What do you do with a rifle that has sentimental value attached to it? Maybe it was dad's, maybe you took your first deer with it, or maybe it just went with you on your first "real" hunting trip. Would you leave the rifle the way it was when the memory attached to it occured to preserve the memories? Or would you treat it to a facelift/upgrade (i.e. have it built into a fine custom with classic styling) BECAUSE it is a special gun to you? I guess this is more of a moral/ethical question and really doesn't have much to do with gunsmithing, but I would be interested in your thoughts and opinions.

Thanks,
Bob

P.S. Assume selling is not an option!

Unless it's a pretty-near-unserviceable piece of junk, I'd probably leave it as is.

That said, I've got a Stevens 511A 12 ga. double that my wife bought for me our first Christmas together. I've hunted with it an awful lot. I never liked the brown paint on the "hardwood" stock. Stripped it off, stained it with Dixie gunstock stain (which is Fiebing's Mahogany leather dye, available cheaper from Tandy Leather), and finished it with multiple hand-rubbed coats of linseed oil and finally Johnson's Paste Wax. Looks really nice! Won't make any of the fellows with high-grade trap and skeet guns jealous, but I'm happy with it.

(For anybody unfamiliar with the 511A, it looks superficially like the 311, but it's not a takedown gun. The barrels are fixed to the action by a semipermanently attached toggle link, and the blocky forend is screwed to the underside of the barrel. The barrels have no raised rib, and are rather coarsely finished. It has a simple extractor, no ejectors. The action is likewise rather coarsely "polished" and color case-hardened. It was American-made. It was offered in 12 and 20 gauges with 3" chambers with 28" modified and full-choked barrels, and if I recall correctly, mine was sold for $118.95 at a Woolco store in Homewood, Alabama in December, 1978.)

Bobvthunter

I have a 1935 Browning Auto5 that belonged to my grandfather,a very old Savage Model 6 that belonged to my great grandfather and a Sako L579 that belonged to my father. They are all well maintained and functional,but never will be refinished or reblued.All that worn blueing and those dents in the stocks have great value to me.All 3 get used regularly. I will probably rebarrel the Sako when it absolutely needs it,but I had it tuned up recently and it shoots fine for now.Just my opinion.

Covey16

ps

I figure anything I have purchased is fair game for modification or refurbishing. Again, just my opinion.

Have it checked for mechanical problems/worn parts.
Make necessary repairs.
Pass it on to someone who is aware of its history, and will value it as much you do.

George

Thanks for the responses so far!

Reason I ask is... I've got a pre-64 M70 .30-06 Std. of mid-'50s vintage that I took my first deer with this year. The finish on the stock is pretty good and there are no serious damage to it (no deep scratches, marring, gouges, etc). However, a recoil pad has been added, which (to me) is not a problem in and of itself, but the LOP is shorter than I would like it. And I recently noticed the beginnings of a small crack in the inletting behind the magazine well. Also there is some "oxidation", I'll call it, (not rust) in places on the barrel and action that doesn't affect function, but to me is unsightly when I take the time to notice it. I suppose I could add a spacer in front of the pad, put in a crossbolt and bed with epoxy, and have the gun reblued. Or just get a different stock and reblue. But any of those options gets me away from the rifle in it's current form just the same as having it truly restored or made into a fine custom would.

I guess part of me wants to keep the rifle as it was the day I took that deer, but another part would like to address some of the issues discussed above and I can see "reviving" the rifle (in one way or another) as a way of honoring the memory attached to it. I don't know...

This is probably more of a personal decision that I'm turning into a public one. Keep the responses coming though!

Thanks,
Bob

I'd leave it be.

If you are happy to hunt with the rifle as it is, leave it alone, otherwise fix it. Most important thing, keep using the rifle in one form or the other. The memories will still be there even if there are exterior modifications.
- mike

Bob:

My late brother left me a Model 700 Classic, among other things. I made a personal promise to always hunt the first day of the season with that gun. It's almost like he's with me. But that's just me. Do whatever feels right. But don't underestimate your children, grandchildren, nephews or neices. One may someday step forward and want to remember YOU for the rest of their life......

MKane 160 aka BigDogMK

I'm now making totally enclosed solid hardwood boxes with laminated glass and argon interiors for just that purpose.

It retires a gun with very little way of getting at it.

There's a lot of old side by sides that need to be retired...and without insulting grandpa.

