A new to me rifle

[bluealtered]

Well my best friend and hunting buddy passed away and now his wife is selling off his firearms and ammo. I will help of course, and she gave me the pick any of his toys that I wanted I could have. He was very much a Browning man as well as many other brands of guns. All his safes were passed full to the point that many rifles were stacked in every corner of his reloading room.

I considered all of this and simply chose just one old scoped rifle that had sat in a corner for so many years that it was passed the point of being dusty. The same went for ammo, ever time he went town he would pick up a case or two of whatever was on his mind at that time. It will take at least a 3/4 ton truck to even make a dent in the ammo, primers,powder, and everything else to reload there.

Since I'm an old man now I just don't need more toys and I have been slowly selling off some of my guns and so while there are some very nice rifles there I just would rather that his wife got the money from them. The one old rifle I took isn't worth much of anything to anyone except me. It is a old Kel-Tec SU16-B.

Both of us used to enjoy taking this type of rifle out and just have fun shooting, no I must make good groups or bug holes, just basting away at tin cans or rocks or coyotes.

 

[K22]

Condolences on the loss of your best friend. As we age, we can see more and more of our friends and family pass on which is difficult at best.

I have been through a few of those situations you described, a close hunting / shooting friend passing on leaving the family to dispose of firearms and supplies. And like you, I am at the age where I too have been downsizing and consolidating and do not wish to expand.

I will share with you the one family I assisted in disposing of unwanted firearms and accessories. I directed them to an FFL gun shop owner that purchases such estates. He came in, provided a written assessment and offer. The offer was reasonable in my opinion, and he took the entire estate which made it simple, legal, and less stressful for the wife to dispose of these items.

 

[jpx2rk]

Condolences for the loss of your friend & buddy. Enjoy the rifle you selected, and remember the good times when you take "your friend" to the range.

 

[JSH]

Condolences as well.
I also have some recent experiences in such as you describe. Selling to individuals one at a time is a HUGE time consuming endeavor. Cherry picking will go on and end up with all the hard to sell items for what ever reason.
Do an inventory. Then go through and price. Then reduce that by 15-25% over all at least, remember they are taking it ALL. Logging, cleaning, listing, shipping, labor none of that is free. When they offer for the lot, don’t ask about value per piece.

One family liquidated and sold per piece and later came in with the junk, oddities and expensive stuff with a set price on it because they sold other things to cheap and the end figure didn’t add up to what uncle joe bob said it would. Example Ruger #1’s they wanted $3500 each, nothing special either, because most had never seen any before. Blackhawk 45/45ACP was $2500 because it was two for the price of one.

You can do GB and such price, make sure it is selling and not listing price. But remember when selling a whole lot, they have to make some money.
If ANY has sentimental attachments take it out and set aside, deal with later. Saw that cause problems on $ as well.

No matter what it is hard to deal with, all have my sympathy.

 

[Bob3700]

My sympathy at the loss of ur friend. U miss them each day. Memories come flooding back at a word or picture and u are sad all over again.
The good news is that u will also laugh remembering their stories or jokes. That is how they live on, thru us.

 

[leakeyjohn]

You will see them after you die.

 

[rayporter]

Condolences as well.
I also have some recent experiences in such as you describe. Selling to individuals one at a time is a HUGE time consuming endeavor. Cherry picking will go on and end up with all the hard to sell items for what ever reason.
Do an inventory. Then go through and price. Then reduce that by 15-25% over all at least, remember they are taking it ALL. Logging, cleaning, listing, shipping, labor none of that is free. When they offer for the lot, don’t ask about value per piece.

One family liquidated and sold per piece and later came in with the junk, oddities and expensive stuff with a set price on it because they sold other things to cheap and the end figure didn’t add up to what uncle joe bob said it would. Example Ruger #1’s they wanted $3500 each, nothing special either, because most had never seen any before. Blackhawk 45/45ACP was $2500 because it was two for the price of one.

You can do GB and such price, make sure it is selling and not listing price. But remember when selling a whole lot, they have to make some money.
If ANY has sentimental attachments take it out and set aside, deal with later. Saw that cause problems on $ as well.

No matter what it is hard to deal with, all have my sympathy.

this is what i did when faced with the same scenario. a couple dealers tried to low ball me but i got one fair offer and took it.
living several states away complicated it and rushed me somewhat.
his wife was very grateful.

she gave me his ashes and said "he wanted to be in the mountains"
i poured his ashes over an elk carcass as i cried my eyes out,
and tried to read from the bible.

when shooting prairie dogs we honor him by killing the first dog with his rifle.

 

[bluealtered]

Thanks guy's. His grandson stepped up to help with the guns and ammo so that leaves me with time to simply shoot the SU16-b at the range which is exactly what I did. A lot of great memory's came to mind while doing this as "we" shot together.

It's amazing how many things we did together that I haven't thought about for awhile simply because we were always thinking about the next time we were going to head to the mountains or desert for coyote hunting or just for a plinking trip. Thanks everybody.