Every Gun Handed Down To me Is Junk!

[mtgianni]

Dad gave me a 98 Mauser in 8mm that he had sporterized to hunt with. He also gave me a pump 22, probably a Mossberg when I was 12. He was a Marine who saw one purpose for a handgun and had no reason to kill anyone after WW II. When he passed my collection was larger than the rest of the family put together, so my Brother got the rest of the guns.

 

[Deke Thornton]

I recently inherited a 1940 Femaru M37 pistol from my father-in-law. After cleaning it up and taking it to the range, I realized the trigger and sights were awful and its only practical purpose was to use as a training aid for learning to clear jams, which it did constantly. I thought about replacing the springs and trying to get it to shoot reliably, but the trigger and sights are never going to get any better.

I also have a 1972 Hi-Standard 107 that's been "on loan" from my dad for 20+ years. He's not going to want it back, but the agreement is that I can't sell it, which I'll never do anyway.

 

[Grayfox]

My father was a big quail hunter. I have his Remington 11-48 12 ga. I learned to shoot on this gun and have taken a bit of small game with it myself. Still an excellent shooter and I'll never sell it.
His father, my Grandfather, was a fruit farmer. He raised apples and peaches. He kept an old Hopkins & Allen Forehand Model single shot 12 ga around for pest control and an occasion squirrel or rabbit for the pot. I have that as well. Unfortunately, back then most ammo used corrosive primers and Grandpa wasn't much for cleaning it after shooting. I'm afraid the bore looks like the surface of the moon. But it still works and I'm gonna keep it.

 

[LVSteve]

I recently inherited a 1940 Femaru M37 pistol from my father-in-law. After cleaning it up and taking it to the range, I realized the trigger and sights were awful and its only practical purpose was to use as a training aid for learning to clear jams, which it did constantly. I thought about replacing the springs and trying to get it to shoot reliably, but the trigger and sights are never going to get any better.

I also have a 1972 Hi-Standard 107 that's been "on loan" from my dad for 20+ years. He's not going to want it back, but the agreement is that I can't sell it, which I'll never do anyway.

The FEG probably needs Euro spec 32 or 380 ammo, not the weak sauce Remchester rubbish.

Ma-in-law#1 gave me two guns when she went into assisted living. One was a Marlin 60 with the squirrel figure impressed into the wood, and the other is a weird Ruby clone in 25 ACP allegedly brought back from the ETO. Never found another like it.

 

[Deke Thornton]

The FEG probably needs Euro spec 32 or 380 ammo, not the weak sauce Remchester rubbish.

It's a 380, I tried S&B and Fiocci but I think the springs are shot. Especially the magazine spring, which was left loaded for 30+ years. You can gently press the rounds into it, the mag spring has very little resistance.

 

[3 Olives]

My Dad gave me the German Luger with holster, tools, and two magazines he captured in WWII.
He was told he could take home his issued pistol and watch when he left Vietnam but he declined. I don’t think he did a dishonest thing in his life.

 

[hardluk1]

My dad bought several firearms for me to learn to shot with thru Western Auto and a some years later firearms were bought at a local family owned - Sunshine grocery & Ace Hardware . Gun shops came soon after .

 

[jbtrucker]

I have my dads 1950's Sears JC Higgens Model 20 12 GA

 

[Zoner]

I have my grandfathers Model 94 32 Special. He gave it to me when i was 12 yrs old. Next day I killed a 5 pt Pennsylvania whitetail with it. I’m 73 now and that rifle is one of my most prized possessions. It will always be with me. I’m gonna have them put it in the box with me when i take my dirt nap

 

[65-2x2]

We didn't have guns when I was growing up. My father was a mean drunk and in his rare sober moments he knew he didn't need a gun. I hunted as a kid, with a neighbor's .12 ga. single shot. My FIL left me a .12 ga. single shot Winchester and a J.C. Higgins .22 single shot rifle. Those were all he ever needed to put food on the table. Neither of the two have any monetary value to speak of, but I would never part with either.

 

[boykinlp]

My family wasn’t a “gun” family when I was growing up. In fact, when I was about 16 I wanted a gun to hunt deer with some of my friends. My mother bought me a Remington Model 742 in .30-06 for my birthday. When we brought it home, my stepfather said he wouldn’t allow it in “his” house! So we returned it. My only gun at that time was a Ruger 10/22 that I had gotten for Christmas about 5 years before. I know my stepfather had a Browning Hi Power because we had shot it together before, so he wasn’t completely against guns, but he wasn’t ever a hunter and didn’t shoot much. His father owned a hardware store that sold Browning products for decades. When his father passed away about 10 years later and the store was closed, he, unknowingly to anyone else in the family, actually brought the store’s entire gun stock home.

