Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters The History of your Rifle

Has anyone followed the lifespan of a gun? I was just was wondering where they finally end up. My 1st shotgun was a 20 gauge single shot mad by Savage. My 1st deer rifle A Savage340 30-30 that I sold over 50 years ago.

Does someone still have it? Has it been melted down for scrap steel? Not sure where it is now? It would be interesting to know where it is now.

Have any members been able to locate a gun that they sold years and years ago?

Most of my guns are hand me downs from family, so the lineage is known. On the rest, I am first owner. But I have one gun with an unknown history, a 12ga. Stirlingworth sxs, more than 100yrs old. It might have a tale to tell.

I've seen my Kimber 270 make its rounds on the 'fire

I have a Parker Brothers side by side built in 1901. I came by the shotgun from a friend who lived next door to the now deceased owner of the shotgun. I use the gun for 5-stand from time to time being choked IC and light modified the gun really break targets. Just wish I knew how the shotgun has traveled through 117 years of time.

I still own all my starter guns, I gave my 2 kids better guns than I had and one is a gun man ,my daughter not so much but grandkids coming up will get some real nice guns from grandpa ! all my grandkids get at least one Ruger no.1 from me,some get Perazzi trap shotguns.

I look at guns as much more than a tool. I have tried to find out everything I could about them as I have gathered them. I just had this 1877 Sharps made by Shiloh Rifles in Big Timber, Montana and I got Lucinda to sign the build letter and I have the original copy of the build sheet. Whoever gets this or many other of my guns will have as much pedigree as I can get to go with them...

Barring a very few sentimental pieces, they are nothing more than tools and toys for the most part.

I still have the first shotgun, that I got for Christmas when I was twelve, and the first center-fire rifle that I bought the summer that I graduated high school, 57 years ago. First .22 rimfire rifle is long gone, as is the first .22 pistol--both were cheapies and I quickly grew tired of fooling with them. Have no idea what will happen with the shotgun (a JC Higgins 20-gauge) but the rifle is already promised to my youngest grandson. I built rifles for all the older boys, and he is most avid shooter/hunter in the bunch.

I have a 1907 German drilling, it has had allot of use. It wasn't "Bring Back" from WW-II but came from Sweden recently. It was in rough shape, the head of the stock was shattered and the right lock heavily worn(the right lock is the combination lock, Hammer drilling) so either the original owner was a very good shot and only needed one shot from the shotgun or used the rifle a lot(9.3x72R). I suspect it was the latter as the rifle barrel is pretty worn but still minute of deer at 100 yards. I had the lock rebuilt and I repaired the stock, so far it has done very well on the trap range for me and I am starting to work with the rifle.

I have another drilling from 1926 that I also bought in a basket and have repaired that one, it just needed to have the extractor repaired and some work on the stock( re-bed the rear of the trigger plate) so the safety would work. It is in 16ga/16ga/6.5x58R Sauer. I have to make brass for it and swage .264 bullets down to .260 but is shooting sub MOA groups at 200 yards and has accounted for a few coyotes, I love to take it out when hunting thicker cover, An ounce of NP BB's is a coyotes demise under 35 yards and they are in mortal danger at 200. It is also a recent import from Europe.

I would love to know the history of these two

I have an Israeli Mauser that carries some of its history with it. It was built in Czechoslovakia before WW II and has all the appropriate markings for its time and place of manufacture and use by their army. It was captured by the NAZIs and many parts are surcharged with waffenamts. The Israelis stamped Stars of David in several places, especially on top of all the swastikas in the waffenamts. It was in especially good shape for an Israeli Mauser and was clean and well maintained when obtained from the importer, but a detailed strip and clean did find some Middle Eastern sand in the rear sight base. This is one rifle that does hint at its history.

I have Grandad's Winchester 1906. He purchased it 3 months after he was mustered out of World War I. He passed it on to my Dad, and he in turn passed it on to me.

Neat! I love the historical stuff. The ones I most wish could talk would be the June '44 and Jan. '45 Garands, the 1915 BSA No 1 Mk III and the 1863 Springfield. Thankfully I know a whole lot about a great-uncle's 1911 which was issued to him as a rifle company Lt. in 1944 and then carried through various fights and three woundings. It almost makes my blood run cold to hold such a piece of history and consider the costs paid by better hands than mine which once held those weapons.

This rifle was won by my Grandfather in a Big Buck Contest in 1937. He gave it to me about 1982 before he died. I also have the horns that won it.

