My only concern is that my wife will sell them for what I said I paid.....
Thanks for the snicker, Steelhead!
When I was 13, I told my dad that someday I wanted to own his old (He bought it used in the early sixties.) Winchester 88 .308. He looked at me, got up from the sofa, and walked into my bedroom where his guns were kept on an old gun rack. When he returned, he hand the model 88 in one hand and His Winchester Model 12 in the other hand. He smiled and handed me the Model 88 and handed my brother the Model 12. Those were the only two guns he owned. I know my brother got the better firearm in terms of value and collectability, but I am forever thrilled with my old Winshester Model 88. I still hunt with it. My brother is equally thrilled as well.
As for my dad, he spent the next five or six years hunting with borrowed guns (We were really poor.). Finally when I was in college, my brother and I went together to buy him a $75 Stevens 12 gauge from a pawnshop (Iknow, we were big spenders.
) We even had to rig up a wooden plug to limmit shell capacity to legal standards. Oddly enough, he really loved that Stevens and killed a lot of ducks and geese with it. He stopped shooting it because it was not rated for steel shot.
Anyway, I guess Dad's idea was to give 'em to us while he could watch us enjoy them. Recently he sent me another shotgun. It took him a little while to get more and better guns, but I think he wants to once again give them to my brother, my nephew, and I while he can watch us enjoy them again.
He is an amazing father! The next time I buy him a gun it will be better than an old Stevens.