[Shadowsix]

Very cool story padredan! You just never know what will happen over the years!

I have a similar story of a inexpensive gun disappearing on me for over 2 decades only to reappear in my life in the last year.

Back in 1981 while stationed at a USAF base in Idaho I bought my first cartridge revolver (I had built a kit 1851 Navy Colt replica in the mid 70's I loved to fire) which is a nickle plated Hawes Western Marshal .357 that was 20 years old then for $200.00. My parents bought a holster & sent it to me and I wore it around when camping or just in the wilderness in Idaho.

After the military I went to college back in Florida and one weekend in 1988 I went shooting with a friend in which I had left my gun at his parent's house afterwards. I was busy with classes & he with his first business so it stayed there long enough (2 monthes) to be a part of his parent's move to another place (I know, silly me). When they unpacked at their new place my Hawes and his guns were not to be found.

It was assumed the mover made them disappear but nothing was ever proven.

Fast forward 23 years and my friend's mother passes away and he has to go through her belongings which includes a storage unit with some boxes left unopened from that move in '88.

He opens a box marked toys from his room he grew up in and what is laying in amongst his old toys but the HAWES!! Seems his parent's maid at the time thought it was a toy & packed it in there. Considering the size weight of it, it is amazing that she thought it was a toy!

He gave it back to me on a visit I made to Florida last year and I brought it back home and had a gunsmith look it over and it is a great shooter still!

Unfortunately his guns (a M1911 & a vented stock M1) did really disappear.

For me it was fortuitous that it disappeared for 23 years because while I was married in the '90s my now ex-wife towards the end of our marriage pawned all my guns at the time and had it been with me would have been done away with too!

All my guns I own now are post her except for my Hawes. It's not a collectable but it is fun to shoot and I love it.

Below is a picture of it now. It did amazingly well for sitting in a cardboard box in humid storage in Florida for what in now a 50 year old gun!

P.S. although I definitely want a 9mm Luger shooter I am also considering also a Stoeger (steel frame) or Erma .22LR Luger too.