My brother and I grew up in a house that was immersed in firearms, hunting, trapping, and outdoor pursuits. My dad was a forester for the state and spent a lot of his time in the woods of extreme northern MN. We would occasionally go to work with him and tag along. He had a long gait that was hard to keep up with, but there was no waiting around. I learned early to watch my surroundings and lengthen my stride when trying to cover ground. We got in on blowing beaver dams, scaling timber, and lots of wildfires. He has had his FFL since the early 70's and always enjoyed ordering guns for others and for local banquets. He did a lot of scope mounting and sighting in for different people and started several folks out reloading. He taught hunter ed for several years and was the instructor for both my brother and I. We hunted deer, waterfowl, ruffed grouse, and did some predator calling. I got into trapping on my own and have spent many years enjoying my traplines. My old man's brothers were both big time Winchester collectors. One is still around and has a beautiful collection, the other passed away a few years back and had sold a big part of his collection before he died. After my mom passed away, my dad decided that he was going to split his collection between by brother and I so that he could enjoy seeing us use them. He has had a lot of health troubles of his own and can't comfortably shoot any more. I miss the days of shooting and hunting with him, but he still loves to talk guns and has now started to collect again. My son is also an avid shooter and hunter and has a sizable collection of his own. While my dad can no longer go with us, I enjoy nothing more than spending time in the field with my son.
