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November 5, 2014
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For Mike and Tom…
To Heck with Excel… Here’s the “tried and true” method. Bob Porter’s Model 70 cards (all 11,340 of them)… I had to build a couple of trays to keep them in order. Mike probably has at least that many in his reloading inventory. 
Of course the cards aren’t “searchable” the way a spreadsheet is. It took me a couple months to transfer all of Porter’s information into a spreadsheet… 
Lou
WACA 9519; Studying Pre-64 Model 70 Winchesters
March 31, 2009
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I use Excel a lot but if you aren’t used to it use Word. It’s just like writing a letter. I have Access but have never used it. I had to change this to a PDF because this site doesn’t take Word doc.
November 7, 2015
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It’s hard to believe but my I have managed a dealer parts inventory with something called the sort-a-post card system where each part number had a card, those cards were arranged in trays that in turn were placed in racks on a table. I will probably take inventory with index cards and transfer the data. I won’t need any custom-built trays to store the cards when I’m done, Lou. I have a little card file box around here somewhere. I always liked the card file system we used to see at libraries, they make great workshop storage.
Mike
December 12, 2019
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My work life required me to become proficient in many forms of relatively sophisticated software, so while I don’t claim to be a computer ‘whiz’, I do know my way around the basics.
I think you’ve been given good advice with the use of EXCEL for your needs. It is fairly easy to learn, and you only need to learn enough to cover your purpose.
Previous posters here have given several good examples of the headings or topics you’d want to include, and you can easily customize your own. My personal spreadsheet is similar to many suggested here with one addition. I’ve taken digital photos of my firearms and added them to the excel spreadsheet as additional pages, with ‘links’ from the primary listing to the photos. This is handy, but means the spreadsheet is a very large file.
Others have suggested or mentioned databases such as ACCESS. I don’t think our firearms inventories are complex enough to require any of these relational databases. If so, you can accomplish much the same goal with links in EXCEL, as I did with my photos.
Others here have stated what a steep learning curve is required for ACCESS, and I completely agree. I’ve used much more powerful databases which were more user friendly.
As for what to do with scopes and other accessories, I arbitrarily set a threshold of $200. If a scope or other accessories costs or is valued at $200 or more, it gets a line in the spreadsheet. But I have categories for handguns, rifles, shotguns, scopes, etc., and subcategories such as ‘rimfire’ so that I can quickly determine a count of each.
After having said all this, there is nothing wrong with a tray of index cards.
Paul
Nevada Paul
Life Member NRA
February 17, 2022
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Louis Luttrell said
For Mike and Tom…
To Heck with Excel… Here’s the “tried and true” method. Bob Porter’s Model 70 cards (all 11,340 of them)… I had to build a couple of trays to keep them in order. Mike probably has at least that many in his reloading inventory.Of course the cards aren’t “searchable” the way a spreadsheet is. It took me a couple months to transfer all of Porter’s information into a spreadsheet…
Lou
Good Lord Lou! That is amazing.
April 30, 2023
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You probably have enough examples already sent to you by now, but if you need another, I have one built that contains almost everything that has been mentioned. I did it once the collection became insured on its own for documentation purposes.
January 20, 2023
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i started using Gemini and Grok very tentatively a couple of weeks ago and it was an eye opener. First up, I wanted to find out for my own and a former law partner’s benefit if another former partner was alive and well, because he’d gone silent.
Sure as a “cap shootin’ gun” Gemini regretted to say he was dead and his wife had predeceased him. Gave me exact dates of death, funeral home locations, and described the man’s bar memberships, that he’d been a judge, and the titles of several books he’d authored and had published. Made me sad because we’d been through school together, practiced and hunted together for years.
Gemini did the same except it gave some clues that maybe I wasn’t getting the straight dope. Like his wife’s name was spelled differently and some odd minor things.
So I started doing my own investigation and discovered the alleged corpse was laid to rest in North Carolina — extremely doubtful — and no such funeral home existed in the Mountain Western town where the AI engines said my partner died and was cremated. It became apparent they had conflated two people of the same name.
Remembering how much hay investigators I used to hire made out of Facebook (some stories I can’t tell but wish I could), I logged in and searched for a name. Didn’t find him directly but did find a company I knew he once started — with a phone number. Called the number and Himself picked up and greeted me effusively. He assured me neither he nor his wife were dead and we spent the next hour catching up after decades. Recalled to Life, like the man in the Bible.
I would not let one these ballyhoo’ed digital geniuses drive my lawnmower, such less my car with me inside it.
- Bill
WACA # 65205; life member, NRA; member, TGCA; member, TSRA; amateur preservationist
"I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both, and I believe they both get paid in the end, but the fools first." -- David Balfour, narrator and protagonist of the novel, Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson.
