Why, oh why do they do this??

[Ithaca Gunner]

If I want to provide information on a gun as to ownership or something else, if it's s long arm I'll write the information down on paper, seal it, and tuck it under the butplate.

[rintinglen]

In 1969, the instructor at my hunters safety class recommended inscribing our SSN or other identifier on our guns to aid in recovery if they were stolen. Times have changed, I guess, no one ever steals guns anymore, they just steal identities.

[keithfan]

A year ago today, my best "gun" buddy Gary died of a heart attack. He was 7 days away from turning 64. We were close friends for over 30 years. I sold a bunch of his guns/ammo/etc for his wife and kids. I bought what I could afford. After everything was settled, she gave his 5.56 Mossberg bolt gun. Wouldn`t take any money for it. I had a small, green plate engraved (the rifle is camo`d) with his name, RIP, and dates of his birth and death, and stuck it on the stock. I`ll never sell it, and doubt if my kids ever will. BUT, if need be, it wouldn`t be hard to remove it. I still miss that guy...

[Greg S]

Could have been an award gun or presentation type deal.

[John Wayne]

Murf, that Browning is worth big bucks...you just have to find another Dr. Robert Rogers.
I only notch the wood on my firearms, for the ones that don't get hung.
JW

[John Wayne]

]Attachment 330303Attachment 330304Attachment 330305
This one’s worth a million bucks to us. My Dad left to his 5 month old great grandson with instructions to my son that he give it to him when he’s old enough. Daddy died 3 months later. BAR 30/06 that took many a fine deer.

Nice story Hogtamer. Your Dad was a class act!
JW

[elmacgyver0]

Anyone who wants to put their name on the side of their gun, more power to them, it is their gun.

[K43]

It was a "thing" back in the '40s through the '60s. Just like sporterizing and diamond inlays on stocks. Easy to criticize today what was the norm back in their day.
One doesn't have to buy it, just leave it on the rack.

[TNsailorman]

I lived through the 40 and 50's and hunted quite a bit. I never saw a hunter with a gun of any type that had his name, or ss number on it. I agree that it is the owner's gun and he can do anything that he wants to with it. But someday it will belong to whomever he left it too when he passed on and then the value will plummet unless it is a member of his family. Around my neck of the woods, such firearms were almost impossible to sell unless they were dirt cheap, and I mean dirt cheap. my experience anyway, james

[elmacgyver0]

There are a lot better ways to leave an inheritance to your survivors than firearms.
More times than not some greedy scalper ends up with them after screwing the inheritors.
Now I think I will go dig out my engraving pencil.

[15meter]

In 1969, the instructor at my hunters safety class recommended inscribing our SSN or other identifier on our guns to aid in recovery if they were stolen. Times have changed, I guess, no one ever steals guns anymore, they just steal identities.

Back in the day, the recommendation was to put your driver's license number on everything, televisions, tools, stereo equipment, firearms, basically anything that could be pawned.

The theory was, a pawn shop wouldn't take stuff with a driver's license number scratched in it.

[walnut1704]

I've got a four cavity Lyman mold that has a name and SS# electro penciled on one block AND the sprue plate.

[ebb]

I think of it like this. On your gun that you paid for do as you please. One someone else's gun that they paid for, I don't even think you should have the ability to comment on what they did or didn't do. A friend and I bought 5 Turk Mausers for $59.00 with the intention of sporteizing them. They were junk, and just what we were looking for. Someone commented on how we had destroyed fine military rifles, and it was a sin against God and humanity. If he wanted to save them he could have bought them and done as he pleased. But when you or I have bought them, no one gets a say in what we do or don't do. I see military collectors that own nice examples of great rifles that are so scared of losing value that they are never cleaned or oiled, and are rust pitted below the wood line.

[Noah Zark]

years ago they did not have computers to search numbers quickly, they had to do it by hand and local police did not have resources to do a number search or the time so people would put their name on stuff so if it was stolen they had a chance of getting it back if it was recovered, all my grandfathers guns have his name on them but he did it in hidden areas

^^^ THIS. ~50 years ago people were ENCOURAGED by the local LE community to indelibly mark or engrave valuables such as firearms with one's name and either DLN or SSN to both a) avoid theft and b) make it easier to recover those items which had been stolen. The logic of the time held that theoretically the indelible marking would deter theft because it would make "fencing" the stolen goods more difficult. I was "present at the creation" and remember it like yesterday. There were ads in magazines and newspapers, posters in public areas, and even some gun writers did articles on how to get your guns professionally engraved instead of doing it freehand and all sloppy-like.

And here we are . . .

Noah

[K43]

If the PO who had his name engraved was famous, you'd be ecstatic.