I have quite a few guns. The one I will never part with isn't remarkable or valuable. It's a simple Ruger 10-22, but my grandfather kept it in the RV when he would take my mom, aunts, and uncles on road trips. I never knew he owned it, and only found out about it after the family found it among his things. They knew how much I like guns and saved it for me. I have yet to actually shoot it. Right now it stays tucked away in the safe by itself, to keep it nice.
Call me overly sentimental, but I want the first time I shoot it to be with my oldest son, and then my youngest son when he's ready.
It's items like that which often have the most value, value that transcends financial aspects.
I understand your thoughts on wanting to shoot it with your sons, that would be a nice thing for you and also them to carry forward. Alas, I won't ever get a similar chance as children wasn't something that happened for me, but what you're doing is something that I'd want to do also.
I'm sorry to hear children wasn't something that happened for you, but I wouldn't give up on wanting to achieve something similar to what I described.
Family isn't always blood. There are plenty of youth out there who don't have a good male role model in their life and desperately need it.
I have a friend who's quite a bit older than me, and we met when I was working my way through college. We became such good friends, through thick and thin, we just consider each other brothers. He's invited to every family event, was the best man at my wedding, and my sons call him "uncle" and have no clue there's no blood relation. True family are the people who are there through it all and love you through the good and the bad. 🙂
I've not got much to add to this comment and agree with the gist of it. I think I'm a pretty good uncle although I'm a long way from my nice and nephew so it's difficult to do as much as I'd like to - I think I'm a good influence on them though. I also do a lot of mentoring, training around various things like firearms and outdoor skills and also have a thing going that I, and a few others, started around support for those with PTS. The link below will explain a little.
https://peakd.com/hive-160243/@galenkp/the-group-thingin-the-mountains
I'm sure you're a great uncle, and that's awesome to hear about the mentoring. I've got your article saved so I can read it later tonight. 🙂
!BBH
Ah ok, thanks...let me know what you think if you manage to read it.