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

In many cases, I know the history of the firearms in my collection, as I bought them from the original owner or his widow/daughter/estate agent.

yours, tex

I have 2 that are dear to me because I know their history. A Winchester M62 pump and a Winchester M63 auto.
Purchased at the same time by my Dad and my Uncle in Lyons Colorado in January of 46. Dad used his mustering-out pay from the Navy and I think my Uncle Walt did too. Rewarded themselves for their time in the War. Dad got into the war in the end of 42 and Walt was in the Navy already when Pearl Harbor was bombed. He joined in 40. So they both went through the thick of it.

I received both of them when I got older. Both are in excellent condition and the M63 is almost like new.

I love that tale.
Thanks for taking the time.

I have my first .22 (581) I got NIB for Christmas in 1971.
My first centerfire (94 30-30) I got in 1972 (used).
My first shotgun got away from me. (I bought one a lot like it a few years ago).

I have my grandpa's 1873 38-40 that I treasure. Went from gramps to an uncle.
Uncle gave it to me for my high school graduation. ( I was shocked as he has 2 boys of his own).

I wonder where mine have been, who owned them and the hunts they have been on and the game they have killed.

[quote=shrapnel]

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...

Next time you get one built, ask them for wood with some figure ...

Back in the 80's I had a stainless S&W .22 J Frame revolver with a 4" barrel and adjustable sights that lived in my back pack for remote hunts. My daughters friended a gal that had "issues" and started bringing her to church. She showed up one day to borrow a saw and had a dirt bag looking guy with her. All he was doing was scoping out my place. Any way a week or so later my wonderful little revolver was gone. I filed a police report and put her on notice. About 3 years later one of the local policeman I knew called me and said my revolver showed up. It went from little old Kenai, Alaska to Bogata, Columbia.

I always wondered how many times that gun was used on some one. Hopefully it was one druggie dirt bag shooting another druggie dirt bag. She later spent a couple of years in jail for stealing about 50,00 bucks in jewelry from a mutual friend. Saw her a couple of years ago and she was in a wheel chair being pushed by a scroungy looking dirt bag.

You got lucky on the girl!!

I have some great ones, lots of stories in them but one of my favorites is a S&W Airweight with a shrouded hammer. The senior partner of this firm came in to my office one day years ago and said, "Brett you like guns. I have an old pistol that I'd like to get rid of. It just kind of scares me having it around." He produced from his hands the above mentioned pistol, the box it came in, the cleaning rod, and a box of Remington .38Spl. with only two shells out of it. Turns out he'd ordered it through the U.S Mail, from Abercrombie and Fitch, back when they outfitted people to go to Africa instead of to a skateboard park. He'd fired the two shells way back when and then put it away. I paid him the asking price in cash.

BKinSD,

I have to ask what sort of handgun that it is. = My college girlfriend's mother in 1952 went to work as the private secretary to the CEO of an engineering company that also had several other commercial businesses.
"Mildred" was told on her first day at work that one of her responsibilities was to make the night deposits for the firm each evening on the way home from work. Her boss told her to take the cash from "petty cash" & go buy a handgun to protect herself & the night deposits. - Obediently, Mildred went to Schuler's Hardware in Pine Bluff, AR & bought a Colt's Cobra in .38 Special & a box of .38SPL ammo..

After she passed away in 2009, Sandra & I were asked to clean out her house by the attorney who was settling her estate & during the cleaning we found Mildred's handgun which was found with the entire box of 158 grain RNL ammo by Peters & the original bill of sale, that listed the little D-frame by serial number & the box of ammo. = In all those nearly 6 decades the revolver probably had never been fired & may NOT have ever even been loaded.
Buying a handgun (usually a small revolver) for "home defense", keeping it in "a convenient place" but never firing it was (& perhaps still is) evidently commonplace in the USA, as I can think of no other logical reason for all of the "new in the box" D-frame Colt & J-frame S&W revolvers that are frequently found a estate sales, garage sales, auctions & gun shows.
(My "brother of the heart" recently found what seems to be new, in the tattered box, Pre-WWII Colt's Banker's Special in .22LR from the estate sale of a woman, who was a jeweler & watchmaker, from Wheeling, WV. - It has NOT been fired & now will not be.)

yours, tex

Tex

Its a S&W Model 38 Airweight. Its a 5-shot J frame with a shrouded hammer, aluminum frame, round butt. I have shot it a few times but it sits here in my desk drawer in a padded case instead of the box which is around here somewhere.

BK

I look at guns as much more than a tool. I look at them as a future suppressor host. I never bothered trying to find out much about most of mine, but I just had this 2018 *****6.5 CREEDMOOR***** made by Bighorn Arms in Bennet, Nebraska and I did get the bill emailed to me by the lovely Miss Robbie, along with correspondence with Ray and Aaron about the build sheet. Whoever gets this will have to go and dig thru all of my deleted emails to get any kind of pedigree to go along with them. Your welcome.....

And be sure to ask for a pretty paint job....

Geez, I got lots of old, wore out crap.

It’s a good thing you don’t have any grandchildren. I could just hear them say “look at this ugly thing grampa left me.”

I bought both my Rigby's from a retired University lecturer (We don't call them professors) who lived in 22 countries, mostly on the continent of Africa, as a mining engineer.

My .275 was purchased in London when he visited the Rigby shop in Pall Mall with the intention of ordering a .30/06 when they offered him a deal on a .275 from a cancelled order. It was in the white, so the stock was made for him and suited me perfectly. The rifle came with a buffalo horn foreend tip, monte carlo stock profile, 1 standing and 2 folding leaves out to 300 yards and also fitted with EAW QR mounts and a Kahles 2-7 scope all factory fitted and ready to go. The rifle was always a touch under MOA and sometimes better than that with the loads I used and I took a range of game in Oz up to Red deer and Brumbies in size and also took it elk hunting in Colorado but lucked out.

The other was a double made in 1912 chambered in .350/400 No 2. That rifle shot Barnes X bullets 3 per barrel into 1 5/8" at 50 yards over the open sights and was easy to regulate loads for. Only one trip to the range and I was done. It also liked Woodleigh's but what rifle doesn't?
John

This will be a lot more interesting than a build sheet on a camouflaged gun...

One piece of the junk the grandkids will be fighting over.

One of 'em going trick-or-treating as Dan'l Boone?

Shiloh Sharps rifles are just plain awesome.

Dang it. That wasn't the 'rise' I was expecting outta ol' Shrap... Even 'starring' and capitalizing 6.5 creedmoor. Maybe next time.