ozark57 said:
I agree. Have you noticed that we are mostly over 50 on this forum? Getting younger people involved is a must if this hobby/sport is to survive.
I was one of those youngsters ten years back. All I cared about being in the Navy Sea Cadets was rate of fire, penetration, and quick sighting. My uncle took me to the range in Chino, Ca. He set us up and told me "now, I'm going to teach you right."
I figured what could my uncle know over a Master Chief?! Boy was I shocked. Out he pulls a 34 inch barreled flinter. Sets it up and places the target out about 150 yards.
With how I had been taught on M1s and M4 was just point and shoot. I couldn't hit anything and I figured that was proof right there that our weapons have "advanced" and told him so. See, I was 16 and thought I knew the world.
He then set up the elevation, set the double trigger, which I never did, and then popped the bulls-eye!
He then looks at me, "See, you've got to finesse these fine weapons, treat them like you would a fine lady."
So I took it up, and he taught me the joys of elevation and windage.
At the end of the day he looked at me and smiled. "You liked that huh?"
Of course I had a grin on that you could see all the way from Kansas.
He then just smiled, a tear falling from his eyes. "That rifle was what defended our home in Kansas from all sorts of problems in the late 1800s. It's also what we first made money off of in Massachusetts when our family first got here right after the birth of this fine nation. See that rifle is almost as old as the United States is. Just refinished and upkept from time to time."
I was in shock.
My uncle died about six months later, in his will he gave me the rifle.
Now, after serving my time, doing a couple tours in the dustbowl and those middle-east versions of the Rockies, all I want to do is play with windage and elevation.
For all I know, Billy Dixon, my great-grand uncle could have learned those traits on my same rifle.
Fair winds and following seas :thumbsup:
I'll try to get my generation to look into this all I can.