Own any guns that have "a history"?

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We, and by we I mean my father and I, have a Remington Model 51 in .380 that my grandfather killed himself with.

It's a beautiful little gun, and we will never get rid of it. Its only been fired once since he ate it in 1954.
 
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My grandfather was a Army surgeon stationed in Europe till the end of the war, he gave my father a German Luger Nazi marked with all matching numbers. He died when I was a year old. The story goes that he was given the pistol by a GI who life he has saved in surgery as a gift (when recovering), he refused it and a nurse slipped it in his medical bag. It it still talked about among his 3 sons every memorial day as to whose it rightfully is. When my grandmother passed away we were cleaning out her stuff from the condo she once lived in (assisted living), I was handed his personal surgical leather case with initials on it. In side were all his instruments and USGI sutures still neat in there packaging over 50 years, what brought tears to my eyes was his dog tags, laid neatly in the middle.
 
I've got an old Nazi Mauser HSc .32 cal that I have often wondered about.
Did it contribute to one of the worlds worst atrocities?
 
I've got a Colt 1911 and Springfield 1903 my Great-Grandfather supposedly brought home from 2 stints in the Marines, one stint prior to WW1 and another during. Which one came home when I dunno.

We do know that the 1911 was traded off to a bar owner in KC, Missouri and the barkeep ended up killing himself with it. How my Great Grandfather got it back is still a mystery. His daughter (my grandmother) may know however we aren't on speaking terms.
 
I have a S&W .38 Safety Hammerless topbreak revolver made just after 1900. It has three notches filed into the top rib just forward of the cylinder. The gun is nickeled, but the notches are quite dark. I don't know if they actually mean anything or not.
I also have a Remington Rolling Block Springfield Musket conversion. The action was made sometime around 1870 and the barrel is a Civil War musket barrel. Who knows what that rifle has seen.
I also have a Winchester 1876 in 45-60 made in 1887. No telling on that one, either.
I have a Winchester 1887 lever action shotgun in 10 ga. made in 1894 that has the bore pretty worn, so it's seen some sort of use.
 
history

In another thread, I related the tale of my first-generation S&W 686--It was stolen, used by a drug dealer in Nashville to execute to suspected snitches, and she used the remaining four rounds to shoot at police trying to apprehend her at the scene. Threw the weapon down concrete stairs. Was convicted and the wepaon returned to me. I currently have it ready to send to the manufacturer, to check the timing, then either sell it or use it as a carry piece. Strange but true.
 
man, armoredman, I can't top that. very moving.
I don't have any heirloom guns as of yet, my father just having recently inhereted them himself, but at some point I will proudly receive a kentucky rifle picked up off the battlefield in gettysburg by my great-great-grandfather, and a Japanese rifle(the model escapes me, but it's the one with the chrysanthemum on the action) obtained by my grandfather in WWII.
I take that back, I do have a winchester 32 single action revolver purchased by my great-grandfather. it's little thing with no trigger guard, just a stud on either side of the trigger. one of the grips is missing, as well as some of the parts. the hammer won't stay back unless the trigger is manually pushed forward to hold it in place. I've actually been meaning to take a picture of it and post it on here so you guys could tell me something about it.
 
A man I work with had his parents retire to this region. The father was mostly blind and his mother didn't want her husband shooting himself, so wanted the guns out of the house. There were two handguns, one break-top revolver and the other a WWII semiauto. Their intent was to have the son get them out of the house. His intent was to take them to the local sheriff's office to turn in and be (presumably) destroyed. He asked me about that, and I suggested a much better alternative :)

The revolver has since been reblued, costing 3-4 times more than what it was worth. But, considering where they could be now, I thought it worth the money. The semiauto, while old, isn't worth a great deal but will stay in its current condition.
 
I have my great grandmothers single shot Remington .22. She raised chickens for pocket money and the possums had a habit of cutting into her profit. Several times, while spending the night with her, I would hear the chickens getting agitated. She would get her 22, chamber a round, and put another round in her pocket. Then she would go out to the chicken house and come back a few minutes later. The next morning, the possum had become chicken food. I once asked her why she took two rounds. She said there might be two possums.
 
I have Dad's Wards Hercules single shot 12 gauge circa 1930's with a distinct lump on the side of the barrel.... gotta be a story there. I recently found out he got it from my wifes grandfather for a pile of scrap steel when they young farmers in the 50's.
I also have a Walther p38 he "obtained" while the Germans were surrendering at high speed at the end of WWII. There is a story there too.
 
