doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Losing a shooting friend

One of my sporting clays shooting friends recently passed away. His son called me and said his Dad wanted another gentleman and me to have first crack at purchasing his doubles. I think I have seen most of them but off the top of my head he has a low or middle grade Arrieta 12, a copy of the Ithaca Classic Dbl 20, without the Ithaca labeling. An older heavy English dbl labeled Vickers, in 12 ga and an RBL which I can't remember but I think is a 20ga. They are all i decent shape. I like the look of the Ithaca but have heard their quality is very questionable. Not looking for or expecting a bargain, just helping out the son of friend. Any advice is welcome

Look at the ithaca and judge the quality make sure everything works barrel fit forend fit ejectors working.might be a nice gun.

Off the top of your head, find out what else he had. Then decide.

Touchy situation. Being nice without being greedy. I was in a similar situation just recently. Friend passed away and all his really nice guns were for sale that his wife had. Another friend was handling the sale at our club and when I started asking questions, HE went into the hospital and died of pneumonia. Now I don't know what happened to them and I'm afraid to ask. He had a brand new- Ljutic trap gun that was engraved by Angelo Bee, I was really interested in. I never did find how much they were asking so I just forgot about it and let it go. It is a difficult ordeal.

Of late, I find myself deeply troubled when a former shooting friend passes on. I say “ former” because, to a large degree, none of my friends I used to hunt with can do it anymore. I have a bunch of guns left to me by friends and family, I literally don’t have room for another gun, and should liquidate at least a few I don’t use, but, I find myself with a knot in the pit of my stomach when I try to contemplate doing so.

My younger brother is fading away in a nursing home, and for reasons I can’t explain, I have been unable to put any of his guns to use. Somehow, it doesn’t feel right. I have worked on nearly all of them, know them like my own, but, there is a subtle pain that comes from handling them now, knowing in my heart that while he is very much alive, he will never handle them again.

I don’t want for any more guns. I want for more friends that can put them to use, and enjoy a day afield. I never knew how few my hunting partners were until my Dad passed away in 2009. My son will go, if there is nothing else pressing in his world. My wife will tag along on an occasional half day trip. I am blessed with a couple friends left, but, to a one, they are out of state, and only briefly available.

I dread some widow calling me to help her disperse a late friends stuff. I truly do.

Best,
Ted

Ted,
At 76 years, I get it. Some years ago I purchased a 28 ga. Merkel that I was interested in from a shooting buddy. He passed before we could come to the sale, and his son contacted me and I purchased it. It became bitter sweet to me, and I shoot it yearly at the anniversary of my friends passing. I can't bring myself to buy a close friends things because of that.
Karl

I find myself in this same unsettling place just now. I didn’t know Buck, only of him, but we’re from the same Missouri county and I happen to be here now “just up the road” from Pevely. I suppose Buck’s death is affecting me because I’m in the midst of difficult decisions relative to an elderly aunt in a nursing home. She and her late husband were like second parents to me and whenever I pick up one of his guns I have emotions beyond what I would have expected. I’ve attributed them to what retired psychology professor Susan Whitbourne calls “meaning.” “There’s a lot of meaning that gets attached to objects,”. To hold his deer rifle is to be flooded with memories of past times along these Ozark hillsides.

And that brings me to the other piece of this experience: places. Canadian writer Molly Parker said, “The landscape you grow up in speaks to you in a way that nowhere else does.”

It sure does. The guns of our family and friends are a large part of our personal hunting heritage and when they’re coupled with the places we hunted together they are powerful. I confess, physically and emotionally, I’m in a place just now where eternity has drawn uncomfortably close and my first reaction is, I don’t like it. But then truthfully I have to say, I actually do.

I'm headed back tomorrow to my "growing-up" landscape for a family funeral. I will likely take the time to drive to some of the places I hunted with that extended family (grandfather, uncles, cousins, father, brother, etc.) to reconnect with those feelings and that "meaning". And, you're right...eternity seems to be drawing closer all the time now. There aren't many of those "hunters" left now.

Old guys sitting on piles of guns for sentimental reasons do their departed friends no favors. They only leave the task to someone who likely will have no reason to concern themselves with more than just seeing the things out the door.
Sell them now and give the money to some worthy charity in honor of the person it came from.