November 7, 2015
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Shucks, Bill. I was starting to think I should use AI to discreetly verify if someone is still among the living. I know a retired PI but don’t want to call in a favor unless I have a suspicion.
Had a touch of cabin fever today so I started my hard copy (index card) firearms inventory this afternoon. Yep, safe diving! I wanted to add some data to the new register and there were some key bits that I had not recorded up to this point and wanted to include. I’ve learned that ALL my 1892 and 1894 rifles have octagonal barrels and rifle butts. Half-round barrels, shotgun butts and short rifles are all gone. I’ve inventoried most of the fun stuff and will wade thru modern forearms and social equipment in the coming days. Then I’ll get additional data from my most recent inventory list and THEN I’ll be able to start the dreaded data entry chore. I like to make a fresh start on my inventory now and then because I once found an incorrect serial number. I also forget to record a sale now and then and would hate to report a sold or incorrect serial number in case some lowlife makes off with my toys.
It was like visiting with old friends today. I did this about a year ago when they came out of storage but it’s different this time.
Next time we have a range day, Jeremy, just come by the house and we’ll load up your truck. We’ll need to start early. Some of these smokepoles have been silent too log!
Mike
April 15, 2005
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Nevada Paul said
My work life required me to become proficient in many forms of relatively sophisticated software, so while I don’t claim to be a computer ‘whiz’, I do know my way around the basics.
I think you’ve been given good advice with the use of EXCEL for your needs. It is fairly easy to learn, and you only need to learn enough to cover your purpose.
Previous posters here have given several good examples of the headings or topics you’d want to include, and you can easily customize your own. My personal spreadsheet is similar to many suggested here with one addition. I’ve taken digital photos of my firearms and added them to the excel spreadsheet as additional pages, with ‘links’ from the primary listing to the photos. This is handy, but means the spreadsheet is a very large file.
Others have suggested or mentioned databases such as ACCESS. I don’t think our firearms inventories are complex enough to require any of these relational databases. If so, you can accomplish much the same goal with links in EXCEL, as I did with my photos.
Others here have stated what a steep learning curve is required for ACCESS, and I completely agree. I’ve used much more powerful databases which were more user friendly.
As for what to do with scopes and other accessories, I arbitrarily set a threshold of $200. If a scope or other accessories costs or is valued at $200 or more, it gets a line in the spreadsheet. But I have categories for handguns, rifles, shotguns, scopes, etc., and subcategories such as ‘rimfire’ so that I can quickly determine a count of each.
After having said all this, there is nothing wrong with a tray of index cards.
Paul
Tim,
It is actually easier to embed the picture(s) directly in the Excel worksheet, and more importantly, it keeps the file size much more manageable (compact). When I wrote & edited “The Red Book of Winchester Values” with more than 1,000 pictures, it was entirely composed using Excel. The file size for the 400+ pages and 1,000+ pictures was just under 50 MB.
Bert
WACA Historian & Board of Director Member #6571L
November 7, 2015
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Awhile back I was told that pics were only necessary for exceptional or unusual specimens. My current insurance company does not require pics. I should probably store at least two pics of each firearm on a thumb drive. Not sure how to imbed them. maybe next inventory/
Mike
January 20, 2023
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Pix are easiest to embed or link into a Word doc and somewhat tedious to do in an Excel sheet. Not hard but tedious to make usable in a sheet. My experience, anyway.
Auditors and security folk consider Excel – all spreadsheets – fragile and too easily altered without leaving an audit trail. That ignores what we are doing with it — we don’t need protecting us from us. Usually.
Unless we are Bob Arctor, the detective with dual personalities who investigates himself, in Philip K. Dick’s novel, Through a Scanner Darkly. [For those unfamiliar with PKD, as I was, he also wrote Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, adapted to film as Bladerunner.]
- Bill
WACA # 65205; life member, NRA; member, TGCA; member, TSRA; amateur preservationist
"I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both, and I believe they both get paid in the end, but the fools first." -- David Balfour, narrator and protagonist of the novel, Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson.
April 15, 2005
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TXGunNut said
Awhile back I was told that pics were only necessary for exceptional or unusual specimens. My current insurance company does not require pics. I should probably store at least two pics of each firearm on a thumb drive. Not sure how to imbed them. maybe next inventory/
Mike
It is relatively easy to do… when you get ready to give it a try give me a call.
Bert
WACA Historian & Board of Director Member #6571L
November 7, 2015
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Thanks, Bert. I completed the hands-on chore of recording data on cards today, just need to verify and add some data from old registers to the cards and enter the data on the Excel sheet. Was nice to look over, wipe down and perform some minor repairs on some old friends today. I think I have all the pics I need but will look look them over and attempt to organize them. I need one of those illuminated magnifying glasses! It’s hard to hold my old magnifying glass and a light while looking for a sweet spot in my progressive lenses. It’s tough getting old!
Mike
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