Wow, I read all 7 pages... and enjoyed every bit of it! Great stories.
My most sentimental firearm I suppose is one I don't own... it is my Dad's Winchester 190 tube feed semi auto .22 LR. It is the gun I taught myself to shoot with. My Dad inherited the old Winchester from my Grandpa, who was a food salesman and got it as a reward for commission back in the '60s. I never knew my Grandpa... he died before I was born. My Dad always told me the rifle was broken, and it sat in the basement neglected. Now my Dad was never a big shooter, but I was very interested in guns from an early age. When I was 13 or so, compelled by an irresistible force, I snuck down in the basement when nobody was home, got out the old rifle, and started tinkering with it. OK, by "tinkering" I mean I loaded a round in it and pulled the trigger. Wouldn't you know, it fired! It turned out the recoil spring rod was missing, which just basically made it a straight pull bolt action. This didn't stop me in any way, and I started sneaking the rifle out of the basement any chance I got, to do target practice and hunt squirrels. I had to learn to make my shots count, because there were only a few boxes of ammo with the rifle, and as a kid I would have had a hard time getting my hands on more! I was the quintessential "self-taught shooter," and that is the rifle I started with.
That old rifle is a little worse for the wear... the recoil spring guide rod has never been fixed, the bolt handle was lost on one of my forays into the woods, and the stock has a bad chip out of it. For a while I've been keeping my eye out for a deal on another 190 that I can take parts off of. I would really like to take that old rifle, fix it up so it looks new, and give it to my Dad for Father's day one of these years. I know it is one of the few things he has to remember his Dad by, and I know he would enjoy it now that I've got him into shooting!
My most sentimental firearm I suppose is one I don't own... it is my Dad's Winchester 190 tube feed semi auto .22 LR. It is the gun I taught myself to shoot with. My Dad inherited the old Winchester from my Grandpa, who was a food salesman and got it as a reward for commission back in the '60s. I never knew my Grandpa... he died before I was born. My Dad always told me the rifle was broken, and it sat in the basement neglected. Now my Dad was never a big shooter, but I was very interested in guns from an early age. When I was 13 or so, compelled by an irresistible force, I snuck down in the basement when nobody was home, got out the old rifle, and started tinkering with it. OK, by "tinkering" I mean I loaded a round in it and pulled the trigger. Wouldn't you know, it fired! It turned out the recoil spring rod was missing, which just basically made it a straight pull bolt action. This didn't stop me in any way, and I started sneaking the rifle out of the basement any chance I got, to do target practice and hunt squirrels. I had to learn to make my shots count, because there were only a few boxes of ammo with the rifle, and as a kid I would have had a hard time getting my hands on more! I was the quintessential "self-taught shooter," and that is the rifle I started with.
That old rifle is a little worse for the wear... the recoil spring guide rod has never been fixed, the bolt handle was lost on one of my forays into the woods, and the stock has a bad chip out of it. For a while I've been keeping my eye out for a deal on another 190 that I can take parts off of. I would really like to take that old rifle, fix it up so it looks new, and give it to my Dad for Father's day one of these years. I know it is one of the few things he has to remember his Dad by, and I know he would enjoy it now that I've got him into shooting!
Model 57 .41 Mag S&W Nickel...
Browning 22 rifle(Belgium)
Colt police positive from my Grandpa
Savage 1907 in 32 acp. When I was a child my mother traded one of her new employees for a weeks worth of groceries for his family (we worked a gas station/grocery in canadian ok). it had 1% blueing left no grips and a bent fireing pin. it was then handed down to me as my wedding gift and stollen in a home burglary in 2009 just 3 months after my first child was born.
I cant decide which one of my older firearms is the most sentimental to me.
When I was about 6 or 7 I got a Winchester Model 290 for Christmas. Old school tube feed semi auto. Still shoot it almost daily along with my more modern .22 rifles. Goes in the shop here and there for a spring,etc but its been a pretty good old gun, old skool scope and all.
My father was a retired Marine and had been a cop, he gave me one of his Beretta 92's. I have 3 different 92s but its my favorite. I had graduated HS and went off to tech school and was living in Oakland in a pretty wild neighborhood late 80s. My dad and his girlfriend were in the San Francisco area one day so they swung by to pick me up for lunch. When he saw my neighborhood is when he gave me the pistol that he carried in his car. I had a couple of pistols and revolvers as well as a shotgun and a few rifles but I guess he thought I needed another pistol too. Now I have all daughters and I have given all 3 of them pistols when they graduated HS. I hope they value them as much as I do mine even though I was never in the service or an LEO.
I have my grandfathers H&R service revolver he carried in the late 40s and 50s as a cop.
My father left me many firearms when he passed away (my older brother is a non gun owning martial arts instructor and my older sisters are tree huggers, younger brother is a felon) but my favorite is a S&W 6" Model 28 Highway Patrolman.
When I was about 6 or 7 I got a Winchester Model 290 for Christmas. Old school tube feed semi auto. Still shoot it almost daily along with my more modern .22 rifles. Goes in the shop here and there for a spring,etc but its been a pretty good old gun, old skool scope and all.
My father was a retired Marine and had been a cop, he gave me one of his Beretta 92's. I have 3 different 92s but its my favorite. I had graduated HS and went off to tech school and was living in Oakland in a pretty wild neighborhood late 80s. My dad and his girlfriend were in the San Francisco area one day so they swung by to pick me up for lunch. When he saw my neighborhood is when he gave me the pistol that he carried in his car. I had a couple of pistols and revolvers as well as a shotgun and a few rifles but I guess he thought I needed another pistol too. Now I have all daughters and I have given all 3 of them pistols when they graduated HS. I hope they value them as much as I do mine even though I was never in the service or an LEO.
I have my grandfathers H&R service revolver he carried in the late 40s and 50s as a cop.
My father left me many firearms when he passed away (my older brother is a non gun owning martial arts instructor and my older sisters are tree huggers, younger brother is a felon) but my favorite is a S&W 6" Model 28 Highway Patrolman.
