grandpa's guns, please look!!!

[sianbrimons]

Ok, to make a long story short, my grandfather was an avid firearm enthusiast, he didn't have a huge collection, however they were to be passed down in the family, the way things should be. However... my mother is very anti-gun, and while nobody else knew about it she came to him in his illness and got him to sell everything he had. he passed away last week and will be dearly missed, an amazing man...

So, i have located a receipt indicating a good number of them were sold to Kempf Gun Shop in Michigan City, IN. I have contacted that shop and he was quite unwilling to help in any way. But that's neither here nor there. Point is i'm in a desperate attempt to track even just 1 of them down, some of them were handed down to him back in the 40's, so here's a basic run-down of the ones i'm looking for, if you have one of these i BEG you to contact me about the possibility of buying them from you, it would mean the world to me and (parts of) my family. thank you for taking the time to read this far, without further ado:

-.38 Smith & Wesson 2" stainless s/n xxx605
-.38 D.A. Colt s/n xxx103 (1905 production)
-.45 Colt S.A. s/n xxx610 (1927)
-Winchester Mod 52 s/n xxx47A
-Woodsman .22 s/n xxx036
-.45 Colt National Match s/n xxx643

I know it's a long shot, but i'll be bumping this every so often, i know the chances of finding even 1 of them are extremely slim! But i still have to try right? Thank you for looking



_Clifford N Walters 1926-2010 E7 in the U.S. army, fought the tail end of WWII, and fought in Korea

 

[Andre46996]

Sorry about your loss..

Kemph is a (Not safe for INGO) try to get a hold of his daughter instead she is usually at the shop. While she is following in her old man's footsteps she is still a better human being I'll bet she would have a little compassion.

 

[clt46910]

I am sorry for your lost. I had the same kind of thing happen to our family.

Our stepmother took all the family guns and sold or gave them away to her son-in-laws. Some of them going back four generations. A complete will is very important, don't ever trust anyone. My dad had a general will trusting the stepmother would follow his wishes. She stole everything, so I can understand your lost.

I wish you the greatest luck to find at least a couple of them. Have you thought about a friend going in after memorizing the list and seeing what they could find?

 

[PatriotPride]

I'm sorry to hear about that. If I'm over that way I'll stop in and take a look.

 

[Goodcat]

subscribed, let us know if you find any!

 

[johnb62]

Sorry for your loss. I wish you the best in trying to recover one or more of those.

 

[mike4sigs]

sorry for your loss!
i hope you recover your grandfathers firearms !

 

[MACHINEGUN]

Your Grandfather sounded like a good and wise man... sorry to hear about his passing. So how come your Mother didn't ask you to take them or even give them to you? Family heirlooms like that are priceless and she just sold them off to a complete stranger? All I can say is WOW.. if my Mother did that with my Grandfather's firearms when he died.. her and I would be at war.

 

[sianbrimons]

Thank you everyone, and MACHINEGUN, he was a very good and wise man, my mother is very anti-gun, my father had an old .22 that was given to him by his grandfather, it ended up sold (by guess who) at a garage sale one day while he was at work... i think she feels that by letting these firearms be passed down that she'd be "enabling" us to own more. she simply can't separate he anti-gun agenda to realize this isn't about guns so much as being family heirlooms, representing a bond of father-son-grandson, etc...

on one hand yes, i'm very upset with my mother for what she has done, on the other hand she's still my mother. it's tough to figure out where to stand on the whole situation.

 

[Cru]

"sell" something important to her and say "yep, that's what it feels like"

By "sell" I mean just take and hide. Let her know you didn't sell it once you feel the lesson has been taught.

 

[FredMcIntire]

I know EXACTLY how you feel. I lost over $18,000 worth of guns a little less than 2 years ago. Just about the same way. I was moving around quite a bit and had most of my guns stored at my cousins house. She got sick and passed away. Her husband being the no good Son Of A ***** that he is assured me that my guns were fine there. They'd been married for almost 30 years so I trusted him. I told him I was going to come by and pick up my guns and he said they'd been stolen by a contractor working in the house after my cousin died. The truth was that him and a neighbor woman that had been given Power Of Attorney over my cousins affairs had sold my guns, along with lots of other priceless family treasures in a garage sale !!!! I'm sure a few went to local gun shops, too. These were guns that belonged to me, my father, uncle, grandfathers, including an original Colt 1860 Army black powder pistol. No amount of money could ever equal the value these guns had to me.

I'm hopeful that both of them will rot in hell !

Like you, I've looked at several gun shops, too. Its amazing how many of the gun shops I have checked don't want to help or check their books for their names to see if any of my guns ended up in their shop.

I'm sorry for your loss. Its very painful, I know.

 

[printcraft]

To add insult to injury Kemph probably gave her 10¢ on the dollar
for value and she probably did not know any better.



At the very least if he did not want to tell you who bought
them out of privacy for his customers he could have said he would
pass your information to them and let the customer decide if they
want to get ahold of you. That's what I would have done.

 

[Dog1]

To add insult to injury Kemph probably gave her 10¢ on the dollar
for value and she probably did not know any better.



At the very least if he did not want to tell you who bought
them out of privacy for his customers he could have said he would
pass your information to them and let the customer decide if they
want to get ahold of you. That's what I would have done.

Yea, that would have been a good plan, to pass on the info to the buyers.

That Kemp guy seems...

 

[ironjaw]

Yea, that would have been a good plan, to pass on the info to the buyers.

That Kemp guy seems...

I still think we out to have a meet and greet!......after hours at Kempf's!

 

[sianbrimons]

yep, that's exactly what i was asking him to do, simply to contact his buyers for me and pass my info to them, i completely understand the privacy issue of just giving me names and addresses and whatnot, but would it kill him to just pass an offer along to those to bought them? i think not..

 

[2cool9031]

Just go to Kempf's and buy them...I am sure he will have them out for sale depending how long ago he aquired them. He also sells on Gunbroker.

 

[glock2010]

sorry about your loss and i hope you find your grandfathers guns

 

[Hoosier8]

Won't happen here. I will put my firearms in my will for my daughter and she is a Marine so is not firearm adverse.

On the other hand, my uncle came back from WWII with a few firearms, most notably a Lugar and an MP40. His worthless son, a money grubber, sold them when my uncle passed away. I still have a Heer dagger he brought back.

Now if I give my guns to my daughter and she decides to sell them, well that will be her business.

 

[sianbrimons]

back up to the top, just in case...

 

[bat54r]

back up to the top, just in case...

Got my fingers crossed, I hope atleast one of them turns up for you.