Sentimental Guns

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DustyGmt

DustyGmt

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I thought it might be cool to have a thread where we discuss or show pictures of guns you got in a "passed down" or commemorative/Milestone/Gift kind of sentiment . Guns of some significance because they marked a special occasion or accomplishment. They don't have to be gifts, they could have been purchased by you, etc...

On the flip side Guns you've "given" under these circumstances are fair game too.

I have a few sentimental guns, birthday gift from wife etc... but most recently I finished my final year of trade school this past week and am now eligible to take my journeyman exam so to mark the occasion, which is just an excuse to buy another gun :D I bought a 68' Wingmaster Trap gun as a reward to myself for a job well done. IMG_20210427_151242.jpg
 
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Two SxS shotguns,both 12's.

1910 Ithaca from my dad's side. And a '23 LC Smith from an uncle(by marriage). Both were bought new and are in pretty durn nice shape.
 
Congratulations and good luck on the test! Nice shotgun too! What trade are you going into?

I still hunt with a Remington 1100 that Dad gave me my Senior year in Highschool. My Wife has given me a few for anniversaries and such. I have a few that I inherited that were given as gifts before I was born.

Sorry, I haven't mastered the picture thing yet!
 
We dont have any family guns that go back further than my Dad, but he has a couple that I have fond childhood memories of, his prized Ballaster Molina (made from the wreckage of the Graf Spee, allegedly), his "custom" sporterized Arisaka (to be fair, the nicest Ive ever seen), the Mossberg M44US he bought in college, and the silly Erma .22 Luger he bought me to cheer me up when I was recovering from surgery.

Ive got a few too that Id like to see kept in the family just because they were my favorites, but not really for any sentiment reasons.
 
lightman said:
Congratulations and good luck on the test! Nice shotgun too! What trade are you going into?

I still hunt with a Remington 1100 that Dad gave me my Senior year in Highschool. My Wife has given me a few for anniversaries and such. I have a few that I inherited that were given as gifts before I was born.

Sorry, I haven't mastered the picture thing yet!
Click to expand...
Electrician. 4 years of school (544 classroom hours) and 8K OJT hours. I'm a lil behind on the hours due to being laid off for a few months at the start of covid but I can still test and license will go into effect when I hit 8K.
 
I have 2. My dad was sent to Belgium as a replacement during the 1944-45 Battle of the Bulge. He was somewhere in Germany when the war ended. His unit had just occupied a small German village and had confiscated all firearms from the homes. This 12 ga came from a gunshop in town. It was new with hangtags still on it. Dads CO told the men they could take anything they could figure out how to get home. Dad selected this, built a wooden box and mailed it home. It was made at the Belgian FN factory sometime before the war. I still take it out once a year or so. It has 32" full choked barrels so it's not the most useful

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The next one belonged to my great grandfather. It is a 20 ga double made sometime in the late 1800s or early 1900's. This is the gun dad gave me to learn to hunt with. I used it for several years before figuring out the damascus barrels probably weren't up to modern loads. It hasn't been shot since the 1970's. I'd like for my kids and grandkids to shoot it, but have decided it isn't worth the risk.

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DustyGmt said:
Electrician. 4 years of school (544 classroom hours) and 8K OJT hours. I'm a lil behind on the hours due to being laid off for a few months at the start of covid but I can still test and license will go into effect when I hit 8K.
Click to expand...

I made a decent living in the electric industry over the years. You are joining a nice trade. I wish you Good Luck.
 
DustyGmt said:
I thought it might be cool to have a thread where we discuss or show pictures of guns you got in a commemorative/Milestone/Gift kind of sentiment . Guns of some significance because they marked a special occasion or accomplishment. They don't have to be gifts, they could have been purchased by you, etc...

On the flip side Guns you've "given" under these circumstances are fair game too.

I have a few sentimental guns, birthday gift from wife etc... but most recently I finished my final year of trade school this past week and am now eligible to take my journeyman exam so to mark the occasion, which is just an excuse to buy another gun :D I bought a 68' Wingmaster Trap gun as a reward to myself for a job well done. View attachment 994994
Click to expand...


I guess that for me it’s several.

#1 First on the list......a Stevens 22/410, which my Dad won when he returned from WWII and gave to me at age 8. With it I took my fist small game animals and my first Whitetail Deer.

