A happy ending over 50 years in the making

Today I held my holy grail in my hand. A very long search has ended. I hope you enjoy the story.

I’m 61 years old. Almost 100 years ago, my grandfather’s grandmother bought him an Eatonia boys rifle. The little 22 single shot.

When I was a young kid, over 50 years ago, I was allowed to look and handle the gun (under supervision of coarse). One day, I leaned it against the kitchen wall and the little gun fell down breaking the stock in half where the screw went through the stock to hold the barrel assembly to the stock.

My grandfather had a local woodworker make a replacement stock for the gun. The new stock was functional but kind of ugly.

I learned to shoot with the little gun and popped many a grouse in the head with it.

When my grandfather died, the little 22 passed to me. It was the first gun my 3 girls girls learned to shoot. It will be the first gun my 3 granddaughters learn to shoot with.

I have many times looked to find a proper stock for the little gun. I would gladly have had someone make a better copy if I could have got my hands on an original.

A couple weeks ago, I was down an internet rabbit hole researching another of my guns and I came across a link for old Cooey parts. I called the unknown area code and spoke to an old fellow who had just retired from his years of fixing up old Cooeys and finding parts and making new parts where needed. He gave me another phone number….another unknown area code of the young guy that he had passed on the business and inventory to. I called. Low and behold he had tons of old Cooey parts, barrels, forearms, stocks and he said he indeed had a stock for the little single shot. I had him send me a couple pictures and it looked right.

Now the big question: Do you ship to Canada? He laughed - he’s in BC. Turns out the first fellow was in Alberta. I gladly etransfered the funds and he shipped the stock that day. It took almost two very painful weeks to ship but it arrived today and is perfect. My hands shook a bit as I assembled the gun. It’s been over 50 years but the old girl is finally “right” again!!!

I am so pleased.

I’ll post the contact info in a separate post and hopefully more similar happy endings can happen.

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Nice story and thanks for sharing your memories.
I also have one of them Cooey single shot model 75
Fun to plink with in the yard with subsonic ammo

Awesome story and great ending, it looks beautiful…

Thank You for sharing-nice story.

I got one of those guns, good fun to shoot with at the cabin, great story ending.

Heart warming story. Great to have a family heirloom pass down the generations.

There is a great group on Facebook for Cooey enthusiasts.

I have an Eatonia in 25 with a spare bolt that I had the firing pin made square to have more pressure on the rim and the headspace adjusted to be able to fire 17 WSM cases, which I am loading for the 25.

I also got a Canuck Junior for my boy, almost 100 years old.

They are still so accurate.

Very cool find and story...

Great story with the best ending.

Great Story! I've got a couple of those little singles and a couple repeaters. The singles were my Grandfathers also and one of the repeaters belonged to my father. I was 10 yrs old when dad passed away and always wondered what happened to his .22. One day, when I was 21 an uncle of mine presented it to me. Said he kept it for me, which sure put a smile on my face!

I really enjoyed reading this story. The neat part, and something to remember, is that a rifle doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg to have tremendous value. I hope that your grandkids eventually pass the rifle down to their grandkids. :)