I come by it honestly.

Herters catalog, our first single shot rifle/shotgun, able to take knives/guns/fishing rods to school--those were the good 'ole days for sure. In 30 years, in a nostalgic moment, instead of talk like what we see in this thread, our kids will be talking about their first cell phone, will choose a wrist computer over a tool for outdoor use, and will buy anything they need and can afford by looking at Amazon/Walmart. It's depressing if I think about it.
 
Andy the Aussie said:
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....
Click to expand...

300 Winny, 375 H&H, and a Valmet by/at 14 - damn! Man, those days are done Down Under, huh. Sad. Yeah, I shot those - heck, a Stirling, Sten, and Mac 10 at 8y.o., but they were NOT mine. Had an AR15 at 13, though (and no one was scared of 'it, either - 1979). Lil' bolt .22 was the first at 6. Bought my first handgun at 14 with my own damn earned money = bull barrel Ruger .22. Yeah, times were different. I was thrilled to get a Gerber FSIID in maybe '77/'78 and openly carried it to elementary and then HS every day without a care or word. Though in Middle School I did think it prudent to sew a leather loop inside my field coat on which to hang my Gerber Mk. I. My Boy Scout wilderness carry was a Vietnam era Randall No. 1 @ 8", of which I was so damn proud - picked it up at a gun show when I was 13 for $50 after mowing lawns a while. I was the man in the troop with that sticker. Or so I thought.
Yeah, the times they are a changin'.
 
Back when the movie "The Hunger Games" was still fairly new, three of my grandkids came up for a couple of weeks. We called it "Camp Hunger Games", and they got to do things like fish in my pond, start fires in different ways, archery, throwing spears and shurikens. Special to them was shooting BB guns, pellet gun, and .22 rifle; they loved it. I took them for truck rides in my fields and drove them on my atv. They didn't want to go home!:D

Sometimes all it takes is an adult willing to spend the time with kids, and they will learn to appreciate the outdoors.;)
 
I still have the same .300 and .375 (and the BSA Meteor), Valmet is long gone as is the XM177 (a real one that come home in a kit back in the 70s)...still have a couple of other rifles I got around that era in the safe (30/30, SSG and a few old military bolt rifles).
 
I had knives and guns when I was a kid (22 rifle at age 10, 20 ga. shotgun at age 12). I can even remember taking a pocket knife both into a courtroom and on a commercial flight – the law enforcement officers looked at the knife and let me go thru the security checks. I partly blame terrorism and a liberalized, weak justice system for coddling criminals and letting them off way too easy in many cases (example: I just read on Saturday about a 92 year old woman who was sexually assaulted and murdered by an illegal alien in New York City who had just been released from custody under the NYC sanctuary city policy – see https://www.breitbart.com/crime/202...ole-reason-92-year-old-maria-fuertes-is-dead/). :mad:

I also blame the lying liberals wanting to change society, and misleading people into believing our lives will be safer without guns and knives. Guns bans have happened in Australia, New Zealand and other countries, and it's starting to happen in the US – do what you can to stop it before it spreads further!
 
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