How cool would it be?

Um....try to get me to leave my room for anything other than ammo if I get one of those

While the gallery is indisputably cool , I think I understand why the bald eagle became an endangered species at one point. What, no American flags on the bald eagle targets?

Yeah but if you have one of those you HAVE TO shoot from the hip.

I remember those when I was a young'un.

.22 shorts, Remington (I think), ejected out the bottom, fed from the buttstock.

Yep, I remember those type targets as fired from "Gallery Guns" at the
Alabama State Fair; many moons ago~!

I went to The City Museum the last time I visited St. Louis. It's a tremendously cool place, like what would happen if Tim Burton got brought on to an episode of Junkyard Wars.

I believe most shooting galleries used a 22 short that was topped with a bullet made from graphite.The bullet would shatter on impact.

Not to thread heist, but you know what I remember?

Those fully automatic BB guns at the Texas State Fair. If you shot the star out of the center of the target you got some kind of prize. I recall they had an air line attached to them, which I assume ran to a compressor behind the booth.

Now, one of those would be really fun with the above mentioned shooting gallery!


-Matt

I believe most shooting galleries used a 22 short that was topped with a bullet made from graphite.The bullet would shatter on impact.

"Gallery Short" at least that's what the box on the rounds I have says (have about 1000 rds someone gave me). They will splatter on something hard and will barely stick in a piece of soft pine.

What type of weapon(s) did state fairs use? I always thought it was some
sort'a Remington, that loaded from the side* or back; but I am not sure~?

*FootNote- right side, in the butt stock

carnival shoot gallery guns

The most common gun was a Remington model 12 22 short. They had a cut on the bottom of the stock for security chains. There was a letter designation, but I don't remember what it was. I have a 12c, but that is a takedown target version. They all used a tubular magazine and a pump action. There was always a question if the sights on the carnival guns were a little off to limit the prizes won.

I'd go to the Tenn. St. Fair every year...and spend most of my money at the shooting gallery! Couldn't spend it ALL...had to eat something!

Those should NOT be in a museum! They should be at a gun club and in working order and running every day. Too cool!

Lets start making those things again.

Mark

I keep meaning to build one of these old-time home shooting galleries. Just haven't had the time.
It's designed for air guns, so Colibri and Super Colibri should be fine with it. Imagine a pump .22 rifle with a brick of Super Colibri and this gallery...

http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2007/01/02/build-an-air-rifle-shooting-gallery/
.

I seem to sort of very vaguely recall that there was a special .22 short-sized ammo..."Gallery Special" maybe (???) that used what is now called a 'frangible' bullet

OH how I remember going to the county fair with my Grandfather and my Dad and spending what seemed like hours at the shooting gallery.
The same grandfather gave me for my 6th birthday a Stevens visible loading
pump action 22 rifle. Shorts,longs or long rifle.
I still have the rifle(laying on the desk top in front of me.) Around 10 years ago a great friend of mine was going to school at the Colorado school of trades.
He needed a gun to redo for his class and he asked for my Stevens.
It looks better than it ever did. Like a brand new browning. Thanks Mike.
On sunny summer days I take it out and shoot it with my son.
My Grandfather and Dad and those galleries are gone now, But I still have my Stevens.
The day I went to the fair and they had those lame cork guns, Wow this sucks I told my Dad. All he said was, Yes they do.
I feel sorry for today's kids, They will never know just how fun it was to be a kid 45 years ago.

More than 50 years ago I shot in galleries like that on Coney Island, NYC, .22 shorts as I recall. Lots of fun.

Twenty years ago I bought a gallery gun at a garage sale for a buck. It was well used, or else they came with a smooth bore barrel.

Larry Ashcraft said:

I remember one of those at the old Lakeside amusement park in Denver. I thought they used a Winchester 90 or 62, but it could have been a Remington.

I have a Winchester 1890 "short only" .22 rifle that was passed down to me from my grandfather through my father. I've heard it referred to as a "gallery gun", but my great-grandfather ordered them new for all seven of his sons from Sears in the 1920s. Shorts were the cheapest ammunition then ($15 a case of 1000) so I guess that's why he ordered them that way.

Click to expand...

$15.00/1000rounds??

Thats not very cheap! especially in 1920s money. I used to buy 500 longrifle for under 4 bucks.