Colt Forum banner

Oberservations of an Old Man, who doesn't know squat!

4K views 27 replies 13 participants last post by  denghis 
#1 ·
I went to a gun show today in Boise. It was beautiful here. We topped out at 80 degree's, clear skies with white pillowy clouds above the Mountain Peaks. Just like them dang Post Cards.

I walked around with my Marlin 36 ADL today with a white glove on as to not transfer Body Oils and salts to the metal. I was looking for some small screws to replace som damaged heads. All them under aged experts with their black guns and sniper snoopers, kept asking me, "Say Mister, what do you want for that Winchester 64?

You know you reached puberty when they call you Mister. So I had to clue in all the behind the table "know it all's" that the rifle was not a Winchester. One kid looked at me, like I just introduced him to another world of armament, or better described as the proverbial deer in the head lights look.

Only one Old timer with more gray than me, buck skin pants and shirt left over from the "Mountain Men" of long ago, who looked liked he crawled out from under rock. "Say, is that a Marlin 36?", Was his question. (Much to my amazement he didn't call me sir or mister).

I like Old books they are full of history and this Ol Timer had pages that hadn't been turned in years. We talked for about 45 minutes and he showed me pictures of his Marlin 36 Collection and all it's variants. Must have been 25 or 30 guns all mint too.

What a delightful conversation. He then asked me if I would be interested in looking at his all around hunting rifle. "Getting up in years" he said, "I don't want to track them no more". He prefaced the viewing with , "By the way, It's not for sale or trade". I said fair enough.

Out of a old elk skin bag came a Half round, half octagon 28" barreled Winchester 1886 chambered in 50-110 with a 3/4 mag. tube, 80 % original Case Color receiver, and about the same on bluing. Wood looked to me about "XX" but I could be wrong.

"All around Hunting rifle huh, Must be hell on the Whistle pigs!". Ol Timer stated he didn't rightly know, as all he ever found was crimson vapor.

I think the folks that really appreciate the Old Colts, Smith's, Winchester and Marlin, et al, have just about vanished. Youngin's just want to know how fast they can turn a buck.
:(
 
See less See more
#2 ·
It was a beautiful day up here in Denver where my wife and I are attending the annual CGCA show. Of course this is a pure collector show, so there were lots of superb Winchesters and Colts; no black guns. :) My wife and I did a lot of visiting with other collectors that we've met along the collecting trail over the past 35 years; that's one of the best parts about a show like this.

However, at one point my wife turned to me and said; "you don't see a lot of young people here looking at the guns"! It's kind of true, most of the collectors of these guns are middle aged and old folks like me! Of course, old Colts and Winchesters aren't cheap, so folks that buy these guns usually are in established careers with decent incomes.

Today I bought a pretty nice 7 1/2 inch barrel Colt Single Action from 1902 chambered in 44-40; so it was a good day!!!! :)
 
#3 ·
Sad but true. Pushing 70 and in my fourth (and last) career, I work with a lot of young folks. Many of them are interested in weapons, and do not regard hauling one around as just a job requirement (as many did in the big city). But their interests run to plastic handguns and aluminum spray cans. Possibly some of them will grow to appreciate steel and wood as they age. I am absolutely the only one packing an all steel sidearm, much less a wheelgun. And my Winchester 97 gets remarks (sometimes awe) each time it goes to the range or comes out on a scene. The real kicker is my Krag carbine which my grandfather lugged up San Juan hill. With a "scout scope" it holds its own both in accuracy and power, but no one has heard about that war, they think black powder was invented for cowboy action shooting and civil war buffs.
I wonder what the gun shows of 2050 (if we still got em) will look like???????????
 
#4 ·
I think the folks that really appreciate the Old Colts, Smith's, Winchester and Marlin, et al, have just about vanished.
Well Kid, we haven't all vanished. But I take great pleasure in being part of a very select few! I for one, at the ripe old age of 45, appreciate the fact that I don't have to fight through many to get to the Colt's and Winchesters I treasure so much. Except you guys! ;)


P.S. Would love to have been at that gun show with you!
 
#8 ·
I am a "yung-un", I guess (just turned 40), and get kidded all the time by my buddies about my love of "old" guns. I love and truly appreciate older "real" guns....forged carbon steel & walnut. I guess its because I grew up shooting them, but I could never appreciate the plastic, tactical crap. I always went for older S&W & Colt wheelguns. I guess I was born 50 years too late.....
 
#9 ·
Reincarnation ! Just what is Reincarnation?

Where Do Cowboys Go When They Die?/Reincarnation
Written By Michael Martin Murphey and Chick Rains
Poem By Wallace McCrae
Recorded By Michael Martin Murphey


Where Do Cowboys Go When They Die? / Reincarnation


Where do cowboys go when they die?
Is there a place in the sweet bye and bye?
Where the water is clean and the grass grows free
and there ain't a cloud in the sky

"What is reincarnation?" A cowboy asked his friend.
His friend replied "Well Son,
it happens when your life has reached its end.
You see, they comb your hair and they wash your neck
and they clean your fingernails.
And they you down in a batted box
far away from life's prevails.
Now the box and you goes in a hole
that's been dug into the ground.
And reincarnation starts
when you're planted beneath the mound.
You see the box melts down just like the clods(?)
with you who is inside.
And then, you're just beginning your transformation ride".

Is there a place in the sweet bye and bye
Where do cowboys go when they die?

