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I was reminiscing from another post about buying guns at Gibsons, etc. retail stores. It reminded me of a scary story from Christmas 1972. I was ten years old. We exchanged gifts on Christmas Eve, but Santa came Christmas morning. So that morning I ran into my grandparent's dining room to find the magical cache of Santa gifts. To my utter delight/amazement, there was a Remington Model 581 .22 LR rifle. I was fondling it while siblings and other relatives stood by. Naturally, part of my fondling including working the bolt action, whereupon I noticed a round going into the chamber. Whoops. I alerted Dad ("Um... Dad, this rifle is loaded."). We cleared the breech, then opened the tubular magazine to find at least a half dozen rounds in this baby. Dad was as mad as a dad-lawyer can get over a dangerous and potentially catastrophic act of negligence on somebody else's part. At this point, all the pretense of Santa's elves went out the window. It was quickly apparent that this rifle was bought at Oshman's Sporting Goods in Houston. I wasn't there for the Judgement Day, but I can only imagine what Dad told the Oshman's manager.

Anyway, the moral of the story is the same: treat every gun like it is loaded, even if it is new out of the box.

J.R.@A&M wrote:I was reminiscing from another post about buying guns at Gibsons, etc. retail stores. It reminded me of a scary story from Christmas 1972. I was ten years old. We exchanged gifts on Christmas Eve, but Santa came Christmas morning. So that morning I ran into my grandparent's dining room to find the magical cache of Santa gifts. To my utter delight/amazement, there was a Remington Model 581 .22 LR rifle. I was fondling it while siblings and other relatives stood by. Naturally, part of my fondling including working the bolt action, whereupon I noticed a round going into the breech. Whoops. I alerted Dad ("Um... Dad, this rifle is loaded."). We cleared the breech, then opened the tubular magazine to find at least a half dozen rounds in this baby. Dad was as mad as a dad-lawyer can get over a dangerous and potentially catastrophic act of negligence on somebody else's part. At this point, all the pretense of Santa's elves went out the window. It was quickly apparent that this rifle was bought at Oshman's Sporting Goods in Houston. I wasn't there for the Judgement Day, but I can only imagine what Dad told the Oshman's manager.

Anyway, the moral of the story is the same: treat every gun like it is loaded, even if it is new out of the box.

That's scary and weird. I can't imagine why any one would load ammo into a weapon for sale. My only Christmas gun was a 12 gauge J.C. Higgins Model 20 pump (High Standard Flite King) shotgun with Cutts Compensator and choke tubes when I was about 12-13. My skinny frame took a beating, but you wouldn't here me complain when we went goose hunting. I traded it for something in my twenties, but I ran across one of choke tubes not long ago.

I'm a little surprised your dad didn't check the gun to ensure it was unloaded at some point from the time he purchased it and the time he left it out for you. I would think several checks would have been in order before you got your hands on it.

mojo84 wrote:I'm a little surprised your dad didn't check the gun to ensure it was unloaded at some point from the time he purchased it and the time he left it out for you. I would think several checks would have been in order before you got your hands on it.

mojo84 wrote:I'm a little surprised your dad didn't check the gun to ensure it was unloaded at some point from the time he purchased it and the time he left it out for you. I would think several checks would have been in order before you got your hands on it.

I would have to agree with you. Maybe that's part of the reason Dad was so mad (partly mad at himself).

J.R.@A&M wrote:

mojo84 wrote:I'm a little surprised your dad didn't check the gun to ensure it was unloaded at some point from the time he purchased it and the time he left it out for you. I would think several checks would have been in order before you got your hands on it.

I would have to agree with you. Maybe that's part of the reason Dad was so mad (partly mad at himself).

I bet he never made that mistake again.

Yup, great catch on your part!

I have received and shipped thousands of firearms, I check every one as they come and go.

In all of those, I have received only one that was loaded, (fully).

Yet still, I check every one that I touch hoping to not miss the next one that comes through loaded, it may be going to a 10 year old that is not so attentive...

Always check, always safe.

This is the first time I have heard of this happening with a brand new store bought gun. Now with used one's I have ran into that at least a couple of times.

Deltaboy wrote:This is the first time I have heard of this happening with a brand new store bought gun. Now with used one's I have ran into that at least a couple of times.

In the early 70s there weren't nearly as many rules and the ones that did exist were often viewed as guidelines. This rifle may well have been sold, returned, and then resold as new.

Yep and they let us mail order them plus I could walk into any story and buy 30-30 ,16 gauge ammo and all the 22 I could pay for no questions asked.

Deltaboy wrote:Yep and they let us mail order them plus I could walk into any story and buy 30-30 ,16 gauge ammo and all the 22 I could pay for no questions asked.

I thought those mail order days ended by '68?

We ordered Guns from Sears and the Mailman stopped delivering them in Eastern Arkansas 1972.