Inherited Weapons

To be clear I said no on the vote. But in your situation I can see it. Me I’m like if my kids got rid of my guns and didn’t pass them to the one kid that would keep them I’m coming back from the dead to haunt them. No peace I’m knocking over more stuff than the cat.

Don't be hasty. You clearly have some doubt about selling your dad's gun. He was your dad. It was his gun. That won't happen again.

I tend to be a pragmatic person. Either something is useful or it’s not. I sold off a bunch of guns I wasn’t using. Don’t miss any of them.

Easy way to figure it out. Suppose the gun is worth $1,000. You’re sitting at a table and there’s a pile of $1,000 worth of hundred dollar bills, and the gun. You can have one. Which do you pick up? Only you know that answer

Elkins45 said:

If you don't have a sentimental attachment to it then there's no reason not to sell it IMO, and this is coming from someone who has kept WAY too much of my dad's stuff.

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It's funny you should say that, because I was looking around my house the other day and I realized how much stuff I've inherited. It's pretty stupid how much stuff I own and how full my house is when I consider my age.

I come from a line of materialistic people, which was the result of left over "I wants" from the depression era. Unfortunately "collecting" things has transferred down the line to me, and I am doing the best I can to fight it. I anticipate after the last older member of my family dies, and the sentimental guilt trip is no longer a factor for me, I will be getting rid of a lot of stuff.

Edit: I have never wanted to own anything that was produced or used by the Nazi regime. I acknowledge the historical significance, but I just don't want it around, no matter how it was used.

The general rule with the Stock Market and Guns is “buy low, sell high”. Right now is a bad time to get top dollar for most new and used guns. W.W.II collectibles are a special area of interest so only some research will tell you it’s value. It was only three years ago the Great Banic ended and we could be only 10 months until the next one.

Only the next time the anti-2A’s will not not play nice.

Kept in original condition, as a WWII relic, the value will only increase.

If you need the money, sell it. If you don't and looking at it gives you good memories keep it. I've been through cleaning out parents' stuff. I culled to just a very few items. I kept an archetypal example. My dad had lots of trophics and plaques. Sigh, keep them do my daughter can trash them? No, I did. Since we moved I've been arguing with my wife about culling our 'sentimental' favorites.

Many years ago my grandfather left me a Winchester 30-30, really nice, octagon barrel etc...
It was a safe queen with no family stories. Sometime later I really wanted an AR15. Luckily I never found a buyer for the old lever gun, because now it’s a range time favorite with cast hand loads. At least shoot it some before you decide.
David

Obturation said:

My daughter's had better grow up to be strong... I've got a severe case of magnumitis

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Train them.
In my youth, I was 5'-8" and weighed 118lbs. I hunted ducks and geese with a 10 GA., 3-1/2" magnum that shot 2-1/2 oz #2 lead shot in the deadliest patten of any shotgun I have ever used before or since.

Just because someone may be small, it does not follow that they cannot handle the magnums. When held properly and fitted properly, a magnum will push the smaller, lighter shooter much the same as the wind bends a willow without breaking it.

Teach your daughters proper respect, love and technique. They will do fine.

I have a very short list of firearms that I should be receiving as inheritance from family members on both sides. Having very few firearm owners in the family, I do not intend to sell anything that I receive.

Generally I won't sell inherited firearms but I did one time because it was a duplication of one I already had.

Your tone does not indicate any real sentimental connection between the P.38 and your late father. If it were a bring back - his bring back - that would be very different but it is not. Also , it is clear that you would not have acquired a pistol of that type.

My advice : Put the scope on the 308 , go hunting or to the range with it , and thank pops for the scope.

My advice is this:
Go shoot it a little bit. Come home, clean it then shoot it some more. After two cycles of this, and you still think about selling it more than keeping it, then sell it.
I've sold some guns that although I liked them, I felt they didn't belong in my collection. Don't regret selling them.
Maybe you should go shooting with some friends and bring the P-38. Maybe their appreciation of it will help you to appreciate it.
If you will sell it, I'll just say this: next gun buying panic is coming soon, and even though you might not want this gun now, you'll probably be thankful you held unto it later down the road when even a average gun is hard to buy.

My brother and I inherited probably 40+ rifles and pistols we sold 2. That was only because a couple friends wanted them. My brother took a couple and pretty much left me the rest. I can say I have shot most of them at least once, and there's some I shoot once or twice a month and have for the last 10 years or so. I wont sell them unless I need the money for an emergency. I dont know why, I sure wish I would sell some. .....sure could use the space......need a bigger safe......(gumbling to myself)

I have the opposite issue.

My dad owned a chain of gun shops for decades, was a professional big-game hunter, and amassed a fine collection of custom rifles and taxidermy mounts. He bought a defunct archery factory with 15k sq. ft. of storage to keep everything.

I had expressed interest in a couple of the mounts that were special to me, such as a very nice whitetail deer with an unusually wide spread that my mom shot when she was 8 months pregnant with me. He sold them all to a broker for Cabelas for about a quarter-million dollars a few years ago.

Now he is liquidating his firearm collection as his health fails and there are some rifles that I remember him carrying in my youth on our first hunts that have special meaning to me that are now gone.

I told him if he sells the Sharps that was restored after being found in a tree trunk in Wyoming in 1918, I will put Bernie stickers on his tombstone. He is strangely unemotional when it comes to firearms, though he did pass down my grandfather's old Remington shotgun and .22, for which I am very grateful.

Another experience I had with a person passing on and leaving guns behind... One of my best friends growing up lived a few blocks from me and his dad was a quiet collector of firearms. When I was young and dumber, I sold a couple of my unwanted firearms to him. One was my first .22 pistol; a Ruger Single-Six with adjustable sights. I think he gave me $150 for it in the 80's.

