heirloom
My granddad bought a Winchester M88 -.308, mail order, from Montgomery Wards, in 1956. ( I have the box). He likely did not hunt that rifle more than 5-6 seasons, and turned ill and passed away. But.........he was proud of that rifle. When I was very young, Pap would pull all the chairs away from the dining room table, lay a sheet across the top so the sides draped down, and light a kerosene lantern (in the house mind you). We'd crawl under the table (that was our "tent"). The M88 was propped over in the corner. We were at deer camp.
Before he died, Pap wrote a special note to insure that the M88 came my way. My Dad hunted the rifle for a few years, but it became mine when I was big enough to handle it. I killed my first whitetail with that rifle, 1973-74. It was my only "deer rifle" for over a decade, and I killed about a dozen or so, the last being my longest shot to date. Hunting hard, with long seasons, I became concerned about heavily damaging Pap's rifle in an ATV or treestand episode, and started selectively hunting it, but never took another shot. I eventually became enough of a rifle looney that the old M88 passed into full retirement as I hunted other rifles, or my bow, exclusively.
Last season, while wiping off the guns in the safe, when I got to the M88, I realized I needed to put the old girl back in the field. A modern 6x scope, rezero, and again, some selective hunts. When I young meat buck strolled up to less than 50 yds, he went down cleanly. It was the old rifles first kill l in about 25 years.
Pap hunted it, my dad hunted it, I hunt it, and I expect bamaboy will hunt it.
I did not give one red cent for the rifle, but it is priceless.