Builder459's girl needs some help
 

I am starting to pack up and clean some of Ray's stuff now. He has 3 muzzle loaders. I have quite a few people who are interested in them and was wondering if I posted pics and info on them if anybody could give me ball park of what a fair asking price is. Also I need to know how to legally sell them, not sure if muzzle loaders are registered yadda yadda yadda. Sadly the shooting was something we did together and not something I will do alone. It was OUR thing. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

If you need any help with posting let me know and/or I will post them for you. I can also post the information on some other forums to get a little wider exposure.

In most states ML are not considered firearms and are exempt of the rules governing regular rifles. There are 5 states/cities that are the exception to this rule. In most case the post office and UPS will ship the ML.

I am wondering... I no it was a together thing but I am wondering if time might help that you might reconsider shooting with someone else and therefore might need to retain one of those rifles???

Anyway anything I can do to help - more than willing and I am sure there will be a ton of others that will volunteer.

mike

The shooting thing ends for me. I am not taking his death very well. I have had to start counseling. The problem with this scenario I am in is I had 3 significant losses. I lost Ray, my stepson went back to his piece of Sh#@ mother , so I lost my stepson, and they were my life, so I have also lost my identity. I have also just found out that my dad's colon cancer that was removed in Sept, 2010 is back and has now spread to the liver and lungs. Guess the Mayan calendar was right, my world at least is ending.
The thing I miss the most was when he would sit at the computer and just prattle on about this gun and that load and which sabot. I would sit on the floor with my head on his knee and just listen to him ramble. I didn't understand half of it but that wasn't the point. When we went shooting, I would load and hit the bulls eye. He took care of everything else. That's what he did, he took care of me. I would give anything to hear him bitching about the dog hair and then come around the corner and see this 6'3 man down on the floor with a 21lb pug telling the dog "are you daddy's little man, are my guy? Give me a kiss and don't tell momma I was cheatin." I will post pic in next reply

CVA Kodiak Pro Magnum .45 1:28 twist with Real Tree Hardwood synthetic stock

Knight Wolverine .50 youth camo stock that he did himself (adult stock although I have the smaller stock also camoed by him)

Thompson Triumph .50 with New Bushnell banner 3-9x40 scope mounted on it.

All are in excellent condition, no bluing rubbed off, dings or scratches.
He also has a pair of Vortex Diamondback 8x42 Binoculars used for three trips out hunting.
He also has a second scope Nikon BuckMaster 3-9x40 with one small spot where the black is scratched
Last pic in following post.

Last picture

I'd keep that Knight, Ray was proud of it and I was going to have to paint a stock for me just like that.

The knight in that picture is the youth model and was mine. He sold his. He was darn proud of the stocks he painted himself though. I do love the fact that my stock was the test run. LOL

"I am not taking his death very well"

And you should not be! You have been handed a more than your fair share to start this year. But I know it is not more than you can bear. No matter what, continue the counseling. You need an outlet for your sadness and anger. I consider myself a "tough guy" but counseling has helped me more than once in my life. Keep putting one foot in front of the other. The fact that you are already handling some stuff is an indication you are doing that. My thoughts and prayers are with you.

Pugs are expert when it comes to bringing out the goofy in a person - very charming dogs.

I am sorry for your loss.

Peace.

we all grieve our own way. My Mother died on Mothers day 2005 from congestive heart failure, and diabetes. My father died a month and 8 days later. A couple days before fathers day he died of lung cancer. My sisters took everything from the house and left me with bills. I know what it is like to feel like your world is ending. It's not. I know it feels like it and the sore will take a long time to heal and there will always be a scab. I am not going to give you any "what you should do's". all I can say is I am sorry and good luck. it will get better. Ron

I always enjoyed the conversations that Ray and I had. Other than muzzleloading and hunting, we had another pleasure in common and that was getting Muley Hunter fired up. LOL. I will always remember Ray and miss him.

For somebody who quit school in the 9th grade, he was the smartest man I ever knew. He loved to learn new things and learn them right. He could do just about anything. He was my hero. I only had 8 years and 10 months with him and a lifetime would not have been enough.

Some pics. Ray and my grand daughter Kylie, she called him The Big Guy. Me and Ray Easter 2011, Ray and his 2x3 he got November 12. 2011

Oooooh hes lucky he never posted a couple those pictures or else i'd have given him just puuuuure hell! LOL. He always ragged on me when i'd take a posing shot with a gun or something.

You'll be sad to hear Ray and I became good friends.

Thats great. :happy0001:

I'm glad he had friends on here who could talk intelligently about hunting. I just listened to him. He would tell me "Your not really getting this are you". Nope, but keep talking mostest, cuz I love the sound of your voice.

