LONGMONT — Terry Hegney stood by a table covered with sleek lightweight semiautomatics and described himself as a “traditionalist.”
That’s to say a bolt-and-pump-action-rifle kind of a guy.
“He is old school,” joked Hegney’s stepson, Alex Schwan, 23.
Hegney, 63, and Schwan were sharing Father’s Day at the Father’s Day Gun & Sportsman Show at the Embassy Suites Hotel.
And they weren’t the only dads and sons spending Father’s Day among the guns.
Down another aisle, Monte Hamann, 46, was strolling with his 6- year-old son Jaxson. “I had a shotgun when I was 10,” Hamann said.
Jaxson is well on his way to learning to handle a weapon properly, his father said.
The boy has a BB gun that he uses to pepper targets and has drawn a bead with a 22-caliber rifle and a 22-caliber pistol.
Teaching kids to use guns provides “a good responsibility lesson,” Hamann said.
John Moody, 43, was at the show with his son Heath, 11. “He is starting to shoot a whole bunch,” Moody said.
Heath has hunted deer, elk and, most recently, bear, with his father, who has a collection of almost 50 guns.
Big-game hunting, Heath said, is “fun.”
“It is quality time that we get together,” his dad said.
Moody killed a black bear when the two went hunting in Alaska, where Moody’s father lives.
“The whole idea behind the hunt was just to get him a bear,” Moody said, nodding toward the boy.
Tom McGhee: 303-954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com
