What is the nicest gun you were ever given as a gift?
- Thread starter tark
- Start date
Lo-Profile
Member
Wilson Combat CQB Commander Compact
My wife bought it for me as a gift.
My wife bought it for me as a gift.
Rubone
Member
I have some that were given to me from friends estates, some given by my wife, some just outright gifts, some from family members passed. Fully a quarter of my collection was free.
A couple favorites would be a Remington Model 81 in .35Rem, A stainless Mini-30, an XD40 Service Model, a S&W 22/32 HFT 22, a Blackhawk in .30 Carbine, etc, etc....
A couple favorites would be a Remington Model 81 in .35Rem, A stainless Mini-30, an XD40 Service Model, a S&W 22/32 HFT 22, a Blackhawk in .30 Carbine, etc, etc....
The "nicest" gun I ever got was a Colt Series 70 1911. To make a long story short (very unlike me, I know), it had been badly neglected, and I talked my Dad into letting me send it off for some restoration work. A few years later, I was allowed to keep it. I need to shoot it soon. You know, make sure it works and all that.
That said, the one I'm most attached to is the 10/22 I got for about my 12th birthday.
That said, the one I'm most attached to is the 10/22 I got for about my 12th birthday.
shootstraight57
Member
I was given a Colt Combat Commander as a gift when I graduated the Academy. I love that gun and still use it.
Choctaw
Member
Christmas 1980. Under the tree was a Winchester 94 Trapper chambered in 30-30. Man, I loved that rifle.
Seeing as how that same uncle pays $700 for a hammer and $2000 for a toilet seat, he probably doesn't care. That uncle isn't known for being responsible with money.
dranrab
Member
Ruger UL 257 Roberts given to me by my ex wife. Other than herpes, it's the only thing she gave me that I still have.
Old Dog
Member
While I was waxing sentimental about Christmas time earlier today (watching too many Christmas movies on the Hallmark channel with the wife), and I'd already posted about the Mossberg turkey gun the wife gave me for Christmas, I remembered one of my most cherished guns ever -- the Crosman M-1 Carbine BB gun that Dad got me in 1967 (when the stocks were still wood). It's still in his cabin in Upper Michigan. Real adjustable peep sights. Magazine held BBs. Pulled barrel in to charge it.
Old Hobo
Member
Answer: both my first and second gifts at ages 12 and 13 yr.
Kept my first .22 rifle. Recently purchased a 20 ga bolt action that is a clone of my 13 yr old birthday present.
Have many memories of my paternal grandfather teaching me as much as he could about hunting (he was born before 1905 / began life as a subsistence hunter / far beyond just poor; Cherokee in his blood, mostly Scots-Irish, but Native American in his hunting techniques) . I was carrying that 20 ga bolt shotgun. It put food on the supper table. If it does the work, then it does the work. I love squirrel gravy!!!!
Cornbread, beans, a bit of smokehouse meat or just-killed meat, poke greens, mustard greens, out the side of a mountain rock-face artesian well-water (you built your cabin where the purest of water shot out the side of a mountain rock-face; a cabin begins with a water cistern), ... these things sustained generations up in the Appalachian mountains. All this a LONG time before grocery stores. If you made it past childhood, survived the feuds, you stood a good chance of living past age 80, 90, ... I've talked to many a relative and family friends who were born in the 1880s. Pap in youth only had a .32 muzzle-loader. "Beware the man who owns but one rifle." My kin were the "over-mountain men" of the Revolutionary War.
It's not a matter so much of being "nice". It's a matter of survival. "Are you going to make it through the winter?!" That's a big deal when you are way far beneath just being poor. Modern folk forget this reality. When times go sideways, you'll look past "nice" and seek functionality. No rule says that nice and functionality can't go hand-in-hand. When looking at a firearm for sale, I look at BOTH aspects. My out-of-date / collector firearms can also put food on the supper table. I've known what it is to be poor.
.
Kept my first .22 rifle. Recently purchased a 20 ga bolt action that is a clone of my 13 yr old birthday present.
Have many memories of my paternal grandfather teaching me as much as he could about hunting (he was born before 1905 / began life as a subsistence hunter / far beyond just poor; Cherokee in his blood, mostly Scots-Irish, but Native American in his hunting techniques) . I was carrying that 20 ga bolt shotgun. It put food on the supper table. If it does the work, then it does the work. I love squirrel gravy!!!!
