Your Most Valuable Gun- Sentimental or Otherwise

[Yankee John]

My Dad bought my Grandparents farm from them about 10 years ago when they decided to move into an assisted-living complex.  My grandfather died in 2004 at the age of 93 (Grandma is still alive at 93!). He was a big horse guy, and bred and used Percheron draft horses on the farm -well into his 80's.

A month ago on Thanksgiving Day,  I was getting some stuff out of the freezer in the basement washroom when I noticed what looked like a gun behind the door leading to the garage.  Sure enough,  it was an old bolt action .22 rifle- just covered in dust and cobwebs.  Looks like it has been there for 30 years.  Dad didn't even know it was there,  and told me to just take it home with me.

Nothing valuable dollar-wise,  it is a Stevens/Savage Model 86C .22 bolt action rifle.  While it looks very old & the stock is discolored & grubby,  it functions perfectly and has a perfect bore. 

The only gun I have from my Grandpa- I can only imagine how many skunks, racoons,  and squirrels that were dispatched using this old .22 (that were bothering the Percherons). 

It is my most valuable gun!

John

Here is a pic of Grampa with "Butch" about 20 years ago.  By the way,  My Grampa stood 6' 2" tall. I believe that Butch was at 2200 pounds when they weighed him this day.

[Guns Garrett]

Simiilar story, but it wasn't me that found it.  My folks bought a house before I was born, and found an old Remington 510 bolt-action single-shot .22 behind the waterheater. Don't know how long it was there, but one side of the walnut stock is bleached almost pink - looks like unfinished maple. Dad kept it for years, never fired a round through it himself but it's the first firearm I ever shot.  Most accurate rifle I've ever shot - used to shoot at pop bottles, with them laying down with the neck towards you.  Shoot down the neck and blow the bottom out, at 50 yards (sometimes farther).  My favorite way of taking squirrels is shooting them in the eye - quick, humane, and no torn-up meat.

[Major 2]

Another bolt action 22 story....my Dad's
It's a Remington tube magazine, I learned to shoot the same as Guns ( down the neck of the bottle ) 50 some years ago.
Still have it and my Dad's 32/20 S&W Ejector, He had on the job with MTB's near the end of WWII.
He aquired it in the 1920's, they are Sentimental & priceless (to me).

My final offerings are my own 2 1860 Colts ( one a 3 screw circa 62 , was carried by a Trooper in the 13th. Ill. Cavalry )
The other a 2nd Gen. purchased NIB in 1979 , now sporting Ivroy Grips & an R&D Cyl. ( I carried this one for 28 years of mounted Cavalry living history ) and my early war 56/56 Spencer.

[Frenchie]

I have a 6+1/2 inch barreled Old Model (three screws, no transfer bar) Ruger Single Six with the two cylinders for .22 LR and .22 WMR. The finish is holster-worn and it is just the most fun gun I've ever owned. I just can't seem to find a set of grips that I like, but then that's part of the fun.

My brother has Dad's pre-'64 Model 70 Winchester in .30-06 over there in Ohio. Dad bought it when we were in Taiwan and had a local Chinese artisan carve relief and line drawings of game animals into the stock. He paid the artisan with two cartons of cigarettes, which at 1959 Navy Exchange prices might have cost him about $5.00. It's unique and beyond price to us. Maybe next year we'll swing by and I'll pick it up and take it home on our way back from the Muster at Prairie Fire Range.

[Delmonico]

Mine is Grandpa's 1906 Winchester, bought new in 1922 with their wedding money.  Not that Grandpa got something and Grandma didn't, it was a needed tool on a small farem in SE Iowa back in the hills.

[Cyrille]

My oldest and most valuable rifle(sentmental value) is my old single-shot Remington .22 that I received as a birthday present when I made 12 years. My most valuable money-wise is a Winchester model 42 .410 pump shotgun. That got left as "security" for two six-packs of beer at my father's bar and resturant back in the 1950s.

[Bristow Kid]

Sentimental vaule is my early model Mossberg 500A 12ga pump shotgun that was willed to me and my brother when our grandfather passed away.  Until last year I still hunted with it but decieded to put it up before something happened to it.  I have taken many birds and a couple of deer with it but no where near what grandpa did.  He was an avid hunter and fisher.

