Your Favorite Hand-Me-Down

[2rocky]

Unless you are a total orphan I'm sure we all have had things we cherished, someone else in our family owned. I've had more than my fair share of them.

My Childless uncle has been quite good to me , allowing me to buy Items he upgraded ...
His Horse in the 80's
His '77 GMC Sierra Grande pickup in the 90's

you?

 

[noharleyyet]

My Dad's WWII medals...Stepmother gave to me after he passed. I'd never seen nor heard of em before she handed them to me.

 

[geetar]

My great uncle Van bought a pair of carhartt duck pants right as he was getting too old to hunt much. Well they sat in the closet for a few years with the tags still on them till his wife gave them to me when I was about 13 years old. These were the good old Carhartts with the rivets at the seams. I wore them as my hunting pants with a hand me down army field jacket my dad gave me. I killed my first buck wearing this outfit and later after the pants were worn pretty good I had my mom cut the legs off of them and sew the bottom shut and add handles to make a duck blind bag. My uncle Van was a duck hunter that inspired me to take up the sport as well and I later named my Boykin Spaniel after him. Uncle Van passed on in 2005 but the blind bag, the memories, and the inspiration lives on.

 

[LuketheDog]

My granddad's denim Wrangler chore coat and his Bailey cowboy hat

 

[mdeerjunkie]

My grandfathers WWII bayonet and Medals. Something I will always cherish. As it shows the great sacrifice he and many men made. He was always ready and willing to serve his country. We owe a lot to those men! I’m just glad I got to spend some time with him.

 

[JustinsDad]

My grandpa was Sherriff in a very small town in Arizona. One night a drunk blew his leg off with a shotgun. He remained Sherriff. He just had a wooden leg, that’s all. Men were tough back then. He patrolled on horseback after that with his trusty lever action 303 Savage in a scabbard. My grandpa died when my dad was either 9 or 11. I can’t remember that part for sure. My dad was the oldest of 5 brothers so he inherited that rifle and scabbard. He literally had to hunt successfully to feed his brothers as his mom (my grandma) was in a fiery car accident and could hardly walk. I went hunting as a kid in the 1960s and watched my dad take deer with that rifle. When my father passed I inherited it. My son will get it soon enough. It’s a low dollar rifle but I wouldn’t sell it for any amount of money.

 

[tarheel]

My uncle, whom I never got to meet, was killed in Belgium during the Battle of the Bulge. He was buried in a village cemetery near where he was killed and a Belgian family adopted and looked after his grave until he was disinterred and moved back home. They wrote a letter of introduction to my Grandparents and assured them his grave would be cared for and thanked them for their sacrifice which contributed to their being rid of the Nazis. They were very appreciative and kind to my Grandparents. My aunt had the letter and because I as the nephew who most looked like him and reminded her the most of him gave me the letter along with his last Christmas card to them, written just before he was killed, as well as his diary. These documents are a real treasure to me and help me make a connection to the uncle I never knew.

 

[SFC B]

The only real hand me downs I have gotten to this point were totally unrelated to the outdoors. When my mom passed (I was 15) I got her wedding rings. The diamonds are now in both my and my wife's rings and I still have the actual rings. Hopefully they will keep going. From my dad I got a tie bar that was my grandfather's. Grandpa Born died 3 years before I was born and that is literally the only bit of him I know. I wear it every time I put a tie on (not much anymore).

 

[Dsnow9]

Cools thread!

Grandfather Dad’s side: Airforce metals from 30 years of service starting with just before WWII and the knife he carried in vietnam.

Grandmother Dad’s side: Wedding ring, proposed with it and added a custom made band to it when we got married.

Grandfather Mom’s side: A full set of buffalo head nickel button covers and a men’s silver ring with a massive chunk of turquoise on it.

Other than that, when it comes to my dad and younger brother, they usually get all my hand-me-downs as I upgrade my stuff. Mainly jackets, pants, and hunting stuff.

 

[JFish]

Fortunately it has not been handed down to me yet, but my father’s Remington 700 that he purchased new in the 1960’s full of decades of wear and use will one day be handed down to me. One day I will have a very reflective walk in the woods with that rifle. I will be fortunate to have luck with it.

