[Will_M]

Another thread got me thinking. I'm currently in school in Starkville, and my grandparents live just down the road. My grandad has apparently collected a lot of guns over the years. The problem is he's got so many he's forgotten about several. It's not that he's losing his memory, he just literally hasn't seen them in years (decades?) and forgot he had them.

Here's the inventory I've found that the response was "oh yeah I forgot about that one!" followed by the story of how he got it. Which is usually just as entertaining as the gun itself.

Auto Ordnance M1 Carbine - Got it as payment for some work he did while cotton consulting. He worked with a lot of poor farmers in the delta and the guy didn't have the money and offered him the gun. My grandad refused, he did a lot of pro bono work, but the farmer made him take it. He apparently used to have a GI ammo can full of .30 carbine that he and my dad just blew through because they were sick of having it around. And here I am really wanting to shoot it and the only ammo available is $1/round

1903 Springfield - Thought he'd lost it. Bought it after he left the army many, many years ago. It was his deer rifle until he upgraded many years later. Very good shape.

Browning A-5 - Made in Belgium. Obnoxious gun to shoot. Used it for dove and ducks. It was a gift from his dad if I remember right.

Dan Wesson .357 - He found it in a paper bag in his closet. Bluing is till perfect. Has the 8-inch and 2-inch barrels in the bag. I can't remember where he said he got this one. He told me to come borrow it soon. I plan to take him up on it.

Winchester Model 70 - The "real" model 70, not one of the "reproduction" ones they're making now. This was his deer rifle he upgraded to from the springfield.

There's several more, but these are the really interesting pieces.

Anyone have any stories like this?

 

[Joe S.]

sounds interesting! if you want to bring that dan wesson and model 70 to my house and forget about them for a few decades, iw ill be glad to tell my grandkids how i got them when they see me using them...

 

[Xd357]

That's cool Will.

 

[BearsBoy]

Mine isn't nearly as good a story, but... my dad used to do a little reloading and simple gunsmithing in the attic of the house he built for us in '63. (In fact, when I was 7 or 8 he brought home a 1911 to work on and I remember my younger brother and I shooting at some animal that our German Shepherds had treed.) The center of the attic was floored to about 10' from the eaves. When he died in '69 when I was ten my mother sold or gave away everything to do with guns except 4 long guns that he wanted me and my younger brother to have. But he had a 1910 Mauser Pocket Pistol that I knew she didn't get rid of... yet we never could find it. 5 years after his death we were moving out of the house and I had been looking for it while we were cleaning out the house and STILL no luck. As we were getting in the car to leave for the last time I just had to run back and look again. I went up into the attic and started feeling around under the insulation at the edge of the attic floor (for the umpteenth time) and the second place I put my hand... I found it! I guess Pop was guiding my hand that time.
Now I've misplaced it somewhere in my house. Haven't seen it in 6-8 years. But I know it's somewhere in the house.
Here's another twist to the story... Up until now I have been talking about my adoptive dad. Ten years ago I met my biological father and he has been passing on parts of his large collection to me every time I visit him. On one of my visits early this year he gave me 2 pistols; a 1935 French SACM... and a 1910 Mauser Pocket Pistol!

 

[Joe S.]

That's a neat coincidence!

 

[Will_M]

Well, well! Hopefully you'll find that gun's match so you can have the pair!

 

[BearsBoy]

Oh yeah, I hope to be moving to 4 acres sometime this year and maybe I can find it then. :rotflmao:

 

[NRA_guy]

Two stories:

1. My daddy worked at Columbus Air Force Base during WW II. A guy there asked Daddy to hold onto a .22 single shot rifle until he came back for it. He never did and Daddy moved down to Kemper County. That's the rifle my mama taught me to shoot from our front porch when I was about 6 years old. My brother still has it.

2. My son (an avid gun owner) married a girl (loves guns, too) who is an only child. One of her uncles died recently and had no heirs. In his attic was a ton of new, unfired guns. They were several decades old. The uncle was not "into" guns. Only thing they can figure was that he bought out a store that was closing or something. They'll never know.

 

[Free_Stater]

When I was 10 or 11 years old my first cousin and I were digging up my grandmother's back yard down in Pearl River County and hit a piece of metal. We dug it up, and it was a badly rusted action and barrel from some kind of percussion long gun. We thought it was cool, but we needed a seat for a rope swing out front, so we tied the rope to the barrel and used it like that for a while--until the barrel bent.

It ended up hanging over the staircase in her house, and when we were cleaning things out after her death in 1997 at age 95, I took the old gun, as nobody else wanted it, and it was my shovel that brought it up. To this day I have no idea what it is, other than knowing that the house was built on the site of one or two other homes, one of them dating back to the 1850s.

