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A bit of nostalgia

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Aug 19, 2020
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Washington
This is my first post, spurred on at first because of the 10 post requirement to sell one my rifles, and then when I thought about what I could write about, I came to the realization that I may have some personal history that others would be interested in. With an 80 word limit, I will go well beyond 10 posts. So here goes: 

I grew up just north of San Francisco, on a dead end road that backed up to many thousands of acres of ranch land (eventually bought by the federal government and became a national recreation area) and the owners did not seem to mind a kid with and air rifle or fishing rod trespassing. I could hike to the coast: in one direction I would end up being able to see the city of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge, in the other direction end up at Muir Beach. [Downstream from the Muir Woods National Monument, where when I was 13, I snuck in and speared a salmon with a collapsable spear made from tent poles! (please don't tell anyone)]

(I think I have greatly surpassed my 80 word limit, so I will submit at this point and see what happens. The story gets juicy eventually (from an airgun perspective) when I will relate how I helped Robert Beeman start his business!

Mod edit: All "Nostalgia" topics merged under this topic. 
 
I started off my air gunning career with a Crossman pump pneumatic, and then a Crossman Co2. Then my best buddy Drew showed me an ad in the back of Field and Stream from a place called Air Rifle Headquarters. We sent for a catalogue, and what was in that small and not to thick catalogue was so exotic and intoxicating to our 8th grade minds, (all black and white pictures) especially of the Feinwerkbau 300. This was 1967 by the way.

Robert Law was the person who created ARH, and he was willing to take my Crossman Co2 in as a downpayment, and 10 dollars a month payments, no interest, no credit history, no nothing, and he sent me a Weihrauch 35E ! What a risk on his part. Of course, I thought nothing about those things at the time. And I did send him the 10 dollars every month until payed off! (lots of weed pulling and babysitting for the neighbors)

My buddy Drew ordered a less expensive but supposedly smaller more powerful German rifle who's manufacture escapes me at the moment. By the way, the 35E was 90 bucks back then.

And then the anxious wait for the 35E to arrive. I was buddies with our postman, and on the day of arrival he helped me open up the package. (ARH did an impressive job of packaging by the way) and wow, what a beautiful piece of machinery! And only one cock, blew my buddy the postman away, who like me, was used to 10 strokes of the pump! I immediately headed out into the hills on my first quail hunt.
 
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Yup. Those were some good old days. Your buddy probably bought a Wishco 55N.

I got my first ARH catalog in 1971. Still have it. Contained the stuff dreams were made of for sure.

Air gunning is at a whole new level now with PCPs, after market parts, tuners doing custom work, etc. and that's all well and good, but for me it takes a little away from what was once the innocence of air guns. I guess air gunning has grown up along with the rest of us.
 
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I see a couple of replies to part 1 already, and they voiced encouragement for me to continue on, though I am tiring rapidly and do not think I can go 10 rounds today! Thanks for the support!

I did not bother to site the W35E in, but since Robert Law tested them before shipping, it must have been good enough, because my first hunt was a success.

My buddy Drew received his rifle soon, and we had many a hunt together.

We both graduated from HS a semester early, and in the spring of 1972 him and I went on a 4 months long tour of the Western US and Canada in the 1966 VW panel van I had converted into a camper van. The bunk portion was a sheet of 3/4 ply, and it was at the level of the bottom of the rear window, and so there was a secure compartment where we kept our weapons. On this trip our air rifles did not see much action, for we had both bought 22's prior to the start of the trip, and we did our small game hunting with those, so I will save the fascinating story of two young men traveling in the west, taking down jack rabbits on the run with head shots, risking life and limb upon torturous rapids in our canoe etc. for another day! 

Anyway, we get back from our trip, and I end selling our air rifles to a German fellow named Klaus. A year later I was helping Drew's sister with her VW bug, and Klaus came to mind, for when I had sold him the rifles, I met him at his business, Klaus and Ted's automotive. They had bought the former VW dealership building in downtown Mill Valley, and were repairing VW's and Porches.

Well Klaus had a sad story to tell me. Just recently his cabin up north had been broken into and the air rifles stolen.


 
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I think anybody over 70 can relate to these story's" Robbet Law,Wisho55 .I kinda grew up in Northern cal. the kid I ran with and fished and hunted with.He moved to Alaska i herd from him a few times.He did a 3 year hitch in the army. He was kind of hermit?His name was James Cook german desent.I would like to find him"PS I still have my 35,i didn't get it until I was 35 or 40?
 
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Klaus wanted to know how to buy another German made air rifle, (he used them as a boy growing up in Germany).

