Fall 2025 - Just got mine today|The Winchester Collector Magazine.|Forum|Winchester Collector

PRELUDE.  Yesterday I drove about 30 miles North to the TGCA show in Denton, amidst threatening clouds that turned into drenching rainstorms as the morning wore on. Met my fellow shootist TxGunNut as he was leaving his table to do an outdoor chore further North.   I expect he got back to the show looking like a drowned Water buffalo (Mike is not small.)  Saw Ben and Elliot and managed barely to escape the show without buying a factory-scoped Model 69. Elliot can mess with your mind about those things. 

IMPORTANT SAFETY TIP.  If you should come to one of the excellent gun shows at the Hilton Embassy Suites in Denton, and you drive up I-35E from Dallas to get there in bad weather, AND you become so unnerved by the redneck kamikazes weaving in and out of high speed traffic in Super Duties and Hemi-fired Rams that you look for another route back to metro Dallas —- heed me. Do not EVER consider driving East on U.S. 380 to the most northerly end of the Dallas North Tollway and taking it Southbound back to Big D.

From McKinney all the way West past Pilot Point, a Big Box Exurbia construction zone has sprouted like a social disease and it’s bumper to bumper, stop and go at walking speed, most of the way. By the time you turn onto the Tollway,  everybody is half-insane with frustration and all Hell lets out for noon. In my case, in a blinding rain and on a friction-free road surface. 

As all 4 columns of traffic race toward Plano at 80-85 mph, I’m in the second from the rightmost lane because I know the rightmost splits off to join the southbound lanes of the Sam Rayburn Tollway, just before the rest of us  disappear downhill into a giant rabbit hole underneath the  Rayburn northbound lanes. 

To make things more interesting, our rightmost lane is stopped and backed up with those trying to get onto southbound Rayburn. We are flying by the stopped traffic, our doors maybe 6 feet apart, when Mr. Horsetrailer gets tired of waiting and pulls his Escalade and horse out into my lane, less than 20 yards away.

At over 70 mph I don’t have time to look left, I just stay off my brakes, swerve left to avoid becoming one with the horse and flash past the Escalade within inches of its driver side door. Mercifully, the driver in the lane to my left must have seen it about to happen and tapped his brakes to avoid sending my high and narrow Tacoma into a fatal two-axis roll. If I knew who he was, I would buy him fresh underwear and an interior detail job for his car. 

WHAT ABOUT THE COLLECTOR? What’s this got to do with the Fall issue of the Winchester Collector ?  As soon as I got clear of the Tollway, I pulled off into a parking lot to recover my composure and called my wife. When I got home, she laid out the just-delivered Collector  next to my reading chair, along with a cup of hot coffee and a couple of her teacakes. There’s nothing better than enjoying stories written by your friends while you are still intensely grateful to be alive. 

I’m glad you made it to the show, Bill! I’m sorry I had to leave, in addition to being an active member of WACA and a TGCA board member I’m also active with the Valley View Chamber and this past Saturday was our annual wine walk. I’m sorry the weather, construction and thoughtless drivers ruined your drive home. The storms made a mess of the setup crew’s efforts but after I got all that straightened out another little squall moved through. I was tasked with checking in the vendors and wineries and my partner was shanghaied by his daughter so I was quite busy. I’ll let you in on a little secret, wines from the Texoma viticultural area are really something special! I didn’t get a chance to dry off as between helping vendors find their spots I also managed to deliver hundreds of pounds of free ice to vendors, wineries and the VIP tent. Amazing thing, I was wearing my new TGCA “fishing shirt” of some newfangled fabric and it was almost dry before I got back to the show in time for our famous auction.

I’m recovering today, as soon as I get in a little office time for my business, do laundry, grocery shopping and banking, arrange for scooter pickup and a few tornado recovery committee tasks I’m going to the Post Office! I obviously suck at this retirement thing but gonna make some time to enjoy this issue of the WACA magazine. Probably not today, but soon!

Mike

Concur — great photography. 

Deg said

steve004 said
Bill – that’s quite the adrenaline rush of a story.  I stayed home today and was regretting it.  Not so much now.  
  

