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.

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.

My first deer rifle, besides military surplus, was a Marlin 45-70 made in the 80s. I had bought a girl a ring and was getting ready to pop the question, and she decided I wasn't good enough and dumped me all the sudden after 3 years, before I even asked her. Years later, I found out she did me a huge favor, but at the time I was not a happy camper. After the normal stages of rejection, I got mad, and traded the ring for my Marlin. I went out during rifle season that same year and killed me a trophy buck, that still hangs on my wall. The girl turned out to be pretty screwed up in the head, but the rifle turned out to be a pretty good shooter..

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.

I have a Winchester 1897 it is all beat to heck. It was made in the year of my grandfather Whitie's birth, 1902. When Grandpa was 12 or so he mowed a neighbor's lawn for a whole summer in exchange for this old rusted shotgun. Grandpa cleaned it up and hunted with it for decades. He and his father-in-law were closer than father and son and traveled all over northern Ohio bird hunting.

In the early 30's, a man wrote a letter to Grandpa claiming that he was the son of the farmer whose lawn Grandpa had mowed. He wanted the shotgun back. Grandpa ignored the letter.

I got the shotgun in 1976 when Whitie died and it sat until the early 80's when I took up shooting. I have taken it out at the birth of each of my sons and fired rounds to Heaven to let Whitie know we made it to the next round of play.


I have a Winchester 670 in '06 that I puchased at a gun show back in 87. I went to that show looking for a Remington 700, but couldn't find anything. A guy heard me asking and said he had a Winchester in the car he'd sell me for $120 bucks-- less than what he'd paid for it and far less than the $300 going rate for a 700. I followed him to the trunk of his car, and out comes this really beat up rifle. The story he gave me was that he'd bought it with his brothers to hunt deer in Kentucky back in the early 70's. It had come from a K-Mart.They'd passed it back and forth and finally decided they'd had enough of it and sent him up to Cincinnati to get rid of it. In the meanwhile, it had taken every deer the family had shot for a decade and a half.



I took it home and worked on it all winter, finishing it up in the late spring with a hand-rubbed finish on the hardwood stock. I took it out to the range and found out it shot really well. The guy at the next bench offered me $400 on the spot. I felt stupid for doing it, but I turned him down. Yes, I could have had a brand new Rem 700 and enough leftover for a nice scope, but I had grown somewhat attached to the thing over the winter and didn't want to give it up right then. That was my do-all deer/groundhog/everything else rifle for twenty years.

I finally gave it to #3 son Angus when he became an adult hunter in 2014. He had it out a couple of weeks ago and put the first round at 12 O'Clock and 2 inches high and said "That's it! Time to hunt!" He also added it was his favorite rifle of all time

I was working at a gun shop a few years ago and a gentleman brought in a Chinese SKS that had no import stamps or manufacturer marks anywhere, only a serial number. Man who brought it in said his father was a VN war veteran and he believed that he brought it back with him.

You have to admit that whoever would end up with your rifle would be as disappointed as a kid at Christmas when he opened a present to find underwear inside...

Actually, they might show real disappointment that Antiques Roadshow wouldn't let them in.

The history of your rifles is, they end up in the back of the safe after you get the new one........

You're not kidding!

Now I know somewhere on this site is a mighty nice photo of a Woodsman that has some fine memories attached to it........ and I'm pretty sure o'l Shrap has seen those too. Darn sure my memory is still sharp enough to recall a Blued finish on that fine iron for dispatching what ever needs it......
Just what I remember......... could be wrong.....

secretly hoping Shrap adopts me. That will be the best way for me to get one of his classics. But until then, I will continue to bust on Shrap until I get an invitation to his PD shoot.

and directions.....

I know the history of my first centerfire rifle, a Remington 760 in .300 Savage purchased in 1962. I purchased it used from a local sporting goods store. The original owner, whom I knew well, had bought it new and decided to quit deer hunting so sold it to sporting goods store owner, who was a good family friend. He let me know about it due to my Dad shooting a 99 Savage in .300. I hunted with it for several years and a few years ago gave it to my son. The rifle is as accurate as most bolt action rifles.

I've got some heirlooms, but don't know much (any) of the history, other than they were great grandpa's. Whether they were bought new or used, how much game they had taken or anything else is a mystery.

The Krag is obviously sportorized, but when I do not know.


Pre-war .270

Yes...and recently.

My maternal Grandmother and I were very close. She was like a second mother to me...and I miss her every day.

