Firearms with interesting back stories

[jmohme]

My Father in laws second wife was a bit of a nut case. When he finally realized how far out there she was, and decided to divorce her, she went way off the deep end.

At one point, she locked him in his closet and called the cops on him. The officer showed up and got an earful from her but did manage to get Wayne out of the closet and out of the house while he attempted to deal with psycho blonde.

When he had enough of her screaming, he stepped outside into the garage to take Wayne's statement. After a few times of her opening the door screaming, the officer jokingly asked my father in law if he would like to borrow his gun.

Fast forward a few years. The officer retired and had become a friend of my father in law and sold him the very gun he had offered to let him use years before.

Wayne passed away of Leukemia three years ago and left that Ruger Police Service Six to me. It has seen some miles, but is one of my favorite handguns.

 

Edited January 20, 2020 by jmohme

[Highspeedlane]

Wow. Very cool story and great looking pistol.

[tadbart]

Sure, lots of folks may just see the mileage on the pistol, but for every little bit of blue that has worn away, there are untold stories.  The missus has a 10-shot .22 revolver from her grandpa. He was not educated and a dirt poor farmer, and that pistol was bought with money earned from selling collard greens and mullet. It stopped a few rattlesnakes and coyotes back in the day. Not worth its weight as a doorstop, but it's a piece to recall life as a poor Florida Cracker.

[Wrango]

Cool story and fantastic gun!  I love me some Ruger wheelguns!

[Historian]

Always wanted a Colt 1903 .32 ACP. 

Anyway, one day i was wondering around a gun shop that i will describe as the Wet Seal of the gun world.   I'm not cool enough to normally enter...but they grand fathered me in because of my knowledge of older firearms.  And there she was.

Had Colt run the serial numbers for me and turns out it was made in January of 1911...part of a shipment of 25 to a hardware store in Chicago.  The hardware store is now True Value Hardware. 

[Valmet]

My dad passed a family heirloom along to me in January 2015. It's a S&W Victory Model that was shipped to OSS, Naval Station Norfolk VA on Aug 22, 1944. 

My grandfather was a US Army officer serving in Europe in Spring 1945 and according to the story he always told (he passed in Sept 2010), was that one evening he was en route to HQ on foot and walked passed several barrels of gear...webbing, helmets, bayonets, etc and in the last barrel he saw the butt of a revolver sticking out so he grabbed it and carried it until he returned to the states the following Spring. He wasn't a fan of his issued Colt 1911A1 so he was happy to relegate it to his footlocker. 

He had a German POW fashion a set of grips with his initials in it. It was his nightstand gun for decades until he gave it to my dad in 2000 and dad proceeded to get a S&W letter for it. I've since gotten a nice set of factory Victory grips (while retaining the custom set). I take it out once in a while and shoot it and think about how fortunate I am to have it. 

[G21H30]

My father worked for the AT&SF railroad from 1912 until his death in 1960. He would travel by train from Kansas to visit family in Wisconsin . On one such trip in 1927 he was mugged in Chicago but was able to continue on to Wisconsin due to being able to travel on his railroad issued pass. Upon arrival in Appleton,WI. he borrowed money from his brother in law and purchased a Colt 1908 Pocket Hammerless pistol in 380 ACP. He carried this pistol in his suit jacket pocket,and as far as I know never had to use it. After his death my mother put it away in a metal lock box. When my 13 year older brother discovered it ,the pistol had rusted some so he "cleaned " it up with some steel wool and in the process removed most of the blued finish. Before my mother passed away she gave it to me and I was going to have it re blued but the too remove all the pitting would have also removed some of the original roll marks. I had a gunsmith friend parkerize it to prevent any further rusting.

 

 

[Batesmotel]

A leading member of law enforcement who was national known and very respected was given dozens of guns over the course of his career. Talk at a national conference, given a gun. I was sworn to secrecy on who he was. Well known in the field but not to the general public. Most of the guns just stayed in a filing cabinet but he did carry a few of them. 
 

