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
