doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Where did all the passion come from??

At 19, I think I am probably the youngest member on here. My dad hunted when he was younger, but hasn't hunted in decades. My grandfather was a hunter and a fisherman, but died 6 months before I was born. His gun are in storage in NE, and have been for all 19 years of my life, I hope I get them someday. I was always outside as a younger kid, my parents hated video games and we didnt' have cable. I spent a lot of time at the pond near my house. I became an expert frog catcher. I moved on to fishing, and was instantly hooked (pun intended). Loved bass fishing, and did it with some uncles. My uncles are BIG hunters. Between the 3 that hunt, they have been all over the world and shot just about everything you can shoot. They started to get me into it, and I loved any excuse to play outside. I have always loved dogs and been good with them, so bird hunting was a good way to combine my two interests. Convinced my parents I should get a GSP, and found a guy living in a trailer with a GSP who had too much energy and got him for free. That free dog has turned into one helluva gun dog with a lot of training, time and money. Started doing a lot of reading, fell in love with SxS guns. I have expanded to big game hunting, took my first elk this year. Now I lust for a double rifle, but that will probably have to wait until after college. As a freshman I still have a long way to go. I plan to study abroad, hopefully in New Zealand or Australia and hope to do some hunting there. I attribute my love of the outdoors, hunting, and guns to my grandfather, uncles, and some of you gentlemen. The internet has taught me a lot and provided me with a lot of mentors.

I got my first taste of hunting as a 6 yr old in NE Montana in the early sixties. My first gun my father bought for me and my brother was a singleshot Stevens .22 . I still have that gun.

My brother and I also did double duty as my dad's bird dogs. That didn't help.

In my late teens, I took up the .22's again and started rabbit hunting and psuedo varmint hunting with a highschool friend and my brother. That led to rifle, handgun and archery hunting with my friend. My brother didn't hang with it in his adulthood. The friend is tipped over into big game hunting, you know the type; eats, breathes, sleeps hunting, specifically elk.

I've worked in and owned a machineshop and always was fascinated with the machinework of guns. Over the years I modified many guns, including making a very very short 1911 45acp as well as a compensated 1911, rifle stockwork, thread and chambering of rifle barrels, etc.

During an extended period of unemployment, I smith'd for a local shop and fixed whatever came in the door. Recoil pads, reassembly of owner disassembly, made parts for replacement of broken parts or lost parts, just about any thing on any type of gun.

I took to birdhunting about 15 yrs ago and did it for a few years then went onto horses pretty seriously for a decade. I recently (3-4 yrs ago) took it up again.

Basically, I owe my hunting passion to my father and my gun passion to my early first career as a machinist.

Late in the 19th century my grandfather purchased a block of land with a 30 acre pond on the northern edge of Michigan's Manistee National Forest. As a kid we go to the "Pond" nearly every weekend. The pond had nothing but large brook trout and shiners in it, and I have fond memories of going out in the boat with my grandfather and watching him fly fish.

The surrounding land had some great grouse and woodcock coverts, and that is where my passion for bird hunting began. My grandfather had a Fox 20 bore and an Ithaca that I think was a 12 bore. He had a number of other shotguns and rifles, but the Fox and Ithaca are the ones I best remember.

When I was about 10 my Dad took me to Manistee and bought me an Ithaca 22 to replace my Daisy. It was used to reduce the water snake population along the spillway that scared my Mom and sister, and on other small game. I still have that gun, although I have not shot it in probably 30 years.

I have hunted grouse and pheasant all my life, although from the time I entered the service in 1967 until the late seventies I had less opportunity. In 1981 my wife and I moved to Traverse City, Michigan primarily for a better lifestyle than the suburbs of Chicago provided. I immediately ran into a number of grouse hunters and purchased my first shotgun a 20 ga. Ruger Red Label. I did not like the 7 lb. weight or the funny feeling of looking down one barrel and soon purchased a used Sauer 20 ga. Well one thing led to another and since then I have purchased more side by sides than one man needs.

As an old grouse hunting partner of mine in Marquette, Michigan likes to say "I don't know how many shotguns I have, but I know I need one more".

RMC I really enjoyed the thread you stared on Grandpa and Dad's guns, and this one has been just as much fun? Saw a few responses to my thread on dogs we grew up with and that has also been great.

Maybe we need one on "Are we passing along the passion" - what do you think?

Thanks,

Chicago (Mike)

Passion? All of us here are privileged passionate nuts. We've been hunting or shooting or collecting for a long time. It's this board that got my juices jangling. I'm hunting with my Lab five times more than before. Five times the pleasure, too.

