Skip to main content
Help Center Community Shop

Comments

8 comments

Date Votes
  • garanch
    Would like to get DOM of '92 Winchester serial number 7762
    Thank you
    wwllvet
    0
  • Bert H.
    Wow... tough questions to answer in just a few paragraphs.

    Let me start with the "When" question first.

    I suppose that I first decided I wanted to collect Winchester Model 1885 Single Shot Rifles back in the summer of 1966 (when I was a real young fellow). That was the year my dad taught me to shoot a real rifle. He started me out on an old modified Model 1885 high-wall rechambered for the 22 Hornet cartridge, and I fell in love with that old rifle. It was deadly accurate, and I shot my first game with it (my dad would take me along with him during the summer while out scouting for places to bag a big black tail buck in September when deer season opened). While scouting the clear cuts along the Oregon coast, we would always see lots of rabbits. I learned to shoot and clean rabbits all in the same day in late June of 1966[^].

    In late summer of 1974 I bought my first Winchester... a Model 54 bolt-action chambered in 30 GOV'T 06. It wasn't until the late 1980s that I began to collect Winchesters in earnest though. I was 8-years into my career in the U.S. Navy, stationed aboard a brand new Ohio Class Trident Submarine, and I had lots of free time and $$$ on hand. I bought an old modified Model 1885 (rechambered for the 22 K-Hornet), and quickly realized that I should probably learn something about them before buying too many of them. It was at that time that I first began to research them. I hunted down every book I could find, bought them, and took them on deployment with me to study them. It helped pass the time while riding around underwater for several months at a time.

    As for what factor influenced me... I am not sure that I can point to a single event or thing. I guess I would have to say that my keen interest in firearms (which I developed at an early age) lead me down the path. My dad was an avid pocket book western reader, and he literally bought and read thousands of them before passing away in May of 1999. As a kid, I wanted to be just like him, so I too read the books. By the time I was 12, I had read more than (300) of them... mostly Loius L'Amour's books, as I like the way he described everything in detail (including the various guns his characters used). My dad also watched every single episode of every western TV show of the '50s, '60s and '70s, and every Western Movie ever made, and I was with him for most of them... which leads me to a funny side story. When the movie Blazing Saddles first came out in 1974, we went to watch it at the Drive-in theater... man was he ever not happy with it (I thought it was absolutely hilarious though[:D]).

    Anyway, and back to the topic at hand, I would have to say that what got me started was my dad, and he was not a collector. He did however take a great amount of interest in what I was doing, and we would have long discussions during my weekend visits home about the various guns and information I had accumulated along the way. I still miss him and our long discussions greatly[:(]

    The funny thing about answering your questions, is that it is very similar to another task I just recently completed. I was recently asked to write a Bio about myself for the WACA (Winchester Arms Collectors Association) Board of Directors. I am being considered for a position on that board, and they wanted to know something about me.
    0
  • gearheaddad
    Thanks to ga for asking the question and thanks to you Bert for enlightening us a little more.
    Gun collecting is an interesting hobby that a very small percentage of our population can understand.
    For many of us, no different world is known.
    Thanks again,
    Ed
    0
  • Winchester 1912
    Bert, that was beautiful man.[:)]
    0
  • ruger41
    I'm anxiously waiting for your book to come out!! I have a few old west gun books by R.L. Wilson that are chock full of info and pictures. I was just given for my bday a beautiful book called The Rifle in America by Philip B. Sharpe that has tons of info. I have shied away from the Maadis book. I also enjoyed the books Mike Venturino wrote on the old west guns. Will your book have lots of photos as well as text?
    0
  • Bert H.
    quote:Originally posted by ruger41
    Will your book have lots of photos as well as text?


    Eric,

    That is my plan... but lots of pictures drive the publishing cost through the roof[:0].
    0
  • kimi
    quote:Originally posted by ruger41
    I'm anxiously waiting for your book to come out!! I have a few old west gun books by R.L. Wilson that are chock full of info and pictures. I was just given for my bday a beautiful book called The Rifle in America by Philip B. Sharpe that has tons of info. I have shied away from the Maadis book. I also enjoyed the books Mike Venturino wrote on the old west guns. Will your book have lots of photos as well as text?


    Sharpe's book is a good one, however, if you are serious about learning all you can about Winchesters then you're doing yourself a huge diservice, IMO, if you discount Madis' many works.
    0
  • garanch
    Thanks for the reply Bert.

    Also, good luck on the WACA board, you would be a fine addition to them.
    0

Please sign in to leave a comment.

Recent Activity