Do You Have A Heirloom Gun Given To You By Your Dad

[C J]

I'd like to point out that the one thing we never lacked around our house was guns when I was growing up. I got a BB gun when I was 4 as a Christmas present and in spite of that movie I never shot my eye out. By the time I was 7 I was shooting dad's shotgun. Dad was big on starting kids off with a shotgun since the range was limited. Before I was 10 we had a Marlin 60 - this was the mid 1960's btw - and I learned to shoot rifles with that. The one .22 I have that dad gave me once belonged to the guy who lived on the neighboring farm. He had no family of his own so he willed the gun to my dad not to mention his farm. That guy was like Santa Claus to us kids. He bought us a mountain of presents on Christmas - he had a great job at a steel mill and no one to spend his money on. Plus he gave all of us a present any time any one of us had a birthday. He gave us gum or something every day because he came to eat dinner every day with my grandmother and aunt. Things were different in those days. Neighbors were like family that slept in a different house. That gun was his only gun and he gave it to dad. My brother hunted squirrels with it for a dozen years and he killed a bunch of them. When he moved out of the house he left the gun and dad really had no use for it anymore so he gave it to me. Needless to say that old cheap gun means the world to me.

I have an even better story about the shotgun dad gave me but that one can wait.

 

[rbrbrb6]

There are a couple in the safe. One is dad's Colt Frontier Scout 22 revolver that will go to my only grandson whose name is Scout. Second is one of the first Model 700s in 7MM Mag that my dad bought in 1962. It was the first one to come into this part of the state and has a low unique serial number. It goes to my oldest son. The last one is dad's octagon barreled Browning single shot B78 in 7 mag. Not sure who will end up with it when I am gone but it stays here for now.

 

[CAJUNLAWYER]

I have this Ruger Standard that my father bought brand new in 1950 for $37.50. What I wish I had was the Luger that was brought back from Germany after WW II. He sold it without asking me if I wanted it. Grrrrr

WOW a four didit serial number That WAS an early one. Mine is 34???and I thought THAT was early

 

[nachogrande]

OVERLOOKING HUGE TRACTS OF LAND.

My dad never owned a gun in his life. But my kids will Inherit my nicer guns.

To ME, an heirloom gun has to be non striker fired and no plastic. Can you
Imagine handing down a Glock or M&P? Might as well hand down a plunger. "here son. This has unclogged many a toilet. It's yours now". Just would t be right.

FATHER: waving his arm towards the window, "son, someday all of this will be yours". SON: "WHAT THE CURTAINS"?

 

[Muley Gil]

My dad had a friend who had been a target shooter (pistol). When my dad & I joined the North-South Skirmish Association, his friend Jim got interested in black powder shooting and we all shot together. When Jim died, he left all of his guns to my dad. And when my dad died, I received his .38 M&P and some also of the guns that Jim had left to him. Included were a three digit Ruger .357 Blackhawk, a Ruger .22 Mark I target pistol, a Navy Arms .38 special Yellow Boy, an Ithaca M37 20 gauge and a Colt Service Ace .22 LR from 1939.

I also have my granddaddy's Stevens .22/.410 over/under that he bought around WW II to deal with the bunnies in his garden. He died when I was 4 and the Stevens sat n the bathroom closet until I turned 15. I got a new Ithaca M49 .22 single shot and granddaddy's O/U on my 15th birthday.

 

[Jebus35745]

My Dad wasn't a shooter, he had a Luger taken from a dead German officer he gave it to me abt 20 years ago. Even has the holster. Just recently started shooting it. Also have a dress sword, a German Boy Scout knife and some miscellaneous WW2 items in his army trunk.

He never talked much about the war, brought tears to his eyes. He said that if you shot someone, it was someone's son, maybe someone's husband or someone's father. Larry

 

[bgrafsr]

My Dad wasn't a shooter, he had a Luger taken from a dead German officer he gave it to me abt 20 years ago. Even has the holster. Just recently started shooting it. Also have a dress sword, a German Boy Scout knife and some miscellaneous WW2 items in his army trunk.

He never talked much about the war, brought tears to his eyes. He said that if you shot someone, it was someone's son, maybe someone's husband or someone's father. Larry

Larry you have to bring the Luger to a Tuesday meeting at the Club. I'll bring mine to show off too. A BYF 41 with correct mags, loading tool, and holster.

