In the years I've been on the lookout for Smith & Wesson and other old firearms, I have walked in many shops, viewed the goods on gun show isles, perused the local classifieds and have looked at many guns. In looking back at some I bought and some I passed, a few stories from the seller come to mind:

A Colt Match Target Woodsman was offered by a fellow who had a WWII verteran as a neighbor. The neighbor veteran had no family and became close to this fellow. When he passed away he willed his house and belongings to the man offering the Colt. When he was cleaning out the veterans house, prior to selling it, he discovered a box in the closet that contained this pistol. It was the original box with a Colt Match Target 2nd series inside with target, sight adjustment tool, grip adapters and brochure. It had been shot, but well taken care of. He told me the owner was a navigator on a B-17. He had no interest in firearms and only wanted to liquidate them. I still have the Colt, which was made in the early 1950's.

I called on a local ad for a Smith .357. The seller described it as a large frame, 6" barrel with a red ramp front sight. When I had them open the cylinder and read me the model number it was a 27-2. It was an uncles gun who had never married. When he passed his sister inherited many guns including this one. The nephew was the seller. He said his uncle was a hunter and trapper and was always in the mountains of Colorado. The 27-2 should have had a partridge front sight, however the red ramp showed no signs of being added, so I bought it. It shows signs of use, but is still tight and clean with the original numbered target grips.

A Winchester .30 WCF saddle ring carbine I looked at was in very rough shape. It was missing the saddle ring, had little to no bluing left, the rear ladder sight was replaced with a marbles half buckhorn, the tang screw had been replaced and the new screw was peened down into the tang, the stock had several deep gouges and several notches cut into the buttstock. The seller said the notches were for each bear the gun had shot. It had belonged to a grandmother who had homesteaded in Montana. That is one I passed on..

I looked at a little Smith model 34 that the seller said had belonged to his mother. Bought by his father for her to carry in her purse. Interestingly it had a 4" barrel and looked like it had not been shot much. His parents had both been gone for some time and this was the last of the guns. I told him if I had a gun that had been my mothers it would never be sold. He said it didn't mean much to him and still was certain he wanted to sell it. I did take that one home as well.

A Winchester 62A offered for sale by an older gentleman. He said he had bought it new in 1956. It was in very nice condition. He said he had a grandson that was upset he was not giving it to him. He mentioned the grandson never came to see him and only seem to want something when he did speak with him, He had decided he was not going to use it much any more, and with his wife having passed a few years prior was slowly getting rid of his accumlations. I bought the .22 and when I was looking through a book on the 61 and 62's, the serial number placed it being made in 1956, the year he mentioned he bought it.

I don't value most guns based on stories that may come with them, though I do find some stories very interesting. Some I am certain have truth to them, others may be a seller's ploy?

Unless it is a gun that was owned by a (in)famous person, or a celebrity, with due providence, I don't think the guns history adds much, if any additional value to the average buyer. I, however, do appreciate it.

My father was a crew chief on a B-29 back in the Korean War. When he came back home to Bridgeport, CT, he went back to duck hunting in the coastal salt marshes with a passion, using his new Remington Sportsman 58 .12 ga. My uncle Jack (his brother in law), was never in to hunting, but my dad talked him into trying it. They found a farmer who had an old round knob Browning Light Auto-5 for sale, and my uncle bought it.

My father told me stories about their hunting adventures, like the time my uncle got stuck in marsh mud (twice), and how one time, my dad had to go back to the truck and get a rope to pull him out. When he returned, the tide had started coming in, and my uncle was up to his waist in salt water. Got him out just in time. Another time, my dad said they were in the marsh, a couple hundred feet separated, when he heard a bunch of shooting from my uncles position, and started seeing birds fall. He walked over, and found my uncle all proud of himself. My dad asked him, "Jack, why are you shooting sea gulls?" He had thought they were Rails.

My uncle gave up hunting, and in the early 1970's gifted me that Browning one day out of the blue. I shot and hunted the snot out of that gun. When my father passed in 1999, I inherited his Remington, one of only two guns he had kept, the other being a Ruger .44 Deerstalker carbine that had been a gift from Bill Ruger.

