22-rimfire
New member
Phases.. I don't know. The biggest phase I have experienced is "knowledge". I didn't grow up with handguns and when I first started buying after age 21, I figured if it shot it was good.
I didn't understand fit and finish or even consider it knowingly. Now it is all about quality and fit and finish. I am not interested in the cheap junk any more but when I started out, I didn't know any better or I was too darn tight to buy something that cost more as long as they both went bang when I pulled the trigger.
Some who read my posts might call me a 22 snob. But I really believe you are far better off buying the good stuff than getting the less expensive stuff that you later become dissatisfied with as you learn more.
As far as hunting goes... at first it was all about success and numbers. Now I look for quality and don't really care about numbers as long as I have food on the table and meet by basic needs. If I'm hungry, you can bet I would shoot the most scraggly doe, but that is generally not the case. I leave those does for somebody else or let them grow up.
Locked, you mentioned collecting as one of your evolutionary changes. I have to agree with that as well. When I was 16, new was better. But now old is almost always better. I look at the quality and now have some knowledge and experience to judge quality to a degree. I am also satisfied just owning a gun that I find interesting and really don't have to shoot it (ever) to appreciate it.
The gun forums really help however in the educational process. I make less mistakes.
I didn't understand fit and finish or even consider it knowingly. Now it is all about quality and fit and finish. I am not interested in the cheap junk any more but when I started out, I didn't know any better or I was too darn tight to buy something that cost more as long as they both went bang when I pulled the trigger.
Some who read my posts might call me a 22 snob. But I really believe you are far better off buying the good stuff than getting the less expensive stuff that you later become dissatisfied with as you learn more.
As far as hunting goes... at first it was all about success and numbers. Now I look for quality and don't really care about numbers as long as I have food on the table and meet by basic needs. If I'm hungry, you can bet I would shoot the most scraggly doe, but that is generally not the case. I leave those does for somebody else or let them grow up.
Locked, you mentioned collecting as one of your evolutionary changes. I have to agree with that as well. When I was 16, new was better. But now old is almost always better. I look at the quality and now have some knowledge and experience to judge quality to a degree. I am also satisfied just owning a gun that I find interesting and really don't have to shoot it (ever) to appreciate it.
The gun forums really help however in the educational process. I make less mistakes.
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