doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Demographics-where you grew up, when, etc.

Grew up and still live on a farm in Ohio that's been in the family for 170 years. Surrounded by farms owned by old order Mennonites. I can be in downtown Cleveland or Pittsburgh in about an hour but it's very rural in my neighborhood.

Born in 1943 in DC; father was stationed at Ford Dedrick, MD raising germs for the govt. (I think). Family moved to CA after the war; raised on a cattle ranch in northern CA. Father was a vet (DVM). Married 40 years this December; have two grown sons, one a Marine, the other a high school teacher in Chicago. (Not sure which is more at risk, but very proud of both).

Everyone in my family has always been "gun nuts" (except my father) since forever. Taught myself to hunt (good thing) and shoot (bad thing) and been doing both since I was 6 (Good hunter; lousy shot). Still pretty mobile for someone who just got a Medicare card!

Lived in CA, OR, ID, WI, VT, and NY making a living with an English major's skills (or lack of skills, depending on how you look at it). Been a professor, editor, tech writer, ad man, community college administrator, and car salesman. Paid my way thru 10 years of college and grad school as a gardener, forest fire fighter, rent-a-cop, skip tracer, nightschool teacher and farm laborer. Never applied for a student loan (since 1929, my family has had a horror of debt).

Do a lot of backcountry volunteer work with a biological science team mainly because I need to be in the boonies regularly, which a Southern California beach town doesn't offer (On the other hand, it lacks black ice, too....).

Greatly enjoy this forum and hope members forgive (or skip) my windy "English major/old fart" posts!

Mike Armstrong

I grew up in a non shooting or hunting family in Massachusetts. Pestered my parents for a BB gun and a 22 rifle and had them by the time I was 14. You had to be 14 and pass a hunter safety class to get a license back in Mass. then as I remember it. I bought my 1st shotgun,a 16ga Fulton, when I was about 16 and killed my 1st Ruffed Grouse with it which were the only native birds we had to hunt. I bought a 12 ga Sterlingworth in 1966 and I still use it occasionally. The pheasants we hunted there were all stocked by fish & game.
Moved to the MidWest(Ind & Il) where I attended college and discovered that several classmates had grown up on farms there and were hunters so I developed a fondness for Quail hunting. We also went to Nebraska for Pheasants and Ducks yearly and an occasional Prairie Chicken. I shot deer in both Wisconsin and Il. The deer hunting in Il. was the best I've ever seen and I filled my tag every year.
Since I moved to Arizona I've done some big game(deer & elk) hunting but not much bird hunting which is something I wish to change this year and I'm hoping to link up with some of the posters on this site. I used to shoot a lot of trap and skeet but a rotator cuff problem limits that these days.
It's looks like we're in for a bumper crop of Gambel Quail this year and I had a pair in my suburban yard this morning with 18 chicks.
Jim

Born in Athens, Ga. April/1941.First gun i could hit birds with at age 13 was a 20 ga. Fox model B and have loved smallbore side by sides ever since! The lord has blessed me with good health but i am lazier than i used to be. No wild birds,quail to hunt but shoot a few woodcock every season. Love to work on and restock doubles. Bobby

Well since you asked...
Born 1947 in Madison WI but moved away when I was four. Since then I've lived in FL, IL, CA, TX and WA. My first gun was a Daisy Red Ryder that was handed down from an uncle. My first rifle, a 22, was a broken piece of junk I fixed. My first shotgun was a homemade 12 gauge I made when I was about 12. As a young kid, first in New Lenox IL and then in Woodridge IL, I plinked black birds, then moved up to squirrels and pheasants. My best friend, and a long time member of this board, was my hunting-fishing-trapping partner in high school. I've always had a preference for doubles, but never owned one until I was 23. My first double was a great looking single-triggered LC Smith that gave me nothing but trouble and I was glad to get rid of. My second double was a beat up 16 gauge Stevens 5100, I wish I'd never sold it.
Lately, since moving back to Houston, I've been drifting away from shooting much. I've been broke too many times in my life to be able to justify paying what it costs to shoot and hunt around here. It's a shame, I miss it.
Steve

Born 1947, Omaha, Nebraska, moved to Palco, Kansas, population c.300, at about age 7. The only shotgun I owned for years was my dad's Savage 775a in 16ga, and for about 20 years I didn't hunt or shoot. Got back into it through my father-in-law and brothers-in-law, got interested in double guns - all downhill from there!

Boy, Chuck!! I always figured there was something wrong with you!! Now I find out you are a Buckeye!! That figures!! Oh wait a minute, I live in the same house I grew up in right here south of Dayton. Do you remember LeSourdsville Lake Amusement Park when you were young, Chuck?

Counting back I figure I was a V-E Day celebration. Total city boy, born and raised in Seattle -- North Queen Anne Grade School, Queen Anne Jr/Sr Highschool, and University of Washington. Both my parents hunted and fished, and we sure didn't spend many weekends in Seattle. As my Mother use to say "we don't go on vacations, we go on endurance contests." My Father was the hardest core hunter and gun crank of six Minnesota farm boys, all hunters. Guerss I only got half the gene as I never took to the big game hunting my Father was into. I shot one Deer in 1962, but traded my sporterized 03A3 off for my second Fox shotgun in 1966.

GOOD IDEA CHUCK - Great thread.....
Born in '56, very small town in Illinois valley - working class folks. Cornfields and river bottoms everywhere - hedgerows and such too, and plenty to hunt, and we took it for granted that there always would be. Grandparents and their friends, Uncles, etc., all hunters and river rats. After school, went out to Oregon to work -- "Gettin' out of this chicken s--t town and aint never coming back - Get out where the dogs are barkin'. (like any young guy from a small town) Back in a couple years with new found respect for said town, and have stayed in the area since.
Tied it all and did many things well (some not so well). The few constants were hunting, shooting and woodworking - decoy carving, cabinet making, chainsaw carving - you name it. And then I tried making a gunstock --- Now can tell anyone that if they think they are a woodworker,to try making a stock and they will be humbled. Guns and carving all in one?? Can't get much better - (for me)
Getting older, and the fine hunting we once had here is a memory - (Big duck clubs are all still here for those who can afford them). Fence rows and waterways are hard to come by, let alone a pheasant, and the big flocks of ducks that used to come up from the river to work the fields in the evenings are gone (can't find much to eat on plowed ground).
Even still, will always shoot and work on guns as long as it is still legal. Have met most of the nicest folks I know through hunting and shooting - special kind of people.
As always, hoping this finds everyone well;
Bill

Western Pa, about 45 minutes from Pittsburgh in 1953. Could shoot in my back yard (and did, a lot). I routinely carried an old Spanish side by side in the trunk of my car to school for hunting after school (just imagine that today!). I hated my gym teacher, but never thought of walking in and shooting him. Went to a public high school that closed for opening day of deer season. Most dads in the neighborhood were WWII vets and everybody had guns (although I don't remember anyone "clinging" to them). Worked college summers in the local mills and whoever wrote the "Deer Hunter" must have been there too, because that's exactly what my experience was like in '72, '73 and '74. Spent 3 years in Hawaii getting a master's degree after college and relocated to Ohio after medical school and residency in Pittsburgh. Ohio has some darn good deer hunting. I pretty much only bowhunt now, at least for deer. Always liked side by sides though and like to shoot sporting clays...