One of the hazards of buying a new house...

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morcey2

morcey2

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... is that when you move the gun collection, your wife finds out how many guns you actually own. :)

We bought a house a couple of miles away from our current abode and the biggest issue for me in terms of value was getting the guns moved over. There's nothing individually very valuable monetarily, but cumulatively worth some. We had lots of volunteers help us move out of our old house and lots more help us move in, but I didn't want most of them knowing the extent of the collection let alone move it for me. I was going to go back and get them at the end of the first day of moving. But my body had other ideas. Thank goodness for good neighbors and loud dogs. We got them the next day and I honestly had no idea how many guns I had but we counted. :D It was more than even I thought. We got them to the new house and got the safe filled up and then some. I feel much more gooder now.

But my wife was actually closer on her estimate than I was on mine before we started counting. It would have been interesting if I had been pulled over between houses. "Sir, do you have any guns in the car?" "Um.... maybe?" :evil:

Matt.
 
I understand. We moved 2 1/2 years ago and the cat was out of the bag. I learned it again when I finally bought a safe. We had firearms hidden all over the place. Putting them all in the safe made me realize I perhaps had more than required.

I’ve since bought a couple of others.
 
I had picked up an H&R .357 Mag Carbine a year or so back, when I realized that, to fit another long gun in the safe I would need to reorganize.
I spread cardboard out on the floor, and commenced to unpacking. When I had all the long guns spread out on the floor, Mrs Thunkit walked through the room.

More accurately, she started walking through, and stopped abruptly when she saw all the weapons. She looked, looked again, and stared straight at me. "We sure have quite a few guns, don't we ?" she says.

I mumbled something about there not being as many as it looked like (who you gonna believe, baby ? Me, or your lying eyes ?).

She gave me that 'yeah, sure' laugh, and went on about her business.
 
I moved in October. It was hell. Not so many guns, but tools, books, and lots of things. I still unpacking and trying to get the shop organized.

I can’t imagine having to move several safes worth of guns.
 
morcey2 said:
... is that when you move the gun collection, your wife finds out how many guns you actually own.
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Yea-ah, my wife and I were at a gunshow yesterday. While we were leaning over a table admiring a beautiful Ruger “Safari” 375 H&H, the dealer walked up and told my wife how nice it was to see a woman who was interested in guns. “Usually what I see is the husband leaning over my tables and the wife standing behind him with a scowl on her face,” he said.

“That’s strange” Mrs. 308 Norma said, “I have as many guns as my husband does, probably more. And if either of us really wanted that beautiful 375 H&H right now, the other would not object.”

The fact is, my wife and I have been married since 1971, and in all those years, not only has she never objected to my buying another gun, she has occasionally talked me into it. Heck, for that matter, my Shiloh Sharps, 45-110 was her 25th Anniversary gift to me. Every time I see a post like this one, it reminds me just how lucky I am.:)
 
When I got married and moved in with my wife, I had a couple of trusted friends help me move the safe(s) and guns. My buddy driving the SUV with a bunch of rifles loaded in the back was hoping to not be pulled over. I was right behind him with the trailer, 2 safes, the special toys and the handguns in my truck. My wife is really not into guns, though she bought me one of my first quiet toys as a gift some years before we married.
About a year or two ago, I bought a new, larger, safe to replace one of them and we played stack the rifles in the living room. She looked, shook her head, and walked away.

Gotta love moving days!
 
morcey2 said:
... is that when you move the gun collection, your wife finds out how many guns you actually own. :)

We bought a house a couple of miles away from our current abode and the biggest issue for me in terms of value was getting the guns moved over. There's nothing individually very valuable monetarily, but cumulatively worth some. We had lots of volunteers help us move out of our old house and lots more help us move in, but I didn't want most of them knowing the extent of the collection let alone move it for me. I was going to go back and get them at the end of the first day of moving. But my body had other ideas. Thank goodness for good neighbors and loud dogs. We got them the next day and I honestly had no idea how many guns I had but we counted. :D It was more than even I thought. We got them to the new house and got the safe filled up and then some. I feel much more gooder now.

