Your Thoughts - Retirement gift for Dad

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mdchambe

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New to the forum, and have enjoyed picking through alot of the threads. Given all the knowledge here, I figured i would pick you brains a bit. My dad is retiring in the next few months and my brothers and i want to get him a firearm for a gift. He currently has a few guns including browning over under, glock .40, ruger .22 revolver, some type of .357 revolver, browning pump .22 rifle (HS graduation present from my grandparents) and maybe a gun or two others, that I am not sure of. He gave each my my brothers and I a shotgun a few years ago, so that thinned his guns out some.

The gun probably wont be used all that much, unless I can get him to go shoot more often once he is retired. That said, he would appreciate knowing it is a high quality...accurate...well constructed etc etc firearm. If I can get him to use it, it will be at the range only, he doesnt hunt.

Anyway, these are some of my thoughts/ideas as I pick something out for him:

1. Keep cost around $1000-$1500
2. Hopefully something that he can use as he ages, he is 62 now, so no shoulder busters
3. Something he doesnt really have
4. No synthetic stocks, cosmetics are important since it likely wont be used much
5. Has to be new, or perfect cosmetically, see above!

All that said, I was thinking something like a really nice 1911 pistol or something along the lines of a Cooper rifle (not sure of caliber). Also, not sure we could wing the $ of Cooper, what are some other makers along the same lines?

Any help, thoughts, or suggestions you have for me as I begin this process is much appreciated! Thanks everyone
 
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Howdah Pistol!

1) Cost is well under your limit.
2) Certainly not a shoulder buster.
3) Can't imagine he's got one already.
4) Synthetic? PUH-leeze. 19th century goodness! Beautiful engraving, too!
5) Available through Cabela's, mail order. http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/t...&parentType=index&indexId=cat20817&hasJS=true

AAAAC0YRWrwAAAAAAAE34w.jpg


-Sam
 
When he does go shooting, what does he like to shoot? Trap, skeet, pistol, rifle? More info would help.
 
I'd second the notion of a nice 1911- it seems to fit all your criteria very well: accurate, reliable, you can get one that's incredibly cosmetically appealing for your price range but still useful and most of all, everyone (especially old-school types) should have one in their collection!
 
oh yeah... +1 to the Cooper Rifle

Whatever firearm you decide to select, I'd recommend going one step further and having some retirement wishes or other message engraved on it. It would be a nice personal touch to give it a little eloquent style!
 
My vote would be a nice 1911, If you can wait a few months there will be tons on 100th anniversary editions coming out.
 
just a thought, invite him to breakfast and take him to a gun show and
whatever he wants in your price range, he gets.
 
Personally, I would love to have that Cooper, but...

WRT all that commemorative crapola: if you're going to pay triple the regular price for a run-of-the-mill production gun just for superficial decorations, at least spend the extra money to have it engraved to order instead of paying for some "commemorative" POS.

If you bought a lever gun for $500 and sent it to Michael Gouse , you'd get a HELL of a gorgeous gift for an extra $700, and it would be one-of-a-kind.

This is a custom engraving job (with the owner's initials) that Gouse did to a replica of a real Henry rifle, meaning an 1860, for $500:

henry.jpg
 
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m-1 carbine

fun as all get out at the range and a great home SD gun--
light, fast action & 20 rounds that don't over penetrate the walls
after the BG falls. it has history. bet he has or would love one.
 
Quote:
...he is 62 now,...

That might seem ancient to you but it isn’t.

If my children were to give me a gun (in my poor memory, ancient, debilitated, feeble, absent minded, senile, crippled, and something else—Oh yeah, poor memory condition) I would prefer something that took real thought; something unique and which probably cost very little.

The dollar value of a gift means nothing to me. It’s the effort and thinking it took to get it.
 
BTR had a good Idea. See what he would like to have. He`s going to shoot it
plus, he`s buying the ammo for it. Maybe there is something he has always wanted in the way of a weapon. Ask...Find out. :)
 
Sign him up for a shooting course at some firearms school. It would be even better if you and your brother joined him.
 
Either a nice .22 like that Cooper Armed Bear mentioned, or an Anchutz.

Or maybe a really nice wood-stocked .223 or .22 hornet turnbolt from Browning, Sako, Cooper, Weatherby, etc.
 
What about a nice new Browning BAR Safari. They have several different models out there to chose from. Some of which have very nice wood and nice engraving. The recoil would also probably be less due to the gas system on it and you could get it in a smaller caliber like .243 or similar.
 
The drawback is that if you give him something that he truly wouldn't want to shoot (and therefore wouldn't use and might not appreciate), he would be disinclined to return it because it was a gfit from you -- thus, it would linger in the gun safe or the closet and see little, if any, use. I'd suggest a gift certificate to a local gunshop and let the old man have at it on his own. I know that I'd like to get one of those from my son. :)
 
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