Not a world changing story, but special to me. When I was about 12, my dad and I were at my grandparents one Sunday afternoon when one of our big white sheep dogs who had not been raised around sheep or goats, starting mauling a goat that was stuck the the fence. My dad got the dog out the way, and set the goat free. The dog then begin chasing the goat and dad told me to grab a gun. I ran inside and got the Winchester model 43 in 218 bee, some ammo, and hustled outside. Just as I got out the door the dog ran by nipping at the goat. I hit it broadside and come towards me. I reloaded and put the second one right between the eyes.

This is not a proud moment in my life, but it is part of growing up with livestock and becoming a man. We had many good dogs that protected the livestock and hunted coyotes. I don't know if this was sick (distember, rabies) or what? My Grandfather gave me that rifle when I was 20, which was just a couple of years before he went to spend eternity in Heaven.
 
Have a musket that was originally a flintlock (been converted to percussion) that belonged to my great great grandparents the Billingsleys. It was passed down from them to great grandmother Vernon and then to my grandmother Amanda Goodnight. Grandmother gave it to me when I was 17 or 18. I assume it was handmade by someone in the very early 1800's because there are no maker marks. There are some letters stamped on the under side of the barrel.
 
My Dad gave me his WW2 Colt made in 1943 - with holster.
Carried in two wars... Still shots like new, and very accurate.

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When my grandfather died in 1958 when I was eight. His will stated I was to have his four guns when I was old enough to appreciate them. My dad was the oldest of his three sons, and I am the only son of my dad. My dad’s youngest brother kept the guns so I would not be tempted. I finally made a connection for all of them in 2002 when my dad passed away. I was not in a hurry and since my uncle had died years earlier and my dad now had them I was not too concerned.

Here is what I received:

A Quackenbush single shot .22 rifle. Chrome plated. The firing pin was broken for years but my dad had it fixed sometime after he got it from my uncle.

A Winchester 1894 in 38-55 with a saddle scabbard. This rifle was purchased new by my Great-grandfather in Minnesota sometime around 1895-1900. I have not checked the serial number for the year of manufacture. There are some crude carvings in the stock that I have no idea as to meaning.

A Stevens Crack-shot .22 rifle that my dad completely refinished before he died. A nice little plinker that hardly has any rifling left, but is fun to shoot.

A 12 gauge Damascus twist double with no name or any other marks I can find except the gauge. It looks nice, the wood is in decent shape and I keep the metal well oiled and polished as it was pretty rusty when I got it. My dad did used it when he was about 10 which would have been in 1924 to shoot a pheasant that was in the strawberry patch. He was used to shooting the Quackenbush .22 so shot the shotgun the same way, holding it more across his body. He thought he lost his nose to a hammer at the recoil, but got the pheasant.

A Iver Johnson 16 gauge single shot. Not much to look at, but sort of fun to shoot, although it is light and recoil is a little on the wicked side. Nothing special about it as far as stories go. Simply a gun they used to keep meat on the table.

My dad bought a Model 12 in 12 gauge shortly in 1950 shortly after I was born. When I was 16 I bought him a Fox double and received the Model 12. He killed many ducks, geese, pheasants and rabbits with it and I have kept the tradition going.

When my father-in-law passed away at 91 two years ago I received his M1911A1. It is one of the Singer built ones, and no it is not for sale. He recovered it from the Hahn River in Korea in 1950 just before the war started. One of his friends had it, was not accountable for it and did not want it. They asked the supply sergeant what they had to do in order for my father-in-law to get it back to the states. He told them to toss it in the river and then take it out so it would be “found” as far as he was concerned. That is exactly what they did. The gun ended up in Germany in the hands of a local gunsmith in 1954 who tightened it up, replaced the springs, barrel and bushing and did some trigger work to it. My father-in-law went on to win several local shooting matches with it. Shortly before he went to be with the Lord he dug it out of the dresser drawer and gave it to me. At that time he was so frail he could no longer pull the slide back. We scheduled a date to make a trip to the local range, but never made it. I now carry it sporadically, but mainly just clean it monthly and once every couple of months empty the magazine through it and then refill. It is as accurate today as it was 50 years ago when he used it.
 
Just another 1911 tale here

I have my Grand Fathers 1911 that he carried in France in WWII. He got there pretty early in the war, a few days after D-Day and was around for much of the “hedge row fighting”. From the way that he told it, and he was always considered a straight shooter, pun intended, was that he and a few buddies got separated from their unit in the hedge rows during an attack and got pinned down. They had been fighting the better part of the day and most of them were out of rifle ammo, including Grandpa and all of them were wounded. Three Germans, probably thinking that they were all dead because they were no longer returning fire, tried to take their position. Gramps opened a can o’ whop a$$ on them with his .45. They were able to commandeer the German’s rifles and grenades and continue fighting until they were able to escape that night.