Back when she was amongst the living, I was in the hunt for my first new rifle. I had inherited a couple of nice shotguns but really needed a good rimfire. Naturally I wanted a 10-22 and being a practical type i tended towards a stainless/syn version. Back then they had the boat paddle zytel stock. I was saving up diligently and my Grandmother found out. She gave me the money to purchase the gun and I did. A couple years went by and I got hard up for cash as I need a graphing calculator for a college course my freshman year. As my grandmother was still alive, I sold the gun to Cabelas for $100 and got the calc. A year or two later my Grandmother passed away...and ever since I've felt like [bleep] about selling that rifle.

I started looking on gun broker and at shows etc. for a replacement but that gen of 10-22 is getting harder to find...and more expensive as they are substantially nicer than the current version. A month or so ago...I found one. Halfway across the country in like new condition. The seller wanted top dollar but it appeared to be a great example. I was zooming in on the picture to check condition and ill be damned...it had the same serial number...which by chance was very unique! It was the same gun!

Needless to say i purchased it. It came back home in the same condition it left...almost 20 years earlier...and from halfway across the US.


Ill never let it out of my grasp again!!!

I've got my great-grandfather's 1905 35 WSL - serial # 80.
Bought new by him, used when he was sheriff of Beaver County, OK - and also used at the Maple Ranch to slaughter buffalo, which he had raised.

I don't have it! Thought I would, but don't.

In 1927 my Dad told Mom that he'd seen a beautiful rifle in the company store. That Christmas morning it showed up under the Christmas tree. A Savage 99 in 300 Savage with 3 shells. It shot 3 deer that December and January. It was his only big game rifle. My Dad was a great storyteller and loved his 300. It spent it's life in the NY Adirondacks. It had successfully excursions hunting Colorado Elk, Ontario black bear, various places throughout NY and Vermont. Kept the family in venison during the depression years. Well, I don't ever remember not having venison available during my youth.

The farm tractor and machinery oil came in 2ggl cans. When I was in my teens we would put a few rocks in one and I'd hide behind a large boulder, throw it, and Dad shot it in the air. He usually hit it. His last hunt with it was in 1986 when he was 86yrs old and he shot a nice 8 point buck in our sugar bush that day. Dad passed before the next hunt season.

When the time came for me to take care of Dad's guns I opened the action of the old 300 and found in there a business card and written in his hand was "Give this gun to _____. (MY oldest son) He too has hunted with it and provided, as the old 300 does, lots of venison. My son now has the old 300 living in Alaska. I've never shot it.

Jim

I only wish that I had heirlooms to hunt with. My family was not really into guns or hunting and the only family gun I have is an old nickel plated Colt Police Positive 32 revolver in terrible shape. I have collected an eclectic assortment of rifles over the years that I really enjoy using, most are just 'users' but with a sprinkling of nicer ones here and there. No history of the will go forward except what little I have given to those my kids choose to keep.

There is one old rifle that I would love to have the history of.....a cut down Krag with a crude 10 point buck carved into the butt and a 1934 date stamped under it. I won it on an online auction years ago and, when it got here, I found two old Western open point cartridges in the butt trap wrapped in a grease soaked rag. For some reason, I have a image of an old codger in a hunting shack carving on the stock by firelight in my mind. It's history is lost for all time, though. It looks pretty cheesy and has little monetary value, but I really like it!

That Krag is a neat old rifle!

My best friend gifted me his Stevens Favorite that was purchased new by his Grand Father. After having it laying around for 29years, I had it redone and gave it back to him for his grandson.


When I gave it to them their expression was worth a million bucks to me.

Thanks......btw, it is a fantastic shooter of both jacketed and cast bullets.

Hook, that's a nice old krag

I have a krag given to me by my grandfather. I pull it out every couple years and try to shoot a doe with it. Took a nice 7 point with it about five years ago too.

-Jake

What could they possibly see in that old hunk of iron?



The Karma train may need a conductor!

The only gun I have that I know the history of in complete is my Sear Ted Williams (Winchester 1300) 12 Ga. I bought it new in fall of ‘80. That gun has been everywhere and shows it. Originally had a Polly choke barrel on it but I swapped that barrel for a Winchester barrel with screw in chokes about 4 yrs later as the original barrel never would pattern to my liking. Ducks, turkeys, pheasant, quail, rabbit, squirrel, coyote have fallen to it over the years. My youngest son shoots it now days when we hunt but we all shoot it when we go to the local meat shoot. The gun I wish I knew the history to is my Win model 97 I picked up a few years ago from someone here on the fire.

Here is an interesting rifle in my pile of stuff. I’ve posted it before but worthy to post again. I know a little of its story.