"Well, in a while some rain's
gonna come and fall upon the ground.
'Til one day on your lonely little grave,
a little flower will be found.
And say a hoss should wander by
and graze upon the flower
that once was you but now becomes
a vegetative bower.
That little flower that the hoss done ate up
with all his other feed
becomes bone and fat and muscle,
essentials for the steed.
But some he's consumed, he can't use.
So it passes through.
Finally it lays there on the ground,
this thing that once was you.

And then say that I should wander by
and gaze upon the ground.
And wonder and ponder
on this object that I've found.
Well it sure makes me think of reincarnation,
of life and death and such.
And I ride away concludin' -
You ain't changed all that much"

:D :D :D :D

 
#10 ·
Kid, I remember that one...it makes a guy think.
I’m a God-fearing man, but I don’t know, like everyone, what really happens when you pass on to the other side.
One thing I do know is "ashes to ashes, dust to dust".
I have instructed my wife to bury me deep, wrapped in a blanket, and plant an oak tree on top of me.
My big ‘ole fat ass could feed an oak tree for a long damn time.
That's reincarnation...
 
#11 ·
As you all know I'm right there with Kid. I went through a phase of being really into Aks and AR15s, then I got a job working on AR15s and M16s for the past 11 years. There's no craftsmanship that goes into one of those things. Nothing to really apreciate. A monkey can work on them, I am living proof :)
The old stuff...that's where its at.
 
#12 ·
I'm 55 and just had a kid, maybe 21 or 22 snicker at me during a range visit for shooting my no frills Springfield GI .45. He asked me why I kept it stock. I told him I was a 1911 purist at heart and liked the old design just the way it was. He kind of snickered again and went back to shooting his "plastic" gun. He quit snickering when he saw how tight my groups were. He asked if he could shoot it. I said yes and he had a hard time keeping the shots on the paper. I just smiled...............
 
#13 ·
I found a clerk at a gunshop that actually knew what a Krag is. (That's rare nowadays-kinda blew my mind) Then he called it a "platform" and I was polite, but really had to get out of there.

Seems kids nowadays don't even call them guns-pistols-rifles-shotguns etc., just "platform". Am I missing something here?! Just what is this "platform" crap anyway?

"This is my platform. There are many like it, but this one is mine..........."


There's a lot of things I'll do, but there's no way I'm calling a gun a dam "platform". And now it makes me shudder just to type "platform".
 
#14 ·
We truly do need the next generation of shooters. Shooting sports and collecting could do without some of their baggage though.

I can take no credit for this "rant" but it is priceless. Credit must be given to a fine gun writer who participates in a private firearms forum of which I am a member.

____________________________________________________________



This came to me when I realized that it used to be perfectly alright to call a self-loading pistol an "automatic."

Let us now complain about Pneumo Lexicography.

Pneumologism: A word or phrase or negation of a word or phrase designed to establish the superiority of a Windbag.

Pistol /Revolver- A pistol is a firearm designed, made or modified to be fired from one hand and has a contiguous chamber and barrel eg:
" A Revolver is not a pistol because the chambers are separate from the barrel." This was popular in the 1960s but slunk off into obsurity when somebody pointing out that Samuel Colt called his invention a "Revolving Pistol."

Price Point- when used in place of what the fool thing cost and absent any other market nuance.

Semi-Auto: For most of history, self loading pistols were called automatics until some petifog determined that semi-auto was the only correct terminology.

45 Long Colt ( a term used only by the ignorant as there was no such thing as a short 45 Colt) Actually there was-the Smith and Wesson Ctgs good to go in Colt chambers and after the Windbag had obitered this dicta for quite a while, people started coming up with old Colt marked cartridge boxes containing short rounds for the peacemaker and others.

Tactical: S--t

Wheelgun: A semi-cute nickname for a revolver -Irritates the expert who believes that the only wheelguns are mounted on gun carriages and accordingly urinates down on those who say "wheelgun".

Cutsie Nicknames:
Maggie- 1950s and 60s dimunitive for a magnum-usually, a .44 Maggie ie: " Maggie and ME." Once appearing monthly in gun magazines, this one sees to have taken its rightful place on the ash heap of disgusting idioms

Internet Cutsie Nicknames: (generally confined to the internet)

Shottie: - A Shotgun the owner of which is so deeply conversant with it -much more so than the general hoi and poloi- that it is only natural that he applys a term of endearment.

Wheelie- See Wheelgun and Shottie

Remmie: Remington - See Wheelie, Wheelgun and Shottie.

Unrelated but it really ticks off the inner circle:
"Elmer Kieth." This happens a lot and I really think it's the work of trolls trying to drive the illuminati to apoplexy
 
#16 ·
Internet Cutsie Nicknames: (generally confined to the internet)

Shottie: - A Shotgun the owner of which is so deeply conversant with it -much more so than the general hoi and poloi- that it is only natural that he applys a term of endearment.

Wheelie- See Wheelgun and Shottie

Remmie: Remington - See Wheelie, Wheelgun and Shottie.
Good stuff.

When I hear someone use those terms, I'll call a Colt a "Coltie"-all in fun of course. Drives the point home because "Coltie" really sounds stupid, well, to most people anyways.

Man, it makes me shudder to type "Coltie" too.
 
#21 ·
I'll be 35 in about a month and while I do have an old Colt,which is a nice,sturdy,and fun old gun I will admit my "go to" is a plastic framed .45 (A S&W M&P I just discovered) it has a stainless slide and there just aren't many ways you could kill it by putting it in a holster wet.....

Go try that with an old blued Colt like my Army Special! :eek: and the gun I intend to CCW is a S&W 642-rubber grips,aluminum and stainless,but these guys are tools and while they may not have "soul" they are my trusted friends for when it "gets real" so I have an attachment to them just the same as the old Colt ;)
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top