treasure in your firearm

[Guest GunTroll]

Anyone of you ever find out that your firearm has more than meets the eye? Whether its great recorded historical value or an actual item found in/on it?

I recently took apart my grandfathers WIN model 12, 12 gauge for a deep clean. Its got the US flaming bomb symbol on the ejection port side. While taking off the butt plate I found an old hunting license from the early fifties (51?) rolled up and stowed away in the stock nut recess. This would have been just after my grandfather got out of the Navy and came home. He was a WWII veteran. This has no value to anyone but me and my family but it is a treasure none the less. I put it in a baggie and put it back into the stock for someone else to find one day. Maybe I'll put one of mine in there one day.

Anyone have a similar story?

[StPatrick]

I wish I had something similar, but since I don't: you should use the hollow in the stock as a personal time capsule. Who knows, someday a couple generations from now, some distant GunTroll progeny could be posting the same question on whatever passes for message boards in the future. It's a very cool idea, and I think I'm going to steal it with my granddad's 870.

[Sandman]

I bought an old stevens 16 ga from my cousin...the butt plate was cracked so I took it off to try and match it up to a new one (still trying btw). In the stock, i found the original manual and the price tag from 1937. No additional value but many awesome-ness points.

[gregintenn]

I once took the door panel off a 67 Chevy II Nova I had and found a chicken feather and an old beer bottle cap. Does that count?

[Guest hillbilly007]

I have a Remington .22 Short that my Grandfather owned way back in the day. One day after my father gave it to me, I was taking it apart to clean and oil the stock and I found under the butt plate there were 7 notches cut into the wood. My father said he didn't put them there, so we figured that they had to have been made by my Grandfather. Don't know what they were for or what they mean, but it is interesting to look at and wonder.

[Deerbnb]

One of my uncles who lived next door to us when I was a kid passed away about 8 years ago. His daughter in law decided I should have an old gun that was his. I remember from 30 odd years ago him having a .22 pistol. She brought it to me zipped up in a rug. Wow A+ shape like brand new Hi-Standard Super Citation mod 104 with bull barrel. I was more than tickled. A few weeks later while she was cleaning she found the box in came in like a previous poster said no real extra value but some major cool points. In the box the hang tag from 1975 price 105.00 at Western Auto. Along with all manuals and exploded parts diagram was a 70's hunting guide (pocket size from MO.) My Uncle Morris was a hoot and I think of him everytime I handle or shoot that pistol.

[TN Outlaw]

i didn't find any treasure, but after my dad passed away in 2007 i got his old Marlin us cavalry edition 22 rifle it was his grandpas, every time i get it out it just brings back many great memories we had shooting it and hunting with it, that to me is treasure

[Guest GunTroll]

All of those are great stories.

Sounds goofy saying this but....Since I do what I do for a living, I handle bunches of firearms all the time. The cool part about general gunsmithing is the wide variety of firearms you see. Some of the old guns seem to speak to me, or perhaps I should say I wish they could. Many just have a feeling about them. A story of what they have done and who done it. Its one of the great pleasures of working on older firearms. Its a honor to work on them and I love to hear the stories that come with them from the folks that bring them in. Countless stories that start with...this use to belong to my grandfather.... . Love it! I can't wait to find something inside or hidden that belonged to a previous owner and get to present it to the current and see their reaction.

[peejman]

My K31 has the name and address of the Swiss citizen to which it was originally issued under the butt plate.