#2 My first centerfire rifle...... I bought at 14, by mowing a few lawns and picking up pecans, a Winchester Model 88 in .308 Win.

#3 My semi-retired, Winchester Model 70 375 H&H. A rifle/cartridge I had dreamed of since my HS days and purchased when I was 31 for my future trips to Alaska and Africa

My Son has the Model 88, his son has the Stevens, and my Win. Model 70 375 H&H is pretty much a safe queen. It’s replacement and my only hunting rifle, a semi-lightweight, Winchester Model 70 in .375 AI. memtb
 
I was 8 years old in 1958 when my grandfather and uncle took me hunting Upstate NY in the Catskill Region. We visited with my uncle's friend Charlie. Charlie gave me a 22 rifle to drag around and I dragged that rifle up and down those mountains. No ammunition but I had a rifle. :) Afternoons down by the pond I was given a box of ammunition and they taught me how to shoot, Today I am 71 and I still have that rifle. The Remington 510P on the top.

Rimfires1.png

The others came later. My uncle past away a few years ago and while I have not photographed it I was given his 16 Gauge Remington shotgun. The Remington that looks like a Browning Auto 5. Not really a shotgun type. :) I also have a nice 03A3 Remington manufacture which I gifted to my dad a WWII vet USMC and when dad passed the rifle reverted back to me. Anyway there are 3 that hold sentimental value. Oh yeah, one more is an AR 10 match rifle from my brother in law. My sisters husband who left us all too soon. These are guns which will be passed on in the family,

The AR10
AR10%202.png

Ron
 
Gus Chiggins said:
This is a 1952 Remington 870 Wingmaster. It's the first 12 gauge I bought (in 1991) and I still shoot a round of trap with it now and then.
View attachment 995073
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I'll be on the lookout for one just like it. I bought the one I did pretty much specifically for trap, but I'm looking for a second with the plain wood furniture to put a cyl bore barrel on for general purpose. Also on the lookout for a spare cyl bore 870 barrel... nice old shotgun
 
Probably my most sentimental favorite is my Colt Combat Commander, part of a small run of guns that were customized by Colt's own Custom Gun Shop. Saw it in an ad for a big distributor of Colts and S&Ws and they also maintained a store front operation where you could buy guns at near dealer prices. They were bright nickel plated (typically Combat Commanders had a matte nickel finish), had an MMC adjustable rear sight, a Gold Cup trigger, and was custom tuned and ready to go! They were over an hour and a half away and closed at 4:00 on Saturday. Made up my mind around 2:30 that I was going to go down there and buy one of those Colts! They were priced at $289 and with tax I could just make it with the $300 cash I had on me!

Made it there in record time (about 3:45 by the clock at the store), picked out the gun (they also had it with an ambi safety but that would have put it over my $300 limit), and headed my way back home with my awesome looking treasure; but this time at a much more sensible speed! Kept it in the safe for several years without ever shooting it; just took it out occasionally to admire it and then back in the safe it went. I honestly felt back then that it was just too pristine to ever shoot it.

About this time I decided I wanted to travel this great country of ours but this required money that I was somewhat short of so instead of selling a whole bunch of my guns I decided to sell one gun that would bring me the most money: my Custom Colt Combat Commander. A friend of mine had been after me to sell it to him so I did but added the condition that I had the right of first refusal if he ever decided to sell it.

Some years past and I came back home and looked my old friend up. Yes, he still had the Colt; found out it was as accurate as a Gold Cup, and no, it wasn't for sale. So I had to come up with some trading material to get the gun back. Finally hit pay dirt with the combination of a new Colt Officer's Model ACP and a used Walther P1 German police trade-in from Interarms. Made the trade and have been thrilled to have it back ever since! I still take it with me on most trips to the range and have used it to qualify for my CCW and for some additional training with a local police instructor.