 

[i1afli]

A Stevens single shot 12 ga shotgun that was owned by my grandfather (born in 1889), passed down to my father in the 1970's, and from my father to me shortly thereafter. Barrel patent date is 1913.

 

[Maple Trapper]

My dad was given 2 guns from his father-in-law when grampa quit hunting, one was a Winchester '94 in 30-30, with an original tang sight. The other was a WW1 Mauser 98 that had been converted into a 12 ga. 2 shot shotgun. My brother ended up with the 30-30 and after dad died (at 91) I got the shotgun. I kept it for a long time until my gun safe got over stuffed. I then did a search on the gun only to find out they were prone to catastrophic failure. I then sold it to a collector. I'm just glad it didn't blow up when dad shot it, in our state we had to use slugs for deer hunting in the southern zone and dad shot that gun several times. In fact, when he was 85 or 86 we hunted together, he used that gun (and I don't think he even once practiced with it, he was shooting slugs that were over 30 years old, paper hull. I put him on watch while I did a drive, a 180# 8 point ran across in front of dad, one shot and he had his buck. Then 2 days later, same hunting area, dad sat watch about 60' from where the 8 had fallen and I was again on drive. This time another 8 tried to sneak past dad at maybe 50 yards. Again, 1 shot, 1 buck. I think that was the last year dad hunted.
While his old shotgun had stories attached, I was afraid it would be shot someday and fail with someone getting hurt. I wasn't willing to take that chance.
Dad never bought a gun, he was too busy working, all the way into his late eighties.

 

[rock doc]

My father gave me this Model 10-5 shortly after my discharge from the USAF as an LE Specialist. I told him I felt nekked without a sidearm. It came with box, docs, and tools. I have since passed it along to my son.

 

[C J]

He never talked much about the war, brought tears to his eyes.

War is a terrible thing. Most who have been in one don't want to expose others to the horrors of it so they don't want to talk about what they saw and did. Kids especially are better off not hearing those things.

 

[Krogen]

War is a terrible thing. Most who have been in one don't want to expose others to the horrors of it so they don't want to talk about what they saw and did. Kids especially are better off not hearing those things.

I respect that point of view. Many will, blessedly, never know the horrors. One of my father's buddies was on Guadalcanal. He would never talk about it as I was growing up. As I got older - about 40 or so, Mom talked him into discussing his experiences with me. Once. One time and he went silent again. I quickly understood why he wanted it behind him. I was grateful, but at the same time saddened that I had him re-live the past. While I had always appreciated what these veterans did for us, that talk instilled in me a profound respectfulness and indebtedness to him and his fellow vets. He was forever changed by his past. I was forever changed as he shared it with me. Sadly, he's gone now. But I will remember my Uncle Joe and what he endured for all my years.

Krogen

 

[bgrafsr]

I respect that point of view. Many will, blessedly, never know the horrors. One of my father's buddies was on Guadalcanal. He would never talk about it as I was growing up. As I got older - about 40 or so, Mom talked him into discussing his experiences with me. Once. One time and he went silent again. I quickly understood why he wanted it behind him. I was grateful, but at the same time saddened that I had him re-live the past. While I had always appreciated what these veterans did for us, that talk instilled in me a profound respectfulness and indebtedness to him and his fellow vets. He was forever changed by his past. I was forever changed as he shared it with me. Sadly, he's gone now. But I will remember my Uncle Joe and what he endured for all my years.

Krogen

My Dad was in the Battle of the Bulge and he never talked about it much at all. He did get angry one time and started cussing about the bombers dropping their bombs on our men during a bombing run, but never said much else.

 

[MygunisaS&Wrevolver]

I inherited my fathers Winchester model 61 pump .22 rifle that he some how scraped enough money together and bought during the depression. He used it for trapping and small game which helped him and my mother get by at that time.

 

[Buford57]

My father drove a tractor for two weeks during his 14th summer in exchange for a Springfield Model 84C .22 rifle. Thereafter he was paid in cash. He started teaching me to shoot with that rifle when I was 5. He was the classic "one gun man" and I can honestly say I never saw him miss. It is now over his basement work bench and I use it for vermin around the "farm" when I visit my Mom. I sometimes miss.

