Own any guns that have "a history"?

[XavierBreath]

The 1910 Imperial Luger pictured here was in police evidence at one time. I do not know why. It was later acquired by my father in law as a "personal protection device" while he attended medical school at LSU back in the 1960s. Other than being originally issued to a cavalry unit, I know nothing else of it's history.


This Colt Police Positive has a potentially interesting history that I am still trying to verify. All I can say for certain right now is the timeline and location fit. Until I can conclusively verify it's history and association, I don't want to say much about it, except that it is interesting.


This H&R 923's history is recounted here.


The story behind this Colt Woodsman can be found here.


Miss Myra's Gun is has a story too.

I have an attorney friend with a blood gun collection. They range from Lorcins to a National Match 1911. the histories on some of my guns are not as dramatic, but I keep them none the less. If for no other reason, I keep them in remembrance of other people.

 

[4v50 Gary]

Best Story: ArmoredMan
Runnerup: DogBonz

Me: I've a PPK/S that I co-owned with my father (dec.). My father was taking a friend to the gunstore to buy a PPK and I tagged along. At the store, I looked into my father's eyes and knew at that point he wanted one. We were tight and I could read his mind. I said, "Dad, I'll pay for half." He said, "You will?" He bought it that day and we've shot it a lot together.

 

[Acheron]

I have a 1940 Ishevsk 91/30 and a 1943 M38 (arsenal unknown), so they undoubtedly saw action in the Great Patriotic War.

I also have a 1917 RSA Enfield No1MkIII* that went through both World Wars, first in the hands of an Englishman and then a Canadian. The next part of its history I'm a little fuzzy on, but it looks like the Canadian brought the rifle home (or it could have been bought surplus) and it was sporterised. Whoever did the sporterisation did a really nice job and afterward it was (most likely) used as a deer rifle. Found it for $125 in great condition. It still shoots well, but I'm a little nervous to put a lot of rounds through it. Don't want to break the thing.

As for my other guns, I don't think they have any interesting histories.

 

[churched]

Aside from my first .22 and 20 gauge. I would say that my 1911 has a rather interesting history but I do not know to much about it. The slide which is still all original is dating from WWI, its a Remington Rand by the way. Where as the frame is a Colt dated to WWII. One thing I do know is that my Grand Father on my fathers side did take it with him to track down the thieves that stole his boat. The only thing I know about that story is that he laid in a field with his friend for three days for the guys to come back. No clue if he had to use it or not. Any history before that I am not sure about. But I thought I would share with the class!

 

[Tinker]

The old SS 12 gage Bridge shotgun my Dad still has. It was his father's. It will be mine or one of my bro's one day.

The shotgun was originally aquired by my grandfather before the Depression. In the decades that followed it was traded back and forth between him and his brother-in-law, Cecil. My great-uncle Cecil and my grandfather Whit were life-long friends and business partners. (Farming, horsetrading, and moonshining and God knows what else) One of them would be hard-up of money and the other would buy it back. This happened several times throughout thier lives.

The last time it was traded Cecil traded it back to my grandfather. He said: "Whit, as many times as this has been bought and sold, this has got to be the damnedest moneymaking gun in the history of Alabama!"

 

[Sgt.Dusk]

I (Its actually my fathers but will eventually be mine) have a rifle that was used by my grandpa in Finnish winter war against Soviet Union.
Actually not so rare but it has a history in defending our freedom against
commies

 

[Will Learn]

I have a couple thanks to my grandfather. My first shotgun was a Browning Auto 5 "light twelve." The gun belonged to my great grandfather. It's in great shape and I still marvel at it every time I take it out of the safe. Here is a pic of my great grandfather shooting the gun in October 1949:


Another gun that I got from my grandfather has a history thats very important to me. Its a Mauser 1943 Luger that my grandfather picked up in Braunshweig after crossing the Rhine(the battle of the bulge). He said he got it off an officer that "wouldn't be using it any more." Here are some pics(the German flag and binoculars are a bring back from WWII as well) :




I also have a 1896(I'm pretty sure) marlin lever action that has been in my family since it's creation. Pic(2nd from the top). The Auto 5 held by my great grandfather above is fourth from the top.


I can't wait until I see the same look on my child's(or grandchild's) face that I must have had on mine when I pass these keepsakes down to them.

 

[KiltedClaymore]

several of you have jogged my memory! i almost forgot the Savage Model 99 in .300 Savage that my grandfather has used to kill deer, from way back when deer hunting was akin to going to the butchers, all the way up to last fall. also, there is the beutiful the Belgian(sp?) Browning Auto-5, again my grandfather's.

