What firearm(s) have been in your family for the longest time?

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My Dad's family has as Winchester Model 1885 in 22 short that has been passed down over the years and it was willed to me when my Dad passed. I haven't taken it to the range yet, but one day soon I think it will have to make an appearance. No idea what to expect with this rifle, but it will bring back a lot of memories.
 
My concern is that most family heirlooms were originally purchased before there was any firearms registration and passed to successive generations without recorded documentation---off the grid as it were and as it should be if the 2A is to be taken seriously. In a small number of states like California, this passing down of family heirlooms is being systematically threatened by the current trends. This is such a concern that a friend who owns a very modest collection of common, mostly obsolete inherited firearms of little value was making his Will and his lawyer, who had asked for a thorough list identifying all his client's assets, when presented with this inventory of firearms, recommended not leaving it in the will because "it's not the government's business."
Right now in CA the State will charge you considerable fees on transferring that Derringer in .41rf your great great Uncle Waldo carried when he was a riverboat gambler and was recently willed to you by your late Aunt Mildred. Or the State will confiscate your property.
Sorry to bring up politics, but that's the way it is now.
 
1 Parker and 1 Cooper rabbit ear double.
One was my grandfather's and one my great grandfather's.

I don't have any pics. Dad had them for many years and both will still shoot.

My uncle got them when my dad passed in January.

He said he was going to will them to me and I'll keep both until I die.
 
An Iver Johnson .38 hammerless that had been a throw-down gun that belonged to my great-uncle, who was a cop in Frisco about 1900. Grandma carried it for years until she shot a cougar out of a tree - after it had got her house-cat, I guess, 'cause that cat disappeared at the same time. This led Dad to file down the firing pin.

And now it's mine.

Anybody know where I can get a new firing pin?
 
I have my father's first rifle. Its a Wards single shot .22 that he bought brand new in 1933 when he was 13 yo for $5! He saved money from gopher tail and magpie wing bounties, $.05 and $.25 respectively, to pay for it!

It and its story is priceless!
 
Probably one of my grandmother's carry guns....a Colt 1878 with a chopped barrel in .44-40. I don't have all the details on the history, but I know she carried it up through the end of the 60s and that it and that it was likely handed down. I had to have it rebuilt recently after firing it in DA and shattering the mainspring springs. The DA on that revolver is essentially useless. It is VERY heavy, and you can't see the front sight without the hammer cocked (granted it is aftermarket, but I have heard this is true of the originals as well).

Her other carry gun was a nickel Colt Series 70 purchased new in the 70s from Oshman's in Houston. After her death, my grandfather (a WW2 Army Air Corps European Theater vet and later USAFR Lt. Col.) carried the same Colt throughout the 80s and 90s after switching from a revolver. In the 2000s he went back to a revolver.

My father bought a Python from the same Oshman's in 1969 just after returning home from Southeast Asia. I don't have the boxes, but I do have the layaway and sales receipts for both. The Python also has all of the US Army paperwork to take it to and from Germany. My father and all of these firearms are thankfully still with us.
 
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Rio Laxas said:
Probably one of my grandmother's carry guns....a Colt 1878 with a chopped barrel in .44-40. I don't have all the details on the history, but I know she carried it up through the end of the 60s and that it and that it was likely handed down. I had to have it rebuilt recently after firing it in DA and shattering the mainspring springs. The DA on that revolver is essentially useless. It is VERY heavy, and you can't see the front sight without the hammer cocked (granted it is aftermarket, but I have heard this is true of the originals as well).

Her other carry gun was a nickel Colt Series 70 purchased new in the 70s from Oshman's in Houston. After her death, my grandfather (a WW2 Army Air Corps European Theater vet and later USAFR Lt. Col.) carried the same Colt throughout the 80s and 90s after switching from a revolver. In the 2000s he went back to a revolver.

My father bought a Python from the same Oshman's in 1969 just after returning home from Southeast Asia. I don't have the boxes, but I do have the layaway and sales receipts for both. The Python also has all of the US Army paperwork to take it to and from Germany. My father and all of these firearms are thankfully still with us.
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Goodness! Those were some serious irons for a little lady to tote around back then! What was her backstory/profession?
 
All the firearms I own was bought in the last seven years,so my oldest firearm is my S&W 4OVE Semi Auto. Never had a weapon in my mother home growing up.
 
