What is your oldest gun?
- Thread starter Robenstein
- Start date
- Status
For me it's a Belgian made Browning .22 pump action rifle. I wouldn't sell it for anything.
My grandfather bought it when he was in his teens during the great depression. He was living on his parents' farm in central Alberta, Canada.
It cost him $14 in the 1930's, which was a fortune at the time, especially for a teen-ager. In those days the government was paying a 50 cent bounty on muskrat pelts and my grandfather told me that it took him about 6 weeks or less to pay off the rifle on their farm that his father had homesteaded some years before.
It was that rifle and their trap lines that helped see his family through the depression. Before my grandfather died at 97 years old some years ago, he asked me if there was anything I would like to end up with. I told him I didn't want anything or any money from his will, but if he would like to give it to me, I'd sure like that Browning. He gave it to me on the spot, and I have been shooting it ever since. It's at least as accurate as my friend's ruger 10/22 and shoots great just with the iron sights which have held their zero after all these years.
I'm going to pass it on to my daughter or my nephew along with its history from, and the meaning it had to their great grandfather.
My grandfather bought it when he was in his teens during the great depression. He was living on his parents' farm in central Alberta, Canada.
It cost him $14 in the 1930's, which was a fortune at the time, especially for a teen-ager. In those days the government was paying a 50 cent bounty on muskrat pelts and my grandfather told me that it took him about 6 weeks or less to pay off the rifle on their farm that his father had homesteaded some years before.
It was that rifle and their trap lines that helped see his family through the depression. Before my grandfather died at 97 years old some years ago, he asked me if there was anything I would like to end up with. I told him I didn't want anything or any money from his will, but if he would like to give it to me, I'd sure like that Browning. He gave it to me on the spot, and I have been shooting it ever since. It's at least as accurate as my friend's ruger 10/22 and shoots great just with the iron sights which have held their zero after all these years.
I'm going to pass it on to my daughter or my nephew along with its history from, and the meaning it had to their great grandfather.
1942 Mosin-Nagant in the lovely 7.62x54R
I hate that thing.
I love my late-'70s 12ga Wingmaster pump.
I hate that thing.
I love my late-'70s 12ga Wingmaster pump.
Another Mosin Nagant 91-30 here. It has a barrel date of 1924, but a receiver tang date of 1900.
Last edited:
I just got an old junior sized riverside arms 12ga. single shot. 2 3/4" shells. Nearly as I can figure, this gun dates to 1925-35. You can't date them exactly, because J. Stevens (Riverside's parent company) was investigated for war profiteering post-WWII and all of their records were 'lost' never to be found again.
I traded $25 dollars of malt liquor for it. It's worth about $35 in fair shape, but this was just a bucket of rust. I've got it all stripped down and I'll be refinishing it (or, I should say, filling in the stock with epoxy and painting the gun with caliper paint) The bore is pitted like a sewer pipe, but none of the pits are deep. Should be a cute little gun when it's all finished.
I traded $25 dollars of malt liquor for it. It's worth about $35 in fair shape, but this was just a bucket of rust. I've got it all stripped down and I'll be refinishing it (or, I should say, filling in the stock with epoxy and painting the gun with caliper paint) The bore is pitted like a sewer pipe, but none of the pits are deep. Should be a cute little gun when it's all finished.
- Status