By that time, I was an adult living on my own, and had a few guns and hunted deer, ducks, doves, quail, wild boar, etc. Surprisingly, he gifted me, and my younger stepsister’s husband, each a Browning shotgun from the guns of the hardware store. Mine was a NIB 1973 Browning Auto-5 Magnum 12 shotgun. Over the next 30 years, he and I had shot guns together a couple of times. The guns were some that I had, and his Browning Hi Power and one of the NIB Browning .22 auto rifles that he had. He was interested in my guns.

When my stepfather passed away a few years ago, I inherited 3 more guns from the hardware store. All were NIB, and were all Brownings. They were a BAR-22, an Auto-5 Light 12 gauge, and an Auto-5 Light 20 gauge. In the end, while he wasn’t really a gun person, he kinda turned into one. I wish it had happened earlier so we could have enjoyed it together more and longer. So, obviously, these guns weren’t junk. I also inherited 2 guns from my grandfather, my mother’s father, after he passed. He was born in 1887 and died at 94 years old. They were a Remington Arms Model 1900 double barrel shotgun with Damascus barrels and a Nickel 1906 S&W Safety Hammerless 2nd Model pistol. These 2 guns were well used and not in the best condition, but I will cherish them forever just because they were my grandfather’s! So, while they are rough, they aren’t junk to me!
Larry

 

[SBC1320]

I've got my Dad's old bring back Dou 44 large ring K98 German Mauser. I've cared for it since I was in grade school and wiped it down with Baby Oil. It's in excellent shape and he took it out of a German Warehouse brand new from the crate. He did the duffle cut so I restored it with another stock.

 

[walkin' trails]

It had those honkin' big target stocks. They were way too big for my hands so I took a wood rasp to them.

Yep, I did that to a set of light colored target grips that that came on a Model 19 I had acquired - my first handgun. That was also during the Reagan years. I still have the grips adorning a Model 66-1. Around that time, i bought a ratty looking set of Python grips at a gun show cheap and gave them the same treatment- finished them with clear polyurethane. I put them on my Python. They worked great. Sold them on the gun when I let it go.

 

[packard8]

I have Grandad's Belgian Sweet Sixteen (2 barrels & case), take-down .22 (Belgian, Grade II, with case), and an Argentine Mauser he bought at Sears for $20. Many more I've bought.

 

[JiminMaine]

I have my Dad's Model 10 4-screw, his Remington Model 81 35 Rem. and his Wards-Western Field SxS 12 Ga.

A friend of my father who had no kids left me his Savage Super Sporter 30-30 that I had borrowed to shoot my first deer at 13 and an old no name 12 Ga. single shot.

 

[Jim_Sl]

I know you were kidding when you said that but you know that old saying. One man’s junk is another man’s gold. My great great grandmother had a Winchester model 2. She use to sit on her front porch and shoot squirrels for dinner. That little single shot .22 had seen its better days even back then. The stock had been broken and a new one was made out of another piece of wood. It looked nothing like a new one would, but it still put dinner on the table. That little Winchester was handed down to my father and then to me. It’s probably the ugliest rifle in my gun safe and not worth much to most. It’s not to me and I will never sell it.

 

[M5741]

My dad brought back a Walther PPK 32acp surrendered over to him by a German officer in in the European campaign. Nice little pistol. I handed it down to my youngest daughter. (Interesting tidbit) My dad said the officer could speak better English than he could. I think he was eggagerating just a little. Although, my dad was an Okie, so maybe he just couldn't understand that man.

 

[Automag]

I have my grandfather’s Winchester .22 in bolt action with a peep. My father in law, when he died I was given his Ducks Unlimited Model 870. I turned down the Superposed, because my brother in law thought he was trying to be fair, but grief was talking, not sense. It needed to be his gun, and thankfully, he still has it.

 

[Claymore33]

Guess I was more fortunate, Grandfather and Father had great taste in rifles and shotguns and the money to buy Brownings , Berettas, Remingtons and Winchesters. Now my two sons have them. I had to build my own revolver and pistol collection.