I have an unusual perspective. I have my deceased son's guns. For two years these guns were cleaned each year, but never shot. Two summers ago I changed my thinking on what I should or should not do with the this unwelcome inheritance. I now shoot them on a regular basis and hunted this past deer season with his deer rifle. I've done improvements to both his turkey shotgun and deer rifle that he planned. I will follow along these lines until they are passed to brother.

All of the posts have merit and deep thought in the hunting woods brings each of us to different answers and all of them are correct for those of us that hold and use these guns until we pass them down to someone worthy.

Each of my keeper guns and those inherited from family have some written history to go with them. The family hunting/shooting history of the particular guns are important pieces of the legacy to be handed down. I would encourage each of you to consider writing a few notes on the history of the guns you own or have inherited.

I have a few like that. I cleaned one up and put a scope on it for my son (Model 25 Glenfield 22) to teach him to shoot with. The rest get hunted on special days or weather perfect. A Rem 1100 goes to shoot clays once in a great while. Put it away and wait til the mood strikes you or someone else is ready for their first deer, squirrel or what ever. My son is named after the man I got the Marlin from so I figured it was fitting he learn to shoot with one of his late Uncles guns.

I would try to keep it as is, if I could. It can be hard though. The first 'sentimental' gun I had was my Grandfathers old single shot, in awful shape. There was no way to get it functional, so I refinished it, and glued the then wirewrapped buttstock together, and treated it as a wall hanger, now it is with one of my relatives to whom it had more meaning.
I saw one gent who had a run of the mill hunting rifle from the 60s. He had used with his late father when hunting and wanted it redone for sentimental reasons. He sent it off for bluing and to have the wood redone. The job was awful, and I mean God awful, harsh sanding marks etc. I felt bad for the guy, a piece of dear personal history for him that had been mauled.

My dad was given a semi-auto rifle by a GI during WW2 which during it's life only fired about 60 shots. That was our farm gun.
My government bought it back and crushed it
No sentiment, that their bloody problem!

I've been pondering the same question.
I've got five, maybe six, fire arms of the same nature. One is a Stevens 'Crackshot' 22 that my father used on his trap line back in the 20s, another is the 45 auto he carried through out his intire military career, a Walther PPK, 32 cal, picked up from a MP Sargent after the Battle of the Bulge, traded his fabric flight jacket for it, an 8mm Mauser picked up from the steps of the Cathedral of Cologn. the Germans parked a tank on the steps with a few riflemen to cover it, seems none of the riflemen or tankers survived, and a 22 cal. single shot Mauser used by the Hitler Youth. It seems the young man that was issued this rifle made the mistake of shooting one of the US troopers with it, the trooper returned the favor with a hand grenade. The barrel is rusted and the wood is stained where the young German bled on it.
I'm keeping the weapons clean and oiled, planning on getting brass plates to inlet into the stocks of the rifles telling the weapons tale. The handguns will have a discription of it's significance in the zip lock bag with it.
I'm not sure that any of this has any interest or significance to my daughters, so I may give these important items to a friend or some one I think would enjoy them. Who knows one of my Grandsons my like them.
Jim

I have one such terrible dilemma - my old hunting buddy has left India for the Caribbean where he lives these days and I recently went to visit his mother and spend a day with her some twenty years after I had last been to their farm. I took out his old .22 - a nameless single shot with a breech block that slides back a little and turns to the side to load a single round directly into the barrel and which is fired by a tiny bolt in the breech block which is puled back with a finger and thumb.

My friend's mother wants to sell the rifle and has asked for my help in selling it. I guess I will help her do this, but it would also mean that a very valuable part of our lives as boys, and later, young hunters would end with this rifle getting sold. My friend cannot take it to where he lives now because the laws in that country only allow pistols and shotguns - he enjoys shooting both and even owns a gun club to boot, but I don't guess he loves any of his current high-tech gunsmore than that little rifle.

I hope whoever buys it cares for it and looks after it well.

My dad gave me his Belgein Superposed .20ga Lightening as a graduation present. The bluing was worn off the bottom of the receiver and the stock was too short. He had no problem with me rebluing the gun, refinishing the stock and putting a spacer and pad on it. He actually encouraged me to do it. It looks as new now as the day he got it. And it still has all the same sentimental value to me. It is the gun I saw him carry on more opening days than I care to remember, something I think about every time I pick it up.