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Looking for the year you started collecting & your age. It doesn’t necessarily have to be Winchester’s but vintage or lever basically. Trying to get a general idea of who has started more recently to see how many are new to this or if the general thought that the new generation is not interested. It would help if all members could reply regardless of the year.
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I started collecting Marlins in 1967-68 Then Winchesters about 1988 then single action colts about 1999. It still is a lot of fun.
W.A.C.A. life member, Marlin Collectors Assn. charter and life member, C,S.S.A. member and general gun nut.
I started collecting pre-64 Winchesters in 2006 after the close of the New Haven factory. Was a new collector with no rhyme or reason and made some good choices and some bad choices. Have since got rid of the bad ones and focus on high condition and/or special order 1894’s. Have a couple 1886’s as well. Thought it would be interesting to note the age of our fellow collectors as well. I’m 48. My dad was a collector since the 1970’s (he’s 85 now).
Don
I will be 70 this year. Got my first Winchester when I was about 10. Winchesters have always been around the house. Really didn’t start collecting until the 1980’s. I am still having fun. Can’t wait for the Denver show in May.
Early 80’s
56
WACA Life Member #6284 - Specializing in Pre-64 Winchester .22 Rimfire
I was a kid. Dad had Winchesters and Savages. First gun I shot was a Winchester 62 when I was 5 years old. Dad gave me a 94 when I was a teenager. I bought my first guns for myself when I was 16 or so. Can’t say I was collecting yet, but that’s when I started buying. About 1969.
Shoot low boys. They're riding Shetland Ponies.
Old Logger said
Dad gave me a 94 when I was a teenager.
Mine gave me a very brown ’73 when I was about 14, or certainly not older than 15. Strongly suspect the gun was given to him, as he’d never go out “looking” for something like that. Later gave me another one in about the same cond.–maybe came from same source. Both very late .32-20s. Never fired either–though that were too “valuable” to risk shooting; totally ruined bores, anyway. While I was in H.S., bought several others from local pawn shop, inc. a re-chambered & refinished ’86 in .45-70 which I DID shoot…in my back yard. Had 6 levers by the time I graduated HS in ’63–all stolen by my slut-sister’s hoodlum boyfriend during my first year away from home in college.
I began this journey in the year 1965, when my dad taught me to shoot with an old rebarreled & rechambered Model 1885 high-wall (in 22 Hornet). In December 1966 (Christmas gift), I received my first rifle (an Ithaca Model 49 Saddle Gun, that I still have today. I have been accumulating (collecting) firearms since that time, though I did not become a serious collector until the early 1980s. I will be 60-years old this coming August.
Bert
WACA Historian & Board of Director Member #6571L
Got my first firearm ,a 28 gauge Winchester/Cooey Model 84 for Christmas in 1967.Started collecting Winchesters in 1973.Will be 66 this year.
When I was 10 yrs old my father and I bought my first Fox shotgun. It wasn’t until I was in my late teens when I purchased a Model 71 and killed a deer with it that I got the bug to buy/collect Winchester lever actions and hunt with them. I’m 50 yrs old now and my father is 78 and we have been collecting all types of rifles and shotguns, mostly Winchesters, for the last 40 years. It is something we have been lucky to have enjoyed together for so long.
Nick
I started shooting .22’s when I was about 6 at summer camp and later in Boy Scouts, don’t remember the make, possibly Remington or Mossberg. I started purchasing CMP rifles about 20 years ago. My Montana bro-in-law got me interested in Winchesters starting about 10 years ago so I started looking, made a bunch of dumb (read expensive) purchases, then started asking dumb questions on the forum and am now making less dumb purchases. Bought my first Winchesters, 1873 and 1894, at local auction on my 60th birthday (recently divorced and decided to treat myself right, $$$$$$$). I’m now 66 and a bit more discerning in my selections and much better informed from feedback on this forum. I’ve also greatly increased my library of Winchester reference material.
On another note, prices on later models (43, 64, 65) are headed higher, at least in my neck of the woods.
Big Mac
Great stories & replies. Not looking good for the younger generation…..so far.
AG
Well I am not going help lower the average of collectors. I went to my first gun shows in 1957 at age 14 and traded my Mossberg shotgun for a Colt Lightning rifle so I guess that started my collecting. I never got serous about it because I was still going to school until 1963 when I began gathering up old guns on the James Bay coastal villages. I have been collecting off and on ever since.
When I turned 18 I got my shooters licence and bought my first rifle, a 94 XTR 30-30. I then bought a 9422. That was in 2004.
I then bought a few commemoratives and then bought my first ‘old Winchester, an Oct 1894 in 30wcf made in 1901 in 2011. It snowballed from there.
I am 34.
A man can never have too many WINCHESTERS...
Dave K. said
I went to my first gun shows in 1957 at age 14 and traded my Mossberg shotgun for a Colt Lightning rifle so I guess that started my collecting.
Wow–never heard of such a thing as a “gun show” until a few yrs after I left HS in ’63. That one (local collectors, very bush-league) was about 30 m. away. However, for the next 50+ yrs, I sure as hell made up for lost time. (Money I squandered on gas & motels would have financed a significant collection.)
Somebody wanted that Mossberg MIGHTY bad!
I started collecting Dan Wesson revolvers in 2010 with the goal of having one blued and one stainless in each caliber they made at the original Monson, Mass. factory; I’m lacking two.
With Winchesters, I can’t call myself a collector yet- more of an avid accumulator since I haven’t locked in on a “collector group”. I have accumulated what Winchesters I like and what I can afford since 2016. Just turned 54.
Technically, the glass is always full; half liquid, half air....
WACA #10293
I started about 6 years ago with Winchester, have always hunted and enjoyed Guns. I like Model 86’s but buy what ever I like the looks of. 65 years old
I didn’t start collecting Winchesters until 2012, when I bought my first pre 64 model 94 (made in 1950) at a local gun show. I’ve always liked guns, and have only had hunting guns before that. My first shotgun was a Winchester model 37a that my folks bought me in 1974, and I still have it. My focus in mainly model 1894/94, but I also have a few model 1892’s, 61’s, 62’s, 64’s, 1890 and also a few colt handguns. I typically buy what I like, but mostly 94’s. I’m 62.
Al
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