Food for thought: What qualifies a firearm as a heirloom?

[Imissedagain]

Some need a place to store the heirlooms.
Dog tags in WWII had street addresses on them in cities like NY.
Became really rough neighborhoods in the late ‘60s.

Owning property/land and keeping it in the family.... great goal even if you’re stuck in a City.

 

[double-dipper]

Agree with Muss #3 post.
If the "loom" has no sentimental value to the "heir" the loom will probably be sold at an estate sale or auction.

 

[Andyd]

A couple of things qualify a firearm as a collectible; rarity, quality and value but all that is overriden by sentimental value. A gun gifted, or inherited by or from someone special is priceless.

 

[jlrhiner]

I went to great lengths to make sure that my Daughter and Grandkids know what guns matter to me. Where they came from, how they came to be, what I used them for.

But it will really be up to them what they do with them when Mom and I are gone.

 

[gregintenn]

Most of you wouldn't give $20 for one of my favorite heirlooms. It is an old, well worn Springfield single shot 12 gauge with the foreend attached via duct tape.


It isn't valuable in the monetary sense, but was my maternal grandfather's only gun. It hold many cherished memories for me.

 

[ISCS Yoda]

Any gun with "Family History" can be a heirloom !!!!!

That's essentially the truth of the matter. If nobody in the family wants the item and it's valuable then at some point it becomes a vintage piece for sale somewhere. Gun. Knife. Art. Chevrolet Corvair. Whatever.

This is an heirloom:

After WW2 the German firearms manufacturers flooded America and wherever with inexpensive .22 caliber rifles in order to renew cash flow. This rifle is a 1950s F. W. Heym single shot .22 (long or short; it breech loads so any round fits in there) that my dad bought, we used it only a time or two, and it sat in his closet forever. I acquired it as soon as it was available for acquisition.

The fun part of the story is that I don't think that my father ever registered this rifle with the NYPD. I don't know when NYC started requiring registration of long arms but I really don't think this rifle was ever registered until I acquired it. NYC is crazy strict now but when I acquired it the people were not as insanely anti-gun as they are now. The reason I tell you this is because I went to the local NYPD precinct where I then lived and asked for the paperwork to register the rifle because I knew I had to do that. Police officer gives me the forms and then says:

"Don't you think you ought to store that rifle here until the registration is complete?".

My reply:

"Nope!"

And I left.

And the heirloom is still with me and has not been fired in decades!

 

[lkabug]

If my kids and/or grandkids believes them to be an heirlooms then they're heirlooms.

 

[Marshal Tom]

Having someone to pass them down to!

 

[Rayfan87]

Personally, it's all about the who with heirlooms. Let's take a small step from guns for a second; I have my grandfather's Army jacket from WWII, to anybody else, it's just a WWII era jacket with the medals out of order. The first thing a collector would do is fix the medals, I'm leaving them like that because that's how he put them there.

 

[Duckford]

My grandfather bought a Savage 99 the first year it came out in .243, even found the original sales slip and tags for it in his desk at my grandmother's house. Sometime in the 1950's, he used it to kill deer until he died in 2005, around 50 years of use. That is an heirloom, a cherished piece, even if I don't shoot it anymore. I shoot his High Standard a lot, something he shot, so heirloom. The old Winchester pump 22 that was the "pig gun" for killing hogs for butcher is my father's that I take care of, fourth generation with me. is definitely an heirloom. An 1897 Winchester is an heirloom from my other side. along with a "patina" classic Glenfield bolt action.

I inherited a Winchester pump from my grandfather, one of the cheap junkier ones, that he almost never used. He bought a Winchester bolt 22 he never got around to putting optics on, never was used. Such guns aren't heirlooms, in my opinion, because even if there was ownership there was no usage and no real history. So its easy to understand OP's and other's points on the issue, even within a collection you inherit you may see some as family keepsakes, others were just guns that happened to be in the safe.

 

[oneounceload]

heirloom noun
heir·​loom | \ ˈer-ˌlüm
\
Definition of heirloom

1 : a piece of property (such as a deed or charter) that descends to the heir as an inseparable part of an inheritance of real property
2 : something of special value handed down from one generation to another The pin she's wearing is a family heirloom.
3 : a variety of plant that has originated under cultivation and that has survived for several generations usually due to the efforts of private individuals heirloom tomatoes

Nothing said it has to be of great value monetarily.

 

[bigggbbruce]

An heirloom is what the heir decides it is, regardless of the deceased’s opinion . . .

Yep' could be his Stanley Screwdriver Set.

 

[TTSH]

Methinks the notion of a precious family heirloom is being stretched to and quite a bit beyond the breaking point in this thread.

 

[BAM-BAM]

TTSH is a " S&W Forum" heirloom ........ "old" and precious to us young members !!!!!!




OK maybe I've gone a bit to far and ........... ''stretched beyond the breaking point"

 

[TTSH]

TTSH is a " S&W Forum" heirloom ........ "old" and precious to us young members !!!!!!




OK maybe I've gone a bit to far and ........... ''stretched beyond the breaking point"

Wise guy!!!

 

[American1776]

I think heirloom guns, in my opinion, would need to be steel or alloy framed. Polymers, even today, would degrade over time (50 years? 100?).

I think the WWII bring backs, like Lugers and 1911's, wouldn't be in usable shape had they been made of even the polymer formula's today.

 

[otis24]

“Heirloom “: how I describe a well used S&W Model 10 to ensure that I get my asking price......or more!

 

[Muss Muggins]

I’ve got a 30 year old Glock that looks like it’s good for another 30. Your thoughts?

I think heirloom guns, in my opinion, would need to be steel or alloy framed. Polymers, even today, would degrade over time (50 years? 100?).

I think the WWII bring backs, like Lugers and 1911's, wouldn't be in usable shape had they been made of even the polymer formula's today.

 

[Rubone]

To deviate from firearms, the tract of land next to me belonged to a contemporary of my parents. I contacted him 30 years or so ago about wanting to purchase it. He politely declined as "it had been in the family for generations and would remain so". Well just recently we saw a surveyor working on it, so approached him about what was going on. He said it was going to be on the market, so we jumped on it and found out who would be listing it. It seems his grandson had inherited it and had no interest in it. Lived elsewhere, no connection to here, etc. So we were able to acquire it at a below market cash price and he was just fine with what he got. So yes, Heirs and Heirlooms are not often very connected.

 

[mikerjf]

One of my distant relations is supposed to have the revolver that their great-great-grandfather shot himself with in 1906. Now there's an heirloom!