A couple of years ago, my friend's dad passed away unexpectedly, leaving behind a couple of safes full of some very nice rifles and pistols, including my Single-Six. The man had everything from an original Colt AR-15 from the 80's, to several JM Marlins and Winchester lever-guns in various configurations. Also some Colt revolvers from the 50's and 60's.

I called my buddy up a month or so after the funeral and asked if I could purchase my old Single-Six from him. I assumed he had it since out of the three grown children, he was the only gun enthusiast. His sister lived in Alaska and his older brother was a famously irresponsible leftist that lived in Hawaii.

I'm not sure what happened with the will, or lack of will, or whatever. But the doofus older brother ended up with the guns and decided to sell them all off and wouldn't let the family members keep them. I think he did let the one brother have a couple of pistols since I did see an old S&W and an old Colt Trooper that he managed to grab.

I know that my buddy and his sister are no longer speaking with the idiot older brother and that the estate was handled poorly to the point that the entire family is torn apart.

There is a big difference in inheriting an item via being named in the will and finding something in the inherited residue of someone's life. Having cleaned out my parents home and my in-laws home, a lot of what they thought was great and worth keeping isn't. A lot of it boiled down to what you could get for it at a garage sale or consignment sale somewhere. No guns in ether case as they were sold or given years before. As for my stuff I am going to sell it before I die and either enjoy the cash.

WB

Trey Veston said:

Another experience I had with a person passing on and leaving guns behind... One of my best friends growing up lived a few blocks from me and his dad was a quiet collector of firearms. When I was young and dumber, I sold a couple of my unwanted firearms to him. One was my first .22 pistol; a Ruger Single-Six with adjustable sights. I think he gave me $150 for it in the 80's.

I called my buddy up a month or so after the funeral and asked if I could purchase my old Single-Six from him. I assumed he had it since out of the three grown children, he was the only gun enthusiast. His sister lived in Alaska and his older brother was a famously irresponsible leftist that lived in Hawaii.

I'm not sure what happened with the will, or lack of will, or whatever. But the doofus older brother ended up with the guns and decided to sell them all off and wouldn't let the family members keep them. I think he did let the one brother have a couple of pistols since I did see an old S&W and an old Colt Trooper that he managed to grab.

I know that my buddy and his sister are no longer speaking with the idiot older brother and that the estate was handled poorly to the point that the entire family is torn apart.

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I have inherited firearms a couple of times. I consider myself fortunate that my Brother and I got along so well and everything was divided up in a way that we were both satisfied. Just like our Grandfather and later on, our Father would have expected. I expect the same thing from my Boys when I'm gone!

When my FIL passed away it was just the opposite. People that didn't have time for him when he was alive came out of the woodwork scratching for his few things! Pretty sad, all in all!

Its too bad that you were unable to get your Ruger back.

I too just inherited a large number of pistols from my brother which I am now caring for because of Alzheimer's. From this group there are only 3 I have interest in keeping. One was his very first gun, another was his passed best friends S&W Model 64 which is another that I know the history and one HK. The rest have no interest of a lot of value.

My situation is also the same as a few here with no one I can think of to pass along my collection. Two sons and a grandson that are restricted because of drug arrests and two daughters with no interest and I don't think it would be fair to leave them all to one daughter that does shoot.

I've got a pistol and a shotgun that belonged to my dad. I haven't shot either one of them and I've had them for over 15 years. One is a WW2 bring back pistol (FN Baby Browning) with the command paperwork declaring it his private property taken from a German prisoner. The other is a M97 Winchester shotgun.

Nobody in my family will want those. My nephew, who would be the only candidate is a restricted felon. I'll sell them in a few years but it won't be easy. Those are really the only physical connection I have to my dad. He was a hunter, a WW2 vet and a pretty decent individual liked by everyone who knew him. He died about 30 years ago.

Both my Dad's (Father & Step) were smart. They sold all their firearms as they aged except four. My Father sold all his. My Pop (Step) kept his first 22, his 870, a 20 ga break-open single shot, and the Arisaka he brought home from the Pacific. My sister got the 870 (and she's keeping the 22 and the 20 ga for my nephew). The Arisaka came to me to get running and then it went to my niece as she is big Japan fan. Been there as a student and on vacation, etc.

My nephew is a sweet peaceful guy, but had a skanky GF that lobbed a Domestic Violence claim against him when she was out of it. Sheriff came and took his rifles and now he can't have any. I don't know how that will ever get resolved ... Maybe he can petition the courts to overturn it ...

So inheritance can be a iffy thing. Nephews rifles included some that my uncle sporterized and hunted with in the 50's and 60's. Pop thought it was cool to pass them along. Never saw the GF situation coming.

Point being, if there is any doubt about how these will end up, just sell them and keep the family out of trouble, or angst, or whatever ...

I have a fair little pile to dispose of before my wife has to deal with it ... That's a ways off, and I'm still assembling toys, but it crosses my mind now and then ...

I inherited a number of firearms from my father. I didn't even own a gun (except pellet and airsoft) until then.

I kept a number of them that I had memories of, or that my dad had bought for my grandparents for self-defense and that I liked. I even rebuilt a couple that had "issues".

But there were a few that were in decent shape and worked, but had absolutely no appeal to me, and I knew that my dad never shot (he was much more of a collector than shooter). I sold them off and the proceeds went to my mom.

I have absolutely no regrets, no second thoughts about any that I sold. Except maybe a Pedersoli flintlock that wasn't worth much and was missing parts, but I didn't get into black powder shooting until many years later. And he never shot it anyway, he bought it at a garage sale.

In your situation, I'd sell. Might think differently if my Dad brought it back himself. As you describe it, I'd have no particular attachment to it.