A little about me for a little about you..

[WesCombs]

I just thought it'd be interesting to find out more about the people that's into this great sport..but I'll tell you all a bit about myself first.

I'm a 21 year old aviation student at Oklahoma State University (Go POKES!)..got my private pilot certificate in April 07 and have been working on my commercial and instrument ratings since then. Next week is when I'm taking the check ride for instrument and I'm really excited, yet terribly nervous at the same time! Prayers and good wishes are more than welcome! If things work out as planned, I should be a commercial pilot at the end of this upcoming semester. From there I just have to obtain my multi-engine and instructor rating before graduation in 2010.

As for work, I do electrical maintenance in the dorms and restaurants on campus. The pay is absolute crap but I enjoy the work and they are very lenient with my schedule, so I'll deal with it until I get my instructor rating. That'll be a change..actually getting paid for flying airplanes! If any of you want a new expensive and very addicting hobby, try becoming a pilot..it'll drain the bank account, or in my case..student loans..faster than you can blink.

I got into this hobby as child when I inherited an old Daisy BB gun that looked really similar to the modern Daisy "Grizzly", minus the camouflage. My mom used to tell me not to shoot the birds that came around because she loved watching them on her bird feeders..but boys will be boys. On mothers day of this year she asked me if I used to kill them anyway and I said "Duh..didn't you notice that every time you bought bird feed at Wal-Mart, I'd ask for BBs?"..LOL..Anyway, I owned countless rifles and pistols afterwards that I wish I still had today, but they've all be either lost or broken except for one; my Marksman 0035 that I'm currently restoring with the help of Mike Melick. He's truly a great guy. The same goes to the rest of you. I picked this sport back up earlier this Spring and it's become a full blown addiction..not only because it's fun, but because the people I've had the pleasure of dealing with in the last few months.

I'm glad I've found this forum..and I'm even more happy that I had my B30 tuned by perhaps the greatest tuner around just before his retirement. I know I'm speaking on behalf of all of us when I say you'll be sorely missed, Bob.

[DanoInTx]

Built a model airplane with my father around age 5, been downhill ever since:)  Joined the Navy at age 18 and became an aircraft structures mechanic working behind the scenes in a shop that did heavy sheet metal and composite repairs.  Honorably discharged at age 22 I spent about a year playing guitar in a heavy metal band and drinking lots of beer.  After that fun wore off I went back to school and got my Airframe and Powerplants licenses which led me to a short stint as a General Aviation mechanic, then an airline mechanic where I spent about 4 years.  At some point in there my interests in computers grew and I left the airline industry in 2000 to be a computer programmer.  That career lasted me off and on for about 3 years where work was either feast or famine.  I always picked up odd temp jobs to help make ends meet when I was in more of a "famine" state and took a temp job at a company that builds aircraft seats,,,the rest is history as they say.  I'm now the Supervisor of Prototyping and my primary focus is building stuff to break it...I mean I build stuff that we break on purpose for testing.  Much of the work is simple nuts and bolts, but there is a ton of room to be creative also.  For a guy like myself who is neither engineer or machinist I get a pretty good fill of both.  I mean I get paid to build stuff, then get paid more to break it.....what's better than that?  I'll tell you what's better, I also get paid to build machines that break stuff!  Built a machine recently that drops bowling balls on test specimens...from about 6 yards up in the air!  I also travel 3-4 times a month to different test labs for acceleration testing...that's like the crash testing you see on TV commercials in reverse.  Instead of crashing into a barrier, you shove the test specimen so fast it simulates a 16G crash.  Cool stuff!  My favorite thing in life however is my family.  I am married to a wonderful woman and we have 3 awsome sons ages 3 to almost 13.  None of them show much interest in shooting sports, but my 10 year old says he wants to be an airplane mechanic when he grows up, I told him he can figure that out after he goes to college:)

[tjk]

All I can say Wes ,is "Fly-High" Bro'. Keep your nose to the grindstone and you'll get there with flying colors. FIX, doesn't it feel great to know others see our potential and take us "under their wings". Nice to know folks like you two can share some of yourselves to the rest of us!! Everyone on the GTA should feel lucky to share in the same brother/sisterhood that we all have in AG's. Wesley, I'm tickled to death that you are "fighting for the life" of that ole 0035. Somehow I knew you wouldn't give up on the task,...with a little cooersion, LOL's. Shows great character and "will".  I know great things will happen with that rifle, and you'll be pleased as punch with the end results. Just like I have with mine. Best Wishes to you fella's and everyone else on the GTA, tjk

[VINNY]

I am 43.I've been working on cars, diesel trucks, rough terrain forklifts, and whatever since joining the Army at 18.For the last 18 years I was an rv tech.I got layed off in March,and nobody was hiring a certified rv tech in my area.I am now the service wrighter at a place in a small town 12 miles from home.[I used to drive 32 miles 1 way to work ]I am out of the shop now, and quite honestly, am MUCH happier.My wife is the woman that I dreamed about for longer than I can remember.As of 6/09, we will be kidless to spend all of our time together camping and doing our hobbies, and just hanging around together.I can truly say that I have no compaints about how life is for me.Once I hit 40, it all started falling together.Of course my wife helped me get over my cranial -rectomitis problem.Much calmer now and appreciative of things.It truly is amazing what a good woman can do to even you out.Thank you God.

