Its a J.C. Higgins sears and roebuck bolt action .16 guage.   From what I've read its nothing special, or valuable, or anything but fun to shoot ( I hope).  I remember when we were little tykes he asked us which one we wanted to be ours and this is the one i picked.  
Cannot wait to make go boom.

Out of curiosity, what were the other choices?

there was a couple single shot shotguns i think, there was a pretty cool breech loader .25 rimfire,  trying to rememeber....single shot .22,  and then there was a m-1 springfield, but i think that wasn't there when we were asked to choose.  nothing really special mostly.  plus the springfields serial numbers are  low and believed to have  improperly hardened something or other.

Cool gun. I have my dad's Western Field 30-06 and his old Iver Johnson Champion 12 ga. They probably aren't worth much to anyone but me.

My parents house burnt! We lost all the firearms handed down

bummer

It is the Thought that counts , enjoy your new shooter

Is that the box fed? If so we got my son one in 20ga it has the PolyChoke. He loves busting pigeons and varmints with it. $50 at the flea market, and worth every penny.

My liberal duechebag brother got a almost identical .410 from our grandfather.  It sits in my dads closet, always has always will.  He wonders why I never take him to the range when he is in town.

Be careful it may be subject to a recall.  Sears no longer (due to the amount of time that has passed) takes any action but you do want to make sure it is not a recall gun.

Recall List

The bold handle serves as the locking lug and shear off.  With nothing holding the bolt back thebolt will be driven rearward and out of the receiver into your face.

Not trying to be a killjoy but better safe than sorry.

Hope it's not a recall gun.

Beat by minutes!

I have an interesting story about those superb shotguns as to why there were millions of them made but now they are somewhat rare.

The bolt is held in by a simple screw through the receiver that works fine when used as intended.

Some dumbass either left his out or let it get loose so it sheared off and when he tried to rack the bolt while still shouldering the gun, he pulled the bolt back into his eye.

Naturally he sued Sears and the decision was made to recall all the shotguns but they did it in a very unusual way.

The offered $100 for the bolts out of them.

They didnt want the guns back, they just didn't want any more dipshits putting their eye out like the first guy.

At the time the pawn shop racks were full of them and they sold for about $35.00.

When people found out that you could buy a shotgun at the pawn shop for $35.00 and sell the bolt to Sears for $100.00, they disappeared almost overnight!

Sears still has an active recall for the bolts but they dont pay $100.00 anymore.

I think you get a certificate for shoes or something.

Like I said earlier they are great guns and I've owned several.

There isnt anything wrong with them unless you're a dumbass who forgets to put his bolt screw back in and tries to work the bolt  with your eye in the way.

I've got a J C Higgins 12 ga Pump from my grandpa. It's always cool to have guns that used to belong to someone else. Of course that doesn't compare to the Colt .22 revolver, Belgian 3" magnum Browning and Savage/ Anschutz model 164 that he also handed down to me (through my dad).

Funny thing is, he always asks me if I've sold them, or if I still have them. I couldn't imagine parting with family heirlooms such as those.

Looks like I was misinformed and was relaying bad info.  I found some more info here:

lhttp://www.gunandgame.com/forums/shotguns/23069-jc-higgins-recall.html

Wifey walked by and said tell him, "Dude, don't put your guns on such a girly quilt....display them in a more manly way."

Sorry, but no pie if I didn't say it.

I do like the old shotgun though....some of my favorite guns are grampa's old ones.