I got my first taste of hunting as a 6 yr old in NE Montana in the early sixties. My first gun my father bought for me and my brother was a singleshot Stevens .22 . I still have that gun.
My brother and I also did double duty as my dad's bird dogs. That didn't help.
In my late teens, I took up the .22's again and started rabbit hunting and psuedo varmint hunting with a highschool friend and my brother. That led to rifle, handgun and archery hunting with my friend. My brother didn't hang with it in his adulthood. The friend is tipped over into big game hunting, you know the type; eats, breathes, sleeps hunting, specifically elk.
I've worked in and owned a machineshop and always was fascinated with the machinework of guns. Over the years I modified many guns, including making a very very short 1911 45acp as well as a compensated 1911, rifle stockwork, thread and chambering of rifle barrels, etc.
During an extended period of unemployment, I smith'd for a local shop and fixed whatever came in the door. Recoil pads, reassembly of owner disassembly, made parts for replacement of broken parts or lost parts, just about any thing on any type of gun.
I took to birdhunting about 15 yrs ago and did it for a few years then went onto horses pretty seriously for a decade. I recently (3-4 yrs ago) took it up again.
Basically, I owe my hunting passion to my father and my gun passion to my early first career as a machinist.
