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At 74 I understand about not having enough time to do it the right way, and about playing devil's advocate. But it just seems wrong to turn anything into something it is not, to intentionally create a fake, a phony, from a replica. What possible joy can there be in fooling others into believing the wear was honestly hard earned?

No. Instead it would be more honest to simply trade it towards an authentic original.


I'm not trying to fool anyone, this is for my own pleasure. I have an original 1895 and hunted with it last year.

At 74 you're getting there but in a few years you'll find out that something happens to you when your hit the 80 year mark. You realize how short your time is and your thinking changes..... You start thinking, "this could be my last year to hunt". ... "this could be my last day PERIOD" So you don't put things off like you normally do because you realize you may not have another chance. You get selfish, you start doing what ever makes YOU happy. Other peoples opinions don't matter as much as they use to....You do what you want and to hell with what others think about it. because the end of the trail could be just around the corner.

I want to age this rifle to please ME...not to fool anyone. It's going to make ME happy when I'm sitting in the woods looking down at it across my knees.

A lot of people live to be 80 but damn few make it to 90 so when you're in your 80's do what makes you happy and you'll die a happier man. grin

Here's last year when I was 80 with my original 1895 0-6 made in 1912

I told my cardiologist the last time I saw him that I felt like a tire with a slow leak....he thought that was a pretty good description of getting old.

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