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I grew up in Jamestown, NY on Chautauqua Lake. Chautauqua Institution is still there, started all those years ago as a center for education and arts .

Wife retired after almost 40 years as a High School History/Govt teacher. She had her minister come in every year when she was teaching the Civil War, he is a reenact. He brought several period rifles and pistols, with the admins consent. He dressed in period clothes and brought samples of period items for the students to see. It was an awesome day for students as they got a taste of what life of a soldier was like.

Need more of that as suggested.

don
 


Here’s a short video of me shooting my Fusil de Chasse that I think is pertinent to this thread. This is the gun I hunt small game with and this is how I usually dress when hunting small game. My father and grandfather both dressed very similar to this when hunting or working on the farm. Instead of a muzzleloader, they had single shot 12 gauge shotguns. Nary a stitch of designer camouflage, but the squirrels and rabbits don’t seem to notice.
 
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We set up a table display for the NCW Muzzleloaders at Wenatchee Valley College, 18 April 2012. We were there from 9am to 2pm to show the students and faculty there what we do as shooters and buckskinners. We drew alot of interest from young students. Many of them never fired a muzzle loading firearm before, so we told them about what we do at the North Central Washington Gun Club.

The anthropology professors loved the beadwork and other handmade items.
 
View attachment 119807

Here’s a short video of me shooting my Fusil de Chasse that I think is pertinent to this thread. This is the gun I hunt small game with and this is how I usually dress when hunting small game. My father and grandfather both dressed very similar to this when hunting or working on the farm. Instead of a muzzleloader, they had single shot 12 gauge shotguns. Nary a stitch of designer camouflage, but the squirrels and rabbits don’t seem to notice.

The video is not coming up for me. 🙁
 
A Spanish percussion shotgun, circa 1840/50
 

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The video is not coming up for me. 🙁
Yeah, we had that problem when I posted it once before. Some folks can see it, some can’t. Has something to do with loading it from my phone I guess. I’m not tech savvy enough to correct it.

Anyway, in the video, I’m shooting a .62 caliber Fusil de Chasse and wearing overalls, a denim coat and a very old brown hat much like my father and grandfather used to do.
 
I’m a high school history teacher, and every year right about now I get permission from admins to bring in a few guns. I explain to my students that firearms were WAY different 200 years ago than what they are probably shooting at the range or hunting deer with today. Below is a pic of a few things I took in and showed my 9th grade American History classes. Even if it sparked an interest in one kid, then it was a success! 4202309B-D074-4294-B866-2B5A3FDC6CD9.jpeg
 
I’m a high school history teacher, and every year right about now I get permission from admins to bring in a few guns. I explain to my students that firearms were WAY different 200 years ago than what they are probably shooting at the range or hunting deer with today. Below is a pic of a few things I took in and showed my 9th grade American History classes. Even if it sparked an interest in one kid, then it was a success! View attachment 119839
Nice
 
You put on a Great thread Walaw, it sure brings back good memories. Nobody mentioned what they were reading back then. We had Herters catalogs, DGW catalogs, and Fur Fish and Game magazines to keep the interest peaked.
 
I’m a high school history teacher, and every year right about now I get permission from admins to bring in a few guns. I explain to my students that firearms were WAY different 200 years ago than what they are probably shooting at the range or hunting deer with today. Below is a pic of a few things I took in and showed my 9th grade American History classes. Even if it sparked an interest in one kid, then it was a success! View attachment 119839


I wonder if the Admins are open to having a hunter safety class at school. 🤔
 
You put on a Great thread Walaw, it sure brings back good memories. Nobody mentioned what they were reading back then. We had Herters catalogs, DGW catalogs, and Fur Fish and Game magazines to keep the interest peaked.
Filed and Stream, outdoor life, sports afield we're good then as well. Not so much now.

I too remember going with my older cousin in early freezing winter mornings to check his trap lines in the hollers along east river mountain.

Too far in country for a paper route.

Sid had a pet flying squirrel that would jump from a high shelf and wake us up.
 
The school library had subscriptions for those magazines when I was a kid. The halls of that same school were pretty quiet opening day of pheasant and deer season.
Robby
Opening day of hunting season many boys were absent, starting with squirrel and rabbit season. God I love that I did not grow up in a city and that I grew up in the 18th century with cars.
 
