16ga.com ~ View topic

I am not surprised by the results. I got the impression that in general this group was of the older persuasion from the demeanor of the participants on this board. Laughing

Personally, I made the third category from the bottom by 3 months. Very Happy

In June, I slip down to the next category.

The 50-59 range is basically the Boomers, and there are more of us than any other generation. The older gents and ladies grew up around guns and hunting more than the younger generations. I am afraid that continues to be the trend especially with more single parent households. Sad

The little survey shows some interesting facts. The younger generations like my son want firepower and don't mind hauling the extra weight afield. Hunters start losing interest or the physical ability to hunt after 65. Personally, I now have the affinity for closer working dogs and lighter guns. Laughing

Hopefully, when I am 75, I can still dawdle along in the field after my dogs.

Hunting and shooting is becoming more expensive every year. The places to hunt are becoming more scarce and expensive. When I lived in Texas, the cost of the quail leases went up every year forcing hunters to go farther away. It didn't matter that the droughts made for lousy hunting. The land owners didn't come off of the price. When there was a good hatch, they really stuck it to the hunters who had been paying dearly for the lousy years.

It is tough for the younger generations having families with young children to pay the price of admission. Hopefully, my generation can leave enough opportunities available for the junior generations to keep our favorite sport viable in the future.

Hc

Well said HC
per TR

We of an older generation can get along with what we have, though with growing hardship; but in your full manhood and womanhood you will want what nature once so bountifully supplied and man so thoughtlessly destroyed; and because of that want you will reproach us, not for what we have used, but for what we have wasted...So any nation which in its youth lives only for the day, reaps without sowing, and consumes without husbanding, must expect the penalty of the prodigal whose labor could with difficulty find him the bare means of life.
"Arbor Day - A Message to the School-Children of the United States" April 15, 1907

Member Joined: 26 Jun 2005 Posts: 425 Location: Big D

Member Joined: 09 Jul 2006 Posts: 57 Location: Newport.OR

Missed the poll but I'm 54. Don't you think that those of us in the 50-59 group were starting our field days when the 16 was still a popular shotgun??

Member Joined: 20 Mar 2005 Posts: 1522 Location: NH

Well, I shot my first "tree rat" with a 16 when I was in the 1st category (wasn't old enough to own the gun Wink

).
Now I'm in the 3rd from the bottom and have 4 16s. Life just gets better. Very Happy

Joined: 01 Jul 2006 Posts: 26 Location: Finland

I'm 42, probably above average for most of the hunting and gun related forums I visit. Nice to be among the young ones for a change. Smile

By the way, because of the long experience of many guys on this forum, it is maybe the best of its kind.

Highcountry wrote:

I'm now taller than my hair, wider than my shoe size, my teeth are store bought, and I think I'm about to become slower than my bladder. Does that qualify me for senior coffees at Mickey D's?

Okee Dokee Cap!! I'll do 'er. Wink

One of the preserve owners near KC, Don Hertzog, gives a free hunt to anyone on their 90th birthday-in over 20 years of operation, he's given away 3 Very Happy

And the last guy went home with a new GSP puppy! Cool

That story sorta convicted me after putting down my setter male Nov. 05 and trying to decide if I had the energy for another, and if I was man enough to stand the pain of losing another. Can't say Dirk the oppositional setter dog worked out so great but at least I gave it another shot Wink

Joined: 06 Oct 2006 Posts: 10 Location: Indiana

Well....I guess I qualify as one of the whipper snappers having been born to fit into the 2nd category, just before Elvis' passing. I, however, learned the value of the 16 early. My Grandfather, rest his soul, started thinning his collection of guns before he passed. I was the proud owner of an Ithaca model 37 before I turned 15. I was mainly a killer of bushytails back then, long since graduating to the uplands in pursuit of any gamebird that is within hunting distance. I have to admit...I'm addicted. I have a total of 5 16's that sit in my gun cabinet as we speak, the oldest of which, a 1895 #3 LC Smith, is almost 4 times my age!

Doc 06 said