Most cherished gun?

Kind of piggybacking off the Grandpas Gun thread I thought it would be neat to hear about everyone’s most prized or cherished gun that they have in their safe. Mine would have to be my Benelli Montefeltro 20 gauge that I bought with the money from selling a litter of puppies when I was 11 years old. Now 21 years later that gun is still a pheasant and quails worst nightmare. Something about it just hits what its aiming at. I can’t hit Sh**, but boy that gun sure can!

When I was in eleventh grade I bought a Remmington 1100 at the Holiday on Lyndale ave in Bloomington.
and that thing could musta, somehow fit me perfectly because I was a dead eye.

Fast forward, I was going thru my 1st divorce and didn’t have 2 nickels to rub together and my 2 baby daughters needed diapers and food.

Hocked it it the Gun exchange on Bloomington and Lake.
I have a decent collection going now but none of em really mean anything to me. I sure miss that gun.

I knocked down 3 Roosters with a single shot one time. Swear!

My late husband’s guns. All of them, but particularly his shotguns from pheasant season. He was the last to shoot them and it tears me up that he’ll never shoot them again.

Colt .357 python.
6 inch nickel plated.
Bought from a law enforcement friend, that has now passed away.

I bought REM 742 BDL 51 years ago. Just gave it to my son with stipulation it goes to my grandson when he wants to pass it along. Can’t be sold. Of course once I’m gone he can/could do what he wants with it.

Jeff Schomaker wrote:

Kind of piggybacking off the Grandpas Gun thread I thought it would be neat to hear about everyone’s most prized or cherished gun that they have in their safe. Mine would have to be my Benelli Montefeltro 20 gauge that I bought with the money from selling a litter of puppies when I was 11 years old. Now 21 years later that gun is still a pheasant and quails worst nightmare. Something about it just hits what its aiming at. I can’t hit Sh**, but boy that gun sure can!

Mine is my Benelli Montrefelto too. But mine is a 12 gauge. I bought it when I was 24 and had just entered the real workforce, and could afford it.

17 seasons of slaying roosters with it under my belt.

Grandpa’s shotgun. It’s a Wards Western Field 12 ga. pump. Made by Winchester and designed by Mr. Browning, it has that big “Auto 5” looking receiver. You can see the tooling marks inside. Action is absolutely buttery smooth.

SR

Couple years outta H.S. I put money down on a Browning Gold Hunter 3 1/2”. It was on layaway at local outdoor store. Few months later I decided I wanted to propose to my wife. Went into gun shop and told the owner what was up, and without hesitation gave me all my money back. My great uncle whom I hunted/fished with regularly had two of them. Since he knew I had money down on one, that fall he asked where the gun was. I told him, he grunted,and not another word was said. Fast forward about 10 years he passed away. That fall I was sitting on a stump in a blizzard muzzleloader hunting and $hit you not was thinking about him when my phone started vibrating in my pocket. I pulled it out and I still had his home phone programmed as uncle Clyde was on my caller ID. I got chills when I answered it. It was his widow. She said she had something for me. Swung over to her place when I got off stand and she had one of his Golds there waiting for me. She said it was written down that that gun goes to me. Tough story to tell to this day.

Got it engraved. Pic is my dad, myself at about 12 y.o. and great uncle Clyde after my first time to LOTW’s. RIP.

Attachments:

1. 

   B74E4388-7331-4BCA-A180-4575E52F4471-scaled.jpeg
   

2. 

   FBA317E5-D460-4ACB-9F6C-86FBE42095B6.jpeg
   

I just rec’d a gun a few yrs ago that is quite important to me. It was my grandpas deer rifle that he “acquired” when he was a young man. We dont know for aure, but it is alleged that the deal involved some cards, some whiskey(this was during prohibition) amd some heated discuasion.

Long story short – a cousin of mine gave it to me, because i was the youngest grandkid and was pretty close to grandpa. Its an old winchester 94. Half octagon bbl, full length magazine, and in pretty decent condition. I hint woth it every yr, but havent had a chance to get a buck yet…….but I will. I also got a box of his shells with it. Serial num puts it at 1911 mfg yr.

Attachments:

1. 

   E9CAC143-0D6D-4D65-9649-39E84480B19B.jpeg
   

Very cool gun Timmy

Sweet gun and story drifter and Timmy.

When I was 13 I took my bailing money to Goldfinds in Willmar. Pick out a 870 wingmaster. I still use it for deer hunting but did retire it from pheasant hunting about 4 years ago.

Nothing like more cool stories behind the guns in people’s lives.

Despite the story of granddad and his Remington Woodsmaster 740, I don’t know that it’s my most cherished gun. That may seem an odd thing to say, but I didn’t get to hunt with him more than twice, and that was just for small game.

I still have my first 22 rimfire, a Remington 582 bolt action. I paid $16.33/mo. out of my paper route money to pay dad back for the purchase. I’ve never lost a “pick off” contest with it, made a 2-for-1 shot on gray squirrels once, took out a running red squirrel goofing with a hip shot once, and put an awful lot of squirrel and snowshoe hare meat on the table with it. That rifle made a stalker out of me. It’s connected to everything I became as a hunter. So, it’s got a very special place in my heart. It struggles to retract the spent cases now so it’s been retired. Given the quality shooter it was, I replaced it with a Ruger M77/22 that shoots almost as well. Nothing, and I’ve shot at least a dozen others, has ever shot like the irons on that 582.

I do have others I truly cherish because of the memories made with them.

