Quote:
Originally Posted by model8
apearently i was misunderstood with the price of gear nothing and i mean nothing was handed to me as a kid i got what i earned and no more i didnt get a pair of wool pants til i was 20 and i had one wool coat and a gun that took me all summer to get 200 dollars for. what i meant by help is if u have extra coats u dnt use extar what ever gloves and the kid is and i repeat is trustworthy and willing to learn then i dnt see a reason why not hand down sum old stuff i do every year and did this year i gave away close to 300 dollars in gear i dnt use
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I essentially froze my butt off to hunt until I graduated law school at the age of 28. At that time, I swore to myself that I would not spend another day freezing in a duck blind, on a deer stand, or while riding my bicycle during the winter. Since then, I have bought the best cold weather gear money can buy.
Prior to that, I worked as a courtest clerk when I was 16 so I could buy thermal tights and a jacket for cycling. It took 3 months of saving tips to be able to afford them. Bought my first gun with money earned working at a hot dog stand.
Now, I was introduced to hunting and shooting at a very early age by my dad. Thing is, it wasn't with a brand new gun. It was with a pellet gun and single shot .410 that were manufactured prior to World War II. We didn't have a lot of money while I was growing up, so we made due with what we could. That is why I spent many a day freezing my butt off.
As mentioned above, I wouldn't loan many of my guns to anybody. My brother just asked me to let him borrow my 20 gauge auto for this weekend so his girlfriend can shoot clays with him. I am hesitant about doing that since it is a wood stocked Beretta 391. I wouldn't mind too much about loaning him my backup hunting gun which is a synthetic stocked Beretta 3901, but it is a 12 gauge and would beat his girlfriend to death. I'm going to loan the 20 gauge to him regardless, even though he never returned the cutoff tool I loaned him 4 years ago, which required me to buy a new one when I finally needed it for a job.
Another story I have is that of a friend that borrowed a motorcycle from another friend and promised to pay for any damage to the bike. Well, the bike was totaled and the two guys found themselves in Court because the friend that borrowed it would not pay for it. I was representing the friend that borrowed the bike. He was coming up with every excuse possible not to pay for the bike (e.g., his friend should have had insurance on the bike, his friend had dead tags on the bike, his friend was riding a stolen bike last month, he would repair the bike himself). Ultimately, what he should have done is paid his friend the blue book value of the bike, taken the pieces, fixed it if he could, and sold it to recoup whatever he could. The fact that his friend had to take him to Court 2 years after the issue is BS.
Here is another story. I loaned a time trial helmet to a team mate of mine last year because I was sick and was not going to be able to attend the time trial. The helmet cost me $150. I asked for its return 3 times last year and once this year, and have yet to receive it. Mind you, this guy lives 2 miles away from me and we have ridden together on occassion. I have even offered to come by his place and pick the helmet up from him, but it doesn't seem like any time I propose is convenient for him. To think I thought about loaning him my $5,000 time trial bike.
I would rather loan somebody by beater car than one of my bikes or guns, with the exception of my beater mountain bike.
Now, if somebody is coming hunting or shooting with me, I will gladly loan them a gun. I did that on many an occassion as me and another hunting buddy in law school tried to introduce some of our classmates to hunting and shooting. I let my sisters shoot my 20 gauges when they come shooting with me. It makes me feel a lot better about it when I am present and the guns will be returning with me immediately. I said the same thing to my brother. I would have no hesitation about loaning him the 20 gauge if I was going shooting too, but since my wife works this weekend I am a little hesitant because I might never see the gun again.
We live in an age where respect and responsibility are not present in the majority of people.