I asked my friend in Amsterdam if the inclusion of antiques, and later exclusion was some sort of conspiracy within the government there? Of course he had no idea or knowledge if it was or not. But seemed awfully funny that they allowed enough time for everyone to comply with the rule, and then changed it to exclude antiques. 
I'm betting that those who dug their heels in and decided to simply hide their antique guns felt pretty good later.

JLouis wrote on Nov 10^th, 2018 at 6:55pm:

Good articles, John.
Big kudos to your club for helping provide support to those young adult shooters!

I agree John- fantastic. Getting people involved in shooting sports be it with ARs, cowboy guns, ipsc, 3-gun, smallbore silhouette, sporting clays etc etc is the only hope for saving the shooting sports. Shooting expensive old single shots is a hard sell for someone who has little or no experience with guns and forget reloading/casting bullets for most beginners.

Collecting single shot rifles is an old man's hobby. It seems it always has been from what I've seen. There of course have always been a few exceptions, but most don't get seriously interested until their later years.
Even when I was beginning to get interested about 30 years ago in my late 30's, all the guys I met who had serious interest in them were at least 20 years older than me.
I don't think that part has changed much in the last several decades, and because of the cost of nice single shots (even at lower values today) it's still an older man's hobby. It is mainly based on cost, and people reaching a point in life when the kids are gone, house is paid for, and there's a little more money leftover to invest in higher priced guns. I know that's been the case in our home. Once our five kids were gone, and the house was paid off, our situation changed radically as it pertains to the financial situation.

Hello - I'm new to the forum but I feel like I might fit in.  First of all, I feel far from, "new" (e.g. a car made in the 50's is not new)

It used to be I could go to the range and not feel completely out of place.  Not so any more. In recent years, I feel that with every range trip, I set the record that day for least number of shots fired - by a factor of a least ten.  It seems my fellow range shooters have one goal:  to shoot as many rounds as they possibly can.  And of course they come well-equipped with lots of high capacity magazines and seemingly an endless supply of ammunition.   

During my last range trip, as unpleasant as it was to be peppered by a stream of hot brass, sitting next to shooters firing compensated .308's as fast as they can pull the trigger (with a metal roof above), there was a moment of amusement.  Some fellows were blazing away with an Ak-47 style, "pistol" and I think the target was set at 15 yards.  They emptied a full high capacity clip and the target remained pristine    I believe I fired a dozen rounds that day.   

Anyway, I too share some of the pessimism about the future of collecting.  Very darn few young people are interested in these old pieces.  I foresee quite the buyer's market continuing to develop.

I was talking to a guy from one of the large auction houses the other day. The talk drifted to future of collecting old guns.  He stated that Winchesters and  target, ie Ballards and such are retaining their value. But any marshal arms are dropping. He finished with the value of civil war guns are dropping dramatically, suggesting that if I had any I should consider selling them now. Not good.

What I have noticed is that all of the Old Guys who have collections are dyeing off, and all their heirs want to know is "what's it worth?" It means nothing to them. "Just give me the cash." That does make it a great time to buy, so my heirs can rack up latter. Tis a shame. A friend of mine died. Had the Colt 1911 he carried on 3 tours in Nam. All his daughter wanted to know was "what will you give me for it?"