My grandmother's brother-in-law was an Army officer in WWII, and his issued sidearm was a Model 1917 Smith & Wesson .45 revolver. After my aunt's death the family auctioned off her belongings, and family members conspired to make sure I'd receive the old gun my uncle had taught me about back in the early 1960s. I have it in my safe, along with the single box of .45 Auto Rim ammunition he had for it. I've shot it a few times, but it's more a sentimental thing. The gun was manufactured in May of 1918.

 

[captain-03]

...2. My son (an avid gun owner) married a girl (loves guns, too) who is an only child. One of her uncles died recently and had no heirs. In his attic was a ton of new, unfired guns. They were several decades old. The uncle was not "into" guns. Only thing they can figure was that he bought out a store that was closing or something. They'll never know.

OK -- what happened to them!! They at your house!!!!!!!! :thumbup:

 

[NRA_guy]

...2. My son (an avid gun owner) married a girl (loves guns, too) who is an only child. One of her uncles died recently and had no heirs. In his attic was a ton of new, unfired guns. They were several decades old. The uncle was not "into" guns. Only thing they can figure was that he bought out a store that was closing or something. They'll never know.

OK -- what happened to them!! They at your house!!!!!!!! :thumbup:

They are proudly stored in a gun safe at my son's house (in another state.) He's as big a gun nut as his old dad---maybe bigger though it's hard to imagine.

It was a car full as he was transporting them.

I was a little afraid he would get stopped and some patrolman would go crazy.

 

[captain-03]

GREAT -- They have all been saved!! and in a good home!! :bigtu:

 

[SubGunFan]

I have "lost" a S&W Model 10 1.25" dia. 6" Bull-Barrel NRA Action Pistol revolver somewhere in my home................. Last seen.... about 1987. I know it is "hidden" somewhere, but I have forgotten where...... One day I will have a BIG SURPRIZE......

.

 

[captain-03]

I have "lost" a S&W Model 10 1.25" dia. 6" Bull-Barrel NRA Action Pistol revolver somewhere in my home................. Last seen.... about 1987. I know it is "hidden" somewhere, but I have forgotten where...... One day I will have a BIG SURPRIZE...... .

I really hate the admit it, but I have done the same thing. I moved back here from Baton Rouge, LA in 1990. Had a Colt AR that I can remember putting up somewhere (hiding it because I did not have a safe at the time). I did very little shooting due to family and work .... Have not seen it since!!

Lost another AR a few years ago for a couple of weeks. Had gone to the range (Magnolia) and came home. I thought I had brought it into the house but later that night when I got around to cleaning it, I could not find it. Searched the house and the truck to no avail. Actually got back into the truck and went back to the range thinking I may have left it there on the bench. Well, several weeks later the wife asked me (TOLD ME!!) to vacuum my study. My study has a set of double doors leading into it and I have always kept one of them open ... well, when I shut this door in order to vacuum behind it - there was the AR!! Been sitting there for about 2 weeks!! LOST RIGHT UNDER MY NOSE!!

 

[sidroski]

Friend's brother-in-law died. He told me the guy had nearly 600 guns, mostly cheap but a few nice one's in there. The guy loaned money over 40 years and those were collateral or he out and out bought them.
Well he died suddenly. One of his other brothers got over to his house and cleaned them all out (or the dead guy sold them shortly before his death, which would you believe). We were talking about it and even if the guns were only worth $100 per, that got up to $60k. Since they were all face to face, there was no paper trail.
Anyway, glad most of the stories have had a good ending. We've all had guns walk off, some recovered and some never to be seen again.

 

[rdj94a]

It's hard to say but I have lost stuff in my safe, only to have my son find it.

 

[NRA_guy]

A man who knows where all his guns are . . . does not have enough guns!

(At least so far I haven't lost a gun safe.) :lol3:

 

[savageshooter]

never had a grand dad with an attic to look in, all of them were dead before i was born. be very glad you have him and cheerious every minute!

 

[Mrs. Hammer]

My grandfather hid them in closets on shelves under blankets. We are still finding guns and he passed away 3 years ago the 17th of this month. I have a couple of them. 1 is a shotgun that belonged to my grandfathers father and the stock is cracked in 2 places but its a great family heirloom to pass on. The other is a winchester bolt action 30-06 that Hammer just recently got sighted in for me to hunt with that my grandfather used for hunting until he had back surgery and then I have the smoke pole and 22 my grandfather gave me for when I was shooting on a team in high school. Some of the guns have come up "missing" tho I feel certain I know exactly where they are.

 

[rebailey]

Attic Guns

When in high school I hunted with a friend whose grandfather lived with them. After he passed we were in the attic looking around and found several wood cases with grease on them. We opened them and found about 20 guns that were immersed in grease, most of it dried.We cleaned several up and found two L. C. Smiths and one Parker. We found also several Browning O/U and Winchester Model 12's. A veritable treasure trove. My friend's dad would let us use them but not sell them. I lost track of my friend later but always wondered what became of those beautiful guns.