 

[Werty]

A bear recurve from my grandfather.

 

[Deleted member 16014]

Very interesting thread. I’m young enough to not have inherited the most interesting items just yet, and hope it’s long till I do.

Among them is a carbine supposed to have been owned and hunted by Bill Cody. It was given many decades ago as a thanks to my grandfather for bailing a fellow out of jail, who later went on to international renown as a cowboy poet. As true an old cowboy as there ever was, the poet still walks the streets of a certain Montana town; and I don’t mean figuratively, that’s really what he does most of the day. The rifle was likely never Cody’s of course but it’s a neat old piece of history, and highlights two characters who I’ve known and admired.

 

[Huntkook]

I have three. My Great Grandfathers gold railroad watch, my Grandfather's double barrel Stevens shotgun and my Father's American Flyer train set.

 

[NDGuy]

My dad's Ruger Single Six he bought back in the late 80s. I put new Rosewood Altamont grips on it last winter. It looks sharp as hell and I will treasure it forever. It's a nice piece paired with my new Ruger Wrangler revolver too!

 

[glass eye]

This thread got me to thinking and I really can't think of anything other than my mom's wedding dress. I asked my mom for it when my wife and I got married. Then my daughter used it for her wedding.

As for me personally, I'm #7 of 8 kids and I don't have anything. Only some vintage hand tools that I "borrowed" from my dad when I was 12 years old to use for my taxidermy. I still use them today.

 

[6mm Remington]

An old Winchester Model 1873 lever action rifle in 38-40 WCF that was my grandfathers, then my dads, and now it's mine..


Remington Model 600 Centennial made in 1964 which was the 75th anniversary of Montana Statehood and 100th anniversary of the Montana Territory. My first big-game rifle my dad gave to me and now belongs to my oldest son.



Winchester Model 1892 in 25-20 WCF that was my grandfathers and now belongs to me.

Gewehr 98 Mauser in 8mm that my grandfather brought back with him from World War II.



This German Mauser was used by my father to shoot his first deer with.

 

[6mm Remington]

This is a great thread. Thanks for starting it 2rocky! It makes me sit back and think of these special people that were or are still a very important part of our lives.

 

[JMG]

Maybe not a hand-me-down … but … my Dad bought me a Ruger 30-06 for a high school graduation gift and I cannot seem to want to use another gun. I have shot that gun so much and harvested a lot of animals (big and small). I can throw that thing up on my shoulder and know where it's going to hit. If it's off ... it's me. I have purchase other guns, but I always gravitate to the ol' 30-06.

 

[Scott85]

I got my PawPaw's footlocker from WW2 with all his navy stuff, his 30-06 Remington 740, Remington Sportsman 58 and Remington 1100. Also he gave me and my cousin 100 acres in the mountains of Virginia.

 

[pre6422hornet]

I have a few things handed down to me that are outdoor related ( 1941 model 70 in 22 hornet being the first) but just last week I/we received a hand me down from beyond the grave.

My brother passed away in 1995 from cancer at the age of 18. He was stricken most of his life with various lower GI issues ( colon cancer at the age of 12) and one week after his 18th birthday he was diagnosed with cancer again, this time in his lungs. He asked us all to forgive him but he didn't want to fight anymore, and to respect his wishes to not receive chemo or any treatment. He passed away 5 weeks later.

Fast forward to last week. I received a message via Facebook from a long time friend who was the same age as my brother. I graduated with her brother and my older sister graduated with their oldest brother. We had been close all through school and with the way of life, grew apart. She said in her message that when she was 6 years old, my little brother gave her a butterfly charm on her birthday and she had kept it all these years, 40+, and it had meant so much to her that she kept it in her jewelry box and whenever she needed help with something in life, she would take it out and keep Johnny with her for strength. Our third daughter is named after my brother, her middle name is John and she reminds me of him a lot.

She wanted us to have that little butterfly charm and hoped that it gave our girls a little piece of my brother that she had cherished for all these years. The charm arrived unharmed with the most heart felt letter I have ever read. Needless to say this is my favorite hand me down and always will be.