Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Just A Rant...

Craftsman is made in China now and people prefer Harbor Freight over most everything.

Just a means to an end apparently.

I like my AR and my Glock 19, but have a Cold Detective Special for back up, and own a 92 Trapper in .45 Colt, and my Wife has a Browning 92 in .357

We've got the best of both worlds.

Virgil B.

i own plenty beautiful blue-wood rifles and i would never sell them they are fun to shoot. i really prefer just a single shot Ruger #1 s.s./ laminate stock rifle to big game hunt with. but at home for defense my pump 12 gauge/plastic stock and buck shot is what i grab first, my second line of defense is a AR -15 223 , third line of defense is a revolver 357 mag.,after that i guess i get put in a body bag.

Too true. I’ve two safe queens waiting for the grandsons to get their own places.

Beautiful to look at but I couldn’t enjoy hunting with them unless I just adopted a f’k it attitude on it.

Stainless or blued and composite works best for me. It’s a tool after all.

Having Chinese for dinner tonight, I see. It's a bit under-cooked.

That’s DD’s bat catcher.

When my dad and his brothers grew up in the 30s and 40s they didn’t buy guns for fun either. It’s just the sign of the times.

Personally, I love a beautiful Walnut stocked, richly blued classic firearm.....no “gaudy” engraving or outrageous cheek piece designs. But, I want a firearm to use, not set in a fancy gun case to look at. I can’t afford and wouldn’t if I could afford, to purchase a beautiful piece of art... to “use” it in the field. A quality, synthetic stocked, stainless steel rifle is simply superior in hunting applications....especially adverse hunting conditions. And....if using them in adverse conditions, they group better and hold their zero better than most wood stocked. The same with my truck, it was bought to use......not drive the boulevard on Sunday evening to impress others! JMO. memtb

+1

So they never had a .22 for "killing" cans? It was a way of practicing marksmanship, but it was fun, too. I'm not sure what you mean by "it's just a sign of the times". Times wer much tougher back in the 60s and early 70s than they are today. You had widespread antiwar protests and the riots in Detroit, Newark, Watts and the rest were much worse than anything that's happened in Ferguson or Baltimore. Yet, people didn't have the fake fear that they have nowadays. Half of our customers are wannabe operators. They don't shoot an AR, they run an AR platform, and on, and on.

The marketing says a lot about the attitudes...
Love me those old Winchester ads.
Right up there with the "only in a jeep" ads.
Values were different,
The speed of life was different.
Nothing like an ammo shortage to make people appreciate precision vs volume..

"Having fun" was viewed as being at least slothful, if not actually criminal, long after that by those from that era. Catch and release fishing was so alien a concept as to cause terrible headaches when encountered.

And Some $300 rifles can keep 5 shots in gal jug at 500 yards now.

In Tn, men used a .22 rifles for killin hogs, don’t need no marksmanship skills in a hog lot. Just some white bread.

When I hear someone talk about "running" a rifle, I think they don't know the difference between rifles and sewing machines.

So many people seem to be missing my point that I guess I'll just put it bluntly---so many people think that the only use of firearms is to kill other people.

You makin' pimento-cheese sammies up in the stand?

Two things. First tastes change. There was a time when people appreciated the artistry and craftsmanship in a firearm. This is easy to see in the "Golden Age" of muzzle loaders with it's various schools For craftsmanship, Uncle Franny who took up gunsmiths after WWII was well respected for his polishing ans bluing jobs. Others were famous for stock work like flawless checkering which you know isn't easy if you've ever tried it.

Today people are drawn to tacticool. Anything that makes you look more dangerous and more macho (now there;s a dated term) than the next guy.
Craftsman shop? CAD/CAM everything, craftsmanship is all in the geeks that designed the electronics.

Secondly it's a function of history. Firearm,s technology was first applied to military arms. The civilian market followed with former service men wanting what they experienced in the service. Bolt action displaced lever actions and trapdoors and falling blocks after Mausers came out. Autoloaders were a novelty before people experienced the Garand. So now we're experiencing the effect coming from Stoner's dream (nightmare)..


Personally I prefer a firearm that is aesthetically pleasing to look at in the classic sense as well as functional. Not one that is merely functional.

I am conflicted - the best of both worlds




drover