Are guns basically your only hobby?

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BillM

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Not even , in fact I am less plugged into firearms as a hobby than I was a decade ago . I have owned a LOT of guns over the years though , and don't have the fomo gun owners seem to have now . I am speaking to the younger shooters mostly even though I know a few people who are late to guns who are scrambling to buy guns in their new addiction. My firearms purchasing is mostly investment grade guns now and not as frequent now , I am not wasting my time , efforts or money chasing down another glock , or similar .


I have said it before but younger shooters take this advice and buy less quantity and more quality ( no that doesn't mean another AR to add to the 50 you have already ) .

Shifting gears my interests include collecting vintage camping and hunting equipment , to include stoves and lanterns . Photography , cycling , collecting knives . I still collect some military equipment but having collected military arms and equipment for 30 years I am past that now mostly unless its a very rare piece of kit.
I started photography as a new hobby in late 1972 or early 1973, found an Instamatic camera that had gotten run over in the street. Fixed it. Took a class in high school in photography, as well as my 1st machine shop class. A couple years in to my Air Force career, wound up working as a photographer for the USAF. Ruined a perfectly good hobby! Aircraft accidents and autopsies, sometimes including friends of mine. A child abuse case. Other nifty **** like that.

Did take a woodworking class my junior year of high school, made some fairly neat stuff out of wood from the scrap bin, but the only thing the family could afford to buy for my shop project was a half-sheet of 1/4" plywood. Made a pigeon-hole sorter cabinet, and Dad still had it and used it what last I was "home" 20-some years ago. Much as I like guns, and wanted/want to be a gunsmith, you'd think I'd have pursued that some more, but no. I self-identify as a wood butcher. Rough carpenter. Very rough!

Did lapidary and jewelry metal work a bit, still own a Lortone LU-6 combination lapidary unit. It's one of the things that's still under restoration in my shop... Spent much of the past 40 years in storage under poor conditions. The newer ones have stainless steel shafts, but they're not interchangeable with my vintage 1978 machine. Needs new bearings, too. A lot of my lapidary material was stolen from storage, oh, must be 10 years or so ago now. Had pieces of jade, some hand tools, a longish dagger blade, vegetable ivory, and rhodonite my dad collected in Colorado near his home. Made rings from castings, never quite got to making my own jewelry castings. Made a Baronial coronet for the SCA group we belonged to in South Carolina before going to Germany in the 90's, and took our son along once he was born in Germany, but pretty much dropped out after the 2nd child was born.

I do my own mechanical work as much as possible. And I collect tools for all the kinds of work I've ever done, or ever hope to do. Been carting a 128lb London-pattern anvil since 1985, when I traded a 1911 with the Ace conversion kit to my dad for it. I happen to know he paid $5 for it in 1971 or so. There are a lot of memories in that anvil. I've had the material to make a brake-drum forge for a couple of decades, at least. Was going to set up a smithy under the huge tree in my back yard, but we're just too close to the neighbors for that to avoid noise complaints. Sometime in the past 10 years or so, I bought a leg vise to accompany them...

And suddenly, I'm 68 years old, and about to run out of time. Dad made it to 77, despite heavy alcohol and tobacco use, and I'm not all that fond of either. It's possible that I could be good for another 20 or 30 years. Though he had about 1 heart attack a year for most of the last 22 years of his life, and I'm 18 years older than he was when he had his first. Haven't had one yet, myself, but the family history indicate I probably will. That or cancer. All four grandparents died from heart troubles, thought often with lots of complications. Parents died of heart trouble and cancer. I've been stacking on the complications for a while now, myself, no telling, really. SWMBO is a decade younger, and makes me look like I'm in great health. I have enough projects piled up here to last me as long as I last, and my kids can either learn how to use the stuff, or sell it for pennies per pound. Won't be my problem anymore. 😁
 

BillM

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I've often (not quite) joked that my hobby is collecting hobbies. I'm definitely afflicted with adhd (diagnosed, not just assumed). So I have a tendency to find something that is interesting to me, go all in on it and then get completely bored of it.
I think my biggest flaw is that I never feel that I'm actually good at anything, so I end up dropping interests almost as fast as I find them. I always have at least a couple of projects that I've started, but it takes me forever to actually finish them.

