Interesting statistics tonight

[JimF]

. . . . . .Guns of the newer breed are just for protection so the history, the workmanship, the quality, the design, etc has little interest. . . . . . .Our generation is dying off.

In addition to that, when I look through the Rifleman magazine, all I see are ads for SUBTLE ?offensive? use of guns now, though they scream ?defensive?! (All plastic and aluminum!)

The pictured guns AND the males who are holding them, look like military ?wanna-bees? . . . .or Ninja warriors!

When I was hunting . . . .and now when I go to the range . . . . I never see the need for ?nite sights?, or ?range finders?, folding stocks, etc., or ANY of the equipment that a military would require . . . .yet that is what is advertised in these so-called ?sporting? magazines!

[Mark in Ottawa]

"The times, they are a changing".

Guns of our era are mostly gone and our era is vanishing/dying as well. Young people have no place to shoot,. Few have interest or places to hunt. Guns of the newer breed are just for protection so the history, the workmanship, the quality, the design, etc has little interest.

Kids and young adults mostly associate todays guns as being lightweight, will shoot millions of times w/o reloading, available in pink, made of pot metal and tupperware.

Many of us old farts already know what we need or want to know about our guns and guns of our times. The newer generations can refer to literature or YouTube videos if they have questions. A new Glock will probably last them a lifetime due to simplicity and the fact it will probably never be shot.

Guns now represent politics.

Our generation is dying off.

I won't knock pink rifles. My daughter bought one for my then 13 year old grand daughter. She is mechanically adept and within 10 minutes was reloading the single shot, bolt action rifle without looking at either the box of cartridges or the rifle itself, doing it all by feel and keeping her eye on the target.

[RED]

Young people have no place to shoot...

There are hundreds of indoor ranges that young or seniors can go to shoot. If you want to shoot it can be expensive. I use a indoor range that charges $20/hour.

My real range is a small (uninhabited) island on a 30,000 acre lake.

[JohnMOhio]

The info presented by you all is representative of what we all have seen in one form or another. However, the emphasis seems to be the Black Rifle that the younger generations flock to. What we old timers (60 to 80 year olds) have to do is this, when at the range and one of these youngsters are there, offer them the opportunity to shoot an 03 or Grand or the M1 Carbine. If you have any of the other WW2 rifles, offer the same opportunity to try them. Same with a pistol. If into archery, let them try that basic bow you have with out all the cams and sights on them.

We can't get them interested if they don't have a chance to try something new that is old. Challenge them.

[Art]

The info presented by you all is representative of what we all have seen in one form or another. However, the emphasis seems to be the Black Rifle that the younger generations flock to. What we old timers (60 to 80 year olds) have to do is this, when at the range and one of these youngsters are there, offer them the opportunity to shoot an 03 or Grand or the M1 Carbine. If you have any of the other WW2 rifles, offer the same opportunity to try them. Same with a pistol. If into archery, let them try that basic bow you have with out all the cams and sights on them.

We can't get them interested if they don't have a chance to try something new that is old. Challenge them.

The young people I see at the range, and I'm going everyone under 40 here, are almost all "black rifle" folks and their rifles almost always have some sort of optic. Even a lot of the bolt actions have that "tactical" look. A buddy of mine just bought a very tactical looking Henry lever gun. A lot of the kids haven't the faintest idea of how to use iron sights on a rifle.

The good news is there are still lots of guys who bring their kids to the range.

Anyone with a nice mil surp still draws attention and my club has bullsey matches from the bench for vintage military rifles regularly.

Every time there's a hit WWII movie interest in getting an M1 increases but unfortunately the cost of a good M1 is now way out of a lot of peoples budget. In fact that goes for a lot of really good condition mi surps, especially the USGI ones. Some can still be found at a decent price. I was checking out Swedish Mausers the other day and pretty nice ones can still be had for under $700.00, but you do have to shop for a deal like that.

You Tube has lots of videos on vintage mil surp rifles many produced by younger shooters, unfortunately some of those folks could use a tutorial not just on the weapons history but how it actually works.

I guess my point is that there isn't a lack of shooters they just shoot different stuff for the most part. A decent number do, however, have some interest in the vintage stuff. Our son is a good example, he owns two M1 rifles, one he wanted as a graduation present form high school. He now owns two of them. However, his recreational rifle shooting is almost all with the weapon he carried in the military, a civilianized semi auto M4. Nice gun and very accurate but like most of the guys here it isn't my cup of tea for recreation.

[dogtag]

The last time I went to my club to shoot (Some years back),
of the 12 benches on the 100 yard line, eleven were occupied
by guys with "Black Rifles". I took the only vacant bench and
proceeded to shoot my 71 Mauser. No one seemed interested
in what was causing the blue smoke.
I have to admit my club had been invaded by louts from two
other clubs closed down for failing to clean out their berms,
The influx of their rif raf is why I resigned my membership.

[Phloating Phlasher]

Balmer, Marylann is celebrating under 300 Murders annually. The "Only Had 260".
Let That sink in.