well, it has now been 2 decades. i got my first computer in march of '97. an eltronical dude from work came over and set everything up for me. the very first night i had her up and running, i did a search for foz shotguns.

one of the links i clicked brought me to this site. it was the original bbs form. i read and read and read from a long time before i even posted. just like when we switched to the current form of forum, i could have hand an uber-low user registration number, but i usually just read and usually only post when i have a question. did not register on the new board until i needed help with something.

anyway, have ABSOLUTELY NO FREAKING IDEA (!!!) how many hours i have spent reading this board. additionally, i have gotten to know many board members, both through just strictly email and phone, but also in person. breaking bread at their kitchen tables, enjoying a libation or four, hanging out in their shops, and sleeping in their guest bedrooms.i would have never even known these people existed were it not for this board.

for these reasons, i am a contributing member every year. i encourage everyone who spends a fair amount of time enjoying this site to give dave some cash every year. he has helped us, and we should held in in return.

so who else is in the 2 Decade Club? who has been on this board over 20 years now? only people who were on the board from march '97 and before.

I am not a 2 decader but am a contrib member
Here is how

http://doublegunshop.com/doublegun_bbs_donations.htm

Mike

I built my first really useful computer (1987) (after the Timex Sinclar and the Commodore 64) but did get my Master's Degree using the C^$

Hi mark..Happy Anniversary,:)
I got on this new site in '01, but was on the old board for a couple or few years...though I don't know how to find that out..So I can't prove it
But I would say I might well qualify .
I have also spend many hours on this site...If it ever it wasn't here, It would be a real loss to me...I feel very comfortable here,
like an old friend
best to you
franc

Franc click on your name on the left and then click View Profile

You are

Member #: 46 Online content
Title: Sidelock
Total Posts: 3390
Registered on: 12/31/01 11:00 AM

As to the old site, I wonder if they still have an archive?

I started here in 1997 as well...Geo

I did a search for Paul Scholberg of Liege and found the old site in 1995.
Registered on this BBS on 22/01/02 @ 11:00 AM

I'm close, the new board required you to re-up on or about 12/31/2001, I'm guessing I was around some years before that as I first got on the internet about 1996 and this was one of the first places I haunted.

I don't know how long I've been around ........ but I pay my way, too. 15 years since I reregistered, maybe that's all, dunno.

SRH

1996 for me, when I got my first computer. A Mac G4.

Added memory a few times, and still use it to surf and email.

It is coming up lame, here and there, but, still works. I often post photos for guys that aren't up to speed just yet on the process.

Anyone else still using a computer of that vintage? My bet is no.

I don't remember my original number, but, I think I am 238 after the reset.

Best,
Ted

I belonged way back then.....maybe Teddy Roosevelt was President? Can't remember. #69 on the new board dated 12/31/2001. I also wish there was a way to access the earliest posts.

I run a Mac too, Ted. But not that old. Glad you hung around all those years.

All my best, SRH

I thought I was living large when I got windows 95.
I sorta miss all the illegal operation warnings that kept me company surfing.
I just retired my 486/win 97 that was upgraded to xp with a 10" screen.

My registration date is '03 but I've been tuning in daily since 2000 when I got my first PC.

Sure do miss some of the good old boys who posted such fantastic information about double guns and the different methods to repair them. Dr. Gaddy, John Mann, etc.

I've learned a lot here over the years & try to make a contribution every year to help Dave keep things up & running.

I registered 1/1/02, but was around long before that on the old board. Got my first PC (Kaypro) in the late 80's. Went from a manual typewriter to a computer. Seemed that for a long time, this board and the old alloutdoors board were about the only places for people like us to play.

And remember the days when Gun List (aka Gun Lust) was the place to search for guns? Bought and sold a bunch of guns via GL.

Some of us print old threads for research. That's how I'm going to find my early dates. By the way, I still occasionally use my long carriage IBM Selectric. I recently got an offer to buy it from a legal firm. I can't remember how they said they were going to use it.

funny you should mention print outs. i just happen to have a print out from 3-21-99. it is from DJM (david j moses) he was an ex-pat in germany. he was supposed to be moving back to the US, and he just disappeared from the board. his knowledge of teutonic guns and other such info was an excellent source of info.

russ had a gun marked "david moses" and to be honest iam 99% sure it was "david j moses" on the rib. it was a continental gun, and i am sure the name was just a retailer. but we thought it was funny that a double from germany with his name engraved on the rib.i wish i remember more about the gun.

damn, i sure do miss russ. the other icons too, but russ was someone i was closest to.

Russ, Bill Wise, David Moses, Greg Tag (kept track of Flues failures) . . . the first two are deceased, but David and Greg were both great contributors.

I’ve been a member since 1997,where I got my first PC at work. I rarely post since I learn more by listening tha posting and exposing my ignorance. With all this negative banter and commentary and lack of civil discourse, I remember vividly one of the first kerfuffle’s on this Board between Pete Hiatt and some either Greek or Lithuanian guy Yakuakas or something of the sort, where Pete reached out to him on some camping excursion in Oregon and the guy tried shafting him (no, not literally) on the BBS message board. Got real ugly, but Dave showed the same equanimity then a he does now. There is no shortage of AH’s in cyberspace as well as terra firma.

I started in about 1982 with Atari or Texas Instruments moving on to Bitten Apple. My first interactions on this board was regarding Japanese Winchester. The question was answered by Ole' Cowboy. I got my first double barrels from Tuomo of Finland. Them were the days. Dam it I must now watch old black and white move and pour some warm Dutch beer.

Can't remember when I found this special place. I believe it was back in the 90's. But I have been around to see plenty of battles fought here on this site.

