Have any of you thought who gets your stuff. Or do they even want it

[Luked]

So been thinking about something for a while and was wondering if any of you are in the same situation.
Over the years I have got a decent collection of guns. Nothing super high end like a lot of you I am sure, but enough to keep me content.
Have a few different calibers and a few ill probably never use.
270-300WSM-243-6.5CM-35 Rem-couple 22s 12 ga shotgun-410 shotgun-couple hand guns.

With that said most of the rifles have pretty good optics with a couple Leupold VX6 a Leupold Mark 4. Vortex Viper PST Gen2 I just got.
This has got me thinking a little recently.
I am still new to hunting out west and there are some hunts I never see myself doing jsut due to cost and logistics.
I have 2 300 WSM one is a Supergrade gun. Dont ever really see myself using these two for much of anything.
Mainly deer hunt around home here and have been using the 6.5CM over my 270 for a while now.
Got the 243 to do a little predator hunting...Which i hardly ever do.

Now here is my conundrum.
A lot of these guns were gifts. a few from Family and a few from a really good friend.
I have 2 kids. My son is 16 and wants nothing to do with guns or hunting really of any kind. Its not that he dosent like the hunting thing or guns, its just not something he is interested in.
My daughter is younger at 11 and wants to do everything Dad does, dosent matter what it is.. if I was into bowling she would thing its the coolest thing.

With all that being said. If something were to happen to me, which at some point it will. What happens to all my guns.
Even if it is 20 years from now and my kids stay the same way they are now, what do i do with all the guns.

It has been something I have been thinking of just due to the fact that there really isnt much I need as far as another gun. Honestly the only other caliber I really would like to have is a 6.5PRC, which I want one, and if I got that I think that would pretty much do everything i would ever need or want to hunt.

So what do I do with the rest.
Do I get rid of some of these and buy myself a nice 6.5PRC and just keep with what I have mow.
I know its kind of an odd question. But with me getting older its something I have thought about a few times.

 

[CorbLand]

I will send you my information. You can put me in your will.

 

[ianpadron]

I'll tell ya what, I grew up in a household that didn't have any guns, and seeing the reverence my buddies who did, have for "grandpa's" gun that got passed down to them makes me feel like I seriously missed out! One of my best friends killed a bison last season with his Grandpa's prized 300 H&H and he said it was damn near the coolest thing he's ever done, and it wouldn't have been the same without that rifle. I believe him.

I almost never sell hunting rifles or shotguns for that exact reason, as each gun ends up with amazing memories connected to it, and if I do sell them, they go to buddies who I know will use them as intended and keep racking up the good times. I go out of my way to talk about those stories with my family...and will do the same with my kids, nieces, nephews, etc. with the plan that they'll eventually inherit parts of my collection and all the adventures and good mojo that come with them.

It'd be a shame if your son caught the hunting bug in the future and didn't have at least a couple of your favorite rifles to accompany him on his adventures. And it seems like your daughter will definitely appreciate having a piece of Dad long after you're gone. My two cents...

 

[Cameron.25]

Sounds like you should leave it to your daughter

 

[Luked]

That is kind of my thought also.
My whole family growing up was big into hunting. I didnt really get into it as much untill I got older also.
But it was also a different day and age. The kids now days are much different than when I was young.
I have a few that were passed down to me from my Dad or an Uncle, both now gone.
Those are some of my most prized in the safe.
I still remember the day when my Uncle really sick with cancer told me he wanted me to have his old Savage pump 35Rem. Still have it to this day but havent used it in years.
Kind of the same with a 22 my dad gave me when I was 7, Or the 410 my dad bought me for christmas one year.

My parents were not well off by any means. My dad was a big hunter but he had guns for a reason, to hunt with. He had 1 rifle to deer hunt with, same rifle he used the couple of times he went Elk hunting.
He had 1 12 ga shotgun he turkey hunted with, a 410 he rabbit hunted with, and a 22 that he had that was a keepsake.
Not like a lot of us now days who have multiple guns for the same thing.
I think my pops would be floored if he was alive today and opened my safe

 

[CorbLand]

Eh, sometimes kids may not be interested in something now but will be in the future. Different priorities when you are in your teenage years. The person I was/wanted to be when I was 16 and where I am now are completely different. Give them to your son.

My dad wasn't a hunter but he loved buying the muzzleloader kits and putting them together. He passed when I was little and when my wife and I got married, I told her that if the house ever catches on fire you have two things that you have to grab, the teddy bear he gave me for my first Christmas and the muzzleloader he built me.

Even if he doesnt hunt or use the gun, it may mean something to him.

 

[riversidejeep]

I'm in the same boat, 65 years old and have hardly ever got rid of a firearm but have always collected them. Nothing high end, but all good stuff. I've passed on a few to nephews only to walk by the barn and see it rusting away laying on a hay bale. Needless to say that ended that. I have a son that loves the hunt and outdoors and a daughter that's not a hunter but has a handgun for protection of her family. The son in law asked me to help him sight in his rifle before deer season, he pulled out a browning stainless rifle out of a case that must have been stored in the salt water marsh. I was like W.T.F. but that's how they operate. So I guess the son will have to get a couple more gun safes when I croak.

 

[robtattoo]

All mine are going to friends. If I had offspring, I'd leave them one each that had some kind of significance to me, that way they'd have  something even if they didn't grow up to continue hunting, but my hunting buds would still get all the rest.

 

[big44a4]

My boys are 8 and 3. I have already lined up which ones are going to each. They love showing them to people when they come over (“look this is my gun”). My goal is to give them one of each. Example I have 1 lever action Henry right now plan to get another one in a different caliber so they can each get one when I pass. Already got them each one “nice” hunting rifle and several shotguns/handguns. Good thing my dad and I have nearly double of everything so I was given a small head start. Still got a few more to acquire over the years but out of room in my current gun safe so another safe is next before anymore gun purchases.