This S&W 60 was one he carried on occasion.  I bought it from the dealer the family used to liquidate the collection after he died. I wanted it in part because I met him a few times and my wife briefly worked with him. 

[Historian]

About 7 years ago on another (not to mention) list (not even a forum) i made a comment publicly that the one thing I always regretted not getting was a Colt Officer's model.

One..that works.  They can be very interesting pistols due to a lack of slide mass.

One of the men on that list told me privately I could have one for the price of...less than a new 1911 of similar quality.

That pistol was purchased by that man at Gunsite...when he attended...under Col. Cooper.   And I had a LOT of time under some of the people worked for him.

The pistol came with the purchase receipt of Gunsite, along with the manual and two magazine.  The smith who did the work on the pistol and tuned it was....Ted Yost.

Closest thing I ever had to a custom built pistol.

[Historian]

2 hours ago, Batesmotel said:

S&W 60 was one he carried on occasion.  I bought it from the dealer the family used to liquidate the collection after he died. I wanted it in part because I met him a few times and my wife briefly worked with him.

Yeah, and people tell me things don't have a life of their own.

My 1918 Colt Woodsman....i would like to know how i found that in a pawn shop eight years ago. 

[norton]

My grandfather was a farmer/dairy and grain/in northeastern Indiana.  As far as I know he never had a drivers license.  He drove his farm tractor where he needed to go, to the fields or sometimes to the local cannery in a nearby small town.

Grandpa always carried his Ithaca Model 37 shotgun with him, either on the tractor itself or sometimes on a wagon he was pulling.  that way if he jumped some pheasant/quail/rabbits or other edible game he was ready for them.

Grandpa had a 2 row corn picker attached to his tractor one day.  It developed a problem, grandpa stepped off the tractor but got his pant leg caught in the PTO coupling shaft.  The tractor was still running and it pulled his leg into the unit.  He almost bled to death but his tractor was noticed by an uncle of mine who owned a farm down the road and just happened to be passing by.  Grandpa was rushed to the hospital, but had to have his leg amputated below the knee.  He seemed to be doing ok in the hospital when he threw a blood clot stopping his heart.

After the funeral, we stopped at Grandma's house.  She gave me two things from Grandpa I still own.  One was his Hamilton Pocket Watch, the other was his Ithaca shotgun.  I was 11 years old.

That was in 1962.

[norton]

Sorry for the crappy cell phone pic.

This Ithaca was one of the models that can be slam fired. 

I used to walk the farm fields with it as a teenager hunting the same game Grandpa did.

It mostly sits in my gun safe now.  I need to get it out for some exercise.

[Historian]

When i was about 11 or so...we went to visit my old grand dad.  While dad was out at the store he took me outback and let me shoot a 16 ga. shotgun.  Single shot.  Grandmom hid the shells after that.

Shotgun it at my parents house.  Even though, he gave it to me.  

[janice6]

It's funny (odd) when I think back on my childhood.  Every gun we had was in a closet that was accessible to everyone in the family.  all the ammunition we had was where everyone could get it whenever they wanted.  there was me and my three sisters.

My father always had "his" Brandy out in the open in the kitchen.

I don't believe it ever occurred to me to do something with any of it, without telling my father what I was going to do.  Most of the time when I was going to use the guns, he would give me money for ammunition and the keys to the car to go out in the country. 

He let me drive on my own since I was 12 years old.  I had been driving for him from Minneosta to Illinois since I was 10.  We visited his family there every year.

Once he was convinced that I could hit what I shot at, he had utmost trust in me with firearms.  Of course, I did some stupid things, but I never harmed anyone or myself doing them.

Now days youngsters can't be trusted with anything.

