Rifles and Bows

My older brother Ross, always impressed me in a number of ways but perhaps the most impressive thing I remember growing up with Ross was his willingness to work for something he really wanted. I don't quite remember when he first raised the question of getting his own 22 rifle or maybe he was just trying to upgrade the 22 rifle he already had. He may have had a Mossberg 22 and I think I inherited that weapon when my brother and is upgrade. Had to be in the early 60s and I think the rifle cost around $54 which to me sounded like the US war debt for World War II. But he went out around the neighborhood and found a couple jobs. I remember one was digging somebody's ditch it took him a week and I think it was really hard work. I was impressed. He got his 22 it was a Remington 22 semi-automatic tubular feed, long rifle. It was the closest thing to a machine gun I had ever fired at that point in time, the few times that my brother allowed me to touch his weapon. I had a black nylon stock with a white diamond and I was just totally impressed. The gun was actually called the Remington nylon 66. I guess I had quite a following. I have the old Mossberg 22 which was a Tubular fed bolt action 22. Held about 15 bullets and I really enjoyed shooting a rifle. My brother and I would go out to the desert just behind our home there in South Boise and hunt these little ground squirrels recalled Pickett pins. There is quite a colony behind our farm and we would spend a Saturday afternoon whistling to bring a little The little buggers up and then try to shoot them for the went back in their holes. It's hard to tell for we ever got anything because unless they exploded it fall back into their holes and we never see if we mortally shot them or not. Didn't really matter it was just nice being out shooting with my brother.

The other item which really sticks out in my mind was that Ross really got into bow and arrows at some point in time. I mean seriously he got into making his own arrows may be because our older brother made his own arrows. I don't know where and when this big old black fiberglass bow showed up at the house was either my dad's are my older brothers but that bow was heavy and hard to draw. They made their own arrows wwith razor tips.It was somewhere around that time that we got our first real bows. They're made by company name bear just like the beast. They were fiberglass recurved and I thought deadly. I shot a lot of arrows the next couple of years. But anyway Ross decided He want to have his own bow and found a craftsman in downtown Boise that would make a bow to your specifications. Ross is left-handed so of course he had to have a special left-handed bow made and he did. The place was called Robinsons archery and is there as I can remember it was this brick two-story building behind the Boise fire department downtown. It was one of those places you had to search for you would never notice the building on its own. Inside it was like a European toyshop at least that's how I visualized it. Seems like they were hundreds of those in various stages of completion, arrows and arrow stock for those those who wanted to make their own. I was totally impressed. Ross got his bow but don't remember much more than that.

Like to know what happened to that bow. I doubt that my brother still has it may be gave it to his son I don't know maybe I'll ask…