Who puts their name on their guns.

[SamT1]

Do you put your name on your guns? What all do you put on there? How do you do it?

The stuff I carry in the truck I just took a dremel to it and wrote my name on it. I’ve got some nicer bolt actions I’m not so sure I want to take a dremel to! It’s big enough on what I carry daily that hopefull the thief would see it and know they will have a hard time selling it.

I know some old timers that write
“stolen from Bob Smith TXDL 123456”

 

[Jim Watson]

Not me.
I wish gunsmiths would sign their work.
Seldom a week goes by that somebody doesn't show a quite nicely set up gun "Who did this?"

 

[SamT1]

Not me.
I wish gunsmiths would sign their work.
Seldom a week goes by that somebody doesn't show a quite nicely set up gun "Who did this?"

I mean like put your name on it as a theft deterrent. A gunsmith would have a fit if they saw my dremel tool henscratch below their makers mark.

 

[bannockburn]

SamT1

Do you put your name on your guns? What all do you put on there? How do you do it?

Never on any gun I owned. Only thing I ever had engraved with my name on it was a custom made Randall knife.

 

[Jim Watson]

I mean like put your name on it as a theft deterrent. A gunsmith would have a fit if they saw my dremel tool henscratch below their makers mark.

I don't think the thieves care. Might get your gun back if they got caught.
Saw an estate on consignment. Every gun had a SSN Vibratooled freehand. Revolvers on the sideplate, a BT99 on the side of the vent rib ramp.

 

[nettlle]

If you have some nice guns one of the best ways to devalue is to engrave your name on them. They have a serial number that is just as much traceable, if not more, than a name engraved on them.

 

[Deus Machina]

If I had an ugly Old Reliable I never planned on giving up, sure. I'd stamp or engrave it carefully somewhere I could clean off with a file or by visiting a machinist and having him mill a shallow groove across.
That's actually how I marked the stuff I made in the workshop I was proud of. Mill a shallow groove, stamp neatly within it, just brush the mill across to take off the raised sections. Neat and flush.
Anything I'm worried about, I take the butt plate off and either write or stick a label to the inside, then put it back on.

 

[JeffG]

Not something I would do.

 

[Iroquois]

Interesting though, I never really thought about it until now.

 

[AlexanderA]

From a collector's standpoint, engraving names, ssn's, etc., on guns is a travesty and an abomination. Not only does it destroy resale value, but it destroys the guns for posterity. No collectibility. And, it doesn't prevent theft, so there is no upside.

An exception would be if you were someone really famous, like George S. Patton. Then his initials would add to the gun's provenance (if they were not fake). Another exception is the name engraving that is required for certain NFA items like SBR's.

 

[GAF]

I would never do that to a work of art and I would never buy a gun with some one else`s hen scratching on it.

 

[dh1633pm]

I guess you could do what the Swiss did with their K31's and leave your contact information under the butt-plate.

 

[Alte Schule]

I don't think the thieves care. Might get your gun back if they got caught.
Saw an estate on consignment. Every gun had a SSN Vibratooled freehand. Revolvers on the sideplate, a BT99 on the side of the vent rib ramp.

Many, many years ago a friend of mine had a Colt Gold Cup stolen. It was found a couple of years later on a thug that had committed a string of armed robberies. It was returned to my friend after the trial. The cops had engraved the case number and the officers initials on the slide and frame.

 

[Bfh_auto]

Many, many years ago a friend of mine had a Colt Gold Cup stolen. It was found a couple of years later on a thug that had committed a string of armed robberies. It was returned to my friend after the trial. The cops had engraved the case number and the officers initials on the slide and frame.

That would be terrible.

 

[montanaoffroader]

My Bronco .22 has my name engraved on it, my dad did it before giving it to me for my 12th birthday. I also have a couple of guns without serial numbers, those have identifying marks engraved out of sight.

With all my other guns I have simply recorded the serial numbers. I don't feel the need to scratch them up.

If I had a custom BBQ gun built I might have it professionally engraved with my name, otherwise no.

 

[SamT1]

I would never buy a gun with some one else`s hen scratching on it.

That's my point. It makes them virtually un marketable to anyone who isn't a criminal or someone in my family.

They have a serial number that is just as much traceable, if not more, than a name engraved on them.

Id argue that the odds of a serial number ever getting run on a gun is pretty slim.

The guns I'd engrave are things that I'm not concerned with the value to anyone else. For me it's the equivalent of putting my initials on all my snap on tools. If stolen I can call every pawn shop and post on Facebook about the SLT marked snapons missing. (A set of snapon sockets is worth as much as the guns were talking about easily) The tools will have poor resale, be easily identified, but these with my initials are what the kids will fight over someday.
My dad had grandpas bbq pit out at our family lake place. Grandpa welded his name across the lid 50+ years ago. The thing disappears one winter. We asked around a little if anyone had seen it and a month later it's back on the porch where it's been for 25 years.

 

[rust collector]

My name does nothing that a serial number doesn't do. I have put my ID info behind the buttplate of the only gun I own that does not bear a serial number. I have an old M19 S&W which was allowed to rust and has an evidence number electro-penciled near the muzzle, and have nothing but disgust with those responsible for defacing a fine example of US gun making.

