Bill Temple’s love of guns started when he shot his first duck more than 60 years ago.
“You never forget that, no. There’s all sorts of things you never forget. Your first girlfriend and your first duck,” Temple, the president of the Saskatchewan Gun Collectors Association, said.
Temple hasn’t missed Regina’s annual gun show in more than 30 years. It drew more than 1,500 collectors and hunters from across the province to the Turvey Centre over the weekend.
“It’s just nostalgia. I guess most of us guys my age who grew up on a farm would have probably had a firearm at one time the other,” Max Mirau, a gun show vendor said.
Get daily National news
“Our dads taught us how to shoot firearms, how to hunt, fish, trap, do all those good things, and that’s just a carry over to this.”
Dave Ostryzniuk has been collecting guns for more than three decades. He’s fascinated by the history behind each firearm, especially civil war guns.
“It’s just the feeling of it,” he said. “There’s a life to it.”
Some of the guns date back to the Buffalo Bill days, Ostryzniuk said.
“They would use this for buffalo hunting, that sort of thing. People find that intriguing,” he said.
- Jasper mayor says CN Rail relocation will be devastating: ‘Deeply disappointed’
- Retired Quebec teacher buys winning lottery ticket at last minute, wins $40M
- N.B. election: Higgs went to ‘very dark place’ with Liberal joke, opponent says
- GM, Volvo, Land Rover vehicles among those in big recall. What to know
However, Ostryzniuk thinks interest in firearms is on the decline.
“We feel within five to 10 years there will be no more gun shows. They will end. If you look around, look at the tables, you see very few younger people that are manning these tables,” he said.
”We even find by our sales, every year, it goes down about 20 per cent.”
Temple is still holding out hope that the next generation will continue collecting and hunting.
“My time has come and my time has gone, but my boys are still hunters and that, so I’ve passed that on to them,” Temple said.
It’s a passion he hopes will serve his sons and granddaughter well.
“It’s just been a lifetime for me. A lifetime of enjoyable events.”
Comments