Downeast Hunting Report: November 27, 2007

Most everyone is a collector or appreciates some form of items from the past. Whether it is dolls, paintings or hunting and fishing equipment, quality is evident and appreciated and admired. Recently while talking to an antique dealer, we both were speculating, what items of today are going to be collectables in 25 or 100 years from now? We are in the quick fix and throwaway generation. Most of the sporting good collectables from the past were made for a specific market and came in different grades with options, chokes, barrel lengths, etc. Coming from times when money was tight, if you bought it had to have a use, not to become a closet queen firearm or a dust catcher in the cellar.

Having all this in mind, while walking thru the sporting goods department in the different big box stores, I look up and down the aisles I try to imagine, what would take someone’s breath away 50 years from now. Everything is plastic, rubber or who knows what and mostly made overseas. If you were going to make a sporting goods time capsule for them for 2060, what would you put in it?

Everything is driven by the current demands, composite stocks and stainless steel barrels are great for adverse hunting conditions, much like the current military arms. What if you want something to use on “nice” days, wood on a firearm that has great burl and the metal has fiery casehardening on the frame and deep rust bluing on the barrel or, comparing a vintage bamboo fly rod to a current graphite production model. You don’t see current makers selling two tips with their rods.

Definitely, “beauty is in the eyes of the beholder”, when your grand kids ask, why didn’t you put some of those away, what will they be talking about?