Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Who's going to get it, what will they uise it for, when I'm gone?

When did this happen?

When considering a new toy I am starting to think more about which of the grandkid's name I should be tagging the gun with, and less about what I am going to do with the thing.

I ain't planning on checking out anytime soon, I hope this does not amount to a premonition.

It's best to think about those things and to make it easy for those who'll do the sorting. Oh, and you can't rule from the grave. Just hope you raised them right.

Alan

We were very lucky when Dad passed on. I have one brother and once sister. Sis didn't want any of Dad's guns, but we insisted that she take one for her son. It was a nice old Harrington Richardson Targeteer .22. He still has it to this day. My brother and I split Dad's small collection evenly with no feuds. I've heard and seen plenty of horror stories about this stuff though. Think it through and make sure everyone understands where your stuff is to go.

List everything in your will & designate to whom it goes. There have been many families split for a few thousand dollars of inheritance.

My Dad, who doesn't hunt anymore because of his eyesight, gave all his guns away to his grandsons. He has been giving me tools that he doesn't use often to me for a while and will borrow them when he needs them, though you can't really consider these as having sentimental value.

My Mom, who knows her daughters better than anyone, made a list of those small items of sentimental value and who they should go to. I always thought this was a great idea as it would stop any fighting over stuff with the simple phrase "That's what Mom wanted".

My In-laws have only my wife, our two kids, and my wife's sister, who is childless, to worry about. Family history pretty much guarantees that my FIL is going to be around another twenty years and I hope he starts getting rid of some of their stuff as he has acquired an extraordinary amount that I don't want to have to deal with when he goes. I'll be in my seventies by then and getting rid of my own stuff.

My Dad passed unexpectedly two years ago. He had already given me his guns as none of my siblings had any interest in them at the time.

He left my Mom in really great financial shape and had thought out most every scenario, so I, as Executor of his estate, had an easy time.
My Mom has since started parceling out her treasures so there is not a fight when she goes. Each of us kids and the Grandkids have been considered and some of her treasures have already been given away, while some still reside in her house, but everyone knows who they will go to.
Anything that is not claimed by the time of her passing will be auctioned off and the proceeds split amongst us kids.

I, too, have begun making decisions as to which of my family gets what.

I have a nephew that will get a set of rifles (he already has the .22), pistols, and a shotgun. I haven't got him hooked on archery yet, but give me time.

My grandsons will get a similar set and I have already started collecting them and letting them get accustomed to the .22's.

My tools will probably go to my oldest son and my nephews.

My tractors have already been claimed by my Grandsons.

Is this morbid? I don't think so. I have seen time and again that life is short and unpredictable. If I get to use these things for thirty or forty more years, so be it. If not, I know where they are going and that they will be appreciated.

I can share my passions and knowlegde about these "things" while I am here, and know that a part of me will live on.

This, I think, is a basic human characteristic. We have a desire to leave our mark in a positive way.

Just my musings on New Years Day.

Ed

Don't spare your women or horse's you don't know who will be riding them when your gone! Seriously though give while alive ,I know that is not always possible but instead of selling/trading look at family first.

not many of us plan to check out. My recent heart attack shows, however, that check out time can be very unexpected.

I was thinking about this the other day. All of my 'affairs' are in order. Will was up to date, and particular items were already assigned to various family members.
All of my guns and knives are written down, described, valued and are ready to be disposed of or kept, depending on the item.

If I had left the room, my stuff would have been handled pretty much as I would have wanted.

When my brother died a couple years ago, it all went to my mother since he'd never married & left no heirs. She lives in an independent living arrangement and had no use for anything beyond a few small keepsakes. She wanted everything divided among the siblings and our kids. So, we had a large family 'dividing' party. Mike would have loved the way it went. It was actually kind of humorous with everyone negotiating for stuff. "I'll see your lamp and raise you 1 bookshelf" sort of stuff. We didn't have a single argument or hurt feeling over it and there were about a dozen of us in on it. I was VERY proud of our family that night as I've seen families torn apart over stuff like this.
My sister was the executor of the estate and we made sure she got Mike's BMW for her efforts. She earned it.

Its always better to do it ahead of time the way you want it to go. It always seems to get murky when your gone.