I hold my Brolin Industries Pietta 4 3/4" nickle 1873 Colt in .45 Colt as a prized possesion just cause it was the first handgun I ever purchased.  And its a sweet shooter aint it Guns.

[Ozark Tracker]

I got 2 that's sentimental, one Remington 11-48  12 gauge shotgun that my grandpa gave to me before he passed,  first shotgun I ever shot,
the second is my Dad's gun a 1962 Belgium Browning, Sweet 16 shotgun, he bought it new,  Back then there were a lot of quail and he loved to hunt em. every leagal bird day, he'd be out there hunting. my mon gave it to me  in 1976 after he died. It's a real quail getter.

[Forty Rod]

Two sentimental guns.

Dad's old Model 08 Remingtom autoloader in .35 remington.  He bought it from a man named Arch Simms in 1943 in Payette, Idaho.

A Santa Fe Arms/Uberti '73 rifle that my wife bought me in '82.

[Major 2]

I beg to offer another.....

I don't know why I was remiss the first go round 

My Dad gave me a flint 50 Cal Hawkins for my Birthday just before he passed away in 1986

Sentimental value .....pricelesss

[mtmarfield]

   Greetings!

   Hmmm. I love my Romano 1860 Spencer Carbine, and I'm also kind of sorry that I sold my beautiful "American Eagle" Luger 7.65 to get it. I also hold dear a NIB S&W K-38 6" TT/TH that Dad just handed me one day when I was visiting and I had said that I wanted to find a Police Trade-In S&W 10, 4" .38 Spl. for a cheap "camp revolver". That Win. 94 SRC .25-35 that Dad bought me because I wanted a "different" reloading project...
   When Dad was a kid {around the early/mid 1940's}, Granny bought Grandad a like new First Gen Colt SAA, B/CC, 5 1/2" in .38 WCF. For $25. Grandad, a Shotgun Man, put two boxes through it, and sold it. For $25. In the early 1990's, I found the tobacco can filled with .38-40 brass in Granny's garage. Dad told me the story, and we winced in unison. Although I had acquired an early EMF/ASM Bisley 5 1/2", and a Colt New Service in .38 WCF, I decided that a wrong had to be made right. This last Xmas, I had some cash left over, and I had my FFL Holder
order for me a Colt 5th{?} Gen. Colt SAA, B/CC, 5 1/2" in .38 WCF. I've loaded two boxes of my most accurate cast bullet/Unique reloads, but I still haven't shot it. I took it with me when I drove out to see Dad and his wife. His eyes just sparkled! I take it out of the safe periodically,
and close my eyes; I can see Grandad's face like it was yesterday, with his ever present smile, and somehow, I'm holding His Colt.

              Be Well!

                                 M.T.Marfield
                                   12-16-06

[Russ T Chambers]

That would have to be my Grandfather's Mossberg 42m(b) .22 bolt action rifle.  It has a 2x scope on it and it still let's me knock off shotgun hulls from the distance of our longest berm (some of our CAS shooters complain when we put out rifle targets out that far).  The thing is probably older than me, and that's getting old!!

[Texas Lawdog]

I guess Model 1851 Navy Colt .36 cal revolver is my most valuable revolver .  It belonged to my great great uncle who was in the US Cavalry before the Civil War. He carried it during the War and in the Powder River Campaigns after the War.  My Sentimental Gun has to be my Model 94 30 30 rifle that was my Dad's before he passed away.

[Mustang Gregg]

Most expensive?
The one I bought just yesterday for my Pa (Commissioner Gordon) for Christmas.  It is an M-1892 Winchester rifle in .25-20.  Mighta paid too much, but he deserves a nice rifle for his cabinet. 
It's pretty sweet.   

MG

[Delmonico]

I will say, money wise, perhaps my most valuable one is my original, but rebarreled Low-Wall, 22 Springfield barrel, chabered for 22 Hornet, Pre-War 1" Weaver Rings on a rail type mound, and the 1950's style K-12 on it.  And for pure simple to load for fun it is hard to beat.  Even if I have to search a bit for the 0.223 bullets for it.