Christmas 1950, I was eight years old and was thought old enough to have my own gun. Up to that time, I had used the guns of various grown ups. I received a J.C Higgins 101.25 bolt action 410 shotgun. It was a Stevens with the Sears brand on it.

I used it until Christmas 1954 when I got a Remington 11-48 in 20 gage. The lowly bolt 410 never got fired after that day. It stayed in my closet making every move with me until the present day, when it has been sitting in my shop gathering dust for years and I do mean dust. I took out the shop-vac to clean it.

Somewhere along the way, so many years ago I have no memory of when, the inner magazine tube went missing. So, it has sat for at least 50 years. I thought some day, I would run across a inner tube, but I never really looked very hard.

By chance today I ran across a fellow on Ebay who was parting an old J.C. Higgins 101.25 out and had the inner mag tube with a buy it now price of $19.00, so I jumped on it.

After the dust was gone, I found the old 410 in remarkable good shape and fully functional. I will do a complete clean up of metal and wood and when the tube gets here, I will take it shooting once more.

Talk about bringing a grin to an old man's face!