Blogger Bio

Ever try writing about yourself?  It is difficult to do!  You want it to be factual and informative yet interesting and entertaining.  At the same time you don’t want to brag, exaggerate or make up stories; there goes making it interesting and entertaining.  So I’ll do my best not to exaggerate my life too much.

I was born in the first half of the last century in a small Southern Indiana town to parents of Irish and German decent.  I am the oldest of seven children, six of whom are boys. Although our father had little interest in firearms, all of us boys are gun nuts of varying degrees, likely due to the westerns that were the common TV fodder of the 50’s and 60’s.

My first “gun” was of the Daisy variety.  My brothers and I shared that one BB gun, but since I was the eldest, I got a bit more time than the rest. My marksmanship developed to the point of shooting wasps off the picnic table in the backyard.  At 14, I got my first .22 courtesy of my paternal grandfather, a Remington Model 17.  By sixteen I had my first deer rifle, a Model 94 Winchester chambered in .32 Special.  By eighteen I added a Winchester Model 670 in .270 Winchester (per Jack O’Connor, “the” gun expert of the period and a major .270 fan). I hunted deer and squirrels in Western Oregon until I entered the U.S. Army in 1967. I got the “sunny Southeast Asia tour” for 18 months, after nearly a year of training at Ft. Devens, MA.

After the Army, I went home to Oregon and married a very beautiful young lady whose brother I had shared a bunker with a time or two.  His stories of her were definitely not over exaggerated.  With the help of the GI Bill and my wife, I worked my way through college over the next several years and graduated with a BS in History.  I went to work as a sales representative for General Foods Corporation and later with Dole Foods Company where I traveled world-wide as Military Sales Manager.  Over the years, I also expanded my firearms collection to include handguns, shotguns (both over/under, pump and semi-auto) and greatly increased my rifle collection which spans all action types and numerous calibers.  I also revisited hand loading my own ammunition, replacing my old Lee Loaders with a brand new Dillon 550B Progressive loader. With this press I could load 8 pistol calibers and 7 rifle calibers. As a teenager, reloading was the challenge of how much propellant could I stuff into a .270 case before the bolt on my rifle would not lift. Now (older and hopefully wiser) I load for best accuracy at the lowest possible pressures.

While traveling Europe and Asia with Dole, I was able to observe first hand gun control in several countries and the effect upon hunters and recreational shooters.  I also began to become annoyed with misinformation concerning firearms and laws regulating firearms during this time and have come to the conclusion if we don’t speak up, the media as well as individual citizens will begin to believe the “bull”. Much of the “bull” is innocent enough (simple ignorance) but an equal amount is spread about with malicious intent by anti-gun activist busy bodies, know-nothing politicians pandering for votes and empty headed media types trying to reshape society to their narrow views and short sighted norms.

Anyway, the pursuit of factual information and exposing false information is the reason I started this blog. As an old geezer I am not too comfortable with something as alien as a ”blog” but with the help, and prodding assistance of younger minds I got to this point and I thank them so very much. I hope all who read this will participate in and enjoy this forum.