Sell your guns in Cadillac.

Buying in Cadillac and Wexford County

Wexford County is deer country, and the guns here have usually been carried instead of collected.

Twenty-five licensed dealers across five towns in the middle of the northern hunting country. What comes out of estates here is what was used up here: lever guns, bolt rifles in the common chamberings, pump shotguns, and the occasional older gun that someone's grandfather brought up to camp and left. Cabin and camp collections are a category of their own, and they’re often split across more than one building.

Only 5 of Wexford County's 25 licenses are manufacturers. This is hunting country rather than building country, and what comes out of the cabinets reflects it — used guns, honestly worn, occasionally much better than they look.

The county has no licensed pawnbrokers at all — worth noting, because a pawn counter is where the good pieces usually leave a collection before anybody else sees it.

25 licenses packed into 5 towns makes this a genuine trading center rather than a thin spread, and collections here were usually assembled close to home.

What collections look like around here

Northern Michigan collections are built around deer camp and the lakes. Grand Traverse County holds 31 licensed dealers serving a much wider area than its size suggests, because people drive for an hour up here without thinking about it. Expect rifles and shotguns that have been used hard and honestly, and the occasional very good gun bought in a better year.

Estates in Wexford County

Cottages and camps are where northern estates get interesting. Firearms left at a family place are often forgotten entirely for a decade or more, and they’re also the ones most likely to have suffered from damp storage. Both facts are worth knowing before anyone agrees a price.

We also cover Manton, Mesick, Buckley, Boon and Harrietta — and the rest of Michigan besides. If you have something worth looking at, distance is our problem, not yours.

Some of it’s at the camp and some at the house.

That’s the normal arrangement up here and it’s worth telling us before we set off. We would rather plan one trip that covers both than find half a collection an hour away at the end of the day.

Where to go next

Settling an estate ·Selling your own collection ·Closing a shop ·What sets the price ·You inherited firearms

One thing worth knowing before anyone looks at it, wherever you are: don’t clean it. A polished or re-blued gun can be worth a fraction of an untouched one, and it can’t be undone.