I come by it honestly.

M

MikeH

Joined
Oct 18, 2001
Messages
4,611
Why do I like guns and knives?

Last week at my deceased parents' old house I found my baby book. (No, contrary to popular opinion, it wasn't chiseled on a clay tablet in cuneiform.) I already knew that my dad had given me a real knife on my 4th birthday, but there it was listed in gifts for my 4th Christmas, a BB gun with scope. I was 5 when my dad let me start squirrel hunting with a Browning SA-22, but this was under his supervision. I wasn't turned loose to hunt by myself until age 10 when I inherited my grandfather's Iver Johnson single shot 12 Gauge. (I was a very big kid and could handle it. In family photos at age 12 I was taller than my dad, who was 5'11".) We lived in the country, and I would disappear just before daylight with that gun on Saturdays in the fall and return just after dark. No search parties were sent out.

Sometimes I feel sorry for kids today.
 
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Yup.

Without a solid layer of Bubble Wrap, or two, it seems that most kids would die from doing what an average 10 year-old girl did 40 years ago.

They gave us sharp stuff, matches, and things that went "BANG" to play with......when did Humans "go soft"?

I blame it on video games and computers. Kids used to go outside to play - even in the -35 Fahrenheit that our Winters were made of.

Happy Holidays, everyone!

:thumbsup:
 
I absolutely agree. I attribute it to helicopter-parenting.

best

mqqn
 
I was an "In town" kid. But we had an undeveloped large parcel or two a block away. Steep hills, gullies, trees, swamp, dirt trails, jumps, hideouts.....etc

I grew up thinking nothing of taking a BB gun, or slingshot, or blow gun out and target shooting or hunting a bit.

I had a gun starter kit from my dad. (A Ruger 10-22 and a Marlin .30-30 to get us started). Shortly after that I bought a .30 carbine AMT (think I was 12) and a .22 Ruger MarkI with target barrel.

I was lucky enough growing up to have a three wheeler and a motorcycle, and friends with the same. We would ride the motorcycle the short distance through town and go ride all day on the canals and farms. Only ever got stopped one time, and he just told me to push the motorcycle the 2 blocks left I had to get home.

No cell phones, gone from sun up to sun down.

Fun time to grow up.

It is now neglect to allow your kids to roam free.
 
When I was 15 I ordered my first Firearm(Rifle Old Military) from the "Herters" catalog when you could still do that in the early '60's and have it shipped to your doorstep. We Lived on a Ranch with no rural mail so it was picked up at the Post Office on the weekly trip to town. That catalog was better than the one from Sears & Roebuck!!!!
 
Yep. My parents worked in town but we all lived on my grandpa's farm. We were friends with all of the neighboring property owners so I had free reign to roam and hunt prettymuch any land that the eye could see from our house. Me and my trusty Daisy had many a great safari together. Just had to check in around lunchtime and be back not long after dark. The best days were when the fog was so thick they would cancel school. My parents would be at work so I didnt have to check in at noon on those days.
 
OnceBitten said:
Yup.

Without a solid layer of Bubble Wrap, or two, it seems that most kids would die from doing what an average 10 year-old girl did 40 years ago.

They gave us sharp stuff, matches, and things that went "BANG" to play with......when did Humans "go soft"?

I blame it on video games and computers. Kids used to go outside to play - even in the -35 Fahrenheit that our Winters were made of.

Happy Holidays, everyone!

:thumbsup:
Click to expand...
A few years back, a company with an interest in the great outdoors did a survey whereby they "followed" a bunch of kids over the course of a year. They wanted to see what percentage of youths went outdoors of their own volition (i.e. without being prompted to go outside by anyone else) to engage in any recreational activity whatsoever over the course of the year. The result? I don't remember the exact number, but something like 3% went outdoors to do something fun 3 or more times over the course of the year. 3%!!!! Absolutely pathetic.
 
Hmm... Can't say the same for me.

I grew up in an Asian metropolis. No yard, highrise, hunting never even entered or minds other than in movies and cartoons (Elmer Fudd).

Yet now, I married a "country girl" from cow-country in south-central PA. She taught me how to drive stick-shift; I taught her how to shoot. I have more knives my toolbox drawers can hold, and I don't dare tell my parents about my "collection" :confused: since they won't understand the allure. (Yet why does my dad need 6,7,8 sets of golf clubs?)

Anyhow, I really can't say "I come by it honestly", but I'm here nonetheless!:D
 
I remember mowing yards and all other sorts of odd jobs in the summer to support my knife habit as an 11 yr old in our rural area. There was a flea market on the weekends within walking distance (maybe 3 miles) that had a knife dealer. My dear grandmother made the encouraged mistake of telling that man one time that it was ok for me to buy any knives I wanted. Thank the lord that there was no “credit” in those days to speak of! That dealer kept the neighborhood mowed!
 