Winchester 1200 pump 12ga with poly-choke. At 10yrs old, I could barely hold the thing, but I smoked my first clays with it anyway, accomplished my first independent hunt/kill with it (snowshoe hare), smoked my first grouse with it, and made a +-70yd shot on a raven (calculated by ranging a tree it flew over). I bought it from dad in ’97 for $150. I’m still smoking crows and whatever with it! Funny thing… dad bought a Ted Williams 12ga auto at a Sears Outlet clearance sale figuring I’d pay him back for that one too, but I couldn’t hit the broadside of a barn with it. So, he kept it (still has it), and I carried the Win 1200. And no, I STILL cannot hit with the old Ted!

The rest of my “cherish list” is primarily based off the experiences made and shared with each specific gun since purchase.

My FAVORITE firearm though, is a Weatherby Lazerguard 308. I haven’t really done anything spectacular with it, but it’s with me often. I suffer redundancy so it has yet to align its presence with any of my success stories, but one day, I’ll have a pic that includes that rifle. High gloss, laser engraved oak leaves, high gloss bluing, matched with a glossy VX-II Leupold, and a trigger pull of 2.1 pounds, no creep. It dials just about anything I put in the chamber.

Attachments:

1. 

   Weatherby-Laserguard-S2-308-Leupold-3-9x40-Gloss-Right-Serial-no.-VB121777-scaled.jpg
   

2. 

   Winchester-1200-Raven-Kill-2016-scaled.jpg
   

3. 

   Remington-582-22LR-with-cottontail-kill-2016-scaled.jpg
   

That is an awesome story Drifter!

I don’t have any real sentimental stories like that, at least not yet. My Dad is especially proud of a 30-30 he won for hitting some sales goals, and that he was able to hand down a Citori to my brother and I. My favorite gun is the 30.06 that is an absolute tack driver. My (new) goal is to hear some more stories behind these, and how my Dad acquired them.

Eelpoutguy wrote:

When I was in eleventh grade I bought a Remmington 1100 at the Holiday on Lyndale ave in Bloomington

Depending on what year that was purchased, I may have been the person who sold it to you. I worked there for about 8 years from the mid 80’s thru the mid 90’s.
I love that job. I would have worked outdoor retail forever if it had paid well enough.

I have 3 shotguns that my father bought in the late 1960’s that were given/handed down to me. Two, a Remington 1100 in 20 gauge, and an 870 Wingmaster in 12 gauge have been used to hunt everything from rabbits, grouse, pheasant, ducks and geese to deer over the years. The other I was afraid to take in the field for a long time. Its a 1978 Belgian Browning superposed 12 gauge. Beautiful gun. Dad passed away in August 2016, a couple months before I was taking my son out to North Dakota for his first “real” pheasant hunting trip for 9 days. I decided that it was time for that gun to do more than just shoot at clays. We took turns using it and the 870 over the course of the week out there, and we both took our share of pheasants with it. Its been out many times since then, and its now my sons favorite. Feels great to see him with it in the field behind the dog.

fishthumper wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Eelpoutguy wrote:</div>
When I was in eleventh grade I bought a Remmington 1100 at the Holiday on Lyndale ave in Bloomington

Depending on what year that was purchased, I may have been the person who sild it to you. I worked there for about 8 years from the mid 80’s thru the mid 90’s.
I love that job. I would have worked outdoor retail forever if it had paid well enough.

Well, I’m a wee bit older than that.
Junior year for me was 77/78

Senior year for me was 76-77 and I shopped at the Bloomington store ’til it closed. Still use a winter coat I purchased there. Then I went to the Rockford Road store ’til it closed.

I inherited a Remington 742 and a Belgian Browning Light 12 from my dad. I haven’t shot either since he gave them to me since I don’t deer hunt and the need for steel shot for waterfowl (don’t want to damage the fixed choke). My most cherished gun is my Benelli M1 Field 12 gauge with a 24″ barrel purchased in 1995. Still use it for all my bird hunting. I went with the 24″ barrel for hunting out of a duck boat/blind but it also makes it nice to carry for upland. Once I put in the right shim for me it has served me very well.

I have many guns I cherish, ones that belonged to my grandpa, my dad and some pretty cool ones I acquired through the years. My most cherished is the first gun that was “mine”… sure I have a BB gun, pellet gun, but I didn’t consider them real guns…around 1984 or so, my dad took me to Dot & Rays in Paynesville and I could pick out any gun I wanted. I got a Remington 870 Magnum. I have taken just about every species in the state with that gun, from grouse to Bear. I will never part with it.

I have my Dad’s 100th Anniversary Winchester 30-30 Lever. It has never been fired. He passed away in ’97, and it will go to my boys when the time comes.

After the luncheon following my dad’s funeral last year, my much older cousin asked my brother and I to come out to the parking lot. Many years ago my dad gave him a shotgun and my cousin thought we should have it. My brother’s stepson tried to commit suicide with my brother’s 22WMR several years ago so he doesn’t have any guns in his house anymore. It’s my most cherished gun now and I don’t even know what brand it is. Looks like my cousin got some use out of it but he said he hadn’t used it in years. It says Genuine Armory Steel on top of the barrel in front of the hammer. I think it says Norwich (something) US on the receiver. Should I leave it in this condition and put it on the wall?

Attachments:

1. 

   dads-scaled.jpg
   

My late husband’s guns. All of them, but particularly his shotguns from pheasant season. He was the last to shoot them and it tears me up that he’ll never shoot them again.

Very sorry lady.

A toss up. My first “rifle” that I bought at age 18 (present to myself for going to work for our Uncle)…a Walther KKJ 22LR. This thing is deadly.

A 1935 Winchester Model 67 single shot. With plain-Jane CCI Blazer ammo it shoots great for practicing standing at 50yds.