The gear survivalists leave lives on after them, and the tinfoil is often interred with their bones……
Got a text message from a buddy the other day. A person he knew passed, the wife wants to sell the house and move to be near the grandbabies, and the guy was a survivalist with a buncha gear…and everything must go. Would I be interested?
Well….yeah. I mean, I have a secondary location that needs to be stockpiled, right?
So whats on offer? Water storage tanks, smaller water containers, hand tools, holsters, water purifiers, kerosene heaters, camp stoves, coleman lanterns, kerosene, propane, radios, etc, etc. And, naturally, this potential money sink is taking place the same weekend as the big Missoula gun show. I foresee a lot of money leaving my hands this weekend. However, if theyre good deals then the short-term suffering may be worth it. I’ll be heading out there this evening after work, so we shall see what winds up coming back with me in the truck.
It’s always an interesting experience when a survivalist dies and you get the opportunity to go through their stuff. How much of a true believer were they? What was their particular flavor of apocalypse? Were they well-rounded or gun-heavy? You wind up trying to reconstruct a life by the things they left behind.
I like to think that if I die there won’t be a huge garage sale or anything like that simply because I’ve already made plans with the people in my life to make sure they get what I’ve accumulated. If I have to shuffle off this mortal coil, the last thing I want is all my gear winding up in a bargain bin somewhere. I want it going to the people I care about who can use it and, in some way, have a safer and more secure future as a sort of legacy from me.
Yep, I don’t have a ton of gear, but many pounds of good gear. And have tried to impress on my Daughters and Grandkids the need to hang on to it after I croak. But I’m afraid they don’t want to see the possible need for it, despite my pointing out the possibilities. They just don’t want think bad shit will happen to Americans, outta sight, outta mind blinders on, in spite of life’s historical and daily reminders, so, whatta ya gonna do?…sigh
Those are the best, and happen more often than we think…the Trader Brother’s inventory was a great example.
They still had G3 mags last time I was in there, close to a year ago.
Im still sitting on several hundred G3 mags back from when CTD was moving them for $0.99…I think I’ve about six or seven hundred at this point.
I bought a case or two of those also… More than I have guns for.
Yeah. When the family was together and the PTR-91 was the go-to rifle. CTD offered a 5% discount on case lots, too!
Suffice it to say I will never need to buy a G3 mag. The kids can fight over them
I’m actually disappointed that you don’t know the exact number offhand.
Oh, I have exact numbers…theyre on one of my spreadsheets, I want to say its somewhere in the 700-750 range. But thats spread across seven rifles. So, call that 100 mags per gun. Then break that down into half of that going into deep storage per gun, and it becomes 50 mags per gun, of those, half are at a separate location, now that gives you about 25 ‘on hand for use’ mags per gun.
I’ve been using the same Rheinmetall G3 mag since 1980 in a durability test. After many thousands of rounds, it still functions like new. Hard to beat German metals and engineering.
A while back heard about a prepper that had passed away up in a mountain community. Buddy of mine helped the family clear out the house, shed and bunker. He said he took many 5-gallon buckets of wheat, flour, sugar, etc. to the dump. Asked him if he checked any of them for firearms or precious metals, he said no, never occurred to anyone. Very sad and I fear this is what is going to happen to all my ‘stuff’. Maybe it’s time to sell most of it off.
My late mother used to stash cash in her coat pockets, shoes and boots. Discovered this when I was bagging her items for donation.
I got rid of my 40 cal firearms so I gave my friend an ammo can with all the 40 ammo. He called and said ‘did you forget something?’ What? I had hidden $1200 cash in the bottom and forgot about it! Lucky he was an honest guy.
I take every opportunity to peddle some gear to the kids. They will take knives and multi-tools in a heartbeat – so I guess I raised them decently. Son will be 21 soon and will want his inherited guns from grandfather and some early inheritance from me which is all good. I’m sure as they grow older and see the world circling in the toilet they will be fighting over footlockers and ammo cans full of goodies.
That’s always the best, when you have interested kin and can give them gear now, and they appreciate it. I have a nephew that does, he is always amazed at what I give him, and it warms my heart to give it to someone who appreciates it.
The kids will get it, they will own the hole and the land around it.
But I do have a cache not well hidden. Peaches and ham.
If you have read The Road, you know what I am talking about.
The guy is probably smiling up there knowing that his hard-acquired preps will be going to someone in his like-minded tribe.
Don’t forget to metal detect the back yard you don’t know what he has buried
only once I’ve ran into an obvious prepper’s gear being sold out at a garage sale – none of the good stuff – either he never had it or the kids kept it back for themselves ;;;;
but – I’ve see prepper food stashes being sold off on FB MarketPlace – most time its #10 cans and buckets of the ration packs – two sell-offs within the last couple months ….
I always question the sellers about “other gear” – never know when you walk into an ammo deal where a widow doesn’t know how to sell it quietly …….
Whatever your estate plan – will or trust – create a “Read Me First” document (or, more likely, a binder of multiple documents). I’ve seen cases where one spouse dies and the surviving spouse doesn’t know where the can opener is.
Whomever has to deal with what you leave behind won’t know what you do, where stuff is, what’s it’s worth, or whom to call to get help dealing with it, and without some guidance they’ll wind up using your pre-1964 quarters in vending machines or sell your 4 pre-ban HK93s at a yard sale for $50 each and throw the 40-round magazines in for free.