Guns you had to fix even though they were worth less than it cost to fix them

[ramairthree]

https://photos.app.goo.gl/SsJSRYqN1FzrZpHSA

In the early 70s as a small kid the first pistol I ever shot was a 22 lr 9 1/2 inch barrel Colt Scout.

I don’t know where it came from.
It was my father’s only pistol.

The serial number dates it to 1959.

I don’t know when he got it.
It was a rural guy’s shoot rates at the dump, hunt raccoons, etc. worn, working gun.

It was his raccoon hunting gun.
Coon hunting where I was from involved sitting in the back of the truck while the old man and a buddy or two of his drank beer and drove along the dirt roads real slow waiting for the red tick, Black and Tan, princess Walker, etc. ran along in front sniffing along the ditches and stuff and catching sent and treeing a raccoon. You could not always see it to shoot it out of the tree, especially on some varieties of evergreens. This would require him climbing until he saw it and shooting it with this pistol.

Skins were worth about 35 dollars then.

When I asked why it had such a long barrel, he told me I would find out someday. The other guys would snicker and nobody would say why in front of me.
Before I was a teenager he died. I would walk out to deer hunt but never went raccoon hunting for years.

When I was about 16 an old buddy of his asked me to go with him. I brought the pistol. First treed one, I had to climb. About eight feet away on a branch it turned and head right for me. It was at eye level. I fired one into his head, and although definitely on its way to dying was still clumsily headed right for my face. and i instinctively pistol whipped the shit out of it and sent it right off the branch down below. I found out.

I have been taking it out to the range every year or two just to shoot. I have a ton of other pistols and it does not really fill a niche. I had replaced the worn plain wood grips and makeshift grip screw and nut with a very nice set years ago.

I went to get it out today and at first I thought the grip was loose. It was worse. On a SA the broken piece is just one piece to replace. On these Scout versions, the whole piece is unified. It is just some alloy. Not the kind of thing I can weld.

Bottom line is, I can’t just get rid of this gun. I have to fix it.

I am not even sure how it broke. Dropped? Fell? Just age?

When I was little I learned to shoot on this pistol and his father’s 1890 in 22 WRF. Basically a slightly shorter precursor to 22 magnum. I thought these guns would last and be around forever. Now the 1890 only works like a single shot. I have to find an expert to work on that I guess too.

I ordered a backstrap from Numirch Arms. Plus some grips and grip screws.

I had already bough an ejector rod from them ten or twenty years ago. The handle had broken off of that.

The part came.

It was listed as original Colt, used.

But it appears new, and with a different finish.

The fit and finsish was less polished and precise than the original. Is mine worn, or is it aftermarket? Sure did not look used.

But it worked.

The reproduction grip screws do not fit the used Colt grips. I will work on that.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/kYgRbK7QutfzynWA9



https://photos.app.goo.gl/YbB25UVouRswcDJq7

[dmd08]

My grandfather's Glenfield .22 bolt action with tubular magazine went to my Dad when my grandfather passed. This was before I was born. I learned to shoot with that .22. My whole life it never fed from the magazine. You had to shoot it as a single shot.

A few years back for my dad's birthday I found a gunsmith to go through it and replace parts to get it functioning properly and had the rifle re-blued.

Now my dad has his dad's functioning and beautifully finished Glenfield .22. Was the rifle worth it? No. Was it "worth it"? Yes.

[The_War_Wagon]

Norinco 1911!

Bought it new in '92, & the stupid thing began jamming (FTF) on the second mag of hardball.

WHATEVER it would've cost to fix, it WASN'T worth it. I promptly dumped it for something else.

[gaijin]

My pops pre mod 15, "Combat Masterpiece". Admittedly it was likely "worth fixing"- monetarily however.
It was (is) an older "4 screw', .38 Special, S&W K frame. Over the years it had been neglected and abused.
As a kid I remember, on very infrequent occasions, going with my dad to shoot his bedside gun. An old hubcap in the fork of a tree was a usual target. At 10, 15 yds. pop may have hit the hubcap once/twice on a good day. (Hubcaps were huge then)
This from single action.
My pop was not a gun guy. At least not a HANDgun guy.

I have replaced parts (hand/springs/missing strain screw) and it functions as intended. It will not be sold in my lifetime.

[RetroRevolver77]

My Grandfather's model Remington pump 22 from when he was a kid. It was the first gun I ever shot when I was just about five years old. We shot it at a lily pad out in a lake. That rifle is probably over a hundred years old now if not close to it. I had some things fixed on it. Worth it because I'll never sell it but I want to make sure it works.

[Tigereye]

I grew up with my uncle. I learned to birds, squirrels, and rabbits on an old Remington semi auto 20ga with an adjustable Rem choke. My uncle's dad got the shotgun for him when he was about 14 yrs old (the gun's about 55 yrs old). Probably 10-12 yrs ago, I saw the gun in a closet at his house. It was rusted and wood was all beaten up. I asked my uncle if I could borrow his gun for a quail hunt. I had his gun refinished and freshened up by a local gunsmith who did a fantastic job. You should have seen my uncle's face when I returned the "borrowed" gun.
So yeah, it was worth it.

[Arik]

My pops pre mod 15, "Combat Masterpiece". Admittedly it was likely "worth fixing"- monetarily however.
It was (is) an older "4 screw', .38 Special, S&W K frame. Over the years it had been neglected and abused.
As a kid I remember, on very infrequent occasions, going with my dad to shoot his bedside gun. An old hubcap in the fork of a tree was a usual target. At 10, 15 yds. pop may have hit the hubcap once/twice on a good day. (Hubcaps were huge then)
This from single action.
My pop was not a gun guy. At least not a HANDgun guy.

I have replaced parts (hand/springs/missing strain screw) and it functions as intended. It will not be sold in my lifetime.

Man you just described my dad, minus the hubcaps. Not a firearms guy. Owns one gun, can't hit much with it!

I can honestly say that I've never been in this situation. I've had one or two guns that needed fixing but they weren't cheap guns to begin with and I just sold them off. The only one I can think of at the moment was a commercial HiPower. Had all kinds of failures. Having said that....I got into guns in the Glock era when you're mid-range gun was problem free

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[Campbell]

I am guilty of throwing money at a couple of mosin nagants, I have a soft spot for them, and it doesn’t bother me to be “ upside down” on them.

[Krazykarl]

Sentimental value can never be equated to monetary value. Yes, spend the money and get it fixed. My Dad's 1897 Winchester shotgun. I put the wrong screw into the shell latch hole. Had to pay a gunsmith to get it drilled and tapped. I learned a lesson. I saved Dad's shotgun.

[Doc Safari]

I had a Remington 700 heavy fluted barrel .308 that some "gunsmith" had lapped the bolt lugs and in the process increased the headspace to just into the dangerous range. I had bought that rifle as a "fun" gun for about 300 bucks and now I was going to have to pay a gunsmith to set the barrel back and re-chamber it. IIRC that "fix" was going to cost pretty near what I paid for the whole gun--if not more (I honestly don't remember other than the fact that I was PISSED). I decided it was unfair to just foist a safety issue onto another owner so I paid to have it fixed.

Glad I did. The gunsmith doing the repair left it with a really tight chamber, and that gun shot dime-sized groups at 100 yards from then on. Like an idiot, I didn't know enough about precision rifles and thought all bolt guns would do that. I sold off the repaired gun for a Colt HBAR.

Years later, after trying a couple other bolt guns that didn't have anywhere near the accuracy of that 700, I realized I had a jewel and didn't even know it.

Somebody lucked out from my misfortune.