That was his only gun until I was in grade school and he won a JC Higgins Model 20 12 gauge pump on a 10 cent raffle ticket. The gun came with a vinyl case. a wooden Outers cleaning rod and 3 boxes of shells. He used it to shoot skunks and used the .22 for everything else. When I got old enough to hunt he would let me use the gun if I bought my own shells. The year before he died he asked me to tear the shotgun down and clean it for him. When I finished he gave me the gun, the case, the rod...and the remains of 2 boxes of shells. It is in my safe. If I ever turkey hunt I will use it.

In the mid-70s I left the country for awhile and left my Colt Frontier Scout .22 Mag with him. When I came back he paid me what I had in it and kept it. It is now with my son, keeping vermin out of his barn.

 

[Lightfoot4]

I've got several firearms that belonged to my dad, but two are extra special.

One is a .38 special S&W model 12-2. My late grandma bought it from Firestone back in the 1970s sometime. When she got too feeble to handle it, she gave it to my dad. When I moved out to Seattle for while in the early 1990s, my dad gave it to me as a Christmas present. It was my first handgun.

The second one (pictured) is a .32 caliber S&W. My dad won it in a poker game in the 1960s and kept it as a house gun for a couple of decades. When he upgraded to a Colt .357, he sold it. Mom fussed him out for selling it because she liked the way it shot. She liked the relatively small size, smooth trigger pull, and low recoil. Another decade or so went by and he got the chance to buy it back and did.

 

[JR78]

1915 LeFever 16ga. Nitro Express
1943 Ithaca 1911A1
1944 Rockola M1 Carbine
WaA140 Nazi-proofed Hi Power

 

[nutsforsmiths]

My dad gave me three rifles he had when he was a kid. A Winchester 63 he got for his 12th birthday in 1950. His father bought it at a pawn shop and had it rebelled and fixed up for him before it was given as a present.
My dad bought an early model Marlin 39 that has the silver case colored receiver and also a Winchester 1890 in 22WRF sometime when he was a teenager in the mid-1950s. I grew up shooting the Marlin and the Winchester 63. Still shoot the 63 from time to time. It was the first rifle my son shot, so now that has been used by 3 generations in our family.

My uncle just passed away in February this year and about 2 years ago he gave me his Kimber Custom Eclipse II. It's the one on the top. He had a lot of custom work done to it after he bought it new and he also bought a 22 conversion kit for it as well, which I have. A great gun to shoot and I'm proud to have it, and my dads rifles as well.

 

[C J]

One of my father's buddies was on Guadalcanal.

That island stood out as one of the worst experiences of the entire war for anyone. Steep ravines, dense jungles, tropical heat and lots of mud made life miserable. It also led to diseases like malaria. Shortages of food didn't help. And maybe worst of all the Japanese had never lost a ground campaign before that battle. The fighting was extreme and so was the attitudes of the soldiers. Few prisoners were taken. The wounded were shot where they laid if their own people didn't get to them first. Most people don't understand that conditions in the South Pacific were far worse than those in Europe even perhaps worse than the Battle of the Bulge (mainly it was the 101st Airborne troops that really suffered there) and Monte Cassino (where the 1st Army was bogged down in the mud and cold).

The Solomon Islands were key to the war and the Japanese tried to dominate the region quickly but the US realized how important it was to keep that from happening. And Guadalcanal was probably the turning point not just for the battle for the Solomons but maybe the war too.

Possibly conditions on the eastern front in the war were worse but of course we didn't have any soldiers there. It would have been pretty bad to be a Russian solider sent out without a rifle and expected to pick one up from a dead comrade and then risk being shot by your own troops if you retreated. And of course the Russian winters are pretty bad. But for Americans it was the Pacific Theater that ranked as the worst fighting. Conditions in Burma were also terrible but that was mostly British soldiers.

Conditions there were really horrendous. I can see not wanting to relive those days and not wanting to impose the memory of how awful it was on other humans.

War is never a pretty thing. Those that find glory in it are often the reason we have the wars in the first place. But some wars are more terrible than others. And the fight for the Solomon Islands was one of the worst in human history IMO. That's hard to know for sure of course but it certainly was bad.

 

[S&W Fan]

My dad had a few over the years, not much of a collector to him they were tools. When he wanted something new he'd sell or trade off the old. The last gun he had, it now lives with me, is a 686 no dash 4". I have everything it came with when he bought it new in Sept. 1981 (AAB serial prefix). Need to take new photos now with all the issues from photobucket.

I taught both my sons how to shoot handguns with it and will continue through the family when I no longer can appreciate it. I need to take a new one with the prop rod in the correct position lol.