If you have a short attention span, you may stop reading now. It's okay.
I've always been a pretty good record keeper when it comes to firearms. It's of benefit for a number of reasons, some of which are obvious. I've been doing it since Day One in 1965 when I bought my first gun. For years, it was all on paper. We didn't have electronic means to do it. In a couple of other posts, I've mentioned that over the decades, I've owned hundreds of guns. A famous line from an old TV show was, "No brag, just fact." But I couldn't say with accuracy exactly how many. Lately, I've decided to clean up these records. Not that there is much point in doing it, but when you get old and have time on your hands, sometimes a project like this comes along that is a way to utilize some of that time.
There have been times I've wanted to go back and take a look at this or that gun that I've owned for historical reference. Or in connection with online posts. My folder of records got very fat for the first few decades. Then personal computers came along. I have set up and managed offices before; a typewriter and a filing cabinet and a system of organization and it's done. But I've never been trained to set up a modern office that uses electronic means of storing documents. My first effort was to store and file photos. So I set up files on individual guns for that. Then Iearned how to use Microsoft Word, and I used that to record transaction data. Which I then merged with the picture files so they are in one folder per gun. On my PC and backed up on a flash drive. It's a system that works well enough for me and I've done it that way for about 20 years. The folder of paperwork stopped getting fat after that. But it was more difficult to access the paper back files. Plus, I had gotten sloppy and let them get out of the order they were in, which wasn't ideal. I'd file the docs by date sold, not by date purchased. Which was a natural avenue to random sort.
My project now is to get all the paper documents listed on an Excell document, with particulars on each and cost data. I'm not including information on who and where, because in the rare cases where that might be desired, I can go back and look it up on the paper document. Which will be filed and maintained in an order that makes sense and is easy to access. The list (and the files) will be in chronological order by date of purchase.
This is a time and labor intensive project. I started on 1965, and I'm up to the end of 1973 and already I have 90 line items. In my mind, I may be missing two or three that I didn't properly record and I will try to track those down. But I'm on to 1974 this evening. Once I have all the back files reorganized and on an Excell document, I will still be using two systems. The updated paper records, and the electronic records that I currently use. Some day I may find a practical way to merge them. But for now, to add another 20 years of stuff onto the Excell document is a project that wll have to wait.
We've had a thread here not so long ago re. guns we have sold and later bought back. At the time, I could only recall one that I'd done that with. However, after reviewing my activities in the earliest years, a few more have come to my attention. I was a youthful enthusiast at the time and a few guns changed hands back and forth with pals in trades more than once. Some involved rather complex trades including the use of cash and non-firearm items.
I'll let you know how this comes out.
I've always been a pretty good record keeper when it comes to firearms. It's of benefit for a number of reasons, some of which are obvious. I've been doing it since Day One in 1965 when I bought my first gun. For years, it was all on paper. We didn't have electronic means to do it. In a couple of other posts, I've mentioned that over the decades, I've owned hundreds of guns. A famous line from an old TV show was, "No brag, just fact." But I couldn't say with accuracy exactly how many. Lately, I've decided to clean up these records. Not that there is much point in doing it, but when you get old and have time on your hands, sometimes a project like this comes along that is a way to utilize some of that time.
There have been times I've wanted to go back and take a look at this or that gun that I've owned for historical reference. Or in connection with online posts. My folder of records got very fat for the first few decades. Then personal computers came along. I have set up and managed offices before; a typewriter and a filing cabinet and a system of organization and it's done. But I've never been trained to set up a modern office that uses electronic means of storing documents. My first effort was to store and file photos. So I set up files on individual guns for that. Then Iearned how to use Microsoft Word, and I used that to record transaction data. Which I then merged with the picture files so they are in one folder per gun. On my PC and backed up on a flash drive. It's a system that works well enough for me and I've done it that way for about 20 years. The folder of paperwork stopped getting fat after that. But it was more difficult to access the paper back files. Plus, I had gotten sloppy and let them get out of the order they were in, which wasn't ideal. I'd file the docs by date sold, not by date purchased. Which was a natural avenue to random sort.
My project now is to get all the paper documents listed on an Excell document, with particulars on each and cost data. I'm not including information on who and where, because in the rare cases where that might be desired, I can go back and look it up on the paper document. Which will be filed and maintained in an order that makes sense and is easy to access. The list (and the files) will be in chronological order by date of purchase.
This is a time and labor intensive project. I started on 1965, and I'm up to the end of 1973 and already I have 90 line items. In my mind, I may be missing two or three that I didn't properly record and I will try to track those down. But I'm on to 1974 this evening. Once I have all the back files reorganized and on an Excell document, I will still be using two systems. The updated paper records, and the electronic records that I currently use. Some day I may find a practical way to merge them. But for now, to add another 20 years of stuff onto the Excell document is a project that wll have to wait.
We've had a thread here not so long ago re. guns we have sold and later bought back. At the time, I could only recall one that I'd done that with. However, after reviewing my activities in the earliest years, a few more have come to my attention. I was a youthful enthusiast at the time and a few guns changed hands back and forth with pals in trades more than once. Some involved rather complex trades including the use of cash and non-firearm items.
I'll let you know how this comes out.
