Click here to download the catalog as a PDF file. To view this site you need Adobe Flash Player and your browser must allow javaScripts. Go here to get the latest Flash Player. PISTOLSMITHING Alex Hamilton THE INSIDE SCOOP ON PISTOLSMITHING TECHNIQUES Your Guns Will live Y eah, I know, we all think our guns are going to go with us when we croak, but I hate to break the bad news to you — they ain’t. If you die before your spouse and you have not planned for your toy’s afterlife they’re going to go to firearms hell. They end up in the hands of the wonderful people of the State, predatory lawyers or are simply pilfered off by thieves. When you go to eternity, chances are your old decrypted life’s love (that’s your woman for most of you) will be left in home-care, a nursing home, the care of like-minded females without a man, intensive care or anything else you can dream up. Please give yourself a moment of realism to think about it. Leaving the person you have loved and cared for with a pile of debt, guns, tools and stuff with which she more than likely has no idea how to deal with is just flat-out cruel. Consider this scenario. You are 82 years old, which places you around seven years over the life expectancy of an American male. Your sweetheart has been putting up with you for over 50 years and is 78 years old, which is right at the life expectancy of an American female. You have told her all your life those fire-sticks are worth a fortune when you die and can be sold for a nice chunk of cash to help her through the end of her days. She has really never had an interest in your guns and has devoted her time to putting up with you and raising children. Now you die on her, and she’s left alone with bad health and a safe full of guns she does not have a clue how to turn into the much-needed cash you told her about. I have been confronted with this problem — as have most gunsmiths — by the wives of men for whom we modified and built guns over the last 40 years. We are a recurring name in their husband’s Rolodex and one he mentioned off and on for many years, so the widow, in great need of help, calls. Don’t let a lifetime of collecting and enjoyment go to the wolves when you die — take action now. A Gunsmith-Friend G unsmiths are asked to tear guns apart, fix broken ones, restore abused ones, build new ones, alter working ones, ship ’em, receive ’em, clean ’em and evaluate them for countless widows. Most never paid attention to their husband’s lucrative hobby and don’t have a clue what to do with them when their old lover dies. All the widow sees is a pile of wood and metal that smells like rancid oil and looks like junk. If you never took the time to involve her and explain to her these chunks of metal were not the same as the hundreds of pairs of shoes she has collected over the last 40 years — sorry ladies — shame on you. Your firearms represent part of your legacy and have personal and historical value worth more than the money you sneaked out of your private stash to pay for them. Your gun collection is a solid, hardcore investment and should be treated as such. Mrs. Hamilton If you have a small collection and many grandknows exactly children, your widow’s problem is pretty much what to do with hubby’s solved. If you have no children or heirs-apparent, guns when he your large collection will have to be sold to pay the finally goes. enormous death tribute to King State. Your widow She’s been a will have two easy options, but you must inform her shooter and of these options before you die and probably write part of his business for the instructions down to be kept in a safe place. decades. Do This T he first, and probably the best solution, is for you to become friends and a good customer with the owners of a large local gunshop within a 50 mile radius of your home. Most of these large gunshops specialize in buying and selling gun collections coming out of an estate. You can cut a deal with the gunshop while you are still alive and create a contract your widow can use to finalize the deal. One fine old gun shop here in San Antonio, Drury’s Gun Shop, will pick up your gun col- lection, enter each item on their Federal books, evaluate and write a description of each item, place ads in local newspapers and, best of all, buy ads on gunbroker.com, auctionarms.com, gunsamerica.com or any of the other Internet firearms sites. That can really help to sell. When your guns are sold, Drury’s will retain 15- to 30-percent of the book value, depending on the value of the guns, and to pay for their costs and profit. Your widow will receive the balance in the form of a check. This is all so important, His Editorship asked me to finish my thoughts in the next issue, so stay tuned. * 24 WWW.AMERICANHANDGUNNER.COM • JULY/AUGUST 2009