Bill is 100% correct, we have a son and his family that live there, and it just sucks to make that trip. 
  

I avoid Dallas traffic but at least I have a general idea of the geography and main roads. The careless and rude drivers are my main concern. Houston is another story. I barely know my way around there and the Kamikaze speeds on I-45 between Dallas and Houston do little to prepare me for the challenges of Houston traffic. My Houston relatives don’t see much of me. 

Finally started on the magazine. Show report and meeting report had some interesting numbers. Was saddened to learn we lost three life members. I suppose that comes with our aging demographics. The non-renewal rate is troubling but it’s consistent with TGCA’s rate. Seems the best way to grow as an organization is through retention but that is much easier said than done. 
Weather in my spot of the prairie is conducive to reading material and coffee. probably should have made a full pot!

Mike

Mike and interested others,  We are having similar retention problems with our small gun club, too.  I look around, either at Cody or at our gun club, and see lots of silver hair.  We seem to attract a few young people (both genders) for a year, maybe two, then they don’t renew (talking mostly the smaller gun club here).  I’ve asked a few “why?” and get answers all over the spectrum.  “Too expensive, too little time, maybe after my kids are grown, my spouse isn’t interested,….” and all the time the silver hair crowd gets fewer in numbers due to death, ill health putting them in assisted living, etc.  Sunday I was the volunteer on duty at our local museum.  A young fellow walked in with his preteen daughter to view the museum.  I said, “you look familiar, but I don’t know why.”  He promptly told me it was from Buffalo shoots some 10 years or so earlier.  He knew me, knew my name, knew the rifles I shot as he decided he needed one day to own an 1895 in .405 like I used.  He is not a current member as he can’t afford to shoot now with a family, etc.  Its admirable he was being a good dad, but also sad he feels he just plain can’t play that game.  Little by little, young folks are generally being priced out of the recreation.  My opinion.  Tim

TXGunNut said
Tim-
I recognize that young people have significant demands on their resources. Many of us had similar challenges. I often say I didn’t realize I was a Winchester collector until about ten years ago. A lack of spare time and discretionary funds was most certainly part of the picture as well. I think our prospective new members have enough discretionary funds to do what they really want to do or will find a way to do it. Apparently they choose other pursuits. When I joined our local shooting club the joke was that our average age was 80, funniest part is that number wasn’t very far off! Up until recently our major cause of attrition was death. One of the challenges we face in some of the organizations I work with is finding young folks to do the heavy lifting. I look around at my meetings and see folks who shouldn’t be working so hard on various volunteer projects but the younger generation is simply not stepping forward to take over.
Please excuse my rant, wind was blowing so hard I had trouble getting my nap.
 
Mike
  

Mike, same here.  I’m blaming the bad winds yesterday for my poor shooting.  I tried to move my daughter’s refrigerator the other day and my back is killing me.  When I was way younger I tried to buy 1 gun a year if I was lucky.  Once I was the youngest in the group.  Now I’m closest to the oldest.  

tim tomlinson said
Chuck, Mike, et al.  Yes, I was one of the younger fellows in both WACA and our gun club.  I have twice seriously injured myself doing volunteer work at the gun club that required hospital stays and surgeries.  As Mike said, you see old guys doing things they shouldn’t because no young fellow steps up to take the place.  Chuck, I empathize as my back no longer likes most of what I do.  Yes, I, you, and others found ways to afford what we did.  We had a passion that mostly doesn’t burn in the newer generations.  So be it.  Hey!  Get off my lawn, you youngsters!  Tim
  

It has to be a passion and nearly all encompassing.  Collecting and shooting can be costly and it leaves little left other for other interests and passions.  Few are willing to do this.

Many of us probably recall on several occasions, especially when just starting out, when we drained our bank accounts just to have a particular firearm.  It was uncomfortable, but worth it.  Many today may not feel the same way.

tim tomlinson said
Yes, I, you, and others found ways to afford what we did.  We had a passion that mostly doesn’t burn in the newer generations.  So be it. 

The younger group has the passion.  I see it every week at the range.  They just like other types of guns.  A lot of pistols, modern hunting rifles, target rifles  and yes, black guns.