Oscar told me about it shortly after it was started
bill

Ole Cowboy was an prickly old cuss, but was a good friend that I met through this board when I had a question about a 101 I had just purchased. He has been gone a little over 4 years. I have met many other good friends here.

Perhaps they wanted to use it to back date wills.

I too date back to the old board. How far back I no longer know but it must be twenty years as well. Lurked in the early days. Early days were a lot of banter and fun. There were several very heated threads over the virtues of the 16 and how mind numb those who disagreed about those "facts." I miss Old Lighting, John Mann, Bill Wise and Klunkmeister. A couple others, who are long gone, were such great sources of information and kind help. But even the nasty posters were more grouchy than mean and they often knew what they were talking about.

We had wonderful guy named John Mann who was the peacemaker of this forum. I remember Lowell Glenthorne of Glenthorne woods and his beloved Beesley. I heard he sold his Beesley. I wonder if he kept the A.H.Fox and Remington 1894. Those were them good ole' days.

I used to get lots of laughs at Glenthorne fretting himself into a frenzy over poachers. Someone could drive by slow and he would begin to worry. Someone started a thread of limericks, and I wrote one especially for Lowell ....... wish I could remember it.

There was also a real friendly guy out in Washington or Oregon named Lemke. I seem to remember him never mentioning shooting anything but starlings.

SRH

Stan, was that the guy someone--perhaps in honor of Glenthorne--dubbed "Lord Starlingworth"?

When things were slow, you could always post something negative about a Winchester and Ole Cowboy would appear like a genie in response to rubbing the lamp.

Early on, I recall that there was a pretty strong "Damascus Roulette" clique. Not safe to shoot those old guns.

I don't recall that monicker, Larry. I remember now his full screen name was Lenard Lemke, without an "o" in Lenard. The Atlanta Braves were on a roll along then and they had a great second baseman named Lemke, "The Lemmer". I guess that name just kinda stuck in my mind.

SRH

Larry in the Happy Hunting Ground, Ole Cowboy is going to give you Hell about trolling him on Winchesters !

I'm getting awful close to twenty if I'm not already there. Had a lot of good interchanges here over the years...
JR

If my memory serves me correctly - and that becomes more of a rarity as each day passes - I first logged into the old, original board sometime in 1993 or early 1994 shortly after my arrival to Albuquerque in June of 93. I have been on many others and still do participate in a couple, but for gun knowledge, this one is and always has been the very best. Some of the others have degenerated into name calling and such BS that I don't visit as much as I once did. This is still the most civil of all the boards I am aware of and Dave runs a top notch operation here as far as I am concerned. I will say that I had never given much though to donating to a board until I had to pay one of the others to stay on. After doing it I felt so bad because I had just paid to stay with something that often just sucks and had never paid Dave a dime for the benefit and honest pleasure I have derived from this board. As soon as I saw the Call for Donations this year I sent mine immediately!! Feels good. Thanks Dave.

I joined the original board right at about post #500. Now I am member #43. Bill & Klunkermeister were here by then. Don't know the date, likely 1995. Lots of great guys and great information. I remember the Greek dude. I took him after chukar at the 3 forks of the Owyhee. We got to the drop off and hunted the rimrock from the top so no chasing chukars up hill. I went West, he went East and it sounded like Armageddon to the East. I shot 5 times and got 2 Chucks and a quail. He went through maybe 3 boxes and I thought we would be cleaning forever, but he came back with NO birds. Geez. I've never known anyone could be such a bad shot. He bought a blank from me then returned it. I sent him 3 blanks from which to choose and he kept them all (paid for only the original) and then I found out he screwed the stockmaker out of three more blanks and never paid for them. Luckily the only low life I have met in hunting or business.
Wonko the Sane was there fairly early on but went by another moniker I forget. Picked on him a lot but he is really OK. Frisko area guy makes the Reno show now and then.
Remeber Ol Tex who was a Mod 37 Ithaca lover? He decided to brew/distill his own whiskey and checked to see what an uncut barrel looked like through the bung with a match. Real bad idea, but he posted afterwards (stating it was a real bad idea). Didn't hear any more from him but he was a funny guy.
Really miss Russ & Oscar.

Rather than Ol Tex I think you're talking about Ol'Lightning. As I recall he told us of his wife threatening divorce if he kept on spending all his time here rather than with her. He took a sabbatical for a time, reappeared briefly and then finally disappeared for good. I've often wondered how he's doing today???

I started up the summer of 97 when I started my present job. The old format used to just roll with posting activity...lots of fun!

Stan I often wonder about what happened to Lenard Lemke. He seemed like a pretty astute shotgunner and marched to his own beat.

I keep coming back because there's a level of information here not found in the other shotgun forums I visit.

If you wanted squabbles back in those days, the old alloutdoors board was the place to go. Voutsi (the Greek guy) was there as well as here. I think he may still hold the record for having been booted off the most BB's.

Larry, I remember the thread that brought that forum down. "Shot size for grouse"

Ol' Voutsi ....... now that's a blast from the past.

SRH

This is why this is my number one stop and why I will likely make it to 2 decades one day. But I have a ways to go yet. CJO told me about this place. Glad he did.

pete - WTS went by 12ga.net and charles7 back then. he was a contrarian, but in a funny way. it was always halarious reading his posts

one of his funniest was in the late '90's. ou wrote a post about how wood held all sorts of modern material properties and ws actually hi-tech. charles7 simply wrote - "yeah, that is why they use so much of it on the space shuttle."

guess you had to be there, but it had me rolling.

BTW pete, on our little unspoken issue, my tally continues to rise.

I used to get a kick out of old Lowell Glenthorn, he used to bug some folks, but I thought he did it with a bit of style & humour..I miss him
franc