Gun Records Keeping reminder for those who may have gotten lax.
 

E mail from a friend, subject line daughters break in.


My daughters house was broken in to. Her shotgun was stolen along with many other items. Unfortunately she can find no record on that gun and neither can I even though I bought it years ago.


I have done this for several years now.
I have a rider on my home insurance policy for just my guns, another for my boats and canoes. I had a small boat stolen but recovered because I had pictures and serial numbers.

But for the guns I did about the same except I have pictures and used a word program to list the gun brand,

Beretta 20ga silver snipe vent rib SN XXXXX appraised by gun shop appraiser at $650.00, one scratch near the butt pad left side.
Beretta 12ga silver snipe SN XXXXXX appraised by gun shop appraiser at $500.00, Well worn forearm, trigger and trigger guard, lock release lever stiff.




I keep these records on a couple flash drives one I keep in a file cabinet and one is sent to my daughter in Wisconsin to keep in her small valuables safe.
Apprisel by a licensed appraiser was not much some thing like $10.00 a gun in 2014.

This is what I call a flash drive.


You can get from 2gb up prices start at about $7.00, I got several at a office depot that was closing and had a small sale on them. I have seen them at wal mart also.

These small cards are also nice and real easy to mail. can be had from 128mb all the way up to 256gb. Store a lot of information, work with about any lap top or desk top computer too.



As I said I sent my daughter a Flash drive with my gun information and some other things to store in her small jewelry safe I know she has because Kare and I got it for her as a Christmas present several years ago.

You want a back up stored some place other than your home in case of fire too. Why I sent my back up to my daughter 10 hours away.


Here is another good reason to keep records.


I worked with a guy on second shift back in the 1990's, we were doing 12 to 14 hour shifts and his wife had taken a week or two to spend with her dying father. Their home was broken into one night and the thieves made off with about 12 to 15 guns, he had one of those pretty maple glass door gun cabinet so was easy Pickens. Some of the guns had belonged to his granddad, He started cruseing the pawn shops local for a while, found two rifles at one called the cops and they could do noting because he didn't have any recorded serial numbers. To get them back he had to buy them.


:D Al

Great reminder Alleyyooper! I have a small digital camera and I have taken several pictures of each gun and a picture of the serial number on each. This info was downloaded onto my computer, I need to download these pics on a thumbdrive and put it in the safe deposit box. I probably need to take pics of the entire house before doing that in case of fire. A great tool to help remember what you had and be able to prove it to the insurance co.

Great story and advice as well. I take it one step farther. (2 but who is counting!!!) I do the video with multiple copies. I also take a dremel tool and black light dye and mark my weapons in places that would not normally be seen nor checked by thugs. I record this on the videos as well. That way the police or gunshop owner can look easily and I take it to the 10th degree with the extra marks if need be.

Lots of options out there - including doing nothing at all, which is NOT a good option.

NRA members are availed to $2,500 of "no questions asked, full replacement" insurance, should they elect to activate it. Additional coverage is available - which I personally use.

I also have a rider on my home insurance, however, these did require serial numbers, descriptions, and pictures. Through this policy, I have covered all of my accessories as well. It sucks having all of these itemized and written somewhere I don't control, but in this case, I'd rather have protection for the considerable value of the "collection."

For my own record keeping, I have an MS Excel file which catalogs purchase date, seller, transferer, price, current book value (updated annually), accessories, optics, parts, serial numbers, brand & model/part number, custom work done, condition, and a few other recordable attributes. When I sell an item, I cut and paste from the "owned" tab to the "sold" tab.

Within the same workbook, I catalog details for all of my customization work on individual worksheets for each firearm. I started doing this as a "work order record" when I carried my FFL, so it was easy to transfer it to personal use. I keep detailed "original" and "modified" photos within this Workbook too, as well as keeping detailed photos (usually) of the firearms in a file folder on my computer.

I used to use MS Access for this, but I work a lot more in Excel than Access.

I back this up quarterly, OR following a firearm purchase (which usually means a lot more often than quarterly) on a portable hard drive which I keep with all of our other important financial documents in a firesafe bolted to the concrete wall in our basement. Bolting to the wall, I can keep it at chest level to prevent flooding, and I have flashing built above it to prevent in-wash from water flooding from the top down, not to mention making it easier to view items inside.

I have experimented with encryption methods and storing these files online for remote server access, but I'm a little too distrusting of cloud or other off-site server storage at this point.

Whatever method someone uses to keep records of their firearms, "nothing" is really the only bad option.

NM, Very detailed and true as well!!! Great advice. I forgot about my NRA coverage. I have all my weapons listed with my Ins. agent as well, but he is a huge gun nut as well so he knows how to keep things safe for those "JIC" moments.

$2,500 from the NRA isn't squat, it in fact it is a Joke. I have a # 1 custom Remington 700 that was appraised at $2,200 so that leaves $300 for a scope. A regular Remington 700 BDL in excellent condition will appraise for near $800.00 Add a $300.00 scope in the mix and not much is covered really. If you have more than one rifle you do not have enough coverage.


Get the rider on your home owners insurance cost some thing like $2.00 per thousand of coverage.


:D Al

Old timer may have missed it - I specifically pointed out there is additional coverage available from the NRA program, and the $2,500 is the FREE policy. The $2,500 coverage through the NRA is free with membership, and is only the free base policy. I've added more on mine. Accessories ARE covered in the NRA Arms Care policy too, not just "net appraisal."

What I've seen in MOST home owners insurance policies, it's NOT a replacement price policy, it's an appraised value policy. So all of the over a hundred firearms in my safes I've purchased NEW, I'd only be able to afford to replace them with USED firearms based on my past home owners insurance policies. I've also had all of these policies require itemization, photos, and serials. The NRA coverage does not - just a list with approximate replacement values I want covered.

That's the biggest difference I have seen - I have over $5,000 in a couple of my custom rifles, whereas they would only resale for around half of what it cost to buy and build them. The appraisal values used in my home owners policy would give me the resale price - so I could rebuild HALF of them. The values I'm insured for in my NRA coverage will let me rebuild them exactly as they are.

I have the entirety of my reloading inventory, all of my gunsmithing tools (and woodworking, auto, metalworking, etc tools), my safes, firearms, firearms PARTS, optics, accessories... The whole nine yards... EVERYTHING covered for total replacement. Not appraised value, total replacement. It costs a bit, but if I ever have a fire, theft, flood, tornado, nat gas explosion, civil unrest, you name it, my life comes back to square one, not one half.

You know, that's something I never really thought much about. It's a good idea, and definitely something I need to do.

I've got all my stuff recorded on a disk that's kept in one of my safes and it has all the serial numbers and what the scope on them is if they have one. I'm not really worried about theft, but a bad fire is always in the back of my mind.

Lots of great points being brought up. I think I have some work to update my gun and equipment records.