Recently I had bought a FWB 124, so was back in the air rifle world, and Air Rifle Headquarters had just sent me a letter explaining their newly introduced owners network, and that there was an owner / sub dealer in my area by the name of Robert Beeman.

So Klaus and I set up and appointment to see him at his home. I was really keen to go, as Robert had an FWB300 and other exotic guns I had never seen in the flesh.

Well, Klaus walked away from the Beeman's home with a shiny new FWB 300 under his arm, and I began a new chapter in my life with airguns.

Robert had mentioned his plans to go full time into selling, and was working on his first catalog, and I volunteered to help. So folks, that is my claim to fame, I did the velocity tests of the rifles and pistols in the first Beeman's catalog ! My reason for doing this? I wanted to handle and shoot what I could not afford. So Robert set me to work in the upstairs area of his house doing the velocity testing. The backstop was not to big, and I ended up putting some .177 cal holes in the wall behind, and that did not go over very well I can tell you!


 
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Hi all, 

I am about out of gas, so am going to shorten things up so as to get to my 10 posts. 

First thought, Is there an 80 word limit? I have not been automatically cut off, is that supposed to be just a suggestion? 

Anyway, I left off telling you of the .177 cal holes I put into the Beeman's wall. I got the know Robert and Toshi Beeman in those couple of weeks, and I had some fun. 

I ended up going to school in the State of Maine, and a couple of years later home on vacation, Beeman Catalog 3, I see that Robert and Toshi had opened up their first warehouse only a couple of miles from my moms place in SanRafael (she had sold our home that bordered the ranch lands) and I stopped by to say hello, and walked out with a Walther single pump pneumatic target rifle!


 
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A couple of years later I stopped by again to visit, and when Robert heard I had bought an FWB300 with the Tyrollean stock while in Hawaii, (I was on a job there for a long while, someone had opened up an air rifle shooting range and was selling air guns also) he wanted to see the serial number. It had something to do with he was now the importer for the US or something, and was protecting his turf.

That was my last interaction with the Beemans, over the years I was in and out with airguns. It was the same with archery, for some reason I have been attracted to shooting projectiles via a human power source. (I have had firearms, though anything but a 22 is to violent and Loud for me to enjoy.) But I always wanted the next Beeman Catalog to drool over, and bought a few more as well. Too bad the people they sold the business to let it go downhill.

In my next installment I will tell you about my time owing a cabin with acreage that bordered Yellowstone park. And yes, Airguns are involved!
 
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Yellowstone: 

In 1977 my younger brother flew out to Maine where I was finishing up my my Junior year, and we road Greyhound back to California via Montreal and points west, ending up in Livingston Montana. Not sure how we got down to Yellowstone park, but somehow we made it, and backpacked in the Northern part of the park, fishing the Yellowstone River. Little did I know that 3 years later I would own 90 acres across the river from one of the spots where I had fished!

Jump to December 1979, I am in a foreign land, reading a copy of The NY Times, In it was a travel section with many pages about cross country skiing in Yellowstone park. While in Maine, I had learned to cross country ski, and to love doing it. So off I go to Livingston Montana, russel up a real estate agent, drive down to Gardiner (the original / first entrance the park) and within an hour had put money down on 90 acres of travertine /basalt bluff, and a run down cabin!

In the next installment I will tell you about a grizzly boar at my front door with only a FWB300 between me and him. It did have a tyrollean stock, but I don't think he was as impressed as I was when I first saw it.
 
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How I ended the last installment was a bit misleading, I was asleep at the time, I saw the paw prints on the front porch in the morning There was a light snow, there were imprints of some huge paws. He could have broken in that door without much trouble, and I would have made a nice snack for him.

He, a sow, and a yearling were known to be in the area. The next day the sow and yearling got themselves trapped in the baited cages on trailers they used on a regular basis, and I paid them a visit. The sow looked pretty unhappy but passive, until I got close enough, and believe you me, I have never seen anything move so quick or be so ferocious. I quickly traded a friend my FWB300, Tyrollean Stock and all for his Ruger 357 magnum!
 
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Hi all, I feel like such and idiot, but then, that is often the case these days. I do not feel old just sitting here tapping the keyboard, but when I get up I do. And when I look in the mirror.

Anyway, I was confusing creating a new topic with a post, and so created 8 new topics instead of post, trying to get 10 posts so as to be able to sell on the classifieds! Moderator 2 stepped in and stopped my foolishness, and spent some time organizing 8 topics into one topic and 8 posts! And now I just looked on my profile and I have reached the magic number and can post my ad.

So, just to fill in from 1980 to now: He (meaning me) lived happily ever after! No grizzly bears were harmed in the process of writing all this in one day!
 
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