But my wife was actually closer on her estimate than I was on mine before we started counting. It would have been interesting if I had been pulled over between houses. "Sir, do you have any guns in the car?" "Um.... maybe?" :evil:

Matt.
Click to expand...
Dad used to send me into the house first when returning from the gunshow to distract Mom while he snuck in the backdoor with an armload of Mausers......
I don't think she was fooled for a second.

Just recently at the LGS, a fella was eying a nice Gewehr 43 and his wife suggested he buy it :
"Honey," she said, "haven't you been wanting one of those for years?"

"Well, yes, but it's $1,200- that's a lot of money," he replied, forlornly, handing it back to the owner.

"Don't you have a birthday coming up?"

"Ya, but not for two months, you know that."

She turned to the gunshop owner- "Is that thing likely to be here in two months?" He shook his head.
"Then I would like to buy it please."
She paid cash (!), filled out the forms, and handed it to hubby. "Happy Birthday!"

Shoulda seen the look on his face! Turns out the whole thing was a bit of a setup as she had been looking online for one, called the owner beforehand, and came prepared to buy. She even had arranged the route to coincidentally pass buy the shop and pretended to spontaneously suggest that they stop in "Just to pass some time."

What a gal! :)
 
I may not have as many Mosins as Gunny but I will give him a run for the money on totals.;) I realized a few years ago I might be approaching the top of the pile (at least for revolvers) because one of my brothers said offhandedly "What are you going to do with over 100 revolvers anyway." My reply was "Ahem --- I like collecting the darned things you know." He just rolled his eyes kind of like our mom used to do when we raided the cookie jar after school.:D I have stated that the only moving I plan on doing in the future is to the cemetery----in about 75 years God willing.:)
 
My biggest "accumulation" when moving isn't so much the safes (typically I buy a new one when I do move and since I have more handguns than long guns the safes are smaller and a bit lighter), or the guns but the ammo! I have most of it in very sturdy cardboard boxes but it's still a lot of weight and a lot of trips from the garage to the storage room!
 
A few months ago I had printed off the Excel sheet I keep with my list of guns, price paid, and serial numbers and mistakenly left it where my wife could find it before I put it in our document safe. She wasn’t mad, but we did have a “discussion” about how one person doesn’t need that many guns and when I planned on stopping. I told her that I think one for every year of age is acceptable. My biggest problem will be when I need to get a second safe, she’s cool knowing they’re all contained there but if they stare sprawling into other safes we may end up butting heads over it.
 
My wife gets diamonds and a couple guns. I get guns and reloading stuff.
Of course, the guns take up more room than diamonds.
 
WestKentucky said:
It's not a problem til the safes start multiplying.
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That's true. When I moved, the gun safe was the biggest problem of any, so I got my huge pro-gun nephew to help with that. Appreciated the extra muscle, as I likely would have had it to do by myself. As it was, I had to find new ways to get it into my very different new house, which worked out fine. But then I decided I needed a new safe, just for the ammo. Got one of those smaller Winchesters, a 56x18x16 for an unbelievable price of $249 and am using it specifically for ammo, and it's hidden. You know what? Ammo safes fill up way faster than gun safes.:uhoh:

My wife of 41 years, God rest her beautiful soul, never begrudged me my love of guns, and toward our end together, even felt perfectly protected and safe. She had even bought several of my finest firearms, for Christmas, my birthday, and sometimes just because. Though I consider our time together short, (no amount of time is enough) it was wonderful, and I don't remember guns ever causing an argument.
 
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bannockburn said:
My biggest "accumulation" when moving isn't so much the safes (typically I buy a new one when I do move and since I have more handguns than long guns the safes are smaller and a bit lighter), or the guns but the ammo! I have most of it in very sturdy cardboard boxes but it's still a lot of weight and a lot of trips from the garage to the storage room!
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In FL, they consider ammo the same as a firearm for the purposes of safe storage or transport. I got scolded by a DCFS worker for having a box of shotguns shell on a shelf in the garage- she was correct, of course.

I keep most of my ammo in Harbor Freight standing tool box lockers. Can't beat those for price/quality.
 