I wonder if the Admins are open to having a hunter safety class at school. 🤔

We had an yearly hunter safety class beginning in grade six through eight given by the NRA. Boys and girls. Many people would lose their minds now over such a thing. The anti second amendment people have made people fear guns - you know, the mandate people who are afraid of the people and our power.

Ah well, ( he says to himself) "Will, don't get political."

yeah hunter/gun safety should be part of every curriculum.
 
Some of my earliest memories are when I was 4 , sitting on the front step helping my uncle cut felt wads for the family 14 ga Henry Nock shotgun , now in my safe .
He took me shooting , I carried the shot pouch with the strap considerably shortened . He shot a hawk and a hare and gave me the hare to carry . I said the hare was too heavy and I'd rather carry a rabbit . We saw a rabbit and Uncle Bob said if I wanted a rabbit I had to shoot it myself . He put the butt under my arm and stood behind me and aimed the gun and I pulled the trigger when he told me to and we shot the rabbit . I was hooked from then on .
My father was badly wounded in WW2 in the Western Desert Campaign and was invalided home in 43 . When he got out of hospital he went bush and shot red deer for their skins , they were used in aircraft petrol tanks as a sealer ,.The tanks were an alloy sandwich with the deer hide in the middle which swelled up when in contact with petrol and sealed bullet holes .
Dad and my 2 uncles were riflemen and deer hunters and sold enough hides for deposits on their first farms . They taught me " get as close as you can then get ten feet closer "
Dad gave me Robert Ruark's books for my twelfth birthday " The Old Man and the Boy " and : The Oldman's Boy Grows Older" all about Ruark's grandfather teaching him about hunting shooting and fishing in pre WW2 in coastal North Carolina
These books were my introduction into the world of bird shooting , water fowling , conservation , gun safety , bird dogs , shotguns , hunting ethics etc . I have read those books many times and still enjoy them . They are about a different world , a different time and a different age but they still have a resonance that cross all worlds , ages and times .
These books made me a shotgunner , bird shooter and a gundog owner/trainer . I was already a deer stalker and a fisherman .
One thing that really gets my goat on hunting or fishing tv programs is all the "Yes" "Yarhoo " yelling and shouting and high fives that goes on when a fish is caught or an animal killed , little respect is shown for the prey,

"Beware the man with one gun" , too true , because he doesn't know how to handle other guns .
 
Some of my earliest memories are when I was 4 , sitting on the front step helping my uncle cut felt wads for the family 14 ga Henry Nock shotgun , now in my safe .
He took me shooting , I carried the shot pouch with the strap considerably shortened . He shot a hawk and a hare and gave me the hare to carry . I said the hare was too heavy and I'd rather carry a rabbit . We saw a rabbit and Uncle Bob said if I wanted a rabbit I had to shoot it myself . He put the butt under my arm and stood behind me and aimed the gun and I pulled the trigger when he told me to and we shot the rabbit . I was hooked from then on .
My father was badly wounded in WW2 in the Western Desert Campaign and was invalided home in 43 . When he got out of hospital he went bush and shot red deer for their skins , they were used in aircraft petrol tanks as a sealer ,.The tanks were an alloy sandwich with the deer hide in the middle which swelled up when in contact with petrol and sealed bullet holes .
Dad and my 2 uncles were riflemen and deer hunters and sold enough hides for deposits on their first farms . They taught me " get as close as you can then get ten feet closer "
Dad gave me Robert Ruark's books for my twelfth birthday " The Old Man and the Boy " and : The Oldman's Boy Grows Older" all about Ruark's grandfather teaching him about hunting shooting and fishing in pre WW2 in coastal North Carolina
These books were my introduction into the world of bird shooting , water fowling , conservation , gun safety , bird dogs , shotguns , hunting ethics etc . I have read those books many times and still enjoy them . They are about a different world , a different time and a different age but they still have a resonance that cross all worlds , ages and times .
These books made me a shotgunner , bird shooter and a gundog owner/trainer . I was already a deer stalker and a fisherman .
One thing that really gets my goat on hunting or fishing tv programs is all the "Yes" "Yarhoo " yelling and shouting and high fives that goes on when a fish is caught or an animal killed , little respect is shown for the prey,

"Beware the man with one gun" , too true , because he doesn't know how to handle other guns .
Thank you. quiet a story and life. My father, a tank commander, appreciated your father without even knowing.
 
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