I always enjoy threads like these. I’m very fortunate to have a few heirlooms that have come down to me across the years. Two of them came from my paternal grandfather who was an officer in the European Theater from 1944-45.

Sometime in March 1945 they were moving from Belgium into Germany and he was walking to HQ one evening and he passed by some empty oil drums that had been filled with gear- webbing, bayonets, helmets, holsters, canteens, you name it...poking out of the last one, he noticed the butt of a revolver and he decided to fish it out. Turned out to be a S&W Victory Model .38 Spl. While my grandfather respected the power of the .45ACP he was never a fan of the 1911 as he said it was bulky and hard to shoot well. He decided to put his 1911 in his footlocker and carry the S&W. At one point he had a German POW make a set of grips with his initials in them (which are still with the gun). He carried it until he came home in 1946 and it was his nightstand gun until he gave it to my father in July 2000. In 2014 my dad got a Jinks letter for it and turns out it was one of 250 shipped to Naval Strategic Service, Norfolk VA on Aug 22, 1944. In Jan 2015 he gave it to me and I relish the gun and it’s history. Once or twice a year I’ll take it out and put a few cylinders thru it then clean it thoroughly and put it back in the safe.

Upon his return stateside, his grandfather bought him a 16 Ga A-5 that he hunted with for years. That shotgun came to me in 2007 and I’ve since had it professionally reblued and I carry it in the dove fields in September.

I also have my great-grandfathers 20 Ga Merkel 203E he ordered in 1954. While I never met the man as he died long before I was born, it is an amazingly nice shotgun that is light as a feather.

Have a S&W K22 my dad gave me on my 17th bday. It’s actually a “17-3” though it’s marked “17-2” so it’s a very early iteration of the “-3”. 1968 mfg that’s had a zillion rounds thru it.

Lastly I have my same grandfathers Winchester Model 1906 .22. Growing up on a farm in Indiana during the Depression they didn’t have much and he saved and saved for an LC Smith shotgun. When he went to get one he didn’t have quite enough so he settled for the Winchester. He used it to help put food on the table and kept it until he passed it along to my dad (then to me).

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Some Might Say.