It is an 1894 Win. crica 1908. It was carried by a USDA tick rider along the Rio Grande River in south Texas from 1910 to about 1946. It has had bunches of "customizing" done to it over the years. And believe it or not still shoots pretty good! I kilt a yearling doe with it last year. It looks like it might have been an original short rifle before all the customizing work. Reported to have been used in at least two shoot outs by original owner! Them was wild times! 25/35 WCF ctg.

"Aftosa Riders"--fortunate to have seen and handled that one. Reminds me of a lot of stories I heard around campfires on the Norias, the the el Sauz and the San Pedro.

Cool rifle K.. Thanks for sharing.. Any more?????

Andrews,

Great idea for a thread and some great reading on a cold, drizzly day!

Most of my guns are pretty run of the mill, boring stuff...my Ruger Standard Auto has probably killed more critters than most having been used and abused in a butcher shop.

Probably the closest thing to interesting I have is a matched set of muzzleloaders, rifle and pistol, which were made in the early 1950’s by Cliff Jackson of Nedrow NY. They are target mz’s made with one of the first post-war Douglas barrels in .44 caliber. Jackson was best known as the gunsmith who taught Peter Alexander the art of rifle building. Alexander is the author of “The Gunsmith of Grenville County”.

My father had to sell his grandfathers 30-30 during the Great Depression to pay for food and cloths. I finally found it after it had gone through a number of sellers and buyers. Tried my hardest to buy it back for my dad before he passed away. The original buyer who my dad sold it to was for $25. Even though it was a plain old 30-30 to him it meant so much to my father. After making offers to buy it for $100, $200,$300......etc. up to $1500 he would not sell it. I was told that he was a very hateful man that he had plenty of money and did not give a hoot about others. Very very sad to hold on to something that ment so little to him but so much to my father.

This one is stamped "Browning Bros Ogden U.T.

Does it need to be a long gun? There was a pistol that played a role in my being here on this ball of mud.

Okay, but we are talking firearms and this is a family site.

I guess that I will show another. My best friend also gave me an I W Meffert shotgun-rifle. One set of barrels for the shotgun and the other to use as a rifle. Trigger is adjustable as are the peep sight. The lever and butt were horn. Cartridges were kept in the lower part of the butt stock.


This shows the cover over the cartridges in the butt.


This shows the fold down adjustable peep.


I gave this to Henry Chappell a couple years ago. Henry is a novelist, writes for some of the outdoor sports mags, Texas Highways, Texas Game Warden mag, and does the writing on Wyman Meinzer's great Texas Ranch books of his photography.
Henry is the "Quail" hunter. He likes to Quail hunt with his dog.
http://www.wymanmeinzer.com/
To continue the I W Meffert story, Thom was given this by an elderly lady neighbor. Her husband was a Doctor that bailed out over Germany during WW11. He was taken in by villagers and was protected by them. He became the village Doc. When liberated they gave him the Meffert.

Funny you should ask. This 94 SRC circa 1910-12 came out of the same area as the preceding 94. But due to its condition I believe it spent most of it’s life on this side of the Rio Bravo. 🤣

All I know is it was a cowboy gun from the times of Pancho Villa. ( Also appears someone decided to reblue it prolly 50 years ago).

That's just dang sweet! Cool story, and very nice weapon.

Both of these original Sharps came to Bozeman from the same shipment in 1877. They were ordered by Walter Cooper and came to Bozeman in 1877 to his armory that is under construction in this picture of Bozeman's main street in 1872. What is the chance all these years later to get 2 rifles from the same shipment...

Wish I knew more on this one. Bought it from my Buddy's gunshop.



I'm told it was one that was converted to trap door. It is rifled and chambered in 50-70.
I gave it and my Mod 36 Winchester in 9mm shotgun to one of my Grandsons.

The ivory sights and barrel stamp are other reminders of these gun's history...

I have a great story on the subject. A good friend of mine saved and worked to earn a 20 gauge when he was a boy. I forget the make and model. Anyway, he was working a gun show a couple years ago and comes across a shotgun like he had as a boy. He asked the owner if he could remove the buttplate. Inside he found a piece of paper with his name on it that he put there many years ago. Charley is in his mid 70s, so the gun would be over 60 years old. Needless to say, Charley bought the gun.

Shrap, what calibers?

6.5 creedmoor......

Both were rebarreled to the Creedmoor of the day, 40-90 Sharps Bottleneck...

Damn nice Sharps, Shrap!!! Damn nice!

Now that one really flings a craving on me!

Shrapnel, with that kind of luck, you wouldn't be the big power-ball winner by any chance wouldgee?