Post by Deleted on Jun 2, 2014 16:51:56 GMT -5
I know some of you members outside the U.S. don't understand how many of us in the States view firearms. But I thought I would share a shot of a recent acquisition. It looks pretty much like the famous Colt 1911 .45 automatic pistol introduced by John Browning in that year. This particular model, however, is a copy manufactured by a company in the Philippines. It says something about Browning's genius that the pistol he designed 103 years ago is still being manufactured. Browning also designed the M2 .50 caliber machine gun introduced at the beginning of World War II and still considered one of the best automatic weapons in the world.
I enjoy firearms for the same reason I like old film cameras. They represent the high point of the mechanical ingenuity. Cycling the slide or bolt on a well-made firearm is like advancing the film and tripping the shutter on a top of the line film camera. You can feel and hear the craftsmanship.
I have a lot of Soviet cameras. My favorite long gun is the Soviet SKS rifle. Like a lot of things from the Soviet era (including their cameras) , the SKS not terribly refined and has some rough edges, but you can soak it in mud and run over it with a truck and it still will shoot.
Many of us older geezers who grew up in the rural areas of America, grew up around firearms. It was a different time. When I was in high school some of us would bring our shotguns to school and keep them in our lockers so we could go duck hunting after class. . .with the principal!!! When the jack rabbit numbers periodically got out of control, some local farmers would buy ammunition for our .22 rifles if we would come out and help them reduce the bunny population. In this area a lot of people still hunt deer and elk in the fall. I no longer hunt because I won't shoot something if I'm not going to eat it. And since I'm the only one in the family who will eat wild meat, the only targets I now hit are made of paper.
In the past couple of years I have spent quit a bit of time on the range a few miles from our home. I find that I enjoy shooting (at targets) more now than when I was younger. Probably one of the main reasons is it is one of the few things I can actually do better now than I could when I was twenty-something.
I enjoy firearms for the same reason I like old film cameras. They represent the high point of the mechanical ingenuity. Cycling the slide or bolt on a well-made firearm is like advancing the film and tripping the shutter on a top of the line film camera. You can feel and hear the craftsmanship.
I have a lot of Soviet cameras. My favorite long gun is the Soviet SKS rifle. Like a lot of things from the Soviet era (including their cameras) , the SKS not terribly refined and has some rough edges, but you can soak it in mud and run over it with a truck and it still will shoot.
Many of us older geezers who grew up in the rural areas of America, grew up around firearms. It was a different time. When I was in high school some of us would bring our shotguns to school and keep them in our lockers so we could go duck hunting after class. . .with the principal!!! When the jack rabbit numbers periodically got out of control, some local farmers would buy ammunition for our .22 rifles if we would come out and help them reduce the bunny population. In this area a lot of people still hunt deer and elk in the fall. I no longer hunt because I won't shoot something if I'm not going to eat it. And since I'm the only one in the family who will eat wild meat, the only targets I now hit are made of paper.
In the past couple of years I have spent quit a bit of time on the range a few miles from our home. I find that I enjoy shooting (at targets) more now than when I was younger. Probably one of the main reasons is it is one of the few things I can actually do better now than I could when I was twenty-something.
