What did /do you do ?

Went to school during NAM so not much experience with firearms except my High school years of hunting small game and coyotes. Finally got a degree in Biology and started teaching elementary and eventually all levels of school in a very good wildlife area. elk and deer fed us for many years. I bought an irrigated farm and the varmints and city dogs forced me to become interested In long range shooting, so I was introduced to small fast bullets with a .243. I still have it and it shoots well. My little ranch afforded a few good rope horses so I rodeo-ed ( rode Rough Stock)for seven years and quit because of injuries but continued roping. I then became a rodeo photographer for 25 years while I taught and ran the place. My knees wore out, but I could hunt horse back and that even came to an end.
All the while I would knock off coyotes when I could. I shot Cowboy action for 12 years and became so arthritic, that even came to an end. I really am not safe to handle guns quickly. I had 27 operations in 5 years and that kept me close to the house. Coyote hunting is all I do now. I have to be more careful, as I'm a little unstable, and I don't want to call for help. I found out I had leukemia last year so I not spending much on new rifles just keeping them up for the kids. My doctor thinks he can keep me active for several more years. so I will hunt till I can't .


Going in the morning.

Pack
 
I grew up in a family of six adults with my grandmother running the house and grandpa was a boot maker/shoe repair shop owner..Mom had a beauty shop and the average wage was about 75 cents per hour...A lot of our family income was on a barter basis with the farm families in the county...We were cash poor, but ate well... My grandfather drilled into me the need to buy the best that you can afford and take care of it..

I started working part time at 15 in a furniture store and as a car hop/do-it-all, at a small hamburger joint after getting off at the furniture store...so money was always a tool for what I needed/wanted...

It seems that I've worked two and three jobs all my adult life...Cops don't usually get paid a bunch of money for the job demands and hours, but we usually got by...Off duty jobs in the city were usually plentiful...Just not much home life or social time...so buying quality and maintaining it was paramount, rather than continually replacing junk...

Now, I spend what is needed, but try to maintain a nest egg for emergencies...
 

We were middle class, but my father and mother grew up poor, so they didn't waste money on "toys". My Dad had all the guns one needed. At least in his mind. We had a few shotguns, and .22 rifles, and one old .22 pistol. My first gun was an old .22 rimfire J.C. Higgins semi-auto/bolt action(t-bolt), that I bought from my Father for $20, as he upgraded to a newish Remington .22 semi-auto. I mowed lawns, baled hay, and shoveled out stock barns for that cash. When I wanted a shotgun, my Mom helped me get a job running milk, eggs, and butter to old ladies, off a home delivery milk truck. At the ripe old age of 13, I proudly walked into Truck City Marine, and plopped my earned $139.00 down for my first shotgun, a Remington Model 1100. Like Tim, I researched what I wanted, and worked and saved until I got it. Today, I design integrated circuits, for one of the largest microprocessor vendors on the planet. I still do the research, and buy what I want, but I don't have to shovel cow poop to get it.
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I don't really get the have to have right this minute to often, I got a pretty good deal on a 17 Remington once and sold a AR lower to make up the funds I lacked, other than that I am fairly patient.
 
I grew up in a hunting and fishing family, where being outdoors was valued.

Being on my own, a nice rifle was always valued over a nice pickup, still is.

Since I was 17 years old and joined the Infantry, I have carried guns as part of my martial profession.

My background is military, law enforcement, competition, overseas government contracting, teaching, etc.

Firearms are simply a daily part of life, and tools for me, so like a professional carpenter, I value high quality tools.

Next year will be 30 years I have carried a gun for a living. There has been a high price to pay for it, in terms of my body.

Due to this career path I have been in numerous car crashes where I have broken my back, have numerous sets of disks fused, have a titanium plate that keeps my neck/spine/skull attached. Also due to on the job car crashes, I have blown out a knee, broken ribs, broke a leg, broke an ankle, and had an arm dislocated. I also had an outlaw motorcycle guy bury a princess peg in my leg.

Plus, I have had bullets pulled from me, cut, and had some pretty severe rocket and mortar blast injuries that affect me to this day, and will continue to do so for the rest of my life. I have zero hearing on my left side. I suffer from severe migraine that totally wipe me out and require some pretty powerful drugs to get under control.

With that said, I do not complain about those injuries, as I know men that I worked with who were also hunters and shooters, who came home in a box or far more banged up than me.

When I came home from my 13th rotation in Iraq, my dad gave me a new in the box Tikka 695 .338 Win Mag, and said "you are done.You have done enough." I figured he had a point, and it was time to spend time with family.