We had some friends visit yesterday.  They had their young son with them.  Somewhere in the conversation the boy blurted out, "You have a gun?".  I said yes I do!  His mother said, "We don't talk about this, YET!".  The kid pretended to be horrified and afraid of the thought of a gun.

I let it ride.  After they left, I told my wife that the conversation about guns with their son was over and done with.  They had waited long enough for the school to convince him guns were bad.  And in doing so, the schools make the point that parents were wrong to disagree with the teachers. 

This couple has already lost the good and bad argument with their son.  Good and bad is now being defined by the school and it's teachers.

[minervadoe]

A Security Six with some use on it.  It's nice to see a gun that's broken in properly.

[Valmet]

Keep 'em coming. I always enjoy threads like this...

[Silentpoet]

The Ward and Westerfield 22 has been in the family probably 80 years or more. 

[janice6]

My childhood Winchester Model 74 in .22 Short was found under the back seat of a used car my father bought back around the middle 1940's.  He gave it to me.  I much later gave it to my son, who recently gave it to his daughter.  I dearly loved that rifle.  I have no idea of how old it really is.

[Valmet]

On March 2, 2020 at 1:59 PM, janice6 said:

My childhood Winchester Model 74 in .22 Short was found under the back seat of a used car my father bought back around the middle 1940's.  He gave it to me.  I much later gave it to my son, who recently gave it to his daughter.  I dearly loved that rifle.  I have no idea of how old it really is.

Would be easy enough to find out if you have the serial number. 

[janice6]

14 minutes ago, Valmet said:

Would be easy enough to find out if you have the serial number. 

I was thinking that while I posted, but the truth is, I don't really care.  I care mostly that it's in my family, and some person is enjoying it as much as I did (I hope).

[DrB]

On 2/3/2020 at 10:24 AM, norton said:

After the funeral, we stopped at Grandma's house.  She gave me two things from Grandpa I still own.  One was his Hamilton Pocket Watch, the other was his Ithaca shotgun.  I was 11 years old.

I was in 7'th grade when my grandfather on my mothers side of the family passed away, brain tumor.  Every Thanksgiving day he and his friends would go pheasant hunting in the corn fields.  My cousin and I had our BB guns and we were always told if we were a good shot we could get one.  We even were allowed to be off to each side for the best shot of the drive...  Little did we realize we were the bird dogs to flush them out.....

The shotgun was a well worn Winchester 20 gauge model 12 that he hunted with.  I still have it and added much more wear and miles to it in the fields in my younger years.  It resides in my safe, a well worn thing of beauty.  I also have his Marlin 30-30 deer rifle. 

Dave..

Edited March 8, 2020 by DrB

[Valmet]

I have a Browning A-5 I take to the dove fields in the fall that I inherited from my grandfather (same one from my earlier S&W victory post). 16 Ga that was mfg’d by Remington in 1941, though it’s not a Model 11 as FN factory was under German occupation and Rem made A-5a for Browning from 1940-42 IIRC. 
 

When he returned fro Europe in 1946 his uncle bought him the A5 as a welcome home gift. It came to me in 2007 and I had it professionally refinished and use it. I think of him sometimes as I’m make my way thru the fields I September, missing doves. 
 

Inherited a 20 Ga Merkel from my grandmother...miss doves with it too. 

Edited December 22, 2020 by Valmet

[EdTracker]

I wish this thread was 1000 pages long. We as a society need this type of continuity to reinforce what makes us strong.

[GT4494]

Dad gave me his JC Higgins model 36 semi auto 22 before he passed.  Still in the original box with 4x scope and rubber eyepiece (dry and cracked but) he bought it in late 1950's early 1960's which is about the time I was born.

When the father in law passed I found a JC Higgins revolver of the same vintage.  Now I have a matching set. 

[Historian]

On 12/22/2020 at 12:05 AM, Valmet said:

 

Inherited a 20 Ga Merkel from my grandmother...miss doves with it too. 

I love dove hunting...but dang those things are hard to hit.