Guy
My road to Wolverine began many many moons ago I grew up as a farm boy in the Yorkshire Dales of the United Kingdom in the 70’s and 80’s. Even at that time the rules on firearm possession and use were draconian by comparison to what we see in Canada today. I had a fascination with grandad’s 22 hanging up in the old farmhouse, I only remember it being taken down and shot once by dad and my uncle Stu. It was great, they were shooting all the way across the 5 acre pasture at rocks. I had never seen a rifle shoot that far before as all I had used to that point was dad’s old 22 break action airgun. You almost had to hit the rabbits in the eye at 10 yards to stun them long enough to finish them off. I spent many nights right after school patrolling the fields at home looking for those “wascally wabbits”.
When I got into my very early teens I was introduced to dad’s old side by side. It was an old “Army and Navy” 12G that weighed next to nothing. I was given it to use under direct supervision of my uncle Stu at the local clay shoot. I turned up green as grass to the shoot on the Saturday morning having never pulled the trigger on it in anger at a clay in my life. If I remember correctly it was a 160 round course and some kind of special shoot at the end that was another 40 rounds. I had a great time and even hit some clays. The smell and sound of the day has stuck with me forever. The bruising luckily has worn off. I guess my form was not what it should have been.
In my late teens/early twenties my interests change as they do to girls, cars and motorcycles but would go out occasionally with my cousin shooting rabbits on a night. That was a lot of fun. Driving around the fields with the Diahatsu Fortrack with one of us using the spotlight while the other used the suppressed 22 leaning out the other window. It was all legal, even encouraged so we didn’t disturb the locals.
I moved to Canada when I was 27 to farm. One of the first things I did when I got here was to get my PAL and promptly bought a real gun (Winchester 94 30-30) and a gopher getter .22. I worked for other farmers while I built up my own farm and raised a family for the first 10 years in Canada. Bought many other guns and got into hunting big game with new friends. I found it challenging to work for other farmers while trying build my own up as they were always busy at the busy times on my own farm so it meant many many late nights. One day I saw an ad in the local paper for a sales position at Wolverine Supplies. I looked at it on and off over the weekend thinking “well I like guns, I am reasonably knowledgeable about them, but could I work indoors behind a counter all day? I have never worked indoors and I’m not really all that sociable, I’ve never applied for a job in my life, I don’t even know how to do a resume. What the hell, lets give it a go, what’s the worst that can happen”.
So I applied, was asked to come for an interview and met with Pat and John face to face for the first time. I like to think John and I hit it off fairly quickly as we share many of the same values. I remember in the interview saying that I could never sell anything I don’t believe in and seeing a wry grin on John’s face. Pat is just like a second mom.
I had no idea what I was really getting myself into and where the journey was going to take me along the way. I have been here over 10 years now working with many great people along the way. I have to say the current staff as a group are the best I have worked with over the years. It has been a pleasure to see them all grow into their respective positions. Every single one of them are a pleasure to work with.
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