One thing that's just so different from when I grew up, I'm 48. Was that I used to love to go squirrel hunting. But, deer was very, very, hard to find in my area back then. Now, the darn things are EVERYWHERE! Heck, we used to go to West Virginia to deer hunt at my Uncles place. We live in Northwest North Carolina. He lived in Southwest, West Virginia. About a 3 hour drive.
At any rate, times sure have changed.
 
mqqn said:
I absolutely agree. I attribute it to helicopter-parenting.

best

mqqn
Click to expand...

I attribute that parenting style to over-reacrions to watching the excessively negstive news. Creates a false sense of how the world is.

There is also s big difference from the city and the country. I grew up in the sticks and was hunting with a single shit 12 guage or single shot .22 before I should have been allowed to. I also gifted some SAK's to my niece and nephew of my twin brother, who still lives in the sticks with his family. They love them.

Now I live in the city and we're damn near viewed as criminals just for owning a gun, let alone using them. I don't know a single person that hunts at work, where I used to be, we darn near shut down production on opening day because no one wanted to work and we used our floating holiday several years for it. Living near or in the city was a massive culture shock for me.
 
I was under 10 (not sure exactly) when I got my BSA Meteor (I still have it).... a .410 when I was 12, 12ga O/U at 13, 30/30 at 13 (plus all manner of old surplus bolt actions), .300Win and .375H&H at 14, Valmet 71s at 14..... :D Could not do it today....
 
Iver Johnson champion model?

Got one of those been in my family over a hundred years. Great old shotguns.
 
Busto said:
When I was 15 I ordered my first Firearm(Rifle Old Military) from the "Herters" catalog when you could still do that in the early '60's and have it shipped to your doorstep. We Lived on a Ranch with no rural mail so it was picked up at the Post Office on the weekly trip to town. That catalog was better than the one from Sears & Roebuck!!!!
Click to expand...
Busto Busto - I still have and use in the kitchen a Herter's Improved Bowie. That was a great memory for an early Christmas Morning, as well as Bigfattyt Bigfattyt and his dirt biking - I lived on the outskirts of Buffalo NY and used to ride my Benelli 65 what seemed like a long way but in reality was probably a couple of miles to what we called "the pit" - a sandy lot with hills and trails. Good times. Merry Christmas, Gentlemen!

mqqn
 
mqqn said:
Busto Busto - I still have and use in the kitchen a Herter's Improved Bowie. That was a great memory for an early Christmas Morning, as well as Bigfattyt Bigfattyt and his dirt biking - I lived on the outskirts of Buffalo NY and used to ride my Benelli 65 what seemed like a long way but in reality was probably a couple of miles to what we called "the pit" - a sandy lot with hills and trails. Good times. Merry Christmas, Gentlemen!

mqqn
Click to expand...
That Herter's catalog was the life blood for farmers and ranchers in those days. We grew up with the usual .22's, shotguns, and rifles, but seemed 15 was about the age us boys were allowed to buy our OWN first high power rifle, and coming up with $45.00 was no easy feat. You were the Talk of that small country school when you showed up with that NEW Shootin' Iron hangin' on your old pickup rifle rack...everybody ate lunch in the parking lot that day checking out the new shooter!!!
 
I can still remember seeing shotguns in racks in every pickup truck in my high school parking lot. Opening day of hunting season couldn't even be counted as a day of school because not enough students would show up. I had teachers that would go out to the parking lot and want to see everybody's gun to compare it to theirs. Even had one teacher that kept a few spare boxes of 12 gauge shells in his desk incase someone ran out.

Everyone had a pocket knife with them in school and no one said a word. We would sit in study hall and clean finger nails with a pocket knife and always used them at lunch to cut up food. Our shop class raised money one year for some new tools by offering knife sharpening for 50 cents per blade.

Fast forward a few years, walked into the same school a week ago for a basketball game my oldest son was in and the Safety Officer stopped me and said that I had to take my pocket knife back to my truck or I would not be allowed into the game. Honestly never even thought about it being in my pocket.

Times sure have changed, not necessarily always for the best either.

Garth

Oh yeah, we didn't have bullies in school back then either cause we knew how to handle that sort of thing ourselves.
 
Garth Reckner said:
Fast forward a few years, walked into the same school a week ago for a basketball game my oldest son was in and the Safety Officer stopped me and said that I had to take my pocket knife back to my truck or I would not be allowed into the game. Honestly never even thought about it being in my pocket.
Click to expand...

anticlimactic...I was fully expecting he was gonna say they wouldn't admit him because of the Gladius he was wearing baldric style.
 
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