Literally "Found" a treasure today

My dad passed away a few years ago and we have been slowly going through his belongings. He split his time between Hawaii and two other locations in California, so he had stuff all over.

Today we were going through a box of paper work and at the bottom was a small blue box. I immediately recognized it as a Smith and Wesson box and was surprised to find a new model 36 nickel square butt. The box still had the warranty card, user manual, and receipt from 1981. There was also a couple of copies from the "Letters" section of a 1981 Guns and Ammo warning about the use of Hoppes No. 9 on nickeled guns. Under all of that was 10 rounds of Federal Nyclad.

This was very unusual because my dad was not a handgun guy. Later in life I bought him a 1911 and we had tons of fun shooting our .45's but growing up, to my knowledge, we only had hunting rifles and shotguns. He used to tell me as a kid that if he could not stop a threat with his 12 GA we were in real trouble. For the life of me I can't figure out why he bought this. There was not a particularly crazy crime event happening in 1981 in the surrounding area and we lived in a small, safe beach town. I guess the mystery will remain, but it is a cool piece of family history.

Anyways here are some pictures...

Thanks for all the kind words for my father. He was a man's man all the way to the end. I was lucky enough to be there his last week and have a gin and tonic with him at the end of each day.

I will definitely have to shoot the revolver. I will just have to keep it in good shape. I have never owned a nickel revolver before so I will have to read up on their care.

It will stay with me for sure and then move along to my son or daughter.