A Christmas to remember. My prize possession

[Jeb Stuart]

Here is a pic of my JC higgins. My Christmas gift to me when I was about 12 years old. Some 50 years ago. The gun that started it all. My Dad, a career Marine and Korean and Vietnam Vet gave me the gun, taught me how to use it, and had me a member of the NRA. Thanks Dad, I miss you.

JC Higgins MDL Marlin 80.
Ps I grew up shooting the Buckhorn sights, now equipped with a Nikon EFR. I have a lot of rifles, pistols etc. now, but the Marlin gift from Dad would be the last to go.
When he returned home from Vietnam, he brought home a Winchester 308. Another great gift which I gave to my brother on his departure to move from the East Coast to Utah. He has given it plenty of use.

 

[Steve S.]

Great memory to have. I served the last years of Vietnam; my son is now a Navy AC at Jacksonville NAS. I gave him his first deer rifle years ago to start his youth hunting career; I now store it for him while he is away. Like you, I miss those days especially knowing that they can no longer be repeated but those images are burned in my brain forever.

 

[Hokkmike]

I am a Viet Nam era veteran. NEVER went there. (I want that to be clear) Kudos to your dad. He left you something much more special than a rifle. My dad, a WWII and Korea vet, got caught up in a gun "frenzy" one year and bought me and my two brothers rifles. Mine was a Marlin .444 lever. Sadly, I no longer have it. Hold one to yours. It is worth more than money.

 

[Jeb Stuart]

Thank you both and thank for your service and the service of your family. May God Bless.

 

[Skylerbone]

I always enjoy the family stories behind the firearms we cherish. It took nearly a dozen years before my uncle's widow passed and his Will could be executed, not for spite, she simply couldn't bring herself to part with his things.

Knowing my passion for shooting and my lack of funding when he wrote it out 20 years ago, he thought enough to single me out as beneficiary of all of his firearms despite having an older brother (my father) and two sons of his own who bookend me in age by a year.

I was in turn fortunate enough over the years to collect many more rifles and pistols that helped teach those cousins of mine to shoot and a week after receiving my inheritance presented these two cousins of mine their father's freshly cleaned collection. That made for a range day that ranks up there with my own children's first time out.

 

[If1HitU]

Very nice looking rifles.To your father,R.I.P Marine. Semper Fi.

 

[Ks5shooter]

" You are not forgotten" John J. Nemchik JR KIA 18 May 1967 My cousin. Thank you to all who served. Remember you are never forgotten as long as long as someone speaks your name. Support your local American Legion post,actions are louder than donations.
Don Biddulph American legion post 194 former 2nd vice SAL . "For God and Country" Proud son of Donald M. Biddulph SR Korean war veteran. Unfortunately my father never took cause to handle a gun after Korea ,so I have no hand me down from him. Cherish that firearm my friend.

 

[DM~]

I buy myself a Christmas present every year.

This year I bought myself a big screen TV, I bet you I will be "looking at it" for a long time! lol

DM

 

[Jeb Stuart]

I buy myself a Christmas present every year.

This year I bought myself a big screen TV, I bet you I will be "looking at it" for a long time! lol

DM

Sorry,not me. Do not watch TV very much. Don't need a big screen even when I do. I much prefer to be out shooting, hunting or fishing. A Big Screen TV would just make me fat and lazy.

 

[MedWheeler]

My father had been USAF, but was out before I was born, having been recruited by the Agency. He and my mother divorced when I was very young, and I didn't re-establish a relationship with him until I was around thirty, about ten years before he died. As it was, he had done a stint as a deputy in Colorado during the same period in which I had worked as a LEO here in Florida. Though he never "gave" me any guns, he left two behind. Both are handguns, a Charter Arms Undercover, circa 1966, and a Ruger Police Service Six, circa 1975. The latter is shown in his holster in an old picture of him in uniform he sent me when we re-connected.

His death was during the Christmas season, discovered deceased in his home in the high New Mexico desert on 19 December, 2010, seven years ago yesterday (he likely had died two days prior.)

I'm carrying his Charter and staging the Ruger bedside this week.

 

[DM~]

Sorry,not me. Do not watch TV very much. Don't need a big screen even when I do. I much prefer to be out shooting, hunting or fishing. A Big Screen TV would just make me fat and lazy.

Don't apologize, I don't remember saying it was for ---------> YOU...

Both my wife and I like many shows on TV, LOT'S of good shows on Discovery and History channels as well on others...

When I was younger I hunted/fished/camped all the time, I've shot at least 25 moose, several bears including brown bear, caribou, sheep and about everything else Alaska has to offer.

I've put my time in, in the bush, so after years and years of that, watching nature shows on a big screen TV is rather nice...

BTW, I shot three nice whitetails a couple weeks ago, time to rest up now... lol

DM

 

[RussellC]

Don't apologize, I don't remember saying it was for ---------> YOU...

Both my wife and I like many shows on TV, LOT'S of good shows on Discovery and History channels as well on others...

When I was younger I hunted/fished/camped all the time, I've shot at least 25 moose, several bears including brown bear, caribou, sheep and about everything else Alaska has to offer.

I've put my time in, in the bush, so after years and years of that, watching nature shows on a big screen TV is rather nice...

BTW, I shot three nice whitetails a couple weeks ago, time to rest up now... lol

DM

I enjoy being out shooting too, but love watching the tube as well. My weight varies from just a tad over my high school weight, to maybe 15 lbs over and I am 62. Thrilled at the size, clarity and low price of modern TVs!

More on point, I still have the Browning A5 16 gauge shotgun my Dad gave me. It's older than I am.

Russellc

 

[Sistema1927]

Dad was a career Army man, 21 years. That made me an "Army brat". He served in Vietnam 1969-70, then retired in 1971. He is still going strong at 85.

When I was about 13 the only thing I wanted was a .22 rifle. It didn't matter what kind, just so long as it was mine. Christmas morning I was heartbroken to discover that there was nothing under the tree of that size. I sulked through the opening of presents, and eventually there was one small box for me. I opened it, and there was the bolt to a .22 rifle. Dad told me that all they could afford that year was the bolt, and that maybe I could get the rest of the rifle next year. However, a few minutes later he produced the rest of that Winchester single shot and a couple of boxes of ammo. I think that it took me all of about 30 seconds to throw on some clothes and head out the door to the El Paso desert to shoot up all of that ammo before Christmas breakfast.