Selling guns in Wisconsin.

Where we go in Wisconsin

Southern Wisconsin — Kenosha, Racine, Milwaukee, Madison — is a comfortable trip around the bottom of the lake. Green Bay, the Fox Valley and the north of the state are further, and we go for collections and estates rather than for single pieces.

Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay, Kenosha, Racine, Appleton and Eau Claire — and everywhere between. Where you are is our problem to solve rather than a reason to rule yourself out.

What collections in Wisconsin look like

Wisconsin has one of the largest deer hunting traditions in the country and it has been going for generations, which means an enormous number of houses hold firearms that were bought to hunt with and then kept. That produces a particular kind of estate: lever guns and bolt rifles in genuine working condition, shotguns bought for birds, and very often a cabin somewhere with more of the same in it. It also means the guns are often spread across more than one building.

Estates in Wisconsin

Wisconsin estates are shaped by deer camp more than by anything else. The recurring pattern is a house with the everyday guns in it and a cabin, shed or camp with a second set that nobody has been through in years — and the second set is frequently older and in better original condition than the first, because it was used less and stored dry. Lever actions and older bolt rifles turn up here in numbers, and and a family clearing one house can find the other building holds half the value.

Why get a number from out of state

A Wisconsin deer camp collection is exactly the sort of thing that gets undervalued, because most of it looks ordinary and some of it is not. Having the whole lot identified and written down costs nothing, and it is the difference between selling a pile of old rifles and selling a collection.

How a visit to Wisconsin actually works

Southern Wisconsin is a straightforward run around the bottom of the lake and easy to schedule. Green Bay, the Fox Valley and the north we plan properly, ideally combining a house and a camp into one trip. Tell us every location up front, even the ones you think hold nothing — a second stop planned in advance costs nothing, and a second trip costs a great deal.

Questions we get from Wisconsin

There are guns at the cabin as well as the house. Does that matter?

Only for planning. Tell us where everything actually is when you get in touch and we will work out how to see all of it, ideally in one trip. It is a common situation and it is not a complication.

Everything is in my father's name and he has passed. What now?

Sensible first step is the valuation, which we will do either way and which costs nothing. Anything about the estate itself — who inherits, what has to be settled first — belongs with the family's attorney, and we will say so rather than guess at it.

Cash, consignment or trade credit

Three ways to be paid, priced side by side so you can see the difference before you commit to any of them — and you can split a collection across them.How the three compare.

What we buy

Whole collections rather than the good pieces out of them. Rifles, shotguns and handguns — modern, older, collectible or entirely ordinary — along with the ammunition, optics, safes and the accumulated boxes of parts that come with a lifetime of it. Dealer inventory and shops winding down as well.

What determines value ·How to sell a collection ·You inherited firearms

Where else we buy

Michigan, where we are licensed and where most of our work is — and Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Minnesota.