Anybody have any old guns with a family urban legend? Here's mine.

[old bear]

A rather Morbid(Sp) story

My grandfather moved from New Jersey to the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the late 1800’s to make his fortune in the lumber business and as was the custom he carried a single action revolver of some unknown make. When he moved the business headquarters to San Francisco in the 1930’s he purchased an early S&W 38/44 revolver that was his pride and joy. In 1950 he was indicted on what today would be wire fraud, arson, and other “white collar” crimes. As he was unwilling to do the time he was facing he chose to take his own life. He could not bring himself to shoot himself with his beloved 38/44, so he purchased an M&P at the local hardware store, that he used that to kill himself. He left the 38/44 to my no account uncle who refused to touch the M&P. My dad destroyed the M&P and my no account uncle gave the 38/44 to his even more no account son who had no interest in it, but to this day refuses to sell it to me.

 

[kreativecid]

Long story short:

in-law's father won State Championship with a S&W circa 1960.
had a modded grip for his strong-hand thumb, shooter inscribed name inside grip panel.
pistol was stolen, recovered 14 years later, the grip mods were the big clue.

in-law's elderly and very sick father committed suicide a few years ago with that very pistol.

 

[Frizzman]

I almost forgot about the Colt Model of 1905 .45 I have in the back of the safe. My father's elder brother won the pistol in a card game in El Paso in the late 20's. He came home to visit his family in NC a couple of years later. His youngest brother won it off of him over a bet of some kind. That brother kept the pistol until he was stationed overseas while in the navy. He gave it to my father to keep for him. I got to hold it and look at it as a special treat when I was a kid. My uncle took it back eventually. About 10 years ago he gave it to me. He has no kids and wanted me to get it before he dies. The finish had been mostly worn off and a friend "helped" him out by putting it to a buffing wheel and removing the remainder of the finish off ...So, any collector value is pretty much ruined. Since I would never sell it, it doesn't really matter. Its still a treat to take it out and clean and oil it once in a while...

 

[russp1]

My wife found this old S&W revolver while cleaning out her parents house. We just received our letter from S&W saying it is a 1930 Model 1905 4th change shipped to Wolf and Klar in Fort Worth, TX. She also knows her great grand father was a Texas Ranger around this time so now we're trying to find something to tie the gun to his Ranger service.