Since then I have tried to make up for lost time, have tried to have a few higher end toys on my very meager budget (like a Sako TRG with a nightforce), and a Les Baer 1911, and enjoy the snot out of shooting them.


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Originally Posted By: Pack_WolfI found out I had leukemia last year so I not spending much on new rifles just keeping them up for the kids. My doctor thinks he can keep me active for several more years. so I will hunt till I can't.

Going in the morning.

Pack

I'm very sorry about this.

Eric
 
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I feel very fortunate to have grown up in a hunting and fishing family. I would say we were middle class as far as income but my parents were very frugal in our creature comforts. I did not eat any fast food until I was a teen. There was 3 boys and 3 girls in the family, the boys hunted and fished and the girls didn't. Girls were just interested in it. We learned to shoot with a single shot Montgomery Wards rimfire with iron sights and after proving competence with it we moved up to a pump action rimfire with a 2X scope. We had 2 big game rifles, a Pre 64 Model 70 243 Win with a 4X scope and a iron sighted M98 sporterized Mauser 30-06. The only shotgun we had was a Browning A5 sweet sixteen 16 gauge. Other than a few BB guns this was all we had and I felt like we had the best arsenal in the world.

I began reloading when I was around 14 because I could not get enough shooting in because of not being able to afford the ammo. At this time I was just starting to sell my coyote pelts so I saved every penny so I could set myself up to reload. My dad said that if I wanted to shoot more then I would have to fund it myself. Along with selling the pelts I had 3 paper routes, 2 morning - Albq Journal and Denver Post and 1 afternoon - D Times. It took quite some time before I was finally set up to do my own reloading but I would not have changed anything because of what I learned in this process.

The 243 M70 was my go to rifle for everything. I shot my first deer at 12 with it and I loved it. I tried many times to take sole ownership of it but my dad would just laugh and say no, its a family rifle. When I was 16 I bought my first centerfire rifle, a Rem700 7mm mag. It was a beater but it was mine. My dad tried to talk me out of it because it was so beat up. The original owner kept it behind the seat in his pickup and it got beat up in the process but he told me the round count was low. I ended up putting around 1200 rounds in 6ish years through it before I sold it and bought another 7 mag, a S&W 1500 Deluxe. This was a mistake because it had beautiful wood and I just could not keep from banging it up so I sold it after a few years. Soon after around 1988 I then purchased a Browning A-bolt Stainless Stalker in 7 mag with a Nikon 4X scope and wow, what a shooter this rifle was / is. This was my first " brand new" rifle. Over the years I have helped many new shooters / hunters get in to the sport and this is the rifle that has helped many to harvest their first animal. There have been many that have tried to buy this rifle from me after these hunts. The bbl was shot out at around 17-1800 rounds and now has a Rockcreek bbl and continues to shoot bug holes today.

As my income increased in the mid to late 90's so did my gun collection. I have built a few customs myself and had quite a few built for me by some very well known gunsmiths. I actually got into building or having rifles built for specific hunts, for example mountain rifles for mountain hunts, long range heavy bbl'd rifles for stand hunting. In the last few years with the down turn of the economy I have been left with the situation that I needed to sell some of my rifles / pistols to help supplement my income. Surprisingly it was not as hard a choice as I thought. Some of the customs were easier to sell than the ones that have memories behind them. I still have some customs and a few I may never sell but there are others that mean too much to me and my family to sell. It has kind of been nice to get back to my roots of having what I actually need as opposed to what I want.

Of all of the guns we had as a family growing up the only ones that are still around are the Browning shotgun and the 243 M70. I constantly joke with my older brother that I am waiting for him to die so I can get that M70. My nephew will have some say in that I'm sure.

Some people just don't get us as hunter / shooters. I remember back in junior high school giving an oral report and during this report realizing how different my family was compared to most. Having been born in Utah, hunting / fishing was a way of life. Not sure if they still do this but every year they would close the schools the first day of deer hunting season ( I think they do by the number of kids I see hunting ) and when I moved to NM I was surprised that they did not also do this. In this report I mentioned this along with the fact that my family depended on game meat and fish that we hunted and fished for, for our food. It was common for my Mom to say that Saturday was fish fry day so that meant go catch some trout or bluegill. The teacher stopped me and started asking me questions about all of this and the reaction from her and the class was like I was an alien. I did not realize that not all families do this. I smile now because I know that no matter what comes of this world I can provide for my family with even just a 22 rimfire and a fishing pole if needed. We should all be grateful for whatever path got us where we are today.
 
