What Would You Do?

[Bucksnort1]

Ok, I'm no spring chicken. Three years ago, I celebrated my 35th birthday for the second time but trust me, I don't look a day over thirty. Here is my dilemma.

Considering I am 73 years old and have enough reloading components to last beyond my time on earth, do I gradually load everything I have then kick the bucket or do I load what I need and leave the remaining components for my daughter to sell. She knows nothing about reloading or value but I'm sure she is smart enough to figure it out with some effort. My son-in-law will not want any of it except perhaps loaded calibers he shoots.

I've explained to him about the two rules of reloading. Never load for anyone and never shoot another loaders loads. Keeping the latter in mind, I think he would be ok shooting my loads. I would advise them to not sell my loads.

What would you do?

 

[surveyor]

I would load what I need,
components would be easier to sell as brass, primers, bullets, powder, dies, presses, etc.
than loaded ammo that would have to be taken apart for brass and bullet.

 

[Seamaster]

Shoot till you trigger finger cramps up, than switch to your weak hand.

Check with your local gun club, donate components to some one who is just starting out?

 

[scatterbrain]

Bucksnort, that's something I have given thought to also. My decision is to have my unwanted toys go to someone that I have shot with and, perhaps, helped along the way. I have been on the other end of that and those guys were not forgotten.

 

[T. O'Heir]

Up here, one's executor gets to make all those decisions. People named in a will as benefactors have no say. You may want to look into Colorado's inheritance laws.
However, my stuff is going into the pyramid with me. snicker.
Might be an idea to make a spreadsheet(yes you can) with your evaluations of all your components. Reloaded ammo has no value. So buy your kids a kinetic puller.

 

[Bucksnort1]

O'Heir,

I live in Arizona now but you bring up an excellent point. I will check into AZ laws. Then what you are saying is, wills are basically meaningless where you live. I like the spreadsheet idea.

Part of my problem is I have no children of my own. If I had a son and he is interested in reloading then my choice is easy. My daughter is my step-daughter. We have a wonderful relationship but putting up with reloading components is not something she wants to do.

Surveyor has the answer.

Seamaster has a good idea. If I can find a gun club that raises money for a good cause, this may be a good thing to do. Last year, I donated a ton of fly tying material to Project Healing Waters.

Near my old house in Colorado is a gun store, Green Mountain Guns, who will entertain bulk buying of materials such as this. I can check around here.

Heck, I sound like I'm about ready to kick the bucket any day, which may be true. I'm still very active.

 

[hdwhit]

Bucksnort1 wrote:
Considering I am 73 years old and have enough reloading components to last beyond my time on earth, do I gradually load everything I have then kick the bucket or do I load what I need and leave the remaining components for my daughter to sell. She knows nothing about reloading or value but I'm sure she is smart enough to figure it out with some effort.

My father is 93 but nobody believes him, so I'll take you at your word that you can still pass for 30.

I can retire in about four months and I've already laid in the reloading supplies I expect to need for the rest of my life so those costs won't have to be paid out of my (much smaller) retirement check, so your problem is one I will confront soon enough.

My son-in-law will not want any of it except perhaps loaded calibers he shoots.

Since your son-in-law trusts your reloads but doesn't reload himself, I suggest you load for the things he shoots at a pace that is comfortable for you and give what you don't use yourself to him.

I've explained to him about the two rules of reloading. Never load for anyone and never shoot another loaders loads. Keeping the latter in mind, I think he would be ok shooting my loads. I would advise them to not sell my loads.

Good advice. I'm glad to hear you gave it to him and let's hope he abides by it.

I started reloading when I was 17. My father didn't trust reloading, didn't think I knew what I was doing and wouldn't be anywhere near when I was reloading or shooting my reloads until I was well into my 20's. In the 40+ year since, I have not had a single failure of any of my reloads (once I got far enough along the development ladder to have the rounds function the gun). Now, other than rimfire and shotshells, the only thing he will shoot is what I make since it is optimized to his rifle.

I hope your son-in-law appreciates the effort you are putting in on his behalf.

What would you do?

Load as you need to for your own use. Staying active and alert is the best way to stay alive and healthy.

Load extra for your son-in-law.

Keep the rest as components since they - not reloaded cartridges - are readily saleable.

Also, depending on how good a negotiator your daughter is, you might want to compile a list of what you have and what the current retail prices are at various websites and what you think she should ask for at a garage sale. And then maybe you could tell her to put half the proceeds from the sale into investments for your grandchildren and spend the other half on your grandchildren.

 

[hdwhit]

T. O'Heir wrote:
Reloaded ammo has no value. So buy your kids a kinetic puller.

I like that.

Imagine a woman that looks like June Cleaver and it writes itself.

"Yes, kids, granddaddy found purpose in life by reloading, so he's left us ten-thousand rounds of worthless ammunition, but as soon as you finish pounding away on the garage floor here and collect the bullets, powder and primed cartridges, why you'll sleep like little angels tonight and this weekend mommy will take you kids to the gun show and teach you how to haggle."