Then say one wants to go hunt something and the other has the caliber they need they can just borrow them from one another as needed. In the meantime my dad and I are making memories with what is currently in the stable until I pass them down to them as they get older.

 

[miket]

I have thought about it, with no answer. oldest daughter is the only one that ever liked hunting. Both sons did a little but dont really seem to care either way. I bought some land in AR and the house will be smaller than the one I am in now, so really need to downsize. Dont know where to start.

Even worse is who will get the property? My grandparents left their kids 30ac and a house in a trust, The goal was to have a common place for family gatherings etc, and the only one to take that seriously is my mom, but she is getting older now and its too much work for her, and the others dont seem to care about keeping it up.
Will this happen to my place?

I guess the point is, aside from a few specific items, most people will not have a connection to your possessions like you may. For most it will just be about monetary value.

 

[Rich M]

Guy i know died. no-one wants his stuff. His kids are senior citizens, grandkids raised in non-gun households. It is amazing.

Definitely has changed how i look at my stuff.

 

[tdhanses]

For me it doesn’t matter who likes what, I have 2 kids and everything will be split 50/50, I’m not rewarding one just because they have similar interests over the other, I love them both equally. I’ll be dead so i don’t care what they do with what they get.

 

[Luked]

I guess a lot of this comes down to some past history for me.
As I said my parents were not well off but they did manage ok. They owned both of my grandparents houses. Have one sibling (an older brother) and my oldest sibling (sister) that each got oe of the grandparents houses from my mom. My moms house is in mine and my closest sibling brothers name.

When my Dad passed he didnt have much and there was friction from the other siblings as to who got what. Was really in my opinion kind of stupid. My siblings and I really dont all get along what so ever. My one brother and sister havent spoke in 25 years, and I havent spoke to my sister in probably 5 years.

Going back to my kids they really dont get along well at all. They live with their mother full time who I am divorced from. And there is quite a bit of animosity between my two kids now due to my opinion of my Ex doing everything for my daughter but really nothing for my son.

The question was even brought up not long ago about when they get older if they will speak to each other and my son pretty much said no.
So its pretty tough sometimes with them in that regard.

I have seen a lot in just my family when someone passes that the whole family just erupts in conflict over who gets what.
Told my one buddy a few years ago when I pass I hope I dont have anything left or I give it to who I want before i leave this planet so my kids arent fighting over it.

 

[displacedtexan]

We don't have kids, and my neices and nephews will virtually certainly never be hunters. They're growing up up in households that barely eat meat and think dinner on the patio is outdoorsy.

I'm not much of a gun collector, but one of my best friends is my primary hunting buddy who happens to be 15 years younger than me. My guns will go to him.

I've got a LOT OF tools. Enough to build a house, and completely rebuild a vehicle. Plus fabrication equipment, cabinet shop stuff... Every few years we reevaluate and identify a few young guys (or girls) trying to learn how to do things themselves.

 

[SWOHTR]

Just give them to your local law enforcement if you don't know what to do with them!

 

[mtnbiker208]

I don't have any kids and at 55 i am not going to. I am not going to lie, i look in my shop and go, who is going to throw all this stuff away.

 

[displacedtexan]

I don't have any kids and at 55 i am not going to. I am not going to lie, i look in my shop and go, who is going to throw all this stuff away.

I tell my friend "This is gonna be your problem when I die" lol

 

[Luked]

I don't have any kids and at 55 i am not going to. I am not going to lie, i look in my shop and go, who is going to throw all this stuff away.

My one buddy is in the a similar situation.
He did very very well for himself with retiring out of the military and directly going to work for Boeing right out of the service.
Was married and has 1 daughter who is about 30 now and not married and is a RN. but lives a state away.
He has a ton of property in WA state as well as his new home he just built in FL. Has 3 boats, 5 old cars and trucks, huge shop with every tool you can imagine. and about 4 gun safes that are full.
I asked him when his second wife passed about 8 years ago, what are you going to do with all this stuff when something happens to you. He had no clue.
4 years ago he had a pretty bad stroke and cant hardly use anything he has as far as the boats etc.
Shame how things go sometimes.

 

[william schmaltz]

Estate planing is the best gift people can give their families. Somewhere around the age of 25, kids should be involved in it. If you die in the next 10 years, your kids will probably change their tune and both want their share. If you make it to the point of them being involved in planning, they can tell you their thoughts and you can decide from there how stuff is split.

There are several comments in the mortgaging the house for sheep hunting threads about guys “spending it so their kids can’t”. I personally think that’s a piss poor way of looking at life. Proper estate planning includes minimum requirements for the kids to touch your money and acquire your assets and it gives a guy the opportunity to set up a generational legacy and even set up restrictions on how things are spent and managed. But for some reason, people act like they’re never going to die and they leave behind a family that’s mostly broken after their death and the subsequent battle for their assets.

My grandparents and parents collect(ed) antiques. Us kids have each picked one and advised them to sell all the rest and enjoy the money. If not, the stuff will just be sold after they go. I hope they listen.

It’s all just stuff. Even something passed down generations. My most prized possessions are items that were my deceased daughter’s. It’s all priceless to me. When I die, most of it will be in the dump. My boys will maybe take a couple things, and those items probably won’t make it another generation. Is what it is. All of those ultra special mounts guys spend a lifetime and small fortune to chase will probably end up in a hipster bar with a Santa hat on them.

Regardless, I hope you and everyone reading gets the kind of death where you get to hand the items out personally.

 

[CorbLand]

Any of you guy struggling with getting rid of tools, let me know. I can also send you my information.