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— Visual ID Guide

Inherited a Gun From Your Dad? How to Identify It and What It's Worth

A rifle in the back of the closet. A revolver in a sock drawer. A shotgun that leaned in the same corner of the garage for forty years. When a father passes, a firearm is one of the most common things he leaves behind — and one of the most mysterious, because the man who knew exactly what it was is the one who is gone. Here is how to figure out what you have, what it is worth, and what to do with it — starting with the only step that actually matters first.

Before anything else: make it safe

No identification step is worth a negligent discharge. Treat every inherited firearm as loaded until you have personally proven otherwise — old guns are found loaded constantly, because the owner racked a round years ago and simply never mentioned it.

• Point it in a safe direction the entire time — not at a wall someone could be behind, not at yourself, not at anyone helping you.
• Keep your finger off the trigger and out of the guard.
• Remove the source of ammunition, then check the chamber. On a semi-auto pistol, drop the magazine first, then lock the slide back and look into the chamber. On a revolver, swing out the cylinder (or open the loading gate) and confirm every chamber is empty. On a bolt, lever, or pump long gun, work the action fully and watch for a round to eject, then lock it open and look in.
• If you do not know how to open the action, do not force it — and do not dry-fire it. Take it to a local gun shop; they will clear and check it in two minutes, usually for free.

Only once it is confirmed empty should you start handling it to read markings. If the gun is rusted shut, visibly damaged, or has anything odd protruding from the barrel, leave it alone and let a gunsmith look first.

Step 1: What type of gun is it?

Start broad. Almost every inherited firearm falls into one of a handful of buckets, and naming the bucket narrows the search enormously.

• Handgun — revolver: rounds carried in a rotating cylinder. Think Smith & Wesson, Colt, Ruger, Taurus.
• Handgun — semi-automatic pistol: a flat slide on top and a magazine in the grip. If it is a polymer-framed striker pistol, our Glock generation guide shows how to read it; if it is an all-steel single-action with a grip safety, see the Colt 1911 identification guide (and how to spot the clones).
• Rifle — bolt action: a turn-down bolt handle on the side. Hunting rifles and military surplus both live here. If it is a beat-up military bolt gun, it is very often a Mosin-Nagant — 37 million were made and they are in closets everywhere.
• Rifle — semi-automatic: loads itself after each shot from a magazine. Could be a black rifle — see the AR-15 ID guide and AK-47 vs AKM — or a surplus SKS, or a WWII M1 Garand (often confused with the much lighter M1 Carbine).
• Rifle — lever action: the cowboy-gun lever under the grip. Winchester and Marlin dominate; these are among the most common inherited deer rifles in America.
• Shotgun: a large, usually smooth bore. Pump (sliding forearm), semi-auto, or break-action (the barrel hinges open). Remington 870, Mossberg 500, and old double-barrels turn up constantly.

Step 2: Read the markings

Every commercially made firearm is stamped, roll-marked, or engraved with the information you need. The trick is knowing where to look and what each marking means. Get good light and, if you have it, a phone magnifier.

• Maker and model: usually on the side of the receiver, the barrel, or the slide. "REMINGTON 870 WINGMASTER" or "RUGER 10/22" tells you almost everything in one line. A name with no model is still a huge head start.
• Serial number: required on US-made guns since 1968, and present on most military arms long before that. It dates the gun and, for many makers, decodes to an exact year.
• Caliber or gauge: very often stamped right on the barrel — ".30-06 SPRG," "12 GA," "9MM," ".22 LR." This one is not optional to get right (more below).
• Country of origin and import marks: "MADE IN GERMANY," a country name, or a small importer stamp ("C.A.I. ST. ALB. VT") tells you whether it is a domestic gun or a surplus import — which strongly affects value.
• Proof and arsenal marks: small stamped symbols — crowns, eagles, letters in a shield — that European and military arms carry. On surplus guns these decode the factory and year, and a matching set of serial numbers across parts can multiply the value.

Write down everything you see, exactly as written, including punctuation and odd spellings. A single misread letter in a maker code can be the difference between a common shooter and a scarce collectible.

Step 3: Pin the caliber — and never guess

The caliber is both an identification clue and a safety line you do not cross. Read it off the barrel stamp. If there is no stamp, or it is worn, do not assume — calibers that sound or look similar are not interchangeable, and firing the wrong cartridge can destroy the gun and injure the shooter.