The story of the horns is pretty good. Back when he shot the buck, they were poor and could not afford to have anything done with them. The sponsor of the contest said he would mount them if he could display them in his shop. Well this shop changed hands a few times but kept the horns kept showing on the wall, the last time in I saw them was in Newton's Sporting Goods around 1980. Well eventually Mr. Newton also passed and the store was closed. One day I went on a CSI investigation trying to find those horns. I eventually came up with the number of the widow of the owner of Newton's. She remembered putting the horns in a shed a couple years back but said I was welcome to come look for them. So I had my grandmother drive me over (some 35 years ago now) and sure enough there that big old rack was. After explaining the story she was happy to give them to me. Well grandma and I took those horns back to their rightful owner. I can still see the expression on his face and remember him saying "Where in the world did you get those", "I never thought I'd ever see those horns again".

That was a great day - and I still use that rifle today (last weekend I shot a nice 3 point mule deer.) I've taken some nice bucks and bulls but nothing even close to that 38" giant he won it with.

Great stories and a nice pre 64 with that mule deer.
I still have a 870 12 gauge I got about 1970 for Christmas from my parents, a winchester 69a that was my dad's from the mid 50's, an old stevens single 12 gauge from the same era that dad had, and an Fn actioned husqvarna that has been with us for 16-17 years (that my son shot his first deer and black bear with). They will all go to my kids one day, but not today!

cool story!!

About thirty-five or forty years ago I sold a Winchester 1886 rifle that had been cut down to carbine length and rebored from 40/65 to 45/70. It had some crude carving on the stock. I sold it through a True Value store in Northern Illinois. Twenty years ago, I was attending a class in Dallas with a couple of coworkers. We went to dinner at a nice restaurant on the edge of town. When we walked in, I spotted a glass case with a half dozen or so Winchesters. Looking closer, I saw that '86 I had sold was one of them! I asked the restaurant owner about the guns, and he said they belonged to a friend who let him display them. Turned out the friend had family in Illinois and had bought my rifle at the True Value on a trip north.

I tend to agree with Shrapnel in that I've never understood the guns as a tool argument. I realize that a cheap ugly gun can do everything a "nice" gun can do but I'm pretty sure that my 400 pound neighbor lady can do everything that Salma Hayek can do but it would be a lot more fun to do it with Salma. Part of the entertainment to me is knowing or just guessing as to the history of a gun.

Have my maternal grandfather's first gun, a Win. 1890 3d series in .22 WRF. It shoots just dandy. I also have a 513S he passed to me in '65 and it shoots bugholes if fed proper ammo. He purchased the rifle sometime in the late '40s to early '50s. And then there is the High Standard 9 shot .22 revolver. He took it to the assisted living facility in his sunset years. He grew annoyed at the other old farts having social gatherings in the grass outside his room and was incensed when they refused to take their noise elsewhere. Went back to his room, returned and put 9 shots in the air. They never bothered him again. The coppers gave the gun to my mother who passed it my way a few years ago. They asked her to not return it to gramps....laffin' as they did so.

So goes life in small town, USA.

This photo has a couple of rifles in it that have a little history attached to them.

The top rifle is an 1894 Winchester 30/30 made in 1897. After I bought it, I was cleaning it and removed the butt plate. There was a note in the hole in the stock that had an address on it in Western Massachusetts. I looked on Google maps and saw a house still located at the address and decided to write the gentleman on the note telling him where his rifle ended up. Also, if it had been stolen, I was going to get it back to him. He wrote me back saying that he was currently in his late 80's, had bought the rifle when he was about 30 and used it deer hunting. He had sold it about 5 years before I bought it since he was no longer able to hunt. I think that he was excited to find out where it had ended up and that it was still going to be used hunting deer. I placed his notes and one of mine back into the stock.

The 98 Mauser sporter at the bottom of the picture is a rifle I bought at a gun show in the middle 70's. It is an engraved, 8X60 with a solid full length rib and .323 bore. I guess it is what is called a Guild gun since it has no makers name anywhere on it. I never shot it much since I thought it had headspace problems as the guy selling it said it was an 8X57. It isn't now and wasn't then. I just didn't know. Times got tight for me as a new father in the early 80's and I sold it. I always regretted selling the rifle but had little choice at the time. About 5 years ago I walked into a gunshop and saw a familiar looking rifle in the used gun rack. I asked to see it and about had a stroke when I got a good look. It was my old Mauser! I never put it down while filling out the yellow sheet and writing the check. It has not found its final resting place but for the foreseeable future It will reside in my gun safe and then be passed down to one of my sons. It now has a note in the butt stock too!!

I don't know what you do with your guns.....but its definitely not what I do with mine.

The fact that a gun doesn't have some Antiques Roadshow pedigree in no way relegates it to "cheap ugly gun" territory.