What do you do

Bill

Active Member
Wife says she will hire a back hoe and a dump truck to clean out the shop (hope they don't bend the model 71)



Bill
 

Jeff H

NW Ohio
The only two friends I have who know anything about this stuff and are trusted to that degree are actually younger than I am, but I'm way better off health-wise than either. They will have no problem disposing of my stuff, but they have both amassed very large collections of stuff over the years.

I'm sitting on my mom's small battery at the moment as it is and things are literally in a balance today with my dad. My dad rolled back his collection a couple years ago and I have two brothers I know I could count on to help with what's left.

Over the years, I've handled a lot of estate stuff. My dad used to help widows and carried all the stuff to several shows until liquidated. The last one we helped had sold a WWII era 1911 in excellent condition to a braggart for $150. That prompted my dad to find the woman and make sure that was the only one someone essentially stole from her. He would never accept anything in return, not even gas money.

When I helped with that, I saw things I'd have loved to have (86 Winchester in 40-65 with a couple hunded rounds of pristine brass) had but never offered to buy any just to keep it on the up and up. He and I have been given boxes and buckets of ammunition, mostly hand-loaded, and quite a few factory-loaded paper shotshells because the auctioneer was nervous about it. I've broken down thousands of rounds of old handloads, sorted crusty brass from usable, fertilized my grass and gave away a lot of brass and bullets when I could find someone who needed it and couldn't afford it.

As I slogged through the miserable task of pulling down old ammo, I always still appreciated the work that went into it. The cast stuff always gave great insight into the fella's work, because it was almost always very fastidiously assembled. You could trace the eventual slowing down and gauge about how long it had been since he was really on his game and enjoying what he did by the age-condition of the stuff.

I know I'm veering off topic here, but I noticed things like the 222 Remington, 6mm Remington, 30-06, 30-30, 30-40, 45 ACP, 357 Mag being common to most of these guys' preferences. Almost never saw 44 mags, 9mm, 223 or 308. Hardly ever saw ammo boxes, but "repurposed" containers were in profusion. Never once saw a tumble-lubed bullet and most were lubed with what looked like the old Lyman black-n-gooey stuff and it had not dried out.

OK, that went long.

Bottom line - lots of vultures out there. If it matters, make plans while you can. Help a guy/gal out while you're able if they're not. I've had my fun with a lot of cool stuff over the years but can't find the time (or money) to remain so engaged today, so I've moved most of it and what I have kept is not worth a fortune but it's still very enjoyable to mess with as I have time.
 

smokeywolf

Well-Known Member
Wife says she will hire a back hoe and a dump truck to clean out the shop (hope they don't bend the model 71)



Bill
An original, long tang, deluxe model 71 in good condition can command $3,000; in pristene condition, as much as $4,000.
 

RBHarter

West Central AR
This is exactly why I'm writing it all down .
I want to be the guy that buys that 5 gallon bucket of moulds for $100 an finds 3 Hochs , 4 Seacos , and 6 H&Gs I can actually put to work . I dont want Ms , my Mom , kids , steps or grands to be the ones that sell it .

At some point in his last 110 hours my Dad said "What do you want ? A guy can only shoot so many . " I think I might have quipted in some slightly sarcastic tone something about if he wasn't going to hang around another 10-15 yr I was pretty much stuck with all of the stuff anyway .

Mom and I have kind of settled up on tools , guns , 2 trucks , a tractor and whatever we don't sell off over the next couple of yrs .

My kids having been in the wings during 2-3 vulture assults on family estates and I believe will work out whatever isn't assigned in a civil way . Of course what there is for them is already tagged for them and they know what's what .