If1HitU said:
All the firearms I own was bought in the last seven years,so my oldest firearm is my S&W 4OVE Semi Auto. Never had a weapon in my mother home growing up.
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Ya, both sets of my grandparents were FDR Democrats and none too fond of guns. Both Grandfathers were WW2 vets too; one didn't see any combat, the other saw too much.
Lucky for me, my dad got the milsurp bug and mom was agreeable- she wouldn't allow any handguns in the house until I was in my teens though. So we probably had 100 long guns stashed away when he brought home a .22 Ruger Mk2 bull barrel: he was in his mid 40s at that time. He's probably picked up another 30 or so handguns since then,many of which were on his bucket list, some were stumbled upon or impulse buys.
To this day, I don't think he's ever owned a 9mm....lol.
 
Sarge said:
Nothing very old, but I have my dads collection of Mod 12 Winchesters which includes a 28 ga that he bought in 1941.
Sarge
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4 or 5 years ago there was a model 12 28 gauge at a gun show here in town that as I recall had a 20,000 dollar price tag on it. It was a while ago, but it was several thousand dollars and that gauge and model for sure.
 
I guess it is a 1873 Trapdoor Springfield Cadet Model which my uncle told me it belonged to my GGF. He was with Sherman and passed within a couple miles of our home> have letters he sent home to Ohio. Obviously he was not in the Army in those years and have no idea how he got it but he died about 1915.
Barrel was pitted badly from wasps building a nest in bore. I had it rebarreled with new Douglas barrel and was shooting it. Barrel duped the original perfectly and I silver solder front sight back on and original rear sight was installed.
 
Hummer70 said:
I guess it is a 1873 Trapdoor Springfield Cadet Model which my uncle told me it belonged to my GGF. He was with Sherman and passed within a couple miles of our home> have letters he sent home to Ohio. Obviously he was not in the Army in those years and have no idea how he got it but he died about 1915.
Barrel was pitted badly from wasps building a nest in bore. I had it rebarreled with new Douglas barrel and was shooting it. Barrel duped the original perfectly and I silver solder front sight back on and original rear sight was installed.
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Pics? :):):)
 
NIGHTLORD40K said:
Goodness! Those were some serious irons for a little lady to tote around back then! What was her backstory/profession?
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Not really too much back story on her. She died when I was young, but I'm told she had an affinity for 22 revolvers and large bore handguns. I think she bought more guns than my grandfather did, until he retired and started buying more.
 
If I think about it I will post pics. I go for Quadruple bypass surgery in the morning and I am going to be down for a while and I suspect it is going to be six weeks the way they are talking.
 
I have my Grandfathers Remington #4 .22 LR that he had as a little kid in Searchlight, Nevada.

It's a bit worn and missing the butt plate, but other than that it functions and shoots.
 
My Mothers uncle gave me a 1884 Springfield 45/70 that he was given when in the Iowa National Guard, a 45 Colt single action with 7.5 in. barrel and a 30/40 Craig he carried in Cuba. They are all still shootable, and live in my safe. I have had them over 60 years and one of my grandsons has expressed interest in keeping them.

buflow
 
buflow said:
My Mothers uncle gave me a 1884 Springfield 45/70 that he was given when in the Iowa National Guard, a 45 Colt single action with 7.5 in. barrel and a 30/40 Craig he carried in Cuba. They are all still shootable, and live in my safe. I have had them over 60 years and one of my grandsons has expressed interest in keeping them.

buflow
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That's some amazing family relics you got there! That's interesting that he wound up with a Krag in Cuba, IIRC, the Guardsmen only got them as battlefield pickups (as well as Spanish Mauser's) to supplement their issued Trapdoors. The Regular Army was so short on rifles that they actually had to confiscate them back from the Guardsmen at one point!
 
Mauser bolt action 12 gauge shotgun, belonged to my grandfather. It holds 2 shells '(1 down and 1 in the chamber) and has a super tight full choke. Grampa won so often at splatter card matches that a lot of guys refused to shoot against him. I got my first turkey with that gun when I was 13, and it kicked harder than a mad ex wife
 
I’ve got my great grandfathers Iver Johnson .38 s&w. The best I can gather is it was made before 1912. I haven’t taken off the black grips to get a definitive age because I have heard they are brittle and can break. I found some factory 38 s&w, and the gun still fires. It is actually a pleasure to shoot and fairly accurate.
 
Love these stories. My dad was born in 1904. As a boy, around 1915-16, as was the custom in those days, was sent to help a neighbor harvest his crops because the neighbor was in poor health. One of Dad's "chores" was to take the old neighbor's Iver Johnson 410 single shot and shoot a couple of squirrels down by the corn crib. The squirrels were for supper. This went on for about a month until the neighbor recovered. To thank my dad for the help, the neighbor gave my him the 410. My parents had 7 kids, 4 of them boys. Dad taught all four of us boys to hunt squirrels, quail, coons, and the occasional pheasant with that Iver Johnson. After my father's passing, the gun ended up with me and hangs in my den, mounted on a barn board with an inscription that says, among other things, "He gave what he had"
 
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