This gun will always have a very special memory to me.
ZFwuWE7.jpg
 
My Dad's 1941 Colt Official Police .. :) .. over thirty years with the Milwaukee Police dept. He never let me handle it as a kid .. he'd unload it when he came home .. and I got to play with the bullets :) I still have those bullets, thinking about it .. passed the Colt on to my younger brother o_O
 

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Some nice guns here! My dad gifted me a Mossberg 500 Thunder Ranch, I am not into the “tactical” type guns at all and really think this shotgun with the big Thunder Ranch written on its frame, the picatinny rail and breaching barrel is one of the silliest guns I have ever seen. With that said, it will be with me until the day I crater because my dad gave it to me.
 
bannockburn said:
Probably my most sentimental favorite is my Colt Combat Commander, part of a small run of guns that were customized by Colt's own Custom Gun Shop. Saw it in an ad for a big distributor of Colts and S&Ws and they also maintained a store front operation where you could buy guns at near dealer prices. They were bright nickel plated (typically Combat Commanders had a matte nickel finish), had an MMC adjustable rear sight, a Gold Cup trigger, and was custom tuned and ready to go! They were over an hour and a half away and closed at 4:00 on Saturday. Made up my mind around 2:30 that I was going to go down there and buy one of those Colts! They were priced at $289 and with tax I could just make it with the $300 cash I had on me!

Made it there in record time (about 3:45 by the clock at the store), picked out the gun (they also had it with an ambi safety but that would have put it over my $300 limit), and headed my way back home with my awesome looking treasure; but this time at a much more sensible speed! Kept it in the safe for several years without ever shooting it; just took it out occasionally to admire it and then back in the safe it went. I honestly felt back then that it was just too pristine to ever shoot it.

About this time I decided I wanted to travel this great country of ours but this required money that I was somewhat short of so instead of selling a whole bunch of my guns I decided to sell one gun that would bring me the most money: my Custom Colt Combat Commander. A friend of mine had been after me to sell it to him so I did but added the condition that I had the right of first refusal if he ever decided to sell it.

Some years past and I came back home and looked my old friend up. Yes, he still had the Colt; found out it was as accurate as a Gold Cup, and no, it wasn't for sale. So I had to come up with some trading material to get the gun back. Finally hit pay dirt with the combination of a new Colt Officer's Model ACP and a used Walther P1 German police trade-in from Interarms. Made the trade and have been thrilled to have it back ever since! I still take it with me on most trips to the range and have used it to qualify for my CCW and for some additional training with a local police instructor.

This gun will always have a very special memory to me.
View attachment 995089
Click to expand...
That is a beauty to behold. Never seen one like it...
 
My most sentimental gun is a Marlin 336SC in .35 Remington circa 1955 . It was my Dad's gun and the first gun I ever hunted with. I took it out for hunting a year ago, I hadn't shot it in over 50 years. I picked it up and the memories came flooding in. I set up a target at 50 yards (a 5 x 8sheet of paper) picked it up to aim thru those old familiar peep sights and wondered if it still shot the same. Let her rip and the sights were still dead on. Not bad for a 50 year absence and with 50+ year old ammo. Ahhhh the memories.
 
DustyGmt
That is a beauty to behold. Never seen one like it...
Click to expand...

I have seen only two others like it; both at local gun shows. I think the bight nickel plating is the first thing you notice, that and the Gold Cup trigger. A friend of mine bought one of them, though someone had changed the sights and fitted a different mainspring housing to it. It's serial number was somewhat close to mine so it probably was part of that special run from Colt's Custom Gun Shop.
 
I have three that are sentimental, out of all the others.

The first is Dad's Remington 700, 30-06. He gave it to me when the wife and I moved to the farm, to replace the old 30-30 that wouldn't shoot across the bottoms. Mom bought it for him in 83 for their first anniversary. It is the crown jewel of my collection.

The other two were my grandfather's. They are a Winchester 37 16 gauge and a New Haven 251 automatic 22. I suppose they were the only guns he owned. At least they were the only ones I remember him having. He owned a Light 20 when I was very small, but I barely remember it. I digress. These two were the guns I learned to shoot with; I still remember him buying the shells, and pitching cans and bottles for me to try and hit in the backyard with the old 16. Its still a hard-kicking old wench. He'd let me take it hunting, giving me only 5 shells and admonishing me to bring back 5 critters or he'd tan my hide elsewise. I also watched him shoot a lot of rabbits with that old 22, all on the run. It wears a little 2.5x Weaver, and will positively drive nails with any ammo. Especially now, after I basically rebuilt it. He gave them to me a few years before he died, and they hold quite a special place in my cabinet, and my heart.

This reminds me that I need to take those old guns of Pa's out and shoot them sometime. That old 22 needs a day in the woods!

Mac
 
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