Cornbread, beans, a bit of smokehouse meat or just-killed meat, poke greens, mustard greens, out the side of a mountain rock-face artesian well-water (you built your cabin where the purest of water shot out the side of a mountain rock-face; a cabin begins with a water cistern), ... these things sustained generations up in the Appalachian mountains. All this a LONG time before grocery stores. If you made it past childhood, survived the feuds, you stood a good chance of living past age 80, 90, ... I've talked to many a relative and family friends who were born in the 1880s. Pap in youth only had a .32 muzzle-loader. "Beware the man who owns but one rifle." My kin were the "over-mountain men" of the Revolutionary War.
It's not a matter so much of being "nice". It's a matter of survival. "Are you going to make it through the winter?!" That's a big deal when you are way far beneath just being poor. Modern folk forget this reality. When times go sideways, you'll look past "nice" and seek functionality. No rule says that nice and functionality can't go hand-in-hand. When looking at a firearm for sale, I look at BOTH aspects. My out-of-date / collector firearms can also put food on the supper table. I've known what it is to be poor.
.
1KPerDay
Member
Same here, except mine was a magnum. I was 12.
My wife and parents in law also bought me a SCAR-16S for my 40th birthday… that was pretty cool
JTHunter
Member
Not a "gift" but an inheritance. This is a Smith & Wesson “Mod. of 1905 – 4th change”, .32-20, 6” barrel, SA/DA revolver.
It was produced from 1915-40, ser. # range 65,701-144,684 with this one having a number starting with "111xxx" so it was probably made in the early to mid-30s.
It was produced from 1915-40, ser. # range 65,701-144,684 with this one having a number starting with "111xxx" so it was probably made in the early to mid-30s.
unspellable
Member
New S&W 29-2 6.5" in presentation case, this at a time when they were going for twice MSRP, we had no money, wife made sacrifices to buy it. Second would be my grandfather's 1898 Springfield Krag carbine.
Ks5shooter
Contributing Member
Ruger No.1 .458 win mag.Sadly I lost a freind first as it was given to me after he passed.
luv2safari
Member
At 12 years old a doctor friend of ours who hunted with us and our griffons gave me a circa 1909 Sauer made Charles Daly sidelock drilling in 12ga SXS and 30-30 like mine now. The gifted drilling was taken in a burglary when I was 19.
SwampWolf
Member
The "nicest" gun I ever received was a Winchester Model 67 single-shot .22rf, bolt-action rifle I received on Christmas of 1957 from my parents when I was 14 years old; the nicest because it was the first gun I ever owned and nothing has ever given me more joy from under the tree than that shiny new Winchester.
The nicest gun I ever gave was that same little rifle, to my oldest daughter on Christmas a couple of years ago-far from her first gun but one that invoked a history well worth its remembrance and the telling of its story.
The nicest gun I ever gave was that same little rifle, to my oldest daughter on Christmas a couple of years ago-far from her first gun but one that invoked a history well worth its remembrance and the telling of its story.
Capybara
Member
My ex's parents gave me a brand new Ruger Red Label Sporting Clays 12ga at Thanksgiving Dinner about 25 years ago. My Charles Daly semi auto had broken, was a discontinued model so parts were hard to find. Nicest gift anyone's ever given me. My ex's parents are both into guns and they wanted to make I could keep shooting Trap with my ex's Dad. Will never sell this gun, still love to shoot it, will always treasure it.
Micro
Member
My first gun of my very own. An Ithaca Model 37 Featherlight with a 26" vent rib barrel and fixed IC choke. Given to me by my dad around 1977-1978.
Like an idiot, I sold it in the early 90s. Knew I made a mistake soon afterwards and regretted it for years. Took me a long time to find a gun with identical specs and same year of manufacture that was in nearly new shape.
Like an idiot, I sold it in the early 90s. Knew I made a mistake soon afterwards and regretted it for years. Took me a long time to find a gun with identical specs and same year of manufacture that was in nearly new shape.
Capybara
Member
You sold a gun your Dad gave you?!? Was your Dad alive when you sold it? Oof.My first gun of my very own. An Ithaca Model 37 Featherlight with a 26" vent rib barrel and fixed IC choke. Given to me by my dad around 1977-1978.
Like an idiot, I sold it in the early 90s. Knew I made a mistake soon afterwards and regretted it for years. Took me a long time to find a gun with identical specs and same year of manufacture that was in nearly new shape.
Similar threads