I am relatively new to this forum in comparison to a lot of others who visit this site. Being so I never got a chance to know builder459. I am sorry for your loss and I'm sorry I never got the chance to chat with him. I hope you don't mind but I would like to suggest that you keep all of his muzzle loaders, or at least pass them on to his son. I hope I'm not mistaken in the fact that you mentioned he has a son. If you do or do not decide to keep them I don't think I would be wrong in saying that all of us here would love to have you as a member in the forum. And if you were to keep them we would be more than happy for you to share all of your experiences with them. From range trips to maybe even hunting successes in the future. I'm sure they were as special to him as mine are to me. I have already discussed with my wife what should happen to my muzzle loaders if something should happen to me. Unfortunately my wife has never shown any interest in shooting anything. And neither has my only child, my daughter. But I have instructed my wife to pass my firearms on to my daughter in hopes that one day she will have a child that one day will acquire an interest in them and learn to shoot them. I feel that all of my guns are like a part of me and in passing them on I am passing on a part of myself. Hopefully one day my grand child will shoot one or all of my guns and think "Gee my grandfather use to shoot these guns, how neat." When I was just a child there was a pump action .22 caliber rifle and a single shot .410 shotgun in my mothers closet that had belonged to my father. I couldn't wait until I was old enough to be allowed to take them out and shoot them. And when I did it was the beginning of a long love affair with hunting and shooting. I apologize for rambling on and of course these are just my opinions which I hope are not out of line and I wish you well with whatever you decide.

I fear, that even though I am trying, I will eventually lose touch with his son. Mom is very unstable but can clean up her act just long enough to hang on to her son each time CPS is called. Trace had zero interest in the guns. I have kept an old .22 that me and Ray used to spend hours out shooting with and when Trace is around 18 or so I will pass it on to him. I have the most memories of me and Ray together with that gun than I do the black powders. I am still undecided whether to sell his Jeep or sell my truck. According to the counselor it is rather unhealthy for me to sit in his Jeep in the middle of the night and cry. But it is the last thing he touched before he died and it is where I feel closest to him. I would sell everything and my soul to have him back. I did not think it was possible to hurt this bad and continue to breathe. I can't understand how at 6:30 a.m on April 17th I had a beautiful man and a wonderful stepson and at 7:53 a.m. I no longer had a family. I went from a house that was full of love and happiness to house that is silent and filled with sorrow. It is mind boggling how much my life changed in less than 2 hrs. On the flip side I was always very scared of the dark (Yeah I know at 43 I should have been over it) Now it doesn't scare me anymore. I have learned there are much scarier things in the world. I just want to come home from work and have him come out the door yelling "peepers" as he opens the gate for me. I just want my world back!

One other thing I would maybe discuss with your therapist is your son. And he is still your son too. From the description of his mother, you may have a shot to get him back. If you hound her to try to get him back or even spend time with him, she will dig in her heals. But act like you don't care (to her only, not your son). If she is what you say, her son will probably start to be an inconvience and she may want you to take him back. Just drop a suggestion that if she ever needs him to stay over so she can go somewhere, you are available and leave it at that. I am probably meddling where I shoudln't and you should definately run any ideas by your counselor, but backing off might be productive. Push too hard and she will do whatever it takes to keep him.

She will never give that child up. He is her meal ticket. She uses him to live everywhere for free. She's done that for 8 yrs. Also now she gets Ray's SS for Trace. She loves Trace in her own way, but is just not a good parent. She see's nothing wrong with letting him stay up until 3 or 4 in the morning on school nights and thinks nothing of pulling him out of school so they can go on a trip for a week or two. When we got custody of Trace in 2010 he had missed 37 days of school and had 52 tardies in one year. The school had SARB'ed her 3 times but the sheriff would not serve the papers to fine her as "they had better things to do". Literally the child was stunned when he found out that you had to take a shower everyday, not just Sundays. (true! no lie, he only showered on Sundays and if wanted to on Wednesdays, but only if he wanted to). If he didn't like what was for dinner he could have a litre of soda and a family size bag of chips instead. He lives at Disneyland and unfortunately at the age of 10 is not going to choose to live somewhere where he has to go to bed at a decent time, shower everyday, make his own bed, do his homework and go to school everyday. As of April 17th, he had missed 1 day of school and he was on the principle honor roll, almost straight A's. Ray was so proud of him. I am visiting him every week and will continue to do so. Mom won't let me have a second alone with him, but I hope that will change with time. Trace trusts me and has always felt he could talk to me. If I can have alone time, he will let things slip that, hopefully will help me get custody of him. She can keep the SS. I just want Trace to have a chance at a decent, normal life.