[texas-shooter56]

I received my grandfather’s Winchester model 42 410 pump shotgun. I do remember a few rabbit hunts when my brothers and I were young. Still looks almost new.

 

[1175]

I have 3- my Dad's Winchester 94 in 30-30 with an original Weaver K4 scope, my Mom's .32 Remington pump and my uncle's Ruger Single Six with both cylinders.

 

[Jlrhiner]

My grandfather snuck onto a ship out of Russia as the Bolshevik revolution kicked off. They also had a house fire when dad was 8. Dad has his 22 rifle he bought when he was 10 and went to the school shooting range and team and eventually placed top in the county with. My uncle and grandma held onto it while was was traveling the country at college and immediately after. They messed it up good. He got it back and restored it and it still has a singing barrel. The harmonics are perfect and it kind of rings on every shot. Their practice if they weren’t going after rabbits on the way home from school was to see who could hit the branch to knock the snow off of it. They would bring home one rabbit often and any extras were traded to a lady down the street for hard cider. He has a safe full of guns with stories I try to get him to write down and mark what stories go with what gun. I won’t know them when he passes. He will be 77 this March.

What my Sister did with my Dad was record him when he started talking. She then transcribed the tapes in order to have the family history.

 

[Double-aught Buck]

When I was 8 maybe 9 my grandfather gave me my first gun a Mossberg Chuckster .22 WMR (I couldn't have a BB gun but this was ok, go figure). I cut my teeth as a kid plinking, small game hunting and clearing thousands of prairie dogs for the local farmers and ranchers. I still use this gun to this day, as its my farm gun that sits by the door for errant coyotes, racoons, possum's, etc. A couple of years later he gave me my first deer rifle an Interarms Czech Mauser 7x57 and shotgun a Remington 1100 12 ga. Around high school graduation he gave me a Belgium A5 20 ga. All were early 70's models. Over the years I have been fortunate to pretty much buy what I want when it comes to guns but to this day when I open the safe and pull these out whether shooting, hunting with them or just holding them it is a special feeling beyond words. He told me the same thing every time he gave me one, "This is never to be sold. We do not sell guns. They stay in our family". To this day I have never sold a gun, the ones he gave me or otherwise.
My grandfather had many and varied firearms. Several were rare a few among them were a pre WWII Merkel smuggled out of the country at the end of the war and a Winchester that the museum tour guide in Cody said didn't exist but before we left the museum director found us and pulled him aside asking to buy it to which he said, "why would you want a gun that doesn't exist" and walked away. He had one son and three grandsons, me included. I was the only one that ever bonded with him over hunting and shooting sports. The others not so much. I was perpetually deployed when he passed and all his guns as far as I know passed to my uncle, now deceased and the guns (?) I never saw again. I've always said I didn't come here to get other peoples stuff when they die so I never pushed about GrandPa's guns and where they went, but I always wondered what became of his cache as I don't think anybody else heeded his words like I did.

 

[Royalecheese]

Nothing fancy. My grandfather’s Winchester Model 37 Steelbilt Red Letter single shot 20 gauge. Mostly used as a rabbit/varmint gun to put food on the table. Since it does not have a serial number it’s hard to pin down a manufacturing date, but it was around or just before 1940.

 

[SeaBeeDaddy]

The H&R .410 I got for my 10th birthday. Just the smell of it takes me back to hunting with my Dad. We spent more time talking and hiking than actually hunting but those are some of my very best memories.

 

[HappyinID]

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The H&R .410 I got for my 10th birthday. Just the smell of it takes me back to hunting with my Dad. We spent more time talking and hiking than actually hunting but those are some of my very best memories.

Ain't that the truth. I can still smell the first shots I ever fired from a Marlin .22. Still have the gun.

 

[Potawatomi II]

The H&R .410 I got for my 10th birthday. Just the smell of it takes me back to hunting with my Dad. We spent more time talking and hiking than actually hunting but those are some of my very best memories.

Squirrel hunting with my son is pretty much just walking a two track for a while and then sitting by a tree eating jerky and drinking a Coke while he tells me about his day at school. I hope when he grows up he remembers it as fondly as you do.

 

[Offrink]

I reload paper hulled shells for dad. The smell of them is definitely better than the plastic ones!

