probably just go....you want it? Here! But that's because I don't view guns as anything but guns

His kids may just not have an interest in guns. They know em, maybe wouldn't mind owning one but not enough to go and buy one. It doesn't have to be a heartwarming experience.

The way I look at it, if there is something important enough to him that your elderly father wants you to have it before or after he passes, be gracious about it, accept it and thank him for it. In fact, thank him many times if/while you still have the chance.

The "guns are just tools" people may not get that and that is too bad... their loss.

 

[KSDeputy]

I do not have nearly that many, but my safe is bulging at the seams. I tell myself I am done. Then another new gun comes out. If I like it, I buy it. Guns are great investments, my wife will need the money when I am gone. We have great friends who will help her get the best price for the ones not left to my family. I can always buy another Fort Knox safe.

 

[DD357]

I'm going to keep using them as long as I can.

 

[Ranger514]

I say go out like an ancient ruler, with all your firearms placed in your burial vault.
Thousands of years from now, archaeologists will be amazed when they uncover your remains and discover the cache of firearms. You will be thought to have been a man of great importance during your time

 

[spad124]

I've been thinking about the same question lately, principally since I inherited my brother's firearms. I know he enjoyed them but some of them are just not guns I'd buy. My son is less likely to want them when that time comes. My daughter shoots, but there are other things she'd rather do. I'm not sure she'd ever really want to own a firearm. Both children are in their late 20s and on their own with significant others who will probably be spouses in short order.

My thought is to find out which guns they want and put those aside and, like the OP, keep a couple for myself.

 

[damienph]

I am fortunate that my son, my one and only child, is just as enthusiastic about shooting, accumulating and reloading for guns of all kinds that I am. I plan to leave every gun (and all gun related stuff) that I have to him. I know he wants them and will genuinely appreciate them.

I don't understand the idea of selling off guns while young enough to use the money to enjoy retirement. Having more time to shoot guns is one way that I plan on enjoying my retirement. I am 63, in better than average health for my age (so says my GP).

I plan on keeping mine to till the end. My wife won't be burdened with disposing of them, our son plans on shouldering that burden. ;-)

My only regret is that he and his wife have no plans on having children so I'll most probably miss out on teaching my grandchild to shoot.

 

[rwt1405]

all I can say is that you young whippersnappers in your 50's and early 60's have got a long way to go... so chill!!!

I'm with TTSH on this!

Unless you have family medical history to worry about OR you have some serious medical condition, at 57 many, if not most people have a LOT of good years left in them!

Heck, now in my early 50's, I'm now able to start some of what I couldn't afford when I was younger.

I figure what I buy now will be even more fun to have, and to use, when I'm retired and have the time to REALLY enjoy them!

 

[ladder13]

I should have added to my post above that I plan to take at least some of my beloved 3rd Gens with me into the afterlife. You never know, after all.

Take some plastic? No way! Where I am most likely headed, they'd melt before I got through the door!

Those polyoxymethelene grips on your cherished 3rd Gen aren't going to last too long either.

 

[mike from st pete]

I liquidated all the P'08s and P38s before going into the hospital for my first hip replacement. All my non-US rifles went after I finished recuperation from the second hip replacement.
Now I'm 62 with a few M1s and a bunch of handguns. As you can see in my avatar photo. The worry is the M1s Garands, should I sell now and throw in cases of .30'06 or wait until the CMP runs out and hope for more money?