I started a little later in life. No one in my family hunted or shot. I did grow up in the outdoors fishing, skiing, camping and boating. I became friendly with another member of this board, Jeff G. through another common passion. We met scuba diving almost 20 years ago and became very good friends. Jeff introduced me to upland game hunting at his property in New York and it became another great excuse to be spending time outside.
About 10 years ago I picked up my first double gun a Browning Superposed. Over time I've added to the collection with an Ithaca Flues 16 ga. an L.C Smith Ideal 12 ga. and a Verney-Carron 16 ga. french SxS.
Last year we traveled to So. Dakota and next we're looking at a trip to Canada. The shooting/hunting world has introduced to a lot of good people and great memories. I'm looking forward to see where it goes next.

I was fortunate to grow up in a hunting household. In fact, my entire extended family of uncles and cousins and family friends were all fanatical hunters. My dad, his brother and his father were market hunters and guides back in the day - hunting is as much a part of my life as breathing air is. I still have my first gun, a Stevens 3 shot bolt action .410, as well as an ever expanding collection of hardware. They are mostly shotguns, about half SxSs as well as a few others, but I've also decided that there has not been a firearm made that I don't like! So I also have a number of rifles, some for hunting and some, like the AR-15s, for longer range target shooting, coyote hunting and just plain fun. The pistols are another burgeoning addiction!

In spite of my love of all things firearm, I have to admit that waterfowl hunting is my life's passion. The rest of the year is merely preparation for duck and goose season.

Both my sons are excellent shots with shotgun, pistol and rifle, having been started as early as possible. May the tradition continue...

I'm late to the party -- again. This statement will make more sense at the end of my post.
Earliest memory is finding a high brass Remington Express at the edge of my Grand-father's farm lane. I was four years old, no lie. My grand-mother emptied the contents to my howling displeasure, but the hull remained a treasure for years, along with the spent casings and rabbit tails my Grand-father saved for me after upland hunts. There are still a half dozen of the green Rem. Expresses he never fired on my bedroom dresser. Dad got me a junior license at ten, and I carried a single shot .16 ga.Iver Johnson hammer gun for two years. My twelfth birthday saw a new Stevens 20 ga. double. I hated it. It was as heavy as lead and swung like a fence post. Besides, it wasn't a REAL gun. A REAL gun was a 12 ga. cannon like all the grown-ups carried. I graduated to a real .12 ga. double at sixteen, my Father's old Nitro Special that he no longer used. I carried a gun in the field until I was twenty -grouse, rabbits, pheasants. I didn't carry a gun afield again for thirty-eight years. Four years ago I discovered the joy of doubles and upland hunting again. Found an old 16 ga. Flues I liked, then a Fox 16 ga.; two more 16s, a 1909 Sauer and a '44 Sauer have joined them, along with a Belgium guild hammer-gun .16. I still have the Iver Johnson and the Lefever Nitro. What I don't have is youth and the thirty-eight years I let slip away. Regret is too soft a word. But from this vantage point, when the horizon in front is nearer than the one to the rear, appreciation is heightened for a great many things that escape youth. I am indebted also, to several members of this board -- Jeff G., Bill G., Uplander, Bill C. -- for comradeship and friendship and a generosity of spirit not so easy to find in society at large.
I told you I came late to the party. Better late than never.

I was exposed to hunting pretty early 7-8 years old. I was the designated game bearer during a rabbit hunt attended by my father and brother. I got enough of that pretty quick! Later on one of my school chums and I got permission to hunt on a few small farms in the area and we discovered quail hunting. No dogs involved just a lot of walking and not much shooting with our bolt action shotguns.I had an insatiable desire for reading anything pertaining to hunting, fishing, guns etc. One summer the book mobile came to our neighhood and I discovered Robert Ruark's USE ENOUGH GUN. That was all I needed!! I still credit that book for my love of heavy rifles. During high school I hunted and fished little, too many other distractions. After getting married at the ripe old age of 19 I started to fish with my new father-in-law and started hunting again, mostly small game. It was a few years later I met a fellow at work that was a certified dyed in the wool gun nut. He convinced me to join a local gun club and it was all down hill from there! We shot high power competition, small bore matches,blackpowder and Schutzen matches.We spent many hours at the range. The only shotgun shooting I did was hunting until a friend invited me to shoot some skeet with him...I was hooked.We started shooting on weekends and on Wednesday night. We have lighted trap & skeet fields and we would shoot till late night or until we ran out of shells. I love to hunt and all that goes with it, But I really love to shoot.....a lot!!!! I am fortunate that I have made a lot of friends with an equal desire for hunting,shooting and guns.

Best,
Ken

The passion continues with all the great guns still to be bought. It continues with the thought of next autumn's first hunt.
Collecting, and hunting can be a 365 days a year thing.
Who needs baseball, but hey, we're the world champs!