 

[Dunerunner]

For me, I got my great grandfather's,my grand father's, and my Dad's Winchester Model 90 .22 pump. Dad had it re-chambered for .22LR which removed the octagonal barrel. Our collective initials are carved into the stock.

 

[cook]

No history of guns in my family or relatives,so no heirlooms,but I'm trying to change that.I've given,or bought as presents,about 8 for family while I'm still alive.Will be leaving traditional steel and wood long guns,couple dozen revolvers,and current plastic ones.Need a crystal ball to guess which current ones will be classic,or cherished,80 years from now.

 

[Spade]

My Uncle Ray was a duck hunter and his pride and joy was his Browning Auto 5 made in Belgium. When he visited our home he often ovserved me cleaning my junk shotgun after a weekend hunt. When he died guess who got the shotgun? It pays to look after youe guns. He said in a letter to me that he was leaving me the shotgun because he knew I would take care of it.

 

[Jlrhiner]

I have been on the receiving end of several friends and older relatives guns for just that reason.

 

[OKGlocker]

When one of my uncles was dying slowly in a care-center, several of my cousins went to his house and pilfered his collection of guns. Some of which belonged to my grandfather. When he passed on and his Will was read, he had left specific guns to specific people (including me) but almost all of the guns were "missing" and my cousins pretended to be ignorant of what happened to them. My dad looked into it and found out from the neighbors that my cousins were at the house numerous times for the weeks leading up to his death and each time were seen carrying things out and putting them in their cars. I received 2 of the 12 guns left to me. Needless to say that branch of the family tree was cut off and no longer exists. Funny thing is they were not meth heads or down on their luck bums, they were all 6 figure "professionals" who were just afraid they wouldn't get the guns they wanted in the Will.

It seems there are always a few family members that will try something like skip the graveside service or cut out early from the meal or some other sneaky thing to get their own "private tour" of the assets, no matter how small, to be sure and "get theirs"... I hope they DO "get theirs"...

 

[OKGlocker]

My Dad left me a number of guns, some were his, others belonged to my maternal grandfather...
An old Marlin 12 gauge goose gun, several other shotguns and various 22 LR guns, a couple 30-30 rifles...
some that I remember walking through the woods with my dad while he carried them are favorites...

One of my other favorites was the Enfield in .303 British that my dad carried in WW2...
He told me stories about carrying it and how it almost got stolen while he was in the field hospital for frostbite on his feet...
Once in a while I would ask questions about his WW2 experiences, and he would recall a story or two... nothing earth shattering, just recollections of different things that happened in France and Germany... seems that his stories always ended with him stopping abruptly, going silent, and a few tears... maybe that's why that old gun is one of my favorites...

 

[Nick30]

For me, I got my great grandfather's,my grand father's, and my Dad's Winchester Model 90 .22 pump. Dad had it re-chambered for .22LR which removed the octagonal barrel. Our collective initials are carved into the stock.

View attachment 496208

That's really cool. A four generation firearm. With all your initials.

 

[hanzy4200]

My father is still with us tank the Lord. There are a good few that will become heirlooms when the time comes. My first deer rifle, Savage 99 in .243 win. First handgun I fired, and extensively, Ruger Single Six.

 

[whirlibird]

I have a handfull of heirlooms, including an M1 that I had given my father decades ago.
His 1911 also a gift from me, went to my son, I didn’t want it.

But of all of them, the one that is "personal" is a plain Jane Springfield 1911 that came from a friend after his passing from a long fight with cancer.
A modern day Renaissance Man, he was a cop at the same time I was, in the city I was born in. With a 25 year difference in age, many of the things we had done were fairly well mirrored, others not even close.

I have had more 1911's than I can recall anymore. High end customs, my own builds, vintage Colts and Detonics, and more.

But this now lightly customized Springer is my all time favorite because of its association with one of the few people who actually are larger than life and still a down to earth friend.

 

[ManseJ]

My dad died in 1960; I was 1.5 months short of 6. I have only a handful of items that were his, and I cherish them all. I have his single shot Model 41 .22 Remington and his Model 37 Winchester 12 Gauge. No monetary value but priceless to me...
When my father in law passed 4 years ago, I got 4 of his long guns. My favorite is a .32 Rimfire E. Remington and Sons rolling block sporting rifle, 1-1/2 version, with a couple hundred rnds of ammo, some still sealed.