 

[SamTuckerMTNMAN]

yeah

one of the first things I love to point out when someone asks some dumb question about having guns in my house and how they will surely kill my kid, I love to point out which ones my dad gave me, and which his dad gave him, and which my grandpa gave me directly, and how old I was when I first shot which one, and which one the other grandpa sold me for $20, and which one I first won a match with, and which one my grandma gave my grandpa for their 10th anniversary..........

the most recent acquisition is a mossberg 500 bought from local sheriff deputy used an an enttry model on swat team. I dont know any more stories about it but I make some up sometimes, just for myself....

st

 

[f4t9r]

I have my Dad's 870 Wingmaster that has some good hunting stories with it and a Marlin 39A with some history. The one I have been trying to find out about is an old 38 thats been around forever but no one seems to know much about it since dad is gone now.

 

[mljdeckard]

When my grandfather passed, we got his small but distinguished collection, including:

A sporterized 1917 Enfield, which we recently had re-blued and put a no-drill scope mount on.

My M-1 Carbine, which he paid $15 or so for when he joined the NRA in the early 50s. It's my wife's primary HD weapon. Those two may or may not have seen action.

A Colt Woodsman .22, which my dad is thinking of selling to get a more modern defensive auto. I'm trying to scrape a little cash together to keep it in the family.

A model 1897 in 16 ga, which has been seriously beaten, most seriously in that the barrel is sawed off and dented, due to some uncle or other nosing it into the mud when firing it. It also has a long chip missing from the pump handle. I'm thinking when I get home from CA, I need to do some browsing in the Brownell's catalog, to look at having it restored.

 

[Vaarok]

1905 DWM Gew98, bringback from WW1 by a local vet. Purchased at the estate auction of his niece (for $97 after tax!) four years ago by me. Marked to the 110th Grenadiers, a regiment from the Kaisers home province in Germany, and who fought Americans only one day in WW1.

 

[motorheadjohn]

Good thread.

I've got a SiG P226 9mm I bought from a friend. He bought it new in San Diego when he got out of the Marines in 1987. He carried it as his duty weapon for many years on the DC capital police dept and pulled it twice in defense of his life. It's got a low serial number (148xxx) and ~30k rounds through it but still shoots great. It should be around for at least another 30k rounds.

 

[Tokugawa]

Yes, this is a great thread- very interesting.

How about a 1893 Mauser, ordered by the ZAR (South African Republic) in 1899, intercepted at sea by the British at a Mozambique port, returned to Germany, and stamped with the Chilean crest and used to fill DWM's Chilean contract.
Or an M1 Garand, made in 1942, shot enough to need a new barrel in '49, and lent to the Danes, then returned to the US and sold through the CMP.
Or the Arisaka 99 my Dad brought back from the Pacific and gave to me. Paul Tibbetts saved his life, he was training for the invasion of Nippon when the bomb was dropped. So he got to pick this rifle out of a heap of surrendered guns, rather than fight for it.
Guess my FIL had some interesting guns brought back from Germany, but they got dispersed to other family members without much firearms interest. I did find the detonater from a bouncing betty land mine, the plier marks are still on it where he unscrewed it from the main charge- he was in the mine platoon of an anti-tank co. Ought to make a nice paper weight! (yes, the priming charge is gone!)

 

[Kalashnikov]

My M39 has four notches carved into the stock. The question is; where they comies or fascists?

 

[ThomasT]

My grandfather was a gunsmith in the Ft. Worth area. He built many, many guns using the Mauser 98 actions. I remember his garage being packed with surplus rifles. He would turn the barrel steps off or rebarrel the guns. He bought semi inletted stocks from Rienhart Fagen and fitted to his actions. My dad rust blued the guns for extra money when i was around 4 to 6 years old.

My grandfather built a rifle for my dad in 1963 and he took it to Colorado to hunt many times. My dad killed a lot of mule deer, whitetail and one pronghorn with that rifle. The caliber is 8x57.

He gave me that gun and also a Mauser 98 7x57 with a P.O. Ackly barrel built on a G33/40 action. Both guns have the Nazi eagles and German markings.

Two years before my dad died i managed to kill an Elk with his rifle. He always wanted to kill an Elk but never magaged to. He was proud of how his rifle killed with one shot. I have killed about 12 deer with the 7x57.

I mentioned that my grandfather was a gunsmith. I didn't realize how "into" guns he was until my Dad died and my mother gave me a stack of letters dated from around 1955. In that collection of letters are two letters from Phil Sharp and 7 or 8 letters from P.O. Ackley. They are trading load data for 7x61 Sharp & Hart and .243 Winchester. Mr. Ackley sent my Grandfather a barrel with a 30 caliber bore and a 35 Whelen chamber so he could shoot 35 caliber bullets down a 30 caliber bore to show it could safely be done. I think i will pass on that myself.