They all sit in my safe now, and the stories / memories that go with them probably would not add any value to someone else, but they do to me, and I will never sell them.

Larry

cool stories, thanks for sharing. my most special is a remington semi auto that my Grandmother bought for Grandpa. my dad ended up with it and he gave it to my older brother. older brother gave Dad a pump Remington 30 06. a while later my brother came and reclaimed the 30 06 so Dad reclaimed Grandpa's 22 and gave it to me.

i gave Dad several over the years and got em all back when he passed. whish he still had them. krs/kenny

__________________
Too good

I was gifted a Type 26 Japanese revolver from the man that brought it home. He apparently didn’t take it off a dead soldier. It was picked from a giant pile of equipment in Korea. He won it in a raffle (the only thing he ever won, according to him).

I don’t know whether to believe that story or not. And maybe that’s what he wants.

My only gun story is with Marlin 30-30’s. In my teens, Dad gave me a 336 as he was a Marlin guy. Fast forward many years, I passed that Marlin to our oldest when he turned 16. After telling Dad that I needed to get another due to that, he went and got the Marlin my Grandfather had given him. So I have the Marlin he was given by my Grandfather, and my oldest has the Marlin given to me by his Grandfather.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

__________________
Dave

At Least Ten characters added.

I'm trying to make my own stories to go with my guns. One day i was visiting my dad and he said to me, "You're into cowboy shooting. Take the Trapdoor Springfield home with you." So I did take it home and it became the inspiration to me to get some quality gun safes.

Later on, I was an extra in a movie set out west in the 1890s. I developed my character as an Indian policeman on the local reservation, and as a prop I carried the Trapdoor Springfield my dad gave me. While on set, I got to be a living history lecturer showing people the Trapdoor Springfield and how it operated.

During the movie shoot, the crew was taking pictures of the cast, and I was photographed during the saloon scene. Pictures of the cast then were put into a deck of cards that the movie company sold as movie merchandise. I made sure to get a few decks and my face ended up on the Seven of Clubs.

I have a bunch of S&W police trade ins. I wish they could talk.

Worth the same, with or without the story . . .

__________________
Wisdom comes thru fear . . .

My only gun story involves me. Unfortunately my father had a strong dislike for handguns. Never said why, but it was a known fact. He hunted and fished but only owned long guns. I started shooting my friends handguns and wanted my own handgun so bad but no way would I ever own one living at home. Should have added, money was always tight growing up. About a week after high school graduation, we got up one Saturday morning and he told me to get in the car that he was taking me to get my present. Knowing he had no extra money, I was surprised when he drove me to a gun shop and bought me my first handgun. A Colt Python on top of that! That was in 1975. Price was $279 plus tax. It meant so much that he got me my dream gun and that was a lot of money for him to dish out. Probably close to a weeks pay. Still have it and it is literally priceless to me. I’ve shot over 30k rounds through it through the years and still shoot it regularly. Not much to look at but it’s the most beautiful gun on the planet to me

Great stories.
My best one is about the Parker Trojan 20 gauge double gun my Daddy gave me when I was about 12.
His uncle’s daughter had given it to him. The Uncle, a WWI veteran, was a quail hunter.
Daddy told me, “Uncle Perk probably killed enough quail to fill the bed of that pickup truck out there.”

Oh, and that earthquake you thought you felt was just Art Doc/SP rolling in his grave.

__________________
Georgia On My Mind

What a wonderful story!

My U.S. M1911A1 "Half Singer". Slide was manufactured by Singer and the frame manufactured by Remington Rand in 1943. Left side of slide has the inscription, “S. MFG. CO. ELIZABETH, N.J., U.S.A.” Right side of frame is marked, UNITED STATES PROPERTY No. 926751 M1911A1 U.S. ARMY” Inspector Marked, “W.A.M.”

