Lost a fine model 58 to the ATF today.

[S&W Fan]

In late 1979 I just had to have a new “wondernine” so after a visit to my favorite big gun shop in Tucson I brought home a S&W 59. Awful da trigger but that thing was very accurate or at least I was accurate with it. Fast forward to the summer of 1980 and my then wife and I return from our honeymoon in San Francisco to discover the house was burglarized.

Among all the items taken the ****** cut the pipe I had handcuffed the pistol to in a deep dark corner that surely no one would ever look in-hah (before I got a safe).

Unfortunately no luck to date of a recovery-I’m sure it’s somewhere in Mexico along with all the Ford F150s that were stolen back then.

 

[Art Doc]

A friend of mine had a Browning Auto-5 stolen from his place in Illinois. Seven years later he rented a cabin in Michigan. When he checked into the cabin he found a Browning Auto-5 standing in the closet. It was his.

I did an internship at the Cook County States Attorney's Office. I remember looking at all the firearms slated for destruction. Most memorable were some WWII German firearms with Nazi proof markings on them that had been used in various crimes.

Only slightly less amazing than the story that went around a few years ago of a WW II vet presented with an M1 at an awards dinner and it just happened to be the same one he'd carried during the war.

I confess I did not believe that story.

 

[flash60601]

Man, what a trail, what a trial! Lost/stolen guns have a way of turning up at some unusual times and places.

Back in the 70's, when I lived in another state, I took a really nice 1911 (not -A1) to a local gunsmith, a friend. But as life got lived, he wound up using my frame to make a gun for one of the world-class shooters who broke his frame the night before a big match. Which was OK, because we were all friends, and he knew it would be OK with me to have my gun in this guy's hands win a big nationaly-ranked match the next day.

So, then I moved to PA, and abut two years later, before the smith moved to yet another state, he sent me my gun (Put on an Essex frame), so since it was not my original Colt frame, I had to go through Pennsylvania's process to "buy/acquire" the gun (where the frame Mfr's name and S/N were recorded in a database that does not exist and never will. This was early eighties.)

Since this was a gun I just had in the attic (before safes came ito my life), I gave it no thought. I moved from that house to another, and had a local fellow help me move. He found the gun and took it. Short story, while still a juvenile (17), his girl-friend's parole officer called at her apartment one day and found him with the gun loaded and in my holster on his belt (loaded with flying ashtrays he swiped from me, too).. Turns out he was on juvy parole as well, so the gun got confiscated and he got cuffed and stuffed, right there.

Two weeks later, PA St. Police called me and informed me that they wished to have a chat. Ultimately got my gun back, after finding the original bill of sale from the smith who, by now was six states and six hundred miles away.

How the state traced the S/N to me is still a mystery. The Commonwelth swore that no database or record was ever kept.

 

[Jack Flash]

… How the state traced the S/N to me is still a mystery. The Commonwelth swore that no database or record was ever kept.

And we all know they would never, ever lie!

 

[ACORN]

And we all know they would never, ever lie!

Probably the nonexistent database that the PSP had(has) and was ordered to dismantle. Which they refused to do.
State police defend handgun purchaser database