Your pride will doubly increase when your buddies see what you've done and all want you to do theirs for them as well...that's how I got started into amateur gunsmithing & machining.
In 02 the wife & I started Cowboy action shooting & like a lot of other folks raising families at the same time , we started out with buying every used cast-off we could find that fit the Cowboy criteria...we ended up with a motley collection of mis-matched calibers & models of the approved era. To be even moderately successful in the sport I had to become one of those kitchen table gunsmiths that some folks look down on, but it worked for us.
A couple of things helped make this doable, first is, like you I was a bit mechanically inclined from repairing farm & industrial machinery for 20 yrs...but the most important was that the wife & I attended a match in Wyoming, while there we were put into a posse with 15 folks from the original Cowboy Action club from California. One of the guys there soon recognized our "newness" and the shortfall of our equipment. He offered both of us the chance to use his guns on a stage if we would like...wow...his rifle was done up by Bob Munden from Montana & his SAA,s & 97 were done by Bob Bell from Arizona...man those guns almost run themselves.
Every gun I have done since then I have tried very hard to emulate their performance and I have had considerable success by the # of friends in the sport that are still using guns I did up for them.
Cary on with your "gamming" as far as I'm concerned its the best thing to keep a sport fun and gives all the newer shooters something to strive for... health reason as well as eye sight issues have forced me to give up the sport but the wife still tries to outdo Wobbly at every match...she can come close but no cigar...yet...Wobblies eyes are starting to narrow the playing field LOL.