The gun was obtained from the estate of a Korean War vet whose wife said that he brought it home with him. My take on it is that this was one of the M1911A1 which was rebuilt after WWII. The Singer made pistols were originally blued but this slide has been parkerized. When the "after the war M1911A1 Rebuilds" were done, the guns were stripped and like parts put in bins. When the parts had been inspected, there were refinished (parkerized) and reassembled upon refurbished frames. There was no attempt to try to "rematch-up" the parts as they were just grabbed and used to re-assemble the guns. This rebuilt M1911A1 with the Singer slide on the Remington frame was ready to be issued again and was issued to the guy who went to Korea.

__________________
Bill

Here's the story of one of my "Talking" guns.....


www.swtriple.info

__________________
Dean
SWCA #680 SWHF #446

When my Dad knew he had only a short time to live, he wanted to distribute his guns. In addition to his accumulation, he had inherited a revolver from my Great-Grandfather, and a few from my Grandfather. Thing was, no one wanted any but me. So I got them.

Many have a story, I will just tell this one for now:
Grandpa had a rough time in the Great Depression, being a family man with 3 kids and wife to support. He was a factory worker but the factories were all pretty much shut down so he had to work a lot of odd jobs, which weren't too plentiful either. I often heard the story that when my uncle Freddie was born, Grandpa had no money to pay the doctor, so he had to paint the doctor's house to settle the bill.

Well anyways, the gun:
During the Depression, Grandpa bought an old double barrel shotgun with a broken stock and missing parts for a quarter (!) That must have been circa 1933, and the gun was old then. He replaced an absent firing pin with one he fashioned from a nail. He carved a new stock out of wood from the stump of an apple tree. He hunted with it for years.

I call it "Old Mule Ears" because of the exposed hammers. Dad used to shoot it, but I never would, as the word Damascus is clearly visible on the barrels. Probably worth nothing to anyone else, but I will never sell it.

__________________
You're shy a few manners.

I was in a store and a guy came in and traded in this FN .25 and H&R .38 for a newer gun. He didn’t get much and I didn’t pay much after their deal went through.

His story: They both were from his grandfather, who was supposedly a bodyguard for United Mine Workers Union boss John Lewis back in the twenties. When he died grandma stuck them in a tin of corn meal. When she died he dumped them out and traded them.

I’m not sure if the UMW part is true, but they did both have cornmeal in them.

Attached Images

	0EFF0A59-BCE0-42A1-A4CE-F605B588A3E5.jpeg (19.6 KB, 87 views)
	D3CF8CB4-402B-45A4-9348-76E450C5CC8D.jpg (70.4 KB, 105 views)

__________________
“What you got, ain’t new.”

Great stories. I'm reading these and feeling a little loss for the connection to history that old guns have. I'm not getting out to the old shops anymore. The gun stores I've been going to cater to the new models. Black rifles, striker fired pistols, tactical stuff, have no history. I guess it's up to us to make a history with them.

I happen to have a Ithaca double owned by an old fellow I took quail hunting every now and then in the 1960s He was an amazing shot. Never missed a shot while hunting with me. He had the gun made for him in 1930 and is so engraved as it is a grade 4 ejector gun. He was an All American skeet shooter during the 1930s up to the mid 50s. I told him if he ever sold it I would love to buy it Whe he passed the family contacted me and said he left a passage in his will giving me first dibs on buying it. The price was not cheap but I had to have it...and still do. Researching it I have found it is one of only six made in the gauge and in grade 4. Value isn't just in dollars ya know? But I have value in memories and money on this one

This is the only gun I’ve ever lettered and I lettered it in 1998 when the service was $35. It’s your basic Hand Ejector M&P 1905 Fourth Change, shipped in May 1921. It’s the only handgun that my paternal Grandfather had ever owned. He recalls buying it in 1923 and his memory said that it was in a town that’s 50-60 miles from where S&W said it was shipped.

On my Mom’s suggestion, he gave it to me as a high school graduation gift. He was 90 at that time and I was 17. Being that it was the only handgun that he’d owned in his entire life, it made sense to me that I ask him “why did you buy this?” and he said to me “well, back in those days... A man owned a gun, you know?”

His memory at 90 said that he recalled paying $35 for it. Haha, the same money I spent on the letter. (a mere 69 years later!)

