Over the past week I started inputting my guns and a few knives into the NM Collector Software to see how it all worked and while I will continue to play with it over time I have some first impressions that I would like to share with you all. Overall the software is very through, it includes plenty of fields for adding data and organizing things how you want them. I can not see any data that would be useful that is not in this program. When I add a gun I can also add pictures, the price I paid, who I bought it from, maintenance records ect. Quite possibly the best feature about this software is that it is entirely self contained with no “cloud” component.
Not only does the software never access the internet after setup if you order the custom thumb drive (or I suppose if you installed the software on a thumb drive of your own) you can remove the drive and secure it separate from your computer. I really like this option specifically as a use of insurance records. Of course I should remind everyone dont put the thumb drive with all your records in the same safe as what your recording, I.E if your tracking guns don’t put it in your gun safe.
The software has a bunch of data to assist you in auto-filling out the forms however the data seems either old or incomplete, while it has all the major brands of firearms when it came to models it did not know the LCP or the M&P. This is an easy fix because once you input a model it adds it to the options in the drop down menu.
NM Collector is not at all firearms specific instead it is engineered to work very well with everything from cataloging guns to stamps, to geologic finds and even has a category for nihonto which I will admit I did not know what it was so I had to look it up. (Japanese swords)
I had no issues with the use of the software other than needing to take a little time to orient myself like you would with any software. It is apparent that this software is made by a true geek for other geeks. The GUI is less than pretty but it all works really well and pretty quickly as well.
As I mentioned before the software is not gun specific however it was created by a gun collector so the firearms and ammo sections are the most detailed from what I could tell.
I will certainly add more later as I play with NM Collector more over the next week or so. But at this point I must say that if your looking for a way to catalog just about everything worth collecting this would be your best bet.
