Thread: Rifles you wish you never sold

A bit of a story for me on this one. in 1980 when I was 15 my father bought a 1949 BRNO 22 Hornet at a farm clearing sale for me. A beautiful rifle with the hair trigger function and in pretty good nick other than a small chip off the stock near the bottom of the plate. I used the rifle for rabbits etc on school holidays, and once I went to varsity (Lincoln) it kept the flat freezer full of game meat despite being a bit under-gunned for larger animals. By the end of 1986 when I finished my degree I was offered a job in Napier and was flat broke. I had no funds at all and sold the rifle to get the money to travel north and get set up. I got $300 for it.

Pretty much from the day I sold it I regretted it. Fast forward to about 10 years ago when I decided to buy the same type of rifle to put my mistake right. It took until about 2012 before I saw the same make, year and calibre for sale and in seemingly good condition. Deal done and the rifle was on it's way from Rotorua (I paid $900 for it). I was pretty excited to open the package once I picked it up and could not believe what I saw - a chip out of the stock exactly the same as the one I sold. I asked the seller if he knew the history of the rifle and he said he'd bought it off a guy in Christchurch many years before. It seems I had bought the same rifle back.

I have since gifted the rifle to my son earlier this year when he turned 21, along with the story about it and and undertaking never to sell it. It still shoots well and remains my favourite rifle, even though I don't own it any more.