doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Reflections of my past

This is part of a PM I sent to a board member. It was written while I was thinking about my youth, first guns and memories. One thought lead to another, but I think everyone here has like memories. Some far away, in the deepest part of our minds and some much closer, all near to our hearts when we bring them up. The past holds things more valuable than gold, but only if we recall them and more so if we share a few of them with family and friends. I have no gun too valuable that it can not be used and shared and most of my memories as well are better shared.

"I'd give a month off my lifespan just to hunt with either of my grad fathers, one more time, or watch my uncle shoot quail with his little Crescent .410. He was the most deadly shot I ever saw on quail. Two birds, every cover rise and 90% would be cock birds. It took me decades to distinguish the males on the flush like he did. Later in life he was crippled by a mild case of Polio from childhood and arthritis so badly he struggled with just getting around. But at 30 he was smooth to watch shoot those quail."

I had a Chesapeake female dog, AKA a B-itch, who was called Sir. Meanest and toughest dog I ever had, she would eat ice to get to a bird and never lost a fight with another dog. My first, constant companion. She was followed by seven others, current one Shiloh. A black lab who retrieves birds with joy and thinks game limits are insane. A dog after my heart.

I have given everyone of my kids their first gun and tried to set them up with memoirs and stories of my memories from my youth. I hope I have not failed. If you have kids or friends please do the same. I still recall the smell of pipe smoke, from a grand father dead 50 years and enjoy the sweetness of it to this day. He always brought it into the blind and puffed away at it as we sat there. I wonder if he was thinking about his father and grandfather as well. I will soon be able to ask him I suspect.

Please share and enjoy, for the season all too soon will be closed to us all. Give a young, or new shooter a chance to shoot one of your finer guns, with the hopes it leads to fine memories for him or her. Guns are meant to be used and shared. Tomorrow, I am going to shoot one of my cripple guns and am sure everyone who sees it will hold it and hear the story about why we have cripple guns. Any who ask will be encouraged to shoot it a couple times, just to have the chance. For those who don't know, a cripple guns is what some call a crossover gun. Just to be totally different, I am going to shoot my right shoulder-left eye cripple gun first round and my left shoulder-right eye second. No straights tomorrow for me, just a memory.

Well you have had memories to reminisce from when you were young.

You made your own memories as you grew older.

You have family to pass stories on to. They will remember you as you remember those who passed on before you.

The items you give to others will make memories for them.

Pretty good I say. Well done.

Though we obviously have no relation by blood, we have a kinship that far surpasses that. We are truly brothers in thought, and in what we place importance upon..

Great post.

I can't stand to read it again.....how many times are you going to tell this story.

You and Stanley ever think about getting a hotel room and reminisce ?

Sure was fun to read and think. I am now 75 and have many memories, well done folks.

I certainly apprecaite the concept, thoughts, and sentiments. I can remember many years ago - about 19 yrs old- being at the range early one morning shooting my .22s. A kindly old gentleman gave me a go at 100 yards with his Anschutz and 24x scope. The set-up definitely cost more than my car and was noticably the finest gun (machinery?) I had ever operated. The entire experience left a lasting impression about items, but also people. I do strive to be on the other end of that equation.

90% male birds taken? Bobwhite quail on average have a life span of about one year.

Thank you.

Both my grandfathers grew up on a farm, both hunted, and both died before I was born. Having just turned 79, It is my job to provide the memories to my grandchildren, and soon great grandchildren. These memories may not be the quality of KY Jon's, but my progeny will have memories I didn't have the chance to have.
Mike

My sons keep on leaning on me to put things and events in my life down on paper or should I say hard copy. I just have this feeling that if I do it is sort of the end, though I will say I was lucky enough to be over time to be in the right place at the right time. I did know the Beatles and the rest of the Brit 1960s Liverpool groups because they all needed Amplifier repairs, did try my best to date the Cavern cloak room girl Pricilla White as she was then. Your Jimmy Hendrix gave me a Silver Dollar as a tip for a fast guitar effects pedal repair.



I am the one on the right that looks like a rabbit caught in the vehicle headlights.
Was in Berlin when the East German people flooded checkpoint Charlie and climbed over the wall, I have a few pieces of wall for the memories of being kissed by so many women in my life but I have not told my wife about that part of the event.

Having thought about the first part of my post one further memory came into focus about those times. While I was living the music a lot of the young men on your side of the pond where being drafted to Vietnam, for what it is worth that did not go unnoticed amongst my circle of friends on this side of the pond and we all without exception realised it was very close to being us going there but fate dealt a different hand. There is nothing more I want to say about that grief ridden episode.