P.S. Funny side note. When they finally got back to base or camp or whatever, my Grandpa’s friend Tommy was questioned by a superior officer as to why he was carrying a German rifle and half a Garand . It seems as though being out of ammo, Tommy used his Garand as a club on one of the Germans an broke the stock right off. That's how Tommy got his nick name, halfagrand Tommy.
 
My father left me his pheasant gun when he passed away. A Browning Double Auto, brown receiver, round knob, plain modified choked barrel. He traded $100 and a worn .410 Winchester single shot to an employee for it in 1968. It killed alot of pheasants and ducks, too.
Now when I was a kid, it was absolutely VERBOTTEN to use any of Dad's guns without his explicit permission. I writing, prefered! Well, it wasn't unusual for me to come home from school during duck season and grab my Model 12 pump and head for the slough bottoms to get a limit of ducks as they came in to set for the night. It also wasn't unusual for Dad to have "borrowed" my gun for the 3" chamber for an afternoon of goose hunting.

And so, one such afternoon my brother and I were going to head out for a late duck shoot, and 'Lo & Behold! My Model 12 was missing! My brother says, "I'll use Dad's gun. We'll be back before he will and he'l never know."
Murphy has followed my little brother around since before the day he was born.. He was an "oops!" baby, afterall. I KNEW better but agreed anyway. Sure enough, Murphy raised an eyebrow, pointed at my Bro while he was crossing a barbed wire fence (while using the unloaded, open chambered receiver to hold the top strand down and, you guessed it! SLIP! SCRATCH-SCRATCH! It is amazing how deep a barbed wire fence can scratch into an aluminum alloy receiver! Clear through the gold toned engaving, I can tell you for sure!.

Needless to say, Dad noticed the next time he pulled his gun out. Guess who caught hell for it? Yep. ME! Even when my brother admitted what happened, I caught his wrath because I was the Big Brother and new better than to let Dad's gun go out without his permission!

Dad has since passed away last December, but has been unable to hunt for the past 10 or 11 seasons.. My brother and I have hunted pheasants Opening Day together every year for the last 7 years. Our kids are grown and gone, so it just the two of us and we take turns shooting our Opening Day birds with Dad's gun and remember this incident and many more with Dad and hunting season. It's always a great time, laughing 'till the tears run, telling Dad's tired old jokes and old stories we've heard a hundred times, and we usually get our limits. Even with only the one gun for the two of us.

Poper
 
My now-deceased father in law was issued this gear during WWII. He was a Navy Bomber Pilot...PBY's & PBM's. Since I'm the only gun-nut in the family, I inherited the stuff!

All U.S. Navy issued to him...

-S&W Victory Model .38 Special and holster
-Hat
-Leather flight jacket
-Aviators glasses
-Robeson Shur-Edge (USN stamped) wooden pommel knife/sheath
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This S&W .357 model 66-no dash was a surplused North Carolina SBI issue gun.
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This S&W 19-4 .357 was a N.C. Probation Officer's carry gun
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This Combat Commander has a history, but I don't know what it is. I can "feel" it when I hold it :uhoh:
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Gotta be some history here...1899 Savage made in 1912...303 Savage (not .303 British)
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My .30-40 Krag (I've got the written history on it) was re-stocked and customized by Russ _______ at the U.S. Army Waterveliet Arsenal during WWII. Russ died of cancer in 1993. It has "harvested" over 40 bucks, two bull Elk, and one Coyote. I'm sure it had a military history earlier on, but not aware of any details.
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The 1873 Chamelot Delvigne revolver I recently bought was actually saved from being thrown in the river:
The former owner once met an old guy (about to go into a retirement home) who told him he had an old revolver which he was trying to get rid of. He had no kids, no family left and was thus thinking about throwing it in the Seine.

The guy I ended buying it from just gave the old man a few dozens euros for that nice historical piece. The gun had been sleeping in a drawer for more than 10 years, the grease originally used to preserve the metal had hardened into a thick cardboard texture and it required a lot of sanding and polishing to remove all of it.

Luckily the gun was intact underneath.


Judging by the serial number, my gun is from 1881 and probably saw action in the late 19th century colonial wars.
 
Back in the mid '90's, I bought a 1969 model Belgium Browning Hi-Power that was formerly owned my country singer Ray Price. He frequents the pawn/gun shop where I bought it. I later traded it for a Sig P228 which I still have, but I wish I had the Hi-Power back (not for the "history" but just for the gun). Yet another case of young and dumb.
 
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