My Grandparents handled their estate in an interesting manner. They had needed 24 hour in home nursing for several years before they passed, and that had consumed most of their real estate and the majority of their savings. (They passed at 93 yrs and at 95 yrs)

Grandpa and Grandma still had a bit of $ in CD's. That got split evenly between their six children. They had chosen a favorite long known law firm to handle their estate. And the Lawyer arranged an auctioneer to come to the house and auction off everything inside and out.

But only the six siblings were allowed into the auction, and they had each just been handed a fist full of cash in case they were too broke to bring money along.

Then, of course, the proceeds of the auction were split evenly among the six of them.

There was no haggling over who wanted that favorite painting done by Grandma's sister sixty years ago, or over Grandpas WW I era service photo.

If you want it, you better be ready to bid on it.

I am thinking it was a pretty darned fair way to handle the situation.

Back in the seventies an older couple I knew sold their farm and were moving into small assisted living quarters. They were selling everthing in the house at auction. I asked him how he handled distribution of family items among the children. He advised that he had them all over for dinner. When the meal was over, he asked them to look under their plates. He had placed $1,000. under each one's plate for them to buy what they wanted at the public auction or not.

Similar to Idaho Shooters grandparents, but runs off the non family bidders and you might end up with a lot of junk to get rid of. GW

Up here when someone passes the people usually come by the guys homeplace and just pick through it taking a few items at a time. Over the years it gets moved out and whoever has a need for it will take it. No waste and no complaints that I ever heard of.

Don't count on it, hopefully your sisters will be good about it all and accept it but it often doesn't work out that way.
My Aunt died last year of cancer, she knew for about 6 months that she wasn't going to beat it so she talked everything over with her sons and my mother then went round the house labelling everything and left letters for everyone telling them what they were getting. Her oldest son was fine with that but the two younger sons decided after she died that they wouldn't take any notice of any of it. They stripped the house and only left their older brother with one ornamental figurine. They sold everything else or gave it away.
The oldest son is trying to decide if he wants to fight them over it or not but like he said it's not going to get anything back and will only end up splitting the family more.

Whatever it is that you decide, make a decision and make it known.
Went to a family funeral on my wife's side of family a few years ago, and DURING THE FUNERAL a couple of family members went to grandma's house and looted valuable antiques.
It was interesting to watch as the fight ensued.

When my grandfather died my uncle was at the house within half an hour and had started going through everything. He'd lit a fire out the back and anything he didn't think was worth much he tossed on the fire.
A lot of family history disappeared that day including roman coins found when grandad was building in England, all his immigration papers, the original family bible and family tree from my grandmothers side (it went back to the 1600's) as well as irreplaceable old tools and things.
Dad managed to save the butt of a Hardy fly rod, one of eight rods he had, but that was all that was left of his fishing gear.

One child, he's gone. What I have done is instruct the wife on who doesn;t get what when I go. Other than that, it's just stuff, I won't care, except one shotgun that was grampa's to stay in the family, and one Single-Six I have had over 35 years now that my Cousin gets first dibs on if it is sold. Which was part of the deal when I bought it.

Both sides of my family have done it the same way. You get to take one item of sentimental value if no one else wants it. Then the rest gets auctioned off. When my great-grandma died, all my dad's brothers wanted his little tack hammer. He told my dad before he died 30 years before this auction that he wanted him to have it, but my dad didn't force the issue because it would just create problems. It ended up selling for about $800.

My Grandparent's on one side aren't doing the best right now health wise. They'll do something similar to that arrangement. They've already told me to buy their collection of blue mason jars because I'll use them.

As far as guns go, I stumbled into a pretty neat situation. Just out of college, I was working a seasonable job out west. I came across the exact muzzle loader I'd wanted for a long time. It was a Lyman Great Plains 54 caliber on consignment. It didn't have a price on it, so I asked the sales person about it. He asked me what I was going to use it for. I told him it was the exact one I've wanted for quite a while, and what I was doing there and where I was from. He got a big smile on his face, and said $75 bucks. I had him hold it, and went and got the cash. When I payed for it, he explained that his friend was getting pretty old, and couldn't hunt much anymore. None of his family hunted, and he wanted his elk muzzle loader to go to a young person who would use it and not just hang it up on a wall. I even met the guy and sent him a picture of the first thing I shot with it.

I kinda starting solving the problem before it arises. A couple of ghuns here and there that I wanted to go to specific freinds or family members....I've already given to them. And i will do more of that sort of thing in the future...

If i don't out live my son he will have to get a bigger house when he gets my guns, just to store all of them.