I would hate to have my name connected with some heinous crime committed years after I possessed the gun.

 

[GBExpat]

Do you put your name on your guns? ...

As in carve/scratch/engrave it? No, absolutely not.

 

[chicharrones]

My first few guns do have my driver's license number engraved on them in out-of-view locations. Such as under the top strap on a revolver and in the closed area of a break open shotgun. I quit doing that many years ago about the same time I quit lending guns to friends for hunting or whatever.

I do engrave my name or initials on all my tools. I've been doing that for decades. It's a way to keep track of what belongs to who when I'm out doing field repairs.

 

[George Dickel]

Many, many years ago a friend of mine had a Colt Gold Cup stolen. It was found a couple of years later on a thug that had committed a string of armed robberies. It was returned to my friend after the trial. The cops had engraved the case number and the officers initials on the slide and frame.

I was a Military Policeman in the Army for a number of years and pulled duty as the desk sergeant. Rules for the identification and accountability of evidence requires that the item be marked with a case number. The number has to be placed on the item in a manner that makes it impossible or very difficult at least to remove it, accidentally or deliberately, so that critical evidence isn't lost or mixed up. In the case of a gun the best way to mark the evidence is with an engraving tool and there are specified locations where the case number must be placed. If I remember correctly on a revolver you have to mark the cylinder, barrel and frame, with a semi auto the frame and slide. We were allowed a bit of latitude in marking items if it didn't involve a felony offense. There were times where a soldier neglected to comply with post regulations on privately owned weapons and his gun was confiscated. Usually all they had to do to get the gun back was to register the firearm as required. We would place a sticky label on the gun with the case number and that was it, no defacing of the gun with a marking tool. In the event of a felony it was marked with a marking tool.

 

[Sovblocgunfan]

This isnt something I would do. But I do have tools with anothers’ chickenscratch on them (I know this person). Doesnt bother me at all, because i know that used to be fairly common, and these are pretty old tools.

 

[doubleh]

That's my point. It makes them virtually un marketable to anyone who isn't a criminal or someone in my family.



Id argue that the odds of a serial number ever getting run on a gun is pretty slim.

The guns I'd engrave are things that I'm not concerned with the value to anyone else. For me it's the equivalent of putting my initials on all my snap on tools. If stolen I can call every pawn shop and post on Facebook about the SLT marked snapons missing. (A set of snapon sockets is worth as much as the guns were talking about easily) The tools will have poor resale, be easily identified, but these with my initials are what the kids will fight over someday.
My dad had grandpas bbq pit out at our family lake place. Grandpa welded his name across the lid 50+ years ago. The thing disappears one winter. We asked around a little if anyone had seen it and a month later it's back on the porch where it's been for 25 years.

Apparently some law enforcement agencies in Texas take their work seriously. Early last year my grandson was in Dallas and forgot to remove his pistol out of his truck during a night at a motel. The next morning his pistol and a few other things were gone. He filed a police report and figured that was it for the pistol. It was gone for good. Last month he received a call from the DA's office in San Antonio to inform him they had recovered his pistol in a drug arrest and would return it to him. He gave them contact information for a local gunshop to ship it to and he now has it back. I was surprised. It's magazine was missing but there wasn't a scratch on it.

 

[Mr. Standfast]

Many, many years ago a friend of mine had a Colt Gold Cup stolen. It was found a couple of years later on a thug that had committed a string of armed robberies. It was returned to my friend after the trial. The cops had engraved the case number and the officers initials on the slide and frame.

If the reason for return was documented, and you could get a copy of the press cuttings, it might improve collectability How about if it was from Abilene in the earlies?

A lot of guns get stolen in the dark, and anything that turns out embarrassing in the light of day gets dumped. In these days of DNA traces it is unlikely to be anywhere you would want to get it back from.

This is the grip from one of my French 1873 ordnance revolvers, with the name "L Lebrun" pencilled on the inside. It is about as common as "Brown", which is what it means, so there is no chance of proving anything interesting about him. But the evil Sergeant Markoff in the Gary Cooper movie was actually Sous-officier Lejaune, which means yellow. (Something to do with being 1939, probably.) The author, PC Wren, claimed to have been a legionnaire, so perhaps names were changed to protect the guilty.

The Legion, and perhaps the French army, took a robust view of stealing personal property. Wren describes an incident their superiors happily put down as accident, when a barrack-room thief accidentally pinned himself to the table with a bayonet through each hand. But the stealing of army property was merely "adorning oneself", a very minor charge. Maybe that is why these revolvers have a partial serial number on all but the smallest parts, and a pencilled name wouldn't hurt.

 

[bluejeans]

I can see the utility of engraving my name on my truck gun .. and probably will. In a rural setting it would ensure a quick return if it ever strayed and I would only be using a beater with collectible value as a truck gun anyway...

Handguns, no. They’re much more solvent and I can readily think of situations in which I might like the option of being able to disavow them anyway

 

[theotherwaldo]

I've put ID strips or plates under butt plates and inside stock lightening cuts on rifles and shotguns. I've also put similar tokens under pistol and revolver grips.