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Originally Posted By: Eric_MayerOriginally Posted By: Pack_WolfI found out I had leukemia last year so I not spending much on new rifles just keeping them up for the kids. My doctor thinks he can keep me active for several more years. so I will hunt till I can't.

Going in the morning.

Pack

I'm very sorry about this.

Eric

+1. My prayers are with you and your family.
 
I was raised closer to the wooden spoon than the silver spoon. Went to the school of hard knocks and never started making any serious money until I was 13.
Between my paper route and running drugs I was in high cotton. The papers paid about 9 bux a week for a hundred customers, six days of delivery.
The running drugs paid 35 cents an hour. I delivered prescriptions with my bike for the local pharmacy. Not likely that job exists today.

I also collected dead beat accounts for the druggist, when things were slow. I hated standing around trying to look busy so suggested I run down some old accounts. He laughed, but didn't laugh the second day when I came in with the cash.

I bought knives, and BB guns and an Estwing hatchet. Like I said high cotton.

I try to enjoy every day and not take myself too seriously. we are dead fr a lot longer than we are alive.
 
I grew up middle class. Dad was a wholesale salesman and mom worked for the state. I didn't go without but was taught at an early age to buy my own "stuff". I mowed lawns from 12-19 and then performed factory work in summer while home from college. I knew I wanted better for my family and decided to pursue a career in IT. It has served my family well and allowed me to afford what I wanted.

In terms of hunting, I owe my heritage to my Dad and two dairy farmers close to the house. They afford me the luxury of hunting within a couple miles from home and took me in like family. I dearly miss one of them that passed years ago. One is still living who I don't get to see enough and it's my fault for not visiting him.

My son who is 11 now doesn't know what he was in terms of opportunity. My father-in-law has a few hundred acres that we have open access to and it is taken for granted by my son. I have tried to explain but will older age comes wisdom. Maybe one day...
 
Tim,
My story of hunting and guns starts with my father, a solid Christian citizen, ranger back from WWII,
and a humble job in production running a copper elbow bending machine (may he RIP).
His approach to hunting was simple.
One shot 20 gauge and one shot bolt 22.
He taught me to make good on one shot.
He mocked the guys carrying automatics saying they just couldn't kill with one shot.

He taught me to treat every gun as a loaded gun, the hard way.
I thank him for that lesson.

He did have a 1911 stuck away for home protection that I was all to aware of.
And I did shoot it once, without adult supervision, and scared the daylights out of me (maybe 6 or 7).

He gave me a Benjamin pump-up 177 pellet gun, that I thought the world of, and spent thousands of hours carrying out-back popping anything that looked like an interesting target.

Anyway, between then and now I transitioned through an upland hunting phase with two good bird dogs,
a 1100 20 ga, a great hunting buddy (RIP), and lots of special memories.

Now I hunt yotes with an AR in close proximity to a major metro area about once a week.
The yotes are here, they just don't like to come out during the day when I hunt them... but that doesn't stop me!
 
Both my parents came from very poor backgrounds, farming and agricultural jobs. My father went on to do very well working for the government but remained a real stickler about money and working for what you want.
First gun I ever bought was an Ithaca Model 37 12 ga......saved up a few months of paperboy money for that one. These days I can pretty much buy what I want within reason but still do a lot of shopping first.
Just got into ARs as I had resisted them for a long time. Now there's an addiction that will set you back a buck or two. Between all the fufu parts and feeding them I am reminded of why I resisted for so long.
 
I grew up dirt poor, buying my school clothes and milk at 12, but satisfied my passion for guns by buying a 20 ga. at 12, 2 12 gauges at 13 and a couple 22's between then at garage sales. Always made sure I had an income and have it all paid for so now it's all want money. Wasted enough on factory ammo so now getting into reloading.
 
Grew up in rural Iowa. Poor white trash for the most part. The only one in my family that owns and regularly shoots firearms. 32 years as an LEO and 24 years in the active Army and National guard. I started out bailing hay and then moved on to a tire shop before joining the Army in 1973. My body is beat the [beeep] up and I'm thinking about giving up just working part time at any and everything my back can handle, which is not much. I just build my 6th AR and I spend my free time reloading and I am currently building a doll house for the grand daughter. I have not done much hunting in the last 30 years but I want to get back to it. There are way too many coyotes out there and not enough pheasants and quail.
 
Like a lot of others here my family wasn't wealthy. My parents grew up in hard times so new the value of a dollar. In the navy for a couple of years then an electrician, secret service, charter boat capt, and now working with the wife in real estate sales. I wasted a few years when I was younger and didn't know any better, but now I try to make the most of what's left.
 
