10 Old Shotguns in Grandpa's Closet Worth Thousands! (Never Sell These)

THE BARN FIND BIBLE: the maker marks, the stamps, the dating rules and the real sold prices, all in one place: https://barnfindbible.com I am Otis Granger. I am 64, I have spent 40 years picking barns, estate auctions and farm sales across the Midwest, and I will say the awkward part up front: I am not a gun man. What I am is a fellow who has cleared out a great many houses, and the gun in the closet is the most underpaid object in an American estate. So this is identification and value only. Ten old shotguns worth real money, counting down, each one anchored to a mark or a stamp you can find yourself at a kitchen table, and every single one paired with its HONEST COUSIN: the ordinary version of that same gun and what it truly brings. Most old shotguns in American closets are $150 to $400 guns and I say so cheerfully and repeatedly. BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE, said once and said plainly: assume any gun found in a house is loaded. Do not look down the barrel. If you do not know how to check whether a gun is empty, do not touch it, get somebody who does. WHAT IS COVERED, in order: 10. THE FLOOR. The common single shot break action and the worn field grade double, said flat: $75 to $200 for the single shots, $150 to $400 for a tired double. The one four second check that lifts one off the floor, which is the gauge stamp, and why 16, 20, 28 and .410 beat 12 in the exact same gun. 9. ORIGINAL FINISH VERSUS REFINISHED, taught early because it decides all nine that follow. The fingernail test on the checkering. Wood standing proud of the steel, and what it means when the steel stands higher. Bluing that is too new for the wear on the wood. A buffed receiver with shallow lettering and rolled edges. And the trade's old rule of thumb that a refinished gun brings about 60 percent of what an original brings. 8. THE DATE, AND WHERE IT HIDES. Where the serial number actually is on a pump gun and on a break open double, why the numbers on barrels and frame have to match, free Winchester dating tables, and why pre 1964 is the most famous quality line in American gun collecting. 7. THE LESSER AMERICAN NAMES, and the name trap that costs families the most. Ithaca, Lefever, Baker and A.H. Fox. Why A.H. Fox of Philadelphia and a Savage made Fox Model B are not the same animal, and why a D.M. Lefever is not a Lefever Nitro Special. 6. THE GRADE MARKINGS ON DOUBLES, the single biggest source of mispricing in the category. Where the grade is stamped (the water table, under the barrels, with the action open), the Parker ladder from Trojan and VH up through DH, CH, BH, AH, AAH and A1 Special, the L.C. Smith ladder from Field and Ideal up through Crown, Monogram and Premier, and how Parker named the barrel steel to match the grade. 5. COUNTRY OF MANUFACTURE, which rewrites the price in both directions. Belgian Browning against Japanese Miroku, the Superposed, the crowned ELG proof mark of the Liege proof house, and the flood of cheap Belgian hardware store export guns that wear a trade name instead of a maker. 4. THE DAMASCUS AND TWIST BARREL PROBLEM, told honestly and not softened. How to see the braided pattern in the steel and read the rib legend. Why these are not shooters and only a double gun specialist should ever say otherwise about a particular gun, why that makes them worth less to one market, and why a good maker in high original condition can still bring close to fluid steel money as an object. 3. THE GUNS BUILT IN NUMBERS COLLECTORS CAN COUNT. Reading the gauge stamp. Roughly 245,000 Parkers built in nearly 80 years, of which the .410 bores are counted in the hundreds. The Winchester Model 21 at about 30,000 guns in 28 years. And the same gun in 12 gauge for a fraction of the money. 2. THE HIGH GRADE AMERICAN DOUBLES, where the engraving and the wood are most of the money. Scroll coverage, game scenes, gold inlay, figured walnut, finer checkering, skeleton buttplates. Why a Trojan and an AAH came off the same frame in the same week and are not in the same universe. And the warning that engraving added later is never grade. 1. PROVENANCE, because the paper beats the gun. Kermit Roosevelt's Parker 20 gauge in the second lowest grade Parker made, and what documentation did to it. Factory letters from the Cody Firearms Records Office. And the shoebox provenance that gets thrown out at every estate in America. THEN WHAT TO DO. Do not clean it, do not refinish it, do not carry it into the first place that will take it. Read the gun in order. Look at COMPLETED and SOLD auction results, never asking prices. And go through a licensed dealer. A NOTE ON THE LAW: inherited firearms carry transfer rules and they vary by state. I am not a lawyer and I give no legal instructions here. Go through a licensed dealer and check your own state's law before anything leaves the house. Tell me below what is in the closet, and where you're watching from. I read every single one.