I never thought to ask him about the mother-of-pearl grips on it. The letter says that they are not original. I’ll never know if he was the first owner of what would have been a two year old revolver and if he added the pearl or if perhaps it was lightly used and a previous owner put the pearls on it.

Did it letter to a nearby town?

__________________
“What you got, ain’t new.”

Yes, lettered to Huntington, WV and he remembered buying it in... Morgantown I think? Or Fairmont?

My first hunting rifle was a Winchester 94 that I bought after seeing a post card ad in the local A&P grocery store where we cashed our paychecks. Cost me $75, and when I got home, Mrs Raljr1 said, "hope it tastes good, cause that was the grocery money." About a year later I bought my Remington 760, and Mrs said, "you don't need two rifles, so sell the other one." My dad bought it to give to my younger brother. After a couple of years, I started trying to buy the model 94 back from my brother, offering as much as $300 or $400 for it...no deal...

when my son started hunting, my brother, having long since bought another hunting rifle, let my son borrow the 94 to hunt with. I never liked the Winchester lever for young hunters, because of having to lever live rounds thru the action to empty it, so I started looking for a rifle for my son. A guy in the office next to me at work said he had a bolt action 30-30 he had no use dor and i could have it for $150. Turned out to be a nice, magazine fed, Savage model 340.

I took the rifle home, to my son and told him I'd bought him a hunting rifle. He too one look at it and said, "I don't like it, I like the Winchester better." To which I replied, "Tough, this one is yours, that one isn't."

A few months later, I relayed my son's reaction to my brother, and he promptly replied, "A bolt action 30-30? I'll trade you."

So my son got my model 94 a little over 20 years after I originally bought it, and my brother's son still carries the Savage.

Robert

__________________
Robert
SWCA #2906, SWHF #760

Likewise for some of my milsurps. Finnish rebuilds of Russian guns, Russian rebuilds of German guns, a Pakistani Enfield with Indian Army property marks...you get the picture.

__________________
Release the Kraken

I was looking at a rifle on a table at a gun show once when the seller proclaimed "that rifle used to belong to the president of the NRA". I replied that if it was any good, he would have kept it.

__________________
'Merica!

I have some stories. Some of them are so fantastic that I don't expect most people to believe them. That's their misfortune I guess. I do love a good story however, I just don't want to pay for it.

__________________
That's just somebody talkin.

In new Mexico, back in the late '50's, my dad and I were horseback returning home after working cattle. We stopped by a ranch "camp" to warm up, drink coffee and talk with the old cowboy who lived there. Guns were mentioned and how "one day" I was going to get me a rifle. The old cowboy said there was an old rifle laying across the rafters in the barn If I wanted it I could crawl up there and get it. I did and it was an old Winchester 1890 .22 pump rifle made in 1915, I couldn't count the rounds I've fired through that old rifle. My favorite and I still have the rifle to this day.

I own a Savage Model 7 that belonged to my Grandfather. He said he bought it in 1938, that would make it first year production. He had bought it for squirrel and rabbit hunting to put food on the table. Sent a question to Savage and their Historian sent me back a nice letter stating it was an early one since it had checkering on it as the later ones did not. So Grampa was probably correct on his dating.

We went to see some cousins outside of Buffalo that had a farm. One afternoon he got the rifle out of the trunk with a box full of ammo (the box is another story--still have the box). We went out behind the barn with my cousins son with his .22 tagging along. Grampa commenced to teach me the finer points of aiming and firing the Savage. He showed me how to operated it as a single shot. Once he was comfortable that I could hit a tin can at about 20 yards, he went back to the house. After shooting for a while I forgot to push in the knob on the bolt handle. When I pulled the trigger the rifle fired and the bolt cycled. I was somewhat surprised, but after checking and found a fresh round in the chamber. So I pulled the trigger again and again it fired and cycled. After that it was off to the races with my shooting (typical kid). A short time later Grampa came out of the house and said "I see you have found out it is semiautomatic!" Then said to be careful and went back in the house. My cousin and I went through about a brick of ammo that afternoon. The next day we scrounged up about $10.00 (a lot of money for 10 year old's in 1961). We went to the local general store/gas station and bought $10.00 worth of .22 LR and went back to the house. Before that day was finished we had shot that up.
The rifle went to my oldest grandson on his 10th Birthday and that is what he learned to shoot on. He qualified Expert for four consecutive years while in the Corps, so I guess he learned well from his Grampa. As a side note my Cousin passed away a year ago..........

