Another whether to sell heirlooms or save for kids that are clueless.

I have several wood and blue steel rifles that pondering their future.
My son is more into DLC & polymer and seems my G-Kids are too. They live in a straight wall state so they couldn't hunt with them there anyway.
I'm chasing accuracy and varmints now and would like to have room to lock everything up but having a hard time deciding what /how to part with older rifles that were given to me in some fashion.
What to do?

I have a few that will never leave my possession till they are passed on that were my grandads. Might not need a whole collection but 1 or 2 would probably be cherished. Mean more to me then my 5k rigs. Might be surprised.

I'm in the same boat. Family guns that will never be used. I don't know the history of any of them. Selling them. Might as well let someone who will really appreciate them have them.

As someone probably the age between your son and grandkids I will give you my perspective.

My brother and I inherited the majority of our late Grandfather's firearms, of the 10 guns he passed down only 2 of them really get any use. We each got one of his shotguns, a Winchester Model 12 and a Browning Auto 5, that we put several thousand shells through shooting trap and sporting clays. However now they now tend to only come out for special occasions as they are 70+ years old and we don't want to wear them out. Those ones may make the cut for our kids and grandkids to keep as they are as special to us as they were to our grandfather.

His primary deer rifle, a Remington 760 he used for 40 years and killed scores of deer with only travels up with us on the opening weekend of deer season partially as a back up but primarily as a way to bring him with us. Even if nobody hunts with it it's our way of remembering him since he passed before my brother and I really got to hunt with him.

The rest of his guns however haven't left the safe in years, they were kind of his auxiliary guns, ones he didn't use much but still kept. Those don't really have much meaning to us other than they were our grandfathers and aren't worth much so we keep them. Those ones will probably be sold by my kids or grandkids after I pass as they will have zero sentimental value to them.

When it comes to the ones you were given it really comes down to how sentimental they are and if you would rather have the money to purchase new guns or if you would pass that opportunity on to your grandkids. If they were a special gift or an inheritance from a late friend or relative with high sentimental value then keep them.

If they were guns you got that you aren't particularly fond of, don't use and have low sentimental value then sell them and put the money towards something you would enjoy. After all if they don't mean much to you they won't mean anything to those inheriting them.

There are the ones I use, and the ones I cherish. By the time I die, the ones I use will be gone, worn out, or beat up. The ones I cherish are old, ranging between 50 and 115 years old. To me, they are marvels of American ingenuity. I take them out and shoot them each at least once per year.
My oldest child attaches sentiment to my guns. The rest do not.
In ten years, the younger three might feel differently.

I don't have kids, I have several nephews a couple nieces and some boys I mentor. My nephews grew up like us so some of them have a love and enjoyment of guns. The ones that don't, or don't yet have other things of mine that would be valued. My oldest middle nephew will enjoy my library and chess board more than my 6 gun collection, the younger will favor my motorcycles and cars.

I've sat down with the boys and talked to them about this, I'm only in my early 40s, but I'm also an idiot that rides motorcycles a lot, and climbs rocks. They know why certain things mean a lot to me and others don't as much. I tell them if it's something they want they best speak up because if I don't care much about it they may just get it when I make room for new stuff instead of me selling it to someone else. Sit down with your kids and have those conversations. If nothing else it will make Christmas and birthday shopping easier.

Some guns hold more value because of family ties. If your kids don't want them find boys to mentor. Many, many boys are growing up without men in their lives to guide them. They are stuck learning masculinity from women, and that doesn't work. The men I've had mentor me through my life mean a lot to me and if I was passed on something important like a family heirloom rifle, I'd be honored to preserve it for the next generatio. Family doesn't have to be based on genetics.

Still waiting for my 2 children, in their early 40's, to get their heads out of their backsides. Don't think it's gonna happen. I see no interest in family history or the guns in either of them. Though they were both raised shooting and hunting with me, my brother and our Dad.

20 plus years ago, when Dad was dying of cancer, he told me and my brother that if any of the 9 grandkids wanted a gun to give it to them. Me and my brother agreed that that was not gonna happen. Not a huge collection at all but they mean a lot to both of us. After dad died, one of the grandsons who had hunted with dad expressed an interest in a 22LR. It was given to him under the condition that it was never to be sold. It was sold to a pawn shop within a year.

Nomad458 said:

Some guns hold more value because of family ties. If your kids don't want them find boys to mentor. Many, many boys are growing up without men in their lives to guide them. They are stuck learning masculinity from women, and that doesn't work. The men I've had mentor me through my life mean a lot to me and if I was passed on something important like a family heirloom rifle, I'd be honored to preserve it for the next generation. Family doesn't have to be based on genetics.

Click to expand...

And, half the problems in our society summed up in a paragraph on a shooting site. And I'll bet you didn't even get a grant.

flyguy1 said:

And, half the problems in our society summed up in a paragraph on a shooting site. And I'll bet you didn't even get a grant.

