Gun Inventory

boykinlp

boykinlp

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What do you advise to do as far an inventory goes? I need it for my benefit as well as for insurance purposes. Right now, I have a basic excel spreadsheet that includes: make, model, serial number. caliber/gauge, approx. value, and a "catch all" miscellaneous section. The miscellaneous section is to remind me about stuff like box or case, holsters, extra grips, extra magazines, scopes, etc.

I do not have pictures of all of my guns, but I think that I should. In this respect, is one picture per gun enough? I have some acquire dates but not for all of them and I don't know if it is important.

What do you guys and gals do?
 
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Keep all receipts. Take pictures of everything. Catalog each item, update insurance company as to inventory and keep the inventory in safety deposit boxes. I do this for my jewelry, electronics, gold coins/bars, etc. Anything of value is catalogued.

I keep my diamonds in the safety deposit boxes along with my gold and irreplaceable items (photos, stock certificates, bonds, autographs, etc).

I keep backup data discs in several locations. Never lost one file!
 
It sounds like you have things covered pretty well, here's the information kept on my inventory.

brand
model # (including dash)
serial #
caliber
capacity
barrel length
sights
finish
accessories - spare magazines, moon clips, speedloaders, holsters, etc...
grips - round or square butt, factory or aftermarket
purchased from
date of purchase
purchase price
general description of finish quality, etc...
multiple photos of the gun including accessories

If I ever need to file a police report or insurance claim it's probably better to have too much information vs. too little. Also, if something happens to me my family will know the approxmate value of each firearm and which accessories go with it.
 
I take a ballpoint and a recipe card and record all pertinent information on that. Brand, model, purchase price, where, when and who I bought from and any identifying marks and serial numbers. I also add any thoughts about why that particular firearm would be collectible or desirable. If I sell or trade anything, just remove the card from the pile. I keep them in my bank box so they would help my heirs with numbers, value and disposition.

I also take lots of pictures and download them to CDs. I like my computer, but after a couple hard drive crashes, I trust my ball point and recipe card system.

I am fortunate for the fact that my son is also a gun nut and pretty knowledgeable about what I have and it's value.
 
Everything Black Sheep said plus 4473 (Y or N), Contact info (name, address, phone #, drivers lic or CCW#) on who I bought it from or I sold it to. I've even gone so far as to take a picture of the buyer/seller with the cell phone when doing a face-to-face. People may think that we are paranoid for keeping all this info for YEARS. They are the ones that have never been fortunate enough to have been the original buyer then the face-to-face seller of a firearm used and dropped at a crime scene. Sure makes it easier to deal with LEO when you can give him/her the contact info of a buyer/seller along with a nice color picture of them.

Put it all on multlple flash drives and pass them out to a few trusted family and friends for safe keeping. Also keep an updated flash drive copy in the bank SD box along with hard copies of everything on the flash drive. The most important parts of all this is doing it and keeping it updated after every transaction, including updating the info with your INSURANCE COMPANY.

Class III
 
"Everything Black Sheep said plus 4473 (Y or N)."

That one is an important portion of my record keeping. I treasure the private sale items.
 
boykinlp said:
What do you advise to do as far an inventory goes? I need it for my benefit as well as for insurance purposes. Right now, I have a basic excel spreadsheet that includes: make, model, serial number. caliber/gauge, approx. value, and a "catch all" miscellaneous section. The miscellaneous section is to remind me about stuff like box or case, holsters, extra grips, extra magazines, scopes, etc.
I do not have pictures of all of my guns, but I think that I should. In this respect, is one picture per gun enough? I have some acquire dates but not for all of them and I don't know if it is important.
What do you guys and gals do?
Click to expand...

I have a software from New City Dog Software called eFirearms. It is simple and keeps track of everything pertaining to your firearms.
 
I second the hard copy file card system. Computers are too accessable by the unwanted. A dedicated photo chip with photos of each weapon goes with the card file. I keep it fire proof and safe but a safe deposit box is accessable by others too, so it is not safe.
 
i did not see it mentioned, but if the insurance company were to reimburse you for lost guns, fire, theft, etc. i believe a written appraisal would be a big plus in getting your money back. especially on rare or collector type guns that are hard to replace.
 
Pilgrim said:
GunSafe - Firearms Collection Software

good software that will tell you what you should have and it's free.
Click to expand...

I am trying to download this and having problems. I have extracted the compressed files (I think) but don't know how to unzip the files to a folder on my hard drive. Any hekp would be apprediated. Limited computer knowledge can be so frustrating.
 
My gun inventory is committed to memory only. Nothing written down or even worse, stored on a computer.

But.... when all you have is a single shot 12 ga and Jennings .22, inventory is easy.

GF
 
All of the previous info is good. I use only paper records (several copies) with pictures of L/R sides. For revolvers, I put my business card with contact info under the grip, for rifles/shotguns it goes under the recoil pad. As most of what's left of my collection is of sentimental value or family hand-downs, I have a complete written history of that firearm, so when the time comes for the kids to be disposing of my estate, they will understand why I kept that old rusty single shot shotgun, etc.
 
I have a DataBase which lists all inventory including misc remarks. Photos of all guns stored on HD. Hard copy files with all receipts, etc. External HD with backup of all data.
 
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