 

[Pathfinder45]

What would I do? Judging from past behavior, I suppose I would do as I always have; keep buying components when they are on sale and not worry about it.

 

[Reloadron]

What would you do?

Actually that thought has crossed my mind of late. You only have me by a few years, well actually about 5 years. I currently have more than I will likely shoot so have curtailed buying anything more. My brother can help my wife sort and sell whatever he and the kids and grandchildren don't want. A few guns I would like kept in the family but the rest can be sold off. Considering I will be dead I guess Kathy can fertilize the lawn with the powder. Now on the off chance I outlive my current stash then maybe I'll buy a little more but as of now there is more than enough. Powder and primers are really the only shelf life items anyway. The remainder is all marketable. Hell, if I have time I will price the stuff out for my wife.

On the bright side, it's been a great ride.

Ron

 

[Slamfire]

I would first advise for you to shoot everything up, while you are still above ground.

I am very skeptical about the ammunition reloaded by others. As stated earlier, it is basically worthless for most shooters/reloaders. A bud of mine bought some estate sale ammunition. He pulled the bullets and dumped the powder on a few rounds, based on what he saw, he thought the powder was for blanks. If he had shot the stuff he might have had a blown up gun. He pulled everything and kept the primed cases and bullets.

I am going to touch on something called Agnotology, that is culturally induced ignorance. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnotology Basically, why don't you know what you don't know? Gunpowder has a shelf life, it is unpredictable, but it is real. The lifetime of gunpowder is in terms of decades, not centuries. At some point it all goes bad. As gunpowder breaks down it released nitric acid gas which ruins brass and causes the green corrosion you see on the bullet. That corrosion is in the case.

You load up good brass with gunpowder that is near its shelf life, you have ruined good brass. This is another reason to be leery of old ammunition, factory or reloads. I have written extensively on this subject, volumes basically, and it does not need to be repeated in this thread. But I am finding that ammunition I loaded in the mid 1990's, now that I am firing it, I am experiencing case neck splits. The brass would have been fine if I had not reloaded the stuff and let it set for twenty years. But I did not know back then, what I know now. I had help, but primarily, I got myself self educated.

For your components to retain any value, they must be components. That is powder in the powder can, primers in the boxes, and bullets and cases in their separate boxes.

 

[hounddawg]

Seamaster nailed it

Shoot till you trigger finger cramps up, than switch to your weak hand.

My son in law is inheriting whatever I have left, which hopefully will be nothing more than a quarter pound of powder and a half tray of primers if I time things right

 

[TXAZ]

Shoot what you have that you want to, then get some joy and give the rest to someone who will appreciate it.

 

[Stats Shooter]

I don't know your shooting habits, or how much you have in components....or how much time you have left on earth

My grandparents are still alive and in their mid 80's. My great grandparents made it to nearly 90. My wife's grandparents are all still alive and in their mid 80's. So if your health is reasonably decent, you have on average 7-9 years left! And assuming you are up to it, I could easily burn tens of thousands of rounds in that time, probably hundreds of thousands if I were retired.

If you want to leave the step daughter something, quit buying new components, and get to shooting....save the cash not spent on new components for the girl.

Or find some kid at the gun range and take on a student, pass on your knowledge.... Give him/her you presses and dies after a while, teach him to use them.
I have two boys and they will get my gear.

 

[drain smith]

Every 5 years I up date my will. Before I do I always ask my kids what they want. They never want to talk about it but I don't give a damn. Well, this year my daughter brought my little brass monkey over on a Friday night so I could have him for the weekend. While he was getting ready for bed I ask my daughter what she wanted in the will. And of course, she started complaining about not wanting to hear about me dying. So for her, nothing has changed.

The next day my brass monkey and I we in the loading room cleaning brass when I noticed that he was extremely quiet. I asked him what was wrong and he said that he didn't want me to die. (he overheard my conversation with his mom the night before).

Now as far as my grandson is concerned the sun rises and sets on my ass. I had to explain to him that I was not dying but I also explained to him how important planning for the future is. I then asked him what he wanted if I did die. He said that he wanted one of my Ammo-plants. I asked him what he was going to reload pistol or rifle? He said both. So I told him that he needed 2 presses. We then pulled the presses off the bench and wrote his name in permanent marker on the bottom of each one. They are now part of my will.

 

[Nathan]

Take some time to befriend a young shooter. There are so many people who would love to learn to reload. Teach, give some components away. Then you know they are going to the right place.

This mentee is not always family.

I'm lucky that mine is my SIL

 

[Chainsaw.]

I have purchased two "estates" of reloading gear and have a few points for you. One, your kids will never glean what all the stuff is actually worth out of it unless they begin reloading, which is what I did. They will mearly sell it all off at garage sale prices for the simple fact of offloading it. Two, is that burden of offloading it, its a chore, and what I did with the second estate I bought.

My opinion is, shoot to your hearts content, enjoying your hobbie and the good people it surrounds you with. Leave the kids something nice to remember you buy as you will be missed.