As for guns, I've always enjoyed them. That's one constant throughout my life. I've never collected high end guns or been an expert shot of anything like that, but I have always enjoyed them and will likely always have them.
Only a couple of projects? You were obviously mis-diagnosed. ;) When we were first evaluating my son, back in 1994 or 95, I gave the developmental pediatrician a ride in my van to get from her office to a meeting she needed to attend, after spending extra time with my son. Took one look in the back of the van (which was my vehicle, SWMBO had one of her own) and said: Aha! Obviously an adult with Attention Deficit Disorder. I have, at any given time, as many as 1000, and no, I didn't at any extra zeros. :) I've mentioned here the various machine tools. That has been the longest running "hobby." Took the first class in 1973, 2nd in 2015-2022. Been collecting machine tools since I got the first, (harbor freight mini-lathe) in 2008. Traded it off for a couple of Unimat late in 2021, but have 6 restoration project machines besides the Unimats sitting here right now. Stripped the carpeting out of the house years ago, still haven't finished redoing the floors. Bathrooms, kitchen and dining room floors got tiled, but we don't like them. Gonna have to strip that up and re-do one of these years. At least 5 project rifles. Only one project pistol at the moment, but that's only because I haven't been able to find blueprints for a C-96 Mauser. Still need to put the other brake caliper in my pickup. The rear camera in the wheelchair lift van. Security cameras on the front of the house. My workshop, which is most of those 1000 project all by itself! Tried to learn to paint in oils, acrylics, and water colors. Tried to learn how to write computer programs. Did OK at hacking other folks programs to my specific needs, once upon a time. Put myself online with a 300baud modem and a Heath H-89 computer (FIL built it, not me) and a Turbo Pascal terminal program on GEnie, back in the BBS days. Built my first computer in late 1978 or early 1979, from Radio Electronics magazine. The COSMAC Elf. Also smoked it the first time I powered it up. Pro-tip for building wire-wrapped computers. NEVER try to do it with only one color of wire. :cry3:I'm still building and modifying computers these days. Haven't smoked one in quite a while now. ;) MIGHT have something to do with switching to PC compatibles long ago.

Animals. For a while, I had a sidewinder in a terrarium in the garage. Dogs and cats, chickens, ducks, rabbits, goats, sheep, pigs, 1 steer, horses and ponies, most of them shared with my dad. He also had homing pigeons, parakeets, and ground squirrels. A rat. Seriously considered a ferret or two. :) Tropical fish, of course. Have considered getting some city chickens here. Tried to garden, discovered I have a black thumb. Unless it's a weed, if I touch it with my bare hands, it dies. The weeds thrive pretty good here, though. Youngest child has been including Lamb's Quarter in our salads lately, grown in our backyard. I'm trying not to touch them. Sculpture, wood carving, whittling, knife making. I'm not good at any of it. My poor dog needs a good brushing. Fortunately, he still loves me.
 
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Only a couple of projects? You were obviously mis-diagnosed. ;) When we were first evaluating my son, back in 1994 or 95, I gave the developmental pediatrician a ride in my van to get from her office to a meeting she needed to attend, after spending extra time with my son. Took one look in the back of the van (which was my vehicle, SWMBO had one of her own) and said: Aha! Obviously an adult with Attention Deficit Disorder. I have, at any given time, as many as 1000, and no, I didn't at any extra zeros. :) I've mentioned here the various machine tools. That has been the longest running "hobby." Took the first class in 1973, 2nd in 2015-2022. Been collecting machine tools since I got the first, (harbor freight mini-lathe) in 2008. Traded it off for a couple of Unimat late in 2021, but have 6 restoration project machines besides the Unimats sitting here right now. Stripped the carpeting out of the house years ago, still haven't finished redoing the floors. Bathrooms, kitchen and dining room floors got tiled, but we don't like them. Gonna have to strip that up and re-do one of these years. At least 5 project rifles. Only one project pistol at the moment, but that's only because I haven't been able to find blueprints for a C-96 Mauser. Still need to put the other brake caliper in my pickup. The rear camera in the wheelchair lift van. Security cameras on the front of the house. My workshop, which is most of those 1000 project all by itself! Tried to learn to paint in oils, acrylics, and water colors. Tried to learn how to write computer programs. Did OK at hacking other folks programs to my specific needs, once upon a time. Put myself online with a 300baud modem and a Heath H-89 computer (FIL built it, not me) and a Turbo Pascal terminal program on GEnie, back in the BBS days. Built my first computer in late 1978 or early 1979, from Radio Electronics magazine. The COSMAC Elf. Also smoked it the first time I powered it up. Pro-tip for building wire-wrapped computers. NEVER try to do it with only one color of wire. :cry3:I'm still building and modifying computers these days. Haven't smoked one in quite a while now. ;) MIGHT have something to do with switching to PC compatibles long ago.

Animals. For a while, I had a sidewinder in a terrarium in the garage. Dogs and cats, chickens, ducks, rabbits, goats, sheep, pigs, 1 steer, horses and ponies, most of them shared with my dad. He also had homing pigeons, parakeets, and ground squirrels. A rat. Seriously considered a ferret or two. :) Tropical fish, of course. Have considered getting some city chickens here. Tried to garden, discovered I have a black thumb. Unless it's a weed, if I touch it with my bare hands, it dies. The weeds thrive pretty good here, though. Youngest child has been including Lamb's Quarter in our salads lately, grown in our backyard. I'm trying not to touch them. Sculpture, wood carving, whittling, knife making. I'm not good at any of it. My poor dog needs a good brushing. Fortunately, he still loves me.
what do u need for C96 Mauser?
 

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