temperflash wrote:

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Sorry to hear about your friend and his untimely demise.
I recently lost an olf friend to lung cancer, he was also a non-smoker. He told me once that he had not taken a drink or smoked a cigarette since 1948.

A younger friend once jokingly asked if I was going to leave him my rifles in my will. I told him that after saying that I'd make sure I outlived him if I had to kill him myself.
Fact is I have been thinking on just who I'd leave my collection to. I figure to leave the more modern stuff to my nephew since he is entering the service soon and plans to make a career of it.

69396 wrote:

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Sorry to hear of your friend's passing. Perhaps some deserving "next-in-line" owner will be revealed to you.

I understand the reluctance to pass it on to apathetic children-not one of my three adult kids has much interest in Dad's old army rifles.

FWIW about 15 percent of lung cancer victims are non-smokers.

best of luck

Dalkowski110 wrote:

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First off, let me say I'm sorry to hear of your friend's passing. RIP. But there has been a bit of a side conversation developing on this thread about kids and C&R's.

As the de facto representative of the younger generation (I'll be 21 on November 1), I should take some time to say that yes, a LOT of the kids my age that are pro-gun largely ignore the older stuff and seem to have the mantra of "the newer the better," with the one seeming exception being the M1 Garand (due to its prevalence in WWII video games, I'm guessing, as well as its use by the US Armed Forces). For example, when I was talking to someone my age a few months back about how accurate my Swede Mauser M96B was, he seemed to be sleep-walking. When I said it "even out-shoots my AR-15," that woke him up pretty quick. But not because of the Swede's accuracy, but rather because I had an AR-15!

My Lee-Enfields, Matini-Henry, P-14, and M1917 don't seem interesting to many of my fellow generation. But not all are like that. Roughly 2 1/2 to 3 years ago, I fielded half an hour's worth of questions about my Ishapore 2A1 from a kid whose family was from northern India. He was ecstatic they had a domestically-designed (kind of...), domestically-produced rifle available to the buying public. He wound up buying one I think last year and last time I checked, he'd gotten quite a bit of interest in the design itself as opposed to merely the country of origin.

Another kid (one year my senior) became very interested in bolt-action military rifles in general after he got an M91/30 and took it out to the range a few times. He followed that up with a Yugoslavian Mauser and when I talked to him, he was thinking about a Lee-Enfield of some kind (I recommended a 1940's Ishapore as a good value) or perhaps another Mauser (I said to go with a Russian Capture Kar98k). Not sure which way he went, but there's another guy roughly my age that seemed to gravitate towards C&R military rifles, at least.

Know that we do exist, and will try our best to keep the hobby going. For my 21st birthday, I've selected a beautiful Enfield No. 2 Mk. I** revolver as my first handgun (although due to recent family expenditures from moving, I may have to wait about six months extra for it...but it's something worth waiting for). I also plan on purchasing a Finn Mosin M39 (yeah, I know, wrong forum...) and I'd like an Ishapore No. 1 Mk. III* to "complete the set" of countries of SMLE's I have so far (one beat-up but awesome 1918 BSA and one minty 1943 Lithgow). And as a sidenote...while I don't want the thread going political, it could be worse. They could be antis...

Basically, if you see a spark of interest in "those old army guns," be patient with the kid and help that spark grow into a flame with your knowledge of C&R guns. That's how I think we'll keep the hobby going. Also, a quick tip: being openly pessimistic about "why does nobody in your generation like these guns?" and such is a BAD idea. You can think that (and be right since it's probably true), but until that kid is really interested, keep it to yourself. He's probably hoping to meet some friends his own age there and by starting out pessimistic, you'll turn him off really quickly. And remember...C&R's and new guns are not mutually exclusive. I like a lot of the paramilitary style semiautos and riot shotguns (both pump and semi) that are out there these days. But they've hardly prevented me from building up a solid C&R rifle collection. Don't actively discourage modern guns, because it will turn a kid off...rather, simply encourage C&R's.

I know this is frankly off-topic, and I apologize for that, but I think it's something that needed to be said.