Click to expand...

Because the state doesn't want to fix the problem, they wanna take over the father's role.

Nomad458 said:

I don't have kids, I have several nephews a couple nieces and some boys I mentor. My nephews grew up like us so some of them have a love and enjoyment of guns. The ones that don't, or don't yet have other things of mine that would be valued. My oldest middle nephew will enjoy my library and chess board more than my 6 gun collection, the younger will favor my motorcycles and cars.

I've sat down with the boys and talked to them about this, I'm only in my early 40s, but I'm also an idiot that rides motorcycles a lot, and climbs rocks. They know why certain things mean a lot to me and others don't as much. I tell them if it's something they want they best speak up because if I don't care much about it they may just get it when I make room for new stuff instead of me selling it to someone else. Sit down with your kids and have those conversations. If nothing else it will make Christmas and birthday shopping easier.

Some guns hold more value because of family ties. If your kids don't want them find boys to mentor. Many, many boys are growing up without men in their lives to guide them. They are stuck learning masculinity from women, and that doesn't work. The men I've had mentor me through my life mean a lot to me and if I was passed on something important like a family heirloom rifle, I'd be honored to preserve it for the next generatio. Family doesn't have to be based on genetics.

Click to expand...

This is great perspective. I have such a rifle, inherited from a great uncle of mine who had kids of his own but they didn't want guns. It was kind of his gesture of wanting to come back to family as well, I didn't know it because I was fourteen at the time and didn't know the whole history. But I guess when he was a younger man and then even a middle aged man he basically just had no contact with most of my family, life was all about working hard and playing hard and family was an afterthought. Additionally, he made some hurtful decisions in his youth that had long lasting consequences. Then he had a heart attack in his 50s and it was the wake up call about how short life is and what actually matters for him. He really tried to make things right with everyone and get back in touch with us all, visited everyone, personally apologized to everyone he had hurt either with his actions or his absence…and he had never even met me or my sister yet (and again, I was 14) but he heard I was a hunter and gun nut already and so he brought me a family heirloom-to-be. A savage 99 in .243 Winchester. There's a line running down the buttstock where, when his own boy was young and smaller framed, he had taken a saw to the rifle and cut it down to be the right length for the kid. When the kid grew up he carefully epoxied that piece back on haha. It's a character scar on the rifle. I was given the condition that this was my rifle so long as I gave my word I wouldn't sell it and it would stay in the family. It's a meaningful gun for sure. It'll be my own kids' first centerfire to shoot probably.

flyguy1 said:

And, half the problems in our society summed up in a paragraph on a shooting site. And I'll bet you didn't even get a grant.

Click to expand...

The number one predictor of incarceration in youth and adulthood is fatherlessness. The lefties and the woke don't like to acknowledge it but the data is rock solid and proved over and over again. The single biggest influence on whether or not a young person ends up in trouble with the law is NOT the colour of their skin or their socioeconomic situation, it's if dad's around when they're growing up. Obviously this doesn't apply to ALL fathers, there are bad ones we all know about, but the existence of exception doesn't negate the reality of the rule. Having no father around is one of the worst things that can happen to someone and it's an epidemic in our society, for a variety of reasons. There's politically correct nonsense fuelling the issue but there's also an increase in the number of men that won't stop acting like boys. But the thought of telling these irresponsible types that can impregnate a woman but not be there for a child that it's time to "man up" is apparently toxic masculinity haha. A vicious circle.



I used to be a pastor. I feel a real burden about the hopelessness or meaninglessness so many of our young men are afflicted with, the discouragement, and the society that's just adding to it and telling them that it's somehow a wrong thing to be a strong man with ambition and the capacity for violence if needed within them under voluntary control. Or that they're so "privileged" and have some kind of inherent guilt to the world just by virtue of being young men. Never mind that the suicide rate among young men is THREE TIMES what it is in young women. I guess all those men who couldn't see a path forward living anymore just didn't get the memo about how much better everything was for them….[/QUOTE]

I know some brothers who got into hunting in their late 20's early 30's and now wish they could get back their grandfathers old guns that got sold off when he died when they were younger. Just some food for thought.

I was super close to my uncle and even used his old 1917 to shoot my first deer. He got that rifle in a poker game in Ak. It went to one of his kids who really didn't even want it. I do need to make sure they know the story on it because I may be only one who knows it.
All that to say it doesn't have to be your kids could be anyone your are close to or share hunting with

My whole collection is going to my two daughters with a few exceptions. I have a living trust with a list of a few firearms going to specific family and friends. I've attached the history of the firearm for sentimental value , some were passed to me. I've also started gifting some of these firearms now so they can be enjoyed immediately. I've come to the conclusion that I don't care what they do with them once gifted, hopefully they will get passed down as well, no longer my concern once gifted.