doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Any Younger Viewers Here?

I remember being 21. The first rifle I sporterized. The first drink and I didn't even get carded. Michael when is your next book coming out?

I will bet when Michael from the Colorado School of trades sees this. You will have several of his students logging on. Whitey

Thanks Michael, for reminding us of what we all should be doing,
that is encouraging the next generation.

Michael,

An interesting post. I think the main reason is until one is older in life he may not have the time or money to devote himself to these collectable guns.

You see we seem to have the same "problem" in our CA side by side society. Until recently, I was probably the youngest at 55. (I was 50, I think when I joined.) Recently we have a few new younger members, but only a few. I have tried to encourage member to bring their (grand) children to get them interested in doubles.

My son who is 23 has participated in some of our events, but he is more interested in the shooting than the guns.

All of my adult life I have tried to get others involved in the shooting sports somehow and believe that if I want to enjoy my guns when I retire, we better encourage our youth. As a past director of California Waterfowl Association, and Chairmen Emeritus of the Fresno Fundraiser, I built our fundraiser dinner by involving both kids and women.

I have encouraged my wife to shoot too. We shoot sporting clays together regularly. She has hunted pen raised birds and now wants to hunt when we go on Safari in 2012.

My group of friends do the same and participate in all of the youth hunts. See the posting in the double shotgun section for my "off topic but you'll like it" post. It shows my friends 9 1/2 year old daughter at the CA youth waterfowl hunt with her first limit of duck and her 1st goose that is part of her first limit of geese. That is what I am talking about!

The future will only be ours if we all do the same.

Jerry

We're speaking of two different things here, Jerry has touched on it.

One is the future of hunting and shooting. We can certainly do something about that by introducing the young to those sports. They may or may not take up the mantle but we can help the process along by exposing them to the different types of shooting sports and the equipment used for them.

On the other hand collecting is usually an older man's passion simply because of the financial outlay involved. When I started I certainly didn't have the extra cash floating around to start acquiring good guns, I bought a Browning BPS and a couple of extra barrels and did all my shooting with that for many years.

This board is more about collecting than shooting so I would not put more emphasis than is warranted on the lack of youngsters here. I'm 55 and yet to find my first quality Springfield sporter...

One other thing that we should not overlook is spouses and significant others. We always speak of the need to encourage the young, and rightly so but if each of could interest our wife or girlfriend that would immediately double our numbers. When I met my sweetheart 9 years ago she was a veteran of the Million Mom March. Two years running I took her to the Vintagers here in NY, she became interested (the clothes especially helped). She then took a course offered here in NY and around the country, "Becoming an Outdoors Woman" where she learned to shoot both rifle and shotgun. Her outlook has changed.

Of course you would need to be as charming as I to influence a woman such as this....

Rob,
You said it better than I did.

Jerry

maybe its that charm of yours....

I am not about to tell how many Mausers and Springfields I had sporterized, some would say ruined, by the time I was 21.

There were a few that military collectors today would have probably wanted to teach a young "snot-nosed kid" a thing or two if they had seen them.

Who would have ever dreamed it would cost more than $25.00 for a really nice 1903 Springfield? They were everywhere back then.

Thanks for all the well thought out and great post. Still time for any younger member to speak up.

When I was 14 or so I was waiting tables at the Boulderado Hotel in Boulder Colorado. I saved every cent of my tips and when Sears (or was it Penneys) in Boulder put 1891 Argentine Mausers on sale for $29 I bought one. Bought the rifle which came with a 100-rounds of FMJ and a box of Norma hunting ammo. I still remember walking from the store back to the hotel with the rifle in one hand and ammo in the other.

One of the first things I did was cut off the stock and with a hacksaw and file shortened the barrel. If I remember correctly the front sight was on a band or I made it a band. I then filed the barrel down for the front sight to fit and soldered it on, a couple times until I got it right.

I shot a couple deer with it then ordered a semi-finished stock from ???? for less then $10 and got the rifle into the stock using a knife and a couple of my dad's chisels. Horrible job but looked good to me at the time.

I've not stopped yet, just don't try to screw up many unaltered military rifles. For those who never had a 91-Mauser the workmanship was tops of any military Mauser IMO.

I agree. My second sporterization attempt was an 1891 long rifle from Century Arms in '62, I was 16 and it had 99.9% of the original blue except where the crest had been ground. I followed the mannlicher-style example shown in the Williams Gun Sight Co book How To Sporterize Military Rifles and it actually turned out rather well, considering.

I still have a couple of 1891 Loewe-made project actions including one with an absolutely brand new never-numbered & never-used NOS receiver with unground crest and 100% original creamy-smooth blue. I have never seen better workmanship on any military Mauser than on the 1891.
Regards, Joe

I was 25 in Gunsmithing School and 91 Mausers were so cheap I decided to chop this one in half (hacksaw) and gas weld it back together. I had much help from GS Dept. Dean Bill Prator (metalsmithing mentor) but still managed to get a slight bind in the bolt. I altered the bolt face and lengthened the extractor for .22 Hornet and dreamed of a custom Mannlicher stocked single shot ala Lenard Brownell. It has been gathering patina ever since.
At the time I didn't think of my self as a youth and there was nothing else in the world I wanted to do but build custom rifles.