I successfully worked out a trade with my nephew for my great uncle's pre-17. I have posted pictures of it here before and mentioned that it was not mine. But it is now it is! I traded my nephew a very nice older model Kimber .45 ACP for it. He is happy and so am I, so it's a win/win.

I remember my father's uncle, Conrad Cates, as a tall thin man who enjoyed smoking his pipe and fishing in the lakes and ponds in Kentucky. He had worked in banking and spent a fair amount of time visiting his sister. My brother and I would see him almost every summer when we spent a week or two with my grandmother. She had a farm outside of Elizabethtown and I remember using this revolver and a lever action Marlin to hunt ground hogs for her. This is also the first handgun my father ever shot.

The gun dates to 1948 and so does this picture of Connie and his wife, Ina.



Here he is with his pipe, and fishing. I remember him taking my brother and I fishing a few times.




Here he is as a young man in 1926.



And finally the gun. I can't express how happy I am to have this revolver. It will stay in the family as long as I have a say in it.