.308 Norma said:
Heck, for that matter, my Shiloh Sharps, 45-110 was her 25th Anniversary gift to me. Every time I see a post like this one, it reminds me just how lucky I am.:)
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Stevie-Ray said:
My wife of 41 years, God rest her beautiful soul, never begrudged me my love of guns, and toward our end together, even felt perfectly protected and safe. She had even bought several of my finest firearms, for Christmas, my birthday, and sometimes just because. Though I consider our time together short, (no amount of time is enough) it was wonderful, and I don't remember guns ever causing an argument.
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True beauty. Blessed are you both.:thumbup:

I am lucky as well. My father and I are renovating the house my grandfather left me. My reloading things will still be hidden in a closet. In a twenty by fifteen room, with couch, fireplace and study.

Huge upgrade from a six by three closet, that is just a closet.

Now I just need to install ten, twelve foot sheets of drywall, and insulate. And put in a bathroom. And appliances. Oh and then move in... that's when the real work starts.;)
 
Moving is my nightmare. My wife knows what I have so thats not a issue. It's just moving all the "stuff". We almost moved into my childhood home 5 blocks away but it,s a much bigger 2 story colonial with a lot more stairs. In middle age I want less. My son bought it so everyone's happy. Now I have to keep my eyes open for a ranch. I don't want my kids going through what my wife is with her parents. Big 2 story and they can't go up or down stairs. Good luck on your move.
 
Scooter22 said:
I don't want my kids going through what my wife is with her parents. Big 2 story and they can't go up or down stairs. Good luck on your move.
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Yeppers, my wife and I didn't think about that when we bought this place almost 40 years ago. And it's not even a "big 2 story," it's a rather small split entry. But just to keep this gun related, it's getting harder and harder each day for my wife and I to carry guns up and down the stairs now that we're both closing in on 70 years old.:uhoh:
 
Scooter22 said:
Moving is my nightmare. My wife knows what I have so thats not a issue. It's just moving all the "stuff". We almost moved into my childhood home 5 blocks away but it,s a much bigger 2 story colonial with a lot more stairs. In middle age I want less. My son bought it so everyone's happy. Now I have to keep my eyes open for a ranch. I don't want my kids going through what my wife is with her parents. Big 2 story and they can't go up or down stairs. Good luck on your move.
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When we started looking, the two key criteria for our house were:

1. It has to have all of the important stuff on the main floor (master bedroom, kitchen, living room, laundry, garage, main entrance, etc.)
2. It can't be in a certain town.

So what did we do? We bought a 2-story + basement house with the master bedroom upstairs in that town. I won't go into the reasons why we did buy it, but we're very happy with it. The main reason we were avoiding this town was that my wife was on the city planning commission when we lived here and there were some serious shennannigans going on with the city council and mayor during that time. The entire city council and the mayor were all either real estate developers or general contractors and they were approving deals with themselves and each other that were very much unethical and borderline illegal. That's why we moved out in the first place. Before we made the offer we checked into the current council and recent changes and things have improved significantly.

As for the guns, my wife fully approves of them but she can't participate in shooting much because of some significant health problems that can affect her mental state both directly and because of the medications that she has to take. If I come home with a new firearm, her usual question is "Is that one mine?" :) She really likes shooting the AR-15s because they're relatively light (except for my heavy-barrel varmint one), pretty accurate, and lots of fun to shoot. When we go shooting, she has refrain from taking some of her meds that morning before shooting, but we can make the trip pretty quick considering the "range" is only a couple of miles away. She doesn't care much for the older military rifles (mausers, mosins, 1903s, etc..) unless I load up some trail boss or red dot loads for her. She does like seeing what an 87 gr Speer TNT HP will do to a full, well-shaken-up 2-liter soda bottle and the 257 Bob doesn't recoil too bad for her. :cool:

Back to the house: One thing that is nice about this house is that there is a perfect spot in it for an elevator between the main and upper floors that isn't too obtrusive. She wouldn't go along with my idea of an outdoor through-the-window catapult to get upstairs along with a fireman's pole to get back down. It still would have avoided having to walk up and down the stairs and would be a great engineering solution.


TheSquire said:
"When I die, for goodness sake don't let my wife sell my guns for what I told her I paid for them."

Not my line, saw it online ages ago but still make me laugh!
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I actually have picked up most of my guns for below then-current market prices. Now, if she sells my fishing equipment for what I told her I paid for it, that's another story. :D

Matt
 
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