I put nothing on paper or pc.

you're looking in the wrong place.

Excel?

You can add pictures to Word.

For Excel all you have to do is go to the top, click on "Insert". A drop down menu appears, choose "Picture" Another drop down menu appears. Choose "From file". A dialogue box will appear. Go find your picture and click the insert button. You will get drag handles to size and position the image over the cells you require. Of course, you will need to have a digital pic already somewhere on the computer.

Make a database in MS Access.

Anything that will track make/model/serial should do fine. Don't restrict yourself to something designed for firearms.

What is it you want out of the software, exactly?

tag

Quoted: Any good ones available?  I downloaded a couple of freeware ones, but they sucked.

I use Excel. I also make the name of the firearm a Hyperlink that opens a full sized image of the gun.
All the files are kept in the same directory and zipped up with the option of preserve directory structure. Then I upload it to a Google and Yahoo account for safe keeping. The file is also encrypted with AxCrypt File Encryption Software - Free Personal Privacy and Security for Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2K/XP with AES-128 File Encryption, Compression and transparent Decrypt and Open in the original application.

Quoted: tag

shameless plug
I have an Access database, and a stand alone program to access it. Doesn't have pictures though
although, if you want to download it and edit the mdb file to include a picture field in the table go for it

www.geocities.com/tatical15th/arfcom/database.zip
might have to copy and paste the url into the address bar, add a space and press enter

You do not need MS Access to use this(unless you delete all the records in a table)
You can rename the files to anything you want or move them to other folder and it won't matter. Although if you move or rename the mdb file you will need to go into the ODBC thing (explained later) and edit the data source to point to the new filename/location. The mdb and exe files can be in different folders.
After unzipping the files you will need to make an ODBC entry in Windows. Don't worry, I'll have detailed steps.

WinXP
start->settings->control panel
open administrator tools, then open data sources(ODBC)
under either the user or system dns tab click add.
in the list select Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb) and click finish
the Data Source Name on the next screen has to be the word "guns" in lower case but without the quotes. this is due to that name being hard coded in the program. description can be anything
then click the select button in the database section. browse to the mdb file that was unzipped. click ok, then ok on the first odbc window.
now you can use the program

Win98
same except it is start->settings->control panel then the odbc icon, so there's no administrator tools step

winme and 2000 should be the same basic steps as well but I don't have either to check

if the mdb file is ever moved or renamed go back into the odbc screen and click the guns data source then click the configure button and use select to browse to the mdb file

when the program runs it has a dialog asking which table to open. this same screen can later be accessed from the file->new option or ctrl+n
to navigate a table have it be the active window inside the program and use the arrow buttons in the tool bar or the record option in the menu
the gunid field in the mags table should be the same as the gunid in the guns table of the gun the mag is for
similar for the ammoid in the guns table, it should match the ammoid of the ammo type.
this is more for the reports that can be run from inside Access if you directly open the mdb file with access, than for use with this program. I made the database before I did the program and haven't made report options for the program
the database can be used without the program if you have Access installed but the program won't run without the mdb file and the odbc steps being done

Check out this guys software. Very popular with the collector crowd.

www.nmcollector.net/nmguncollector/index.htm