Ok, everyone.

Some threads on this board reminded me to post this. I recently stopped fooling around and took pictures of all of my guns and, more importantly, their serial numbers. Since I have an iPhone, the pictures are backed up to the cloud, and I also synchronized the images to my desktop. I have a good safe, and I really hope that none of them ever get stolen, but the world we live in is not a kind place to the unprepared. On a personal note, I've been ripped off enough times that I no longer have a sense of humor about it.

If you're not willing to document everything properly, at least take some pictures of your property so you can fill out police and insurance reports. Without a serial number, your chance of ever seeing your property again is miniscule.

The weather this weekend is pretty lousy, so take a few minutes and protect your hard earned property.

If you can't sync, email them to yourself and they will be backed up that way as well, and always accessible from just about any PC should you need to file a report.

S/N's & pics are on a thumb drive hidden in the casa.. Good reminder..

List of what the average Police report will ask the victim:

Brand
Style/model
Color(s)
Serial number
Specific Identifiers or markings
Cost

Yep.
Solid advice.
I have done that, but need a couple of updates.
Got rid of a couple & added a couple.
Thanks for the reminder & motivation.

Yep, did this lat year at this time but it is time to update.

Very good advice, done and even been updated with est. values.

Just before Christmas we had our car broken into in OKC and my Glock 19 was stolen. When the police showed up to take the report I had a picture of it on my phone since I had done the custom Cerakote work on it. You could zoom in on the picture and read the serial number and everything. When I showed the officer the picture he said, "Oh yeah, that will be easy to identify."

OKC police ended up catching the guy who stole it, but he had already sold it. He told them who he sold it to but they couldn't find him. Then a couple weeks ago they get a call to a domestic violence scene, and it is the dude who bought my pistol. They guy was choking his GF, that is why police got called. When they got there he fired a round off in the air and tried to run but they caught him. Good records paid off for me on identifying my gun. Right now my pistol is at OKC police in evidence. I will get it back, it will just take some time to go through the process.

Good records are very important. Having a picture on my phone helped a bunch.

I keep mine in a Google Drive document that is available to me wherever I am. Contains serials, accessories, identifying features, and approximate value. I also have an inventory of my reloading equipment there, just in case I run across something I think I might need.

For those that are putting it off, go ahead and get an insurance policy, or double-check that yours will be covered under your homeowner's or renter's policy.

That brings up a good topic..you can either attach riders to your insurance policy for firearms - or obtain a policy specifically for firearms. But what about ammo? Some of us (not me of course) have a stockpile of ammo worth a lot of money now. You can't tell your regular homeowner insurance company - not only will they probably not cover that much they'd freak if you told them about it...

Had an H&R bull barrel (that I wish I'd never sold) that the guy that bought it had stolen. I still had sn and pics on file. Don't know if he ever got it back but at least he had something to pass along to the LEO.

I probably need to email my insurance company and ask specifically if they'll cover ammo. I didn't include it in the stated value, but it'd be nice if I could work it in there for just a few bucks more.