The Ones That Got Away

[Dean Romig]

I generally fall asleep in the deer blind and can't begin to say what thoughts pass through my subconscious while I'm sitting there quietly becoming covered up in the pure white sifted snow...

I sold my 1965 GTO a long, long time ago and to this day have this inhumane nightmare that I still own it stored away in some vine-covered garage somewhere in the woods next to a deserted stone mansion that I can't find... go figure that one out - I certainly can't.

Guns I have sold and regretted ever after? - My Dad's wonderfully accurate Savage 99 in .300 Savage. He was well into Alzheimer's and didn't even know he had a rifle much less remember that he had taken his ten-year-old boy deer hunting in Vermont back in '58. I had my own rifle and didn't need his long-barreled Savage that weighed about 8 lbs. and so I sold it and his Lyman hand loading kit with dies, scale, etc., bullets, shells, primers, powder, early reloading books and the military ammo box that held all that stuff all for $300. The guy who bought it left my house with a distinct gleam in his eye making me know deep inside I had let it go way too cheaply.

Parker Double Trap no. 230760. I'll always regret letting that one go but sacrificing that one made way for more nice Parkers - this I don't regret.

As time goes by I'm sure there will be others but in the meantime I take enormous pleasure in sleeping while on stand as the hiss of falling snow comforts me - it has always been my very favorite lullaby. Shhhh... be vewy, vewy quiet

[Double Play]

Originally Posted by Dean Romig

I take enormous pleasure in sleeping while on stand as the hiss of falling snow comforts me - it has always been my very favorite lullaby.

Now I understand why you never shoot any deer!!!

[Pa SxS]

There are times we are forced to sell things due to financial problems and there are times we sell things because we are young and stupid. I was in the latter category. I've told this before and it still makes me wonder "What was I thinking?"

Before my grandfather passed away, I bought a few of his guns one of which was his PH 12ga Parker with fluid steel barrels. It was his hunting gun and he was proud of it. Sometime back in the early 1980's I had to have the latest Trap Gun but didn't have all the cash needed to buy one. I was visiting a well known local gunsmith and he offered to buy it. I justified selling it because he agreed that if he ever decided to sell it, he would give me first chance to buy it back. It's amazing how the mind works when you want something bad enough.

Through the following years I kept wondering if he still had the gun but I never had occasion to visit him. It was 5 or so years later, I'm at my local trap club and one of the guys says, "Did you hear that Guy passed away?" My heart just about stopped! I said I have to get hold of his widow and see if he still has the Parker. He replied that all of Guy's guns were at the auctioneer to be sold at auction.

I was able to attend the auction and low and behold, there was the Parker in exactly the same condition as when I sold it. Believe me, I was prepared to take out a second mortgage to buy back the Parker. As I recall, I paid almost exactly the same price to buy it back as I got to sell it.

Talk about lucky, had my friend not mentioned that Guy had died, I doubt I would have known about the auction and the gun would not be in my possession today.