Sky is not falling!!
 

Just finished up the Tulsa show. It was well attended and business was good both for buying and selling. Average age of SxS buyers was younger . Sold a nice 20ga Stevens to an excited young man that he needed it to round out his collection!

As a side note I had a discussion with a black gun guy that said he was giving up his tables due to slow business.

Interesting...

It's nice to hear that younger guys are getting into older guns but I don't think they will fill the vacated spaces left by old timers getting out of it for one reason or another.

So the black gun market is failing due to the new administration in the WH and the classic SXS market is diminishing due to attrition and a flooded market...






.

There IS a God !!

(LOL)

Oh I really hope that the Pakistani knife makers, jerky sellers, numchuck people and survivalist manual types don’t give up!

I enjoyed meeting and talking with you, Mark. I saw some pretty nice doubles at this show, and one is headed home with me. We were shaken awake early this morning by an earthquake, rounding out an eventful trip(!)

A young shooter noticed my Parker and said "wow, nice gun" at the gun club this weekend. I think there is hope.

I've been selling more Parkers to the under 50 crowd in the last year than the over 50 crowd by 2:1 or maybe even 3:1. Younger guys don't attend shows as aggressively as older ones- and why should they? The greatest gun show in the world is online nowadays.

In other news, for my birthday, my wife bought me a leather rig for my circa 1898 Colt Single Action Army.

I was excited today. I teach Emergrncy residents how to handle eye emergencies. My new resident is from western New York, and was asking me questions about all the upland prints in my office. Turns out he shoots a JP Sauer Royal 12 ga SXS. He may even go with me to the Vintage Shoot at Hunting Hills this Saturday

Many manufactures made more Black guns and many distributors and dealers bought more than they normally would have. They all anticipated the Presidential election would turn out differently and they would sell them all because of panic buying. Whoops!

It would not surprise me if some people are turned off to guns, just by how ugly some newer guns are.

Very true, Mills. Particularly some of the new Brownings and Berettas.

I certainly don't disagree that some of the newer gun designs are unappealing. I like the classic designs, but that's why we're members.

I have a young hunting friend who I started duck hunting. He and his new duck hunting (younger) friends like the new designs, but when he goes quail hunting with me he uses one of my doubles. I think he is beginning to see the appeal, but it might take a while for him to come completely around.

I'm hopeful that we can cultivate another generation of hunter/shooter/collectors, but it will take work on our part...and maybe a little understanding.

Not many, I'm afraid. And only those who remain with a relative sense of the aesthetic.

Sadly, today's American society is rife with appalling taste and boorishness. Accordingly, the "guns" on offer reflect that classless vapidity.

Proof? Just page through any recent issue of American Rifleman...

There. Time for my mimosa...

Don't be surprised when someday you receive an invitation to join the new BGCA "black gun collectors association". :rotf:

Bill

The older Ar's are C&R eligible now. Time does seem to be flying by.

Jack Kuzepski

The Double Gun Journal is a great read with fantastic guns, There will always be Black guns for sale somewhere, for me I will take the double, whether it be rifle or shotgun! Gary

I find that people who don't own guns and hate AR 15's and "full semi automatic military style assault rifles" are fascinated by my Parkers. Count me on the optimistic side.

My dad, who was born in 1917, couldn't wait to trade in his 20 ga. Fox Sterlingworth for a used automatic shotgun with a cracked stock. He hated being limited to two shots. Thought five was better. I grew up shooting auto's and never owned a side by side until I was in my thirties. Now I've got more double barrels than I know what to do with and wouldn't allow an automatic in the house. Wish I had that old Fox. Not sure anything ever really changes. The older generation has always thought there was no hope for the younger.

"The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers."

Socrates

I have sold a bunch of lower grade American doubles this year and more than a couple have been to 40 something guys locally. Anyhow t hey are knowledgeable buyers looking for original condition. They know the value of what they are buying thanks to the internet and auction marketplace.

Sadly, old Socrates was right.

Athens fell. Greek culture went to hell. And they made him drink hemlock.

That Socrates quote could easily have been said today about today's society. That's scary.......:eek:

Yea, and remember, it WAS said about our generation, too! :)

I suspect every generation before and after Socrates said the same thing.

That is right.