Dave, those slot cars are absolutely great ! My father and uncle built and raced midgets before they got into the Indy cars. I have an old photograph of my sister and mother standing next to one of the midgets.
Back on track about shooting and retirement…
I found that I had to go back to work, just to rest. There is so much to do. The worst thing about retirement is that you have to drink coffee on your own time.
As for shooting, I shot an awful lot in my past life. I’ve since put those types of guns aside and concentrated on the black powder stuff. I thought I would shoot as much as I liked in retirement, but found that most everyone else was still working. So, not much fun shooting alone. My range time tapered off.
There was a time when I contracted with a custom rifle maker to build a pair of matching flintlocks. One rifle was to be a present for my older brother. After almost ten years of waiting and being stalled by the builder, not to mention a lot of money…. I received the “rifles”. The one I had built for my brother had a near catastrophic failure at the range after only less than 50 rounds through it. My brother is an experienced shooter…
The “rifle” I had for myself was such a piece of garbage. All efforts to correct things with the builder failed. The barrel manufacturer would not stand behind the product used on the rifle. That rifle was clearly unsafe to shoot. I threw the entire thing away without even firing a shot.
I contacted a second well know custom builder and engaged him in building a pair of matching flintlock rifles. Again, one was to be a gift for my brother. After eleven years of stalling, his shoe was untied, or his dog ate his homework, he finally sent me a photo of a rifle stock. The initial time for delivery was to be somewhere around two years, for both builders. The second builder used my money to finance several other builds for people who I think were his friends. Emails and phone calls all for the most part met with negative results. I even had a third party look into the build progress. The builder said he was too busy at that time. I told him to drop the second rifle and finish just one. That would relieve some stress on him.
After much going around in circles with that individual, he said he wanted to “redeem “ himself with me. He would complete a rifle and send it within a few weeks. Even though I paid a hefty amount to start the projects, he told me I wouldn’t have to pay for the rifle because of the excessive amount of time. He did refund my money even though I did not ask. The rifle was never received. He just quit. No explanation, nothing.
One of those rifles was planned for my retirement shooting. I lost twenty years dealing with in my opinion dishonest individuals. The whole experience soured me to the point that I came very close to throwing my sizable collection of all types, into the bay.
I still shoot, but not in the way I had dreamed about in retirement.
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