Battue,
Good points. If there are any famous pieces of junk out there, they were probably what was at hand as opposed to being a careful choice. Not sure about Oswald's rifle. He chose it beforehand, but to my knowledge that model is not considered to be a good rifle. Perhaps the explanation is simply it was what he could afford.
I have heard what you describe about cars from other sources. So you may be right about the M70. There do seem to be some younger folks who have figured it out about the M70. BSA comes to mind, but actually, I don't know how old he is. Even so, I suppose you are correct that there are not enough "new disciples" to sustain a vigorous market.
Maybe the markets dip and recover. What is the market for old Winchester lever guns? Did it drop and recover? I honestly don't know. Is the market governed by that "historical significance" thing, nostalgia, rarity? I know the answer is "all of the above", but how much are younger people participating? There aren't that many 1886's. There are plenty of 1894's, but only so many Pre '64.
The thing about M70's is that many still believe they are superior rifles. If not, you wouldn't see actions getting new barrels and old guns being restocked in synthetic. I keep my Pre '64's "old style", but I might not if I didn't have Stainless Classics. Maybe the younger riflemen don't see the attributes we appreciate?
A bit off the subject, but not entirely, regarding products and what the younger generation expects and accepts, I deplore our "throw away" mentality. I understand it for products where the next generation is demonstrably better, as with TVs going from CRT, to flat screen, to something huge yet light enough to easily hang on the wall. To some extent with computers although for many of us some of the advances don't overly improve our simple word processing, 'net access and the like. But other goods like washing machines and refrigerators don't do much better than they used to, they just don't last as long. Much of this is planned obsolescence that we have come to accept when in the past quality construction mattered. I lecture in Mechanical Engineering. I tell my students "If you want to be 'green', then build stuff that lasts. The ultimate recycle is not to have to recycle. In many cases, you have been conditioned to accept poor quality." We see it with guns to some extent. but not as bad as it could be. The thing that helps guns is that there has to be a certain level of durability, if not quality, due to liability concerns.
We certainly have hijacked this thread have we not?! Mostly my fault.
Regards,
Gun Doc
Last edited by GunDoc7; 07/23/17.
