I am at the age now that I am selectively selling/giving away a few guns to special people I know. My son or grandson does not hunt or shoot and I think their wives are a little anti gun anyway. I I will pass a few family heirlooms down to them .
I don't want to kick of and have my firearms end up in a an auction or sold for pennies on the dollar like you here guys buying them from old widows.
fwiw,
That says a lot... I had a friend whose father collected guns and reloaded ammunition as his sole source of income in his later years. Aside from Social Security I suppose. Small home with a big basement and three safes. Two belonged to the father and one belonged to my friend... Strange family component would not begin to describe these people. Knew him for 12 years before I found out he had a sister here in Virginia, right in town 15 minutes away, that he did not speak to, which struck me as strange as the rest of the family was in Ohio. At any rate the older man passed and my friend showed about as much grief as someone who lost their car in the Walmart Parking Lot. He made zero plans to go home to visit or spend time with his mother, his sisters, or his brother Rob who has Down Syndrome. My brother, may he RIP, went to their home back in about 2000 to put in a new set of steps to the basement as a favor. He typically did free standing curved stairways in multi-million dollar homes, however, at the time we were all close. He made a friend of Rob who was elated to be able to help...
At any rate when said "friend" decided to go home to clean "his safe" out and to pick up a few items for his boys, always a BS excuse to pick up what HE wanted, there was a slight snag. I should mention this fellow has had access to more military antiques than you could shake a stick at during his time in the service and boy did he ever help himself. He was not alone in that. He walked in, spoke briefly, did not hug his mother, and went straight to the basement... It just so happens that the "girls", his sisters, came across three combinations in his father's paperwork. You can guess the rest... A lifetime of theft and collecting, with a great deal of overlap between the two, were wiped out in a flash by his father's "friends" who paid pennies, a damned few of them, on the dollar at a Saturday Sale that began at 9 AM and was over by 9:45... One of the few times in his life that he has gotten the raw end of the stick when it came to a gun deal... When I asked him about a year later how his mother and Rob were doing I got a shrug that spoke volumes... I later found later his mother is now living here in Virginia with one of his sisters and Rob lives with them...
It was about that time that I got a bit pickier about with whom I hunt Bobwhite... I have found that there is NO HONOR amongst the VAST MAJORITY of these "friends" and it truly does tarnish the "collecting" spirit. Collect money so that you can spend it wisely and "collect memories" with those you love. All of these possessions that we mistake for assets are largely an illusion and can be taken away in a heart beat. In a literal heart beat.
The experiences you have with those you hold dear cannot... Hence I have slowly begun to simplify.
I have seen homes cleared of people's lifetimes acquisitions and you know about 95% of what MOST folks "Collect" goes in a 30 yard dumpster. NOT ALL for certain, however, the VAST majority.
I have fallen for all of this myself. Buy, buy, buy or it won't be available tomorrow. Here we are and it is tomorrow. The zombies are at bay(for the moment), suppressors are still legal (I bought 6 last year), Powder is still legal and being made(200 pounds last year), primers are still available, and guns have NEVER been more available. I am not saying I am against that in any way. It is just that having fallen for it on several occaisions you start to become somewhat of a curmudgeon. I am beginning to think Colonel Cooper was REALLY was on to something...
The difficulty is finding the right young person, I feel old at 42;-), who is worthy of what I have to give them. I wonder if they had to work for it if it would mean more. Honest to God I believe there is a sizable crowd who would take a high end gaming system to an Echol's Classic... If unaware of sales value and threatened with death via contract killer FOR SELLING IT, I really don't know how many of them would choose a Classic, not a Legend as black rifles are clearly for sale at Walmart, over a video game. Society is changing. My hunting partners are growing old and dying off.
I was talking to CSMC about their new Model 21 O/U, specifically when the 28 gauge model would be introduced, about six or seven months ago. The young man sighed and said it likely would not be introduced. He said that if they had known then what they know now they would have never invested in the 20 gauge 21 O/U... I asked why as I was truly perplexed. He said that they "We lose 10 and maybe get 1 back...". In short upon further conversation he said the "older guys" who used to really patronize us are dying off and they lose ten and get maybe one young man in return... It is fiscally untenable.
Hence, I plan to make some on the spot gifts for the worthy, as dealing with most, not all, dealers leave the faint smell that I've stepped in processed Alpo in the air. Not worth the sales process...
The rest? I hope to die with burnt out barrels, nicked and dinged wood, and few to no pristine PROJECTS... To be left to a huckster, like some who haunt these very boards, to sell for a quick buck? That bothers me... It also bothers me I see too few young men or women of merit who are INTERESTED in owning such a rifle, shotgun, or pistol... I am done buying for a good while unless it is spectacular and I can't deny my desire to own it and USE IT...
Sorry for the disjointed book...
Regards, Matt.