I grew up just plain white trash. Grandpa ran shine and hauled logs to his own tie mill. Dad had a 6th grade education and mom made the 8th grade. I hauled hay, hauled pulp wood, cut firewood, and trapped to support my habits. I knew nothing of college and passed on a football scholarship for the Corps. Joined the sheetmetal local for a trade after the Corps. Left that for a papermill job and left that after 10 years for the oil refinery. My wife is an Rn and we have had and lost our own business. Poor trash to millionaire to just making it. I still manage to get most of what I want but I have never had expensive tastes. I try to buy things that are a good deal more than exactly what I want but I always get stuff that will hold up under my use.
Grandpa worked until 77, my dad is 73 and still works construction everyday, I hope to retire at 74, if I dont make it to retirement, Oh well. Maybe we will meet in heaven. I will be there and I hope that you are too.
 
My story probably isn't very exciting - grew up relatively poor on a ranch under parents without college degrees and a grandpa who was a VP level exec at a Fortune 500 company. I learned from them 3 things - the value of a dollar, the value of an hour of hard work, and the value of a highly leverageable college degree.

I paid for college riding bulls at rodeos, breaking colts and building fence in the summers, then working 5 jobs at all hours of the day and night during the school year. I graduated with a paper saying I'm an engineer, but more importantly, I graduated without a penny in student loans, nor a dollar borrowed from family, and I earned almost twice as much as my parents combined income in my first year out of school (between rodeo winnings and salary).

My grandpa started me living by the 60% rule when I was 9yrs old, and it stuck. Doing so basically ensures you'll never go without, but still have to plan head to make frivolous purchases.

There's nothing more I love in life than breaking colts and checking cows on the ranch, but I also love knowing I have the OPTION to work on the ranch, and the option to NOT work on the ranch. I'm grateful every day for the gift of foresight to pursue my career which lets me provide much better for my family than I was provided for growing up.

It was a couple year ago where I kinda tipped over the backside of "money makes money" for my "slush fund". The 60% rule allows 10% income to burn like wildfire - but I really don't spend that much, so it piled up for a while. Every now and then I'll dip deeply enough to scratch principle in my slush fund, but most of my firearms purchases are just on interest these days. I dollar cost average my ammo and components, meaning I buy my normal utilization plus $100 per month of components just to build inventory - basically investing in "shooting futures." I've owned over 600 firearms in my relatively short life, profited on many of them at sale, and have never really dipped so deeply that one of them made life difficult.

So my story is a tedious one - no real surprises, no real booms or busts... Just steady execution of a strategic budgetary plan, which includes a LOT of shooting.
 
Originally Posted By: AzDiamondHeatOriginally Posted By: GCI grew up good looking and talented. I kicked around doing some modeling and that got me into photography. Hef asked me to become one of Playboys photographers but I got fired when all the ladies became infatuated with me and Hef lost his action. I don't miss it, that's awfully tiring stuff. Since then I've won some gold in the Olympic Games, guided for dangerous game in Africa, made some scientific discoveries of importance and done some black op missions with special forces. Can't wait until I turn 21 and can buy a beer.
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Liar liar. You plagiarized this from woodless. Lol.

It wasn't Playboy it was Penthouse, otherwise that is the boring stuff.
 
I was born in Louisiana and moved to Tn when I was 9. I feel like I was very fortunate growing up. Dad was in banking and mom stayed home and raised my brother, sister and me. Both of my parents are the hardest working people I know. While we might have been ok financially my parents defined the word frugal. My dad paid off the house when he was 37 and hasn't taken a loan out since. I wish some of that frugalness would have rubbed off on me. When I was 8 my dad gave me his .410 from his childhood. I hunted everything including deer with it for years. In middle school my grandpa let me use his 12 gauge. In high school my parents got me a .270 for christmas and the following year I got an 870 express. I always worked for what I wanted but from 13 to 18 all of my money went in my truck fund. I put up hay with my brother, mowed lawns, and laid sod to earn money. I rode a 100cc motorcycle to work and school and when I was 18 I bought a new Ford Ranger with cash. I have owned my own business now for 11 years and do ok. All of the guns I own get plenty of use. I buy what gets the job done and try to take care of it. I don't anything high dollar except maybe my daniel defense. I would like to have some high dollar glass but I can't make myself buy anything expensive with 2 little girls that I hope to help put through college. My plan is to be somewhat tight fisted now and when I retire I'll go bananas with my gun purchases.
 
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