Sorry to be so long winded.

AJ

__________________
USMC 69-93 Combat Pistol Inst.

I drove city bus for twenty seven years and met some very interesting people. One of the old boys liked to talk and would sit in the jump seat and pull my ear all the way from town to his house or reversed. Nice old guy that collected and built model railroad stuff as well as being connected through some University Club and involved with downtown business. We got to talking about .22s one day and I told him I had my first .22 rifle that an uncle had given me when I was nine. It was a Savage Sporter, mine never had the magazine, I got used to shooting it single shot and got pretty quick with it. He said "I have an old Savage Sporter too, used to shoot jack rabbits out the door of the railcar when parked on a siding, I might have a spare magazine, I'll take a look." Couple of weeks later I see him standing at his corner, he waves. I pull over, he gets on board and puts his hand out, I put my hand under it and he drops a nicely blued mag in my hand and says..."I knew I had a spare, have fun." I offered to pay but he waved me off. Fast forward a couple years and I see him walking to town and back instead of riding the bus, he always waved when I honked. Finally he gets on the bus downtown one day and I ask him where he's been and that I see him walking. He said "I had another heart attack and the Doc says I should get some walking in." He invites me up to see his railroad collection. I swing by and this guy has a hell of a collection, building the locomotives from intricate metal kits, must of had thousands of dollars invested. Anyway he brings out this old gun case and hands it to me, I open it up and there is his old Savage Sporter. His has much nicer adjustable sights with an insert globe front sight. He says "I'd like you to have this, my son has no interest in firearms or these trains for that matter. I have friends that are interested in the trains and I thought you might like this old .22" I told him I would truly appreciate it and offered to give him a couple hundred bucks, he denied accepting any money and only asked that I take it out and put a few rounds through it from time to time. It remains one of my favorite guns, I dolled my original Savage up with a new stock and refinish and gave it to my granddaughter on her tenth birthday, she loves shooting it at ballons I staple to a cardboard backing. I'll hang onto Bud's old Savage until someone worthy comes along and if I'm lucky it will fall into someone's hands that will appreciate the history.

Heard a lot of stories over the years of course.

When my g-g-grandfather came to the States, he was given by the local folks a Damascus double barrel for his farm/homestead. I believe the story to be genuine but who knows, my guess it is very likely because they didn't have money, but everything they needed was on the farm. Read an account of a relative that they used to strip tree bark and sell it; I forget what the purpose was for now.

__________________
Rather be outdoors

I inherited my uncles ww2 Astra 600/43 9 mm Luger. I don’t know the story but he was on the PT boats in the South Pacific. I don’t know how he got this Spanish pistol that was delivered to Germany. Some did go through without the German stamping the war hot n heavy time wise the allies were closing in. Unless he traded for it on the way home. No family member wanted it. I found a Astra 1921/400 9 mm largo to go with it. It’s the ugly with the ugly.

__________________
Plant garlic in the fall

Since I mainly have elderly guns, my acquisition of many were from family and friends. Whenever possible I get history when I get the gun. Guns I know the history of, I type in very small size, the history and slip it under the butt plates or grips. I bought a 1932 vintage 94 Winchester in 30WCF a few decades ago. Under its butt plate was a slip of paper that read, "Frank Young Fairbanks Alaska 1974". There is virtually no bluing left on the carbine and the stock finish is thin, but you can tell it was well taken care and loved. Can not imagine people who would re-blue and refinish. I sit with it often around a campfire and just wonder where it had been and what it had done to get in the condition it is in. I have a few dozen "tales of the gun".

Wow! Hard to read on an iPad, but that is very impressive!