• ".30 Carbine" is not a short ".30-06."
• "7.62×39" (AK), "7.62×54R" (Mosin), and "7.62 NATO / .308" are three different cartridges that do not interchange.
• ".380 ACP" and "9mm Luger" are not the same; ".38 Special" and ".357 Magnum" are not the same.

If you ever intend to fire an inherited gun, have a gunsmith confirm the chambering and check the bore and headspace first. A seventy-year-old rifle that has not been inspected is not a range gun yet.

Step 4: Date it

Age is part identification, part value. The serial number is the key. Many manufacturers published serial-number-to-year tables — Winchester, Marlin, Smith & Wesson, Colt, Ruger, and most military arsenals — so a serial often decodes to an exact year of manufacture. Where there is no table, the era still leaves cues: a color-case-hardened frame and a tang sight point pre-war; a polymer frame points to the 1980s or later; an import mark points to the surplus boom of the 1950s through 1990s.

Date matters because the same model can swing wildly in value across its production run. A pre-1964 Winchester lever gun, a no-import-mark bring-back, or an early-serial example can be worth several times a later one of the "same" gun.

Step 5: What is it worth?

Once you know the maker, model, caliber, year, and variant, value comes down to a handful of drivers. There is no single price for "a rifle" — there is a price for this rifle in this condition.

• Maker and model: the single biggest factor. A scarce maker or a sought-after model can be a multiple of a common one chambered identically.
• Originality: original finish, original stock, original sights. "Sporterized" military rifles (cut-down stocks, drilled-and-tapped receivers), refinishes, and replaced parts drop value sharply.
• Matching numbers: on military surplus, serial numbers that match across the receiver, bolt, and other parts can double the value versus a "mixmaster" of mismatched parts.
• Condition: bore, mechanical function, and finish wear. Honest, working, un-messed-with examples bring the most.
• Completeness and provenance: original box, paperwork, accessories, and documented history all add up — and a CMP certificate or a war-bring-back paper trail can be worth real money on the right gun.

For a fast ballpark, the GoBallistic app gives an approximate value the moment it identifies the gun. For a deep, edition-by-edition reference, most appraisers and dealers work from the Blue Book of Gun Values, the standard printed price guide updated annually.

Disclosure: GoBallistic earns a small commission when you buy through the link above, at no additional cost to you. Helps keep the app free.

What to do next — keep, sell, or transfer

Identification done, you have a decision: keep it, sell it, or pass it on. A few things to know before you act.

• Inheriting a gun is legal in most cases, but the rules vary by state. Many states allow a firearm to pass directly to an immediate family member; others require the transfer to run through a licensed dealer (FFL) with a background check, especially across state lines. Check your state's law before moving a gun to someone outside your household.
• Selling means going through an FFL in most situations. A local gun shop can sell it on consignment or buy it outright, and will handle the background check and paperwork correctly. That is also the safest way to get fair money — and the app's "Where to Buy" feature surfaces nearby shops the moment it IDs the gun, so you know who to call.
• If it might be an NFA item, stop and get help first. Anything that looks like a machine gun, a rifle with a barrel under 16 inches or a shotgun under 18 inches, or a suppressor — or any gun that came with a "tax stamp" — is federally regulated. Inherited NFA items have their own transfer process (a tax-free ATF Form 5), and getting it wrong is a serious crime. Do not sell, move, or modify it; talk to an FFL or an attorney who knows NFA law.

None of this is legal advice — it is the starting map. When in doubt, a phone call to a local FFL settles most questions in minutes.

Already know roughly what it is?

If Step 1 narrowed it down, jump straight to the specific guide:

• M1 Garand — and how it differs from the M1 Carbine, the most common WWII mix-up.
• Mosin-Nagant — the surplus bolt gun in half the closets in America.
• SKS — Chinese, Yugoslav, and Russian variants decoded.
• AR-15 and AK-47 vs AKM — the two most common modern semi-auto rifles.
• Colt 1911 — and how to tell a real Colt from a clone.
• Glock generation — tell Gen 1 through 5 apart in seconds.

The gun he never explained

There is a reason the "what is this thing my dad left me" question is so common: the knowledge usually lives in one person's head, and it leaves with him. Working the five steps — type, markings, caliber, date, condition — turns a mystery object back into a known thing with a name, a history, and a value. Sometimes that is a $300 shooter you will keep and enjoy. Sometimes it is a matching-numbers collectible worth far more than anyone in the family realized. Either way, it deserves to be identified rather than guessed at.