 

[TroyR]

I have a little .32 that my grandpa shot 3 guys with in self defense from back in the 60's. It has some number engravings on it from the PD..

 

[Dr. Peter Venkman]

My Grandfather brought back a Luger...but I don't have it, my anti-gun uncle does and I severely doubt he will give it to me.

 

[OEF_VET]

I have a Thompson Model 1928 SMG that's not mine, but it's sitting in the safe at the shop, waiting to be transferred to a customer.

It was built by Colt, and shipped (with a 100-round drum) to Peter von Frantziuz, a gun dealer in Chicago, well known to provide guns to the gangsters of the era. He then sold it to Frank V. Thompson, who bought guns for the mafia. The gun was sold for $200, with an extra $25 charge for the 100-rnd drum, and a $4 charge to have3 the gunsmith remove the serial numbers on the gun and drum. To cover-up the sale of the gun, it was recorded as having been shipped to another person, in Elgin, IL. The box shipped to Elgin actually contained a brick for weight.

Thompson then sold the gun to a Joe Howard, of Detroit. It is speculated that Howard was really an alias for some gangster, but that's not confirmed. That's where the paper trail ends, until 1968.

In November 1968, a Model 1928 Thompson was amnesty registered by Arthur Godfrey, originally from Detroit, MI, who had joined the Secre Service in 1951. Godfrey started out in Detroit, but was eventually transferred to Washington, DC. Godfrey served as the Deputy Special Agent in Charge, Presidential Protection Detail. On the morning JFK was assasinated, Godfrey had worked the midnight to 8 am shift. At the time of the assassination, Godfrey was in Austin, waiting for the President to arrive later that day.

At some point, both the gun and the drum that I have were parkerized, most likely by the FBI Gun Vault. This indicates the possibility that the gun was used at some point by either FBI or Secret Service Agents in the line of duty. (It is known that Secret Service Agents used a Thompson during another Presidential assassination attempt, against President Truman.)

When Godfrey passed away in 2002, his gun collection was sold. The gentleman who bought the Thompson recognized that the serial number wasn't original. Nor did it appear to be an amnesty registration serial number, as those usually began "IRS" and this one begins "XO." He sought out the assistance of a renowned Thompson historian, and they pulled the barrel off of the gun, where a serial number was found. That serial number matched the one sold to von Frantzius in the '20's.

How it came into Godfrey's possession is unknown. It's interesting that the gun was owned by both reputed gangsters and by a man charged with protecting the President of the United States. The gun has seen use by both sides of the law. Now, that's a history.

 

[Charles Foxtrot]

My father has an old cap and ball revolver displayed in the pool room. Never knew much about it, never got around to asking. Turns out it was carried in the Civil War by a direct ancestor, handed down from father to son, generation to generation.

I was just told that the treasure will one day be mine. Hopefully, many, many years in the future.

 

[paramedic70002]

I have a gun that has a bit of a dubious and checkered history, so I'll go lite on the details. Starts in the 50's.

It's south of being a .38. Break top.

My uncle was providing court security in a large city known for mob activity. A certain person was going to court. During the proceedings, my uncle noticed this person reaching under the table. A scuffle ensued, and my uncle ended up in possession of the gun. Sometime later the gun ended up with my parents as a home defense piece.

It's a piece of junk, unreliable. Even had a smitty tune it up, but you still have to give the cylinder about 3 go-rounds to fire all the cartridges.

 

[gbran]

I have a 4 inch S&W Model 66. My estranged wife used it to kill her boyfriend in my kitchen many years ago. After a very long and protracted effort, I was able to get the gun back from the authorities.

 

[bwavec]

After my grandmother died, I inherited her .22 H&R nine shot revolver.

She bought it back in the 1960's to use as a personal protection/carry gun during the urban riots of that era.

It was never fired in that capacity, but I find it interesting because it's purchase (and she was a very anti-gun lady) was directly tied to a very significant period of recent American history.

 

[Trebor]

My Finn 28/30 has pieces of shrapnel embedded in the stock. There are large gouges in the wood and you can see and feel the metal when you run your hands over the stock. I fear for the Finn who carried this rifle.

 

[Trebor]

I have a Winchester Model 1895 carbine in .30 Army (.30-40) that was given to my grandfather by Harry Wheeler, the last Captain of the Arizona Rangers (modeled on the Texas ones), who was then the Sheriff of Cochise County, Arizona. The carbine was one issued to the Rangers (I have no idea of whether or not it was Harry's personal one or just one out of the Rangers' arms room).

I just read an article in one of the gun rags about the Arizona Rangers. The writer said the Rangers had to purchase their own firearms, but that the Rangers negotiated a group rate with Winchester on the rifles.