What is neatest shooting related item given to you by a friend?

I was at a K of C meeting earlier in the month. After the meeting one of the Knights walked up and told me he was moving. He told me that his son in law was buying the house, and there was some shooting supplies still there. He stated that they made his son in law uncomfortable
and wanting to know if I wanted them or could get rid of them for him. I told John just to drop off the reloading supplies at the shop and I would find them a good home. I'm always trying to help a fellow Knight. Here's what was in the bag..... Never been opened!

 

Score

 

A friend at work who retired a couple of years before me gave me a .45 with absolutely no markings on it. No Mfg., no serial #. no anything. In research I found out Colt made 250 unmarked frames and sent to another mfg. for the slides on a rush job for the Army near the end of WW2. If I remember correctly Ithaca made the slides. Bulge.

 

A clear "Shooter" Glass Target Ball !!!

I have a Miniture museum of trapshooting memorabelia, and this was a great gift to me.

Plus he gives me all sorts of Valuable information about the OLD time trap shooting.

Dave in Fl.

Below is one of the Original Traps (Western White Flyer "auto angle") from my old club in Canandaigua NY.

 

Nice score Brian. All I ever got was a wad popper.

 

A trapshooting friend from Virginia that has pretty much given up on shooting gave me his Hornady 366 that is all set up for 1oz loads this winter. Also included were 7 or 8 thousand new STS hulls.

Ron Burdick

 

A nice old friend (now deceased) gave me a Hornady Apex loader when I was a new shooter.

 

A few years ago a man I had known almost all my life told be that he had something he wanted me to have and that he had a gift for my wife too. We went out to his gun safe and he took out two Ljutic's, a Banana Gun and an X-73.

Had a lot of offers on the Banana Gun and a few on the X-73. Both guns will go to someone who will enjoy them as much as we both have, I hope that time is a long way off, I still have a lot of shooting left to do.

Jim

 

And all of the wonderful items another special friend gave us for our little museum in memory of his Daddy.

 

Friend before he passed lent me a .22 high standard pistol... put it on my pistol permit... and off to shoot i went.
I shot well and when i got home called him to make arrangements to take off my permit and return to him... he said take my time since he no longer used it. He died in a accident a few months later and in his will was not only the .22 but his .45 and .38 super with range box and all his reloading supplies... i still can not bring myself to shoot them... afraid i will not be able to keep it together if i do.

 

I know what you mean. I have my grandpa's Lefever double barrel shotgun. I took it hunting after Christmas one afternoon, and spent more time crying than I did hunting. Thanks for sharing, that's what this post is all about.

 

My father-in-law gave me a Browning BAR in .338 Win. Magnum, made in Belgium, that he forgot in a vinyl case after hunting in the rain and snow. The finish was popping off the wood and the metal was as rusty as it could have been without pitting. I restored it to look new again and then he asked to use it for Deer season. I couldn't really say no, so I gave it back to him to use. I finally asked for it back at Christmas time only to find out he traded it off for another gun. He passed it off as new in the box because he saved the box from when he originally bought it. Nice guy!

 

We had a shooter that is a regular at our shoots. His wife makes these head/neck bands filled with those beads that swell up and hold water. He showed up with half a dozen or more of those and handed them out to all our help since it was so dang hot. Super nice guy. I still use the neck band and think I need to pay it forward.

 

That was pretty neat.

FOR HIM!

Too bad you can't find out who he sold it to. You could tell the guy it wasn't NIB. Then ask him to come on here and tell us how he contacted your father in law.

That would be a really "neat" story.
You know the old saying, paybacks are a b&#~h.

Flyersarebest

 

He died a few years ago, but he was one of them guys you couldn't say "Hi" to on the street without it costing you money. I divorced his daughter after 20+ years but he and I remained friends and hunting buddies. When I asked him to marry her, he tried to warn me, but I didn't listen back then. The gun was minor compared to what his daughter cost me.

 

I think I cherish these gifts the most as they came unexpected and in the spirit of friendship.

Two good friends surprised me with a Director's Chair a few years ago when I was presented with an opportunity to oversee a few historical items (over 5,000). One of those friends is departed and in the pictures by poster Brad's friend (I hope) who was the second friend involved with this gift.

Judy, wife of Brad's friend (I hope), made the beautiful pillows which are on display on my couch every day.

The Bogardus glass ball target is the toughest gift to talk about. I had emailed and talked by phone with Mr. Mike O'Malley, of Pleasant Hill, Mo., who was gracious enough to assist me with a project I started back about 2008. Mike made nearly all the arrangements for this project which was to place a headstone on the grave of an old-time pioneer shooter who was from his home town. We finally met face-to-face at the Grand American and talked for 3 hours about the project, vintage targets and trapshooting history. As he was leaving, he had his wife hand me a small box and he instructed me to open it. Inside was a $500 Bogardus glass ball. I had told Mike that I didn't have any glass balls but was saving up for a Bogardus and a Paine ball. I was excited to see this ball and told Mike I only had about $250 I could give him then and he should hold it and when I get the other half paid off, he could send me the ball.

Big Mike would not heard of it and said he wouldn't except a dime. I said: "Well you just can't give me the ball; because I can't accept gifts and besides, you don't even know me." He said "I know you, we just spent 3 hours talking and I know what you'll do with that ball. You'll take it around everywhere you go and tell people about an old target used in the 1870s. And that my friend is worth a gift of a $500 glass ball."

I was a grown man in my late 50's and I could not hold the tears back. I still get choked up every time I talk about it. I thought of him as a "big brother" and still do. He departed this life a few years back but you just don't forget a man like Mike O'Malley, never. Rest in Peace Big Brother.

 

I was presented with a like new "Leg of Mutton" Model 12 gun case by a friend who knew about me and my Model 12s ... I offered to pay him for it and he said he could not think of a better place for it to be than with me ... I have it tucked away so it don't get damaged ... WPT ... (YAC) ...