[dave2288]

well...i'm 19, going on 20 aug. 22nd.  i was going to school for restuarant management, but at the end of my first semester, totaled my car(going 20 miles an hour...winter in the pocono's, pa), and had to drop out the week before finals.  owe the school money, and haven't been able to pay it back yet, so i'm still with no credits.  my first job was working in a cafe/beer store in the shoprite by my house...worked there till i got sick of it 10 months later, and now i am a manager at burger king, just until i pay all of my bills, rebuild my car for fun, lol, and save fome cash...then its back to school...but this time, i'm gonna go for what i wanted to originally go for...architechual engineering.  

i kinda always liked guns, if for no other reason than my mom not letting me have any(not even water guns)...since i couldn't have em, i was curious...you know how kids are, lol.  i bought my first gun behind her back, and it was a daisy 880..she found it after not too long...so i got another one, haha....and man, did i get lots of stuff with it...in one summer, i got over 15 squirrels, 25 sparrows, and who knows what else...lots of stuff...it was fun...then i started trying to shoot farther than 10 yards, haha...not so good with accuracy...so, i got my g1 extreme...not a bad gun from wally world...it was picky about pellets though...before the tune, it only liked polymer tipped pellets(nice impact at around 30 yards)...after a tune, only jsb exacts...after a little break in, kodiaks...now apparently it likes cpl's...and it should be done switching around...its had quite a few shots through it...it eventually got a turbo tune, and new trigger from bob, and now, paul is finishing working all of the kinks out of it, so itll be a real nice shooter...that g1 got me addicted to spring guns...i have lists in my head of guns i want now, that i most likely will never own, and even if i do, i'll never have tome to shoot em all...but we know how it is...we're all hooked.  what a great sport!

dave

Lets see Im a Mum to three kids (3yrs to 16 yrs old), happily married, and addicted to shooting things. My Grandad taught me to shoot with a bb gun from the age of 4 yrs to about 12 yrs old, but only just recently picked it back up. I am impatiently waiting for my AR6 to arrive, but still love my shadow

[RCnMo]

My name is Ralph. Married with a four year old son. I am an airline captain (things aint so great in the aviation industry right now). Don't fret that checkride Wes, the CFI is the hard one!! I worked through my teens and part of my twenties for a mom and pop flight school doing some wrench turning, grounds keeping, and eventually, charter flying. Got interested in metal fab when the old timer mechanic let me loose with the lathe and tig welder. I got my first bb gun when I was probably 5. Shooting and hunting have been a hobby ever since. I picked up my first real springer about 10 years ago and really didn't pick up any interest in adult air rifles until I bought a CFX about 2-1/2 years ago. Now I'm an air rifle addict like most of you.

[gunsup0331]

Lets see. Im 23, married with a beautiful 6 month old son. I started going to the community college when i was 15 to get a head start, messed around for a while then joined the US Marine Corps in the Infantry in '04 after the war popped off. Im on my fourth and last year in the Grunts and after 2 combat tours I am ready to move on to bigger and better things in the civilian world, hopefully in the Metal Fab and/or Gunsmithing field.  I have always been a tinkerer ever since i was a kid taking apart RC cars and playing with Legos.  My parents would never let me have a gun in their house so of course i got one as soon as I moved out, LOL.  I love this hobby and its cheaper than shooting "real" guns. The people are great and there are countless tinkering opportunities in every new airgun.

[Bhawanna]

1974- joined the army

1976- 1978 stationed fort sherman jotc...call name bhawanna.

1979- employed by F.N. Herstal in Columbia facility as weapons inspector/tester and range master.  used G.I. Bill to attend University of South Carolina.
--------spent 8 months in Herstal Belgium learning manufacturing processes and inspection of fully automatic weapons made by F.N.

1982- F.N. lost contract for 9mm pistol to beretta and started lay-offs that forced me to go to work at United Technologies as a Quality Control Engineer.
1984- Became Certified Quality Engineer with ASQC.

1985- Graduated U.S.C. with a major in mechanical engineering with a minor in metallurgy.

1987- United Technologies sold division to AMBAC International and they began laying people off.

I got tired of the hire/fire/lay-off business of industry and became self-employed with a landscaping company.  

1987- Started new landscaping company and got married to a wonderful lady!!!...21 years later and she is still with me!!!

1995- Built a house on Lake Murray.  Damn yankees in the neighborhood complained about me shooting muskrats with a browning A5 12ga. so i bought an air rifle to shoot them with.  gamo 890s spain made.

1999- always had an itch for computers and became a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer.  During the off-season in landscaping I develop software applications for Human Resource Departments of private companies and do network security/firewall consulting.

2008- Joined the GTA and made of bunch of new friends!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Future- plan to buy a lathe and make custom spring guides and tophats for airguns.  stock carving will only be a personal endeaver...LOL!!!ha!

Roger.