The ole gun rack in the back of your truck

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I remember my stepfather moving the gun rack from the window to behind the seat in the 80s.

He also had a couple of company vans and installed racks on the side behind the driver's seat. We worked in the country quite a bit and you never knew when you might get a shot. ;)
 
I had a sedan in highschool and thus no window rack and was saddened by it, even our Band director had the drivers side back seat rack in his Bronco (also equipped with the first 12v to 120 converter I ever saw) I did how ever have a high security firearms storage system. My .22 rifle lay on the back floor under an old army blanket so no one would notice it when parked on the square unlocked with the windows rolled down.

when transporting a pile of other boys ( or on a date with potential) it moved to the trunk

At some point in the 90's when I had a little rice burner pick up ( yes an African tactical!) I was sorely tempted to buy a rear window decal that simulated a full gun rack or an actual rack for my first cane (miniscus blew) and fishing rod, but the seat had storage room behind it so it got used.

By the time I got my 150 folks had the belief that rack storage was illegal in Florida...and it is not by my understanding.... and I just did not want to be hassled. As I have a crew cab and could easily stow several belt feds and half a pallet load of ammo back there I do not miss a rack at this point except for the comment it made about past society being polite enough it was no issue.

-kBob
 
kBob writes:

At some point in the 90's when I had a little rice burner pick up ( yes an African tactical!)
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Had one, too, an '87 Toyota 4x4 I bought brand new in January of that year and drove for the next 27 years. I could certainly see what the Taliban saw in those vehicles, and so could the then-CEO of Toyota USA when he said of their use "It's not our proudest product placement.", going on to say the Taliban sought the same qualities in their light trucks as American consumers did.

That was my second truck, and it also bore a gun rack taken from the first (also a Toyota, but a 2wd.)

My current truck is a Dakota quad-cab, so a gun rack, even if I considered it "theft-safe", would be almost pointless.

And, yes, Florida law still does not prohibit gun racks in vehicles. It doesn't even prohibit having a (long) gun in the rack. ;)
 
I still have my old back window gun rack up in my attic. Next time I am up there I will dig it out and put my walking stick in it. No way I would leave a gun in their now. My 22 rifle is hid between the fold up rear seat. My 9mm is buried but very easy to get in a hidey hole my fireman BIL told me about.
 
In western Colorado in the late 70s over half the vehicles in my high school parking lot were trucks and well over half of them had rifles and or shotguns in the back window. I bet over half the guys in school also carried a very large lock blade knife on their belt. It was kind of a contest to see who had the biggest knife!
 
When I graduated college in 1979, first job had me move to Tyler TX for a refinery conversion. Bought my first vehicle and followed suit with the gun rack in the back window. Now and again a rifle or shotgun, but mostly a 4' level and a long axe handle. Back then most folks left their keys in the ignition and their doors unlocked, even parked on the street downtown.
 
This thread made me stop and think about how much things really have changed.

I live and grew up here in central Virginia. I went to high school in the late 80’s and guys still did this the first 2 years I was there. I can still remember the morning announcement stating that the “no firearms at school” policy also applied to hunting rifles and shotguns in student’s cars and trucks. I remember one guy came to school afterwards with a big machete on his gun rack where his shotgun used to ride.

Nowadays the gun owners of my state are in a constant fight to maintain our 2nd amendment rights.
 
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357smallbore said:
Anyone remember those days? Today you would be foolish to attempt that
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It's still very common here. I think it's only less common now because a regular cab truck is a thing of the past here for the most part. A rifle rack in an extended cab is useless so I believe that is why the rifle rack is a thing of the past. I remember when extended cabs just looked silly. Now a regular cab looks out of place. At least around here. Then couple that with the fact that rear glass is glued in rather than held in with a big fat rubber seal. In the 99ish and up trucks you would have to use the suction cup type and i never trusted those. Especially for a nice scoped gun. Walk through walmart during deer/turkey season and 75 percent of the vehicles have a long gun in the seat. My olympic varmint AR has been in my 79 trucks back glass since I bought it when the AWB went away.

I was in high school when columbine happened. On that day things did start to change for schools even in the country. We did still bring our bows and practice though. Carried pocket knives too.


Armored farmer said:
.a gasoline tank!
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My wood truck and my Sunday drivers are a 79 F150 and a 66 F100. Both have behind the seat gas tanks. So long as you dont park on an incline with the driver door uphill (you can be out of gas even with half a tank), downhill (gas runs out) or in hot weather with a full tank. Cold gas from an under ground tank expands when warm....(you will watch gasoline run down the side of your truck) they arent un-usable but that's one big area that I do agree we have made improvement. I'm always surprised when I fix one that the in-Cab tanks seemed to rust through almost as bad as the 70s in-frame tanks. I would have expected them to last much better than the ones with the exposure.
 
crestoncowboy said:
It's still very common here. I think it's only less common now because a regular cab truck is a thing of the past here for the most part. A rifle rack in an extended cab is useless so I believe that is why the rifle rack is a thing of the past. I remember when extended cabs just looked silly. Now a regular cab looks out of place. At least around here. Then couple that with the fact that rear glass is glued in rather than held in with a big fat rubber seal. In the 99ish and up trucks you would have to use the suction cup type and i never trusted those. Especially for a nice scoped gun. Walk through walmart during deer/turkey season and 75 percent of the vehicles have a long gun in the seat. My olympic varmint AR has been in my 79 trucks back glass since I bought it when the AWB went away.

I was in high school when columbine happened. On that day things did start to change for schools even in the country. We did still bring our bows and practice though. Carried pocket knives too.




My wood truck and my Sunday drivers are a 79 F150 and a 66 F100. Both have behind the seat gas tanks. So long as you dont park on an incline with the driver door uphill (you can be out of gas even with half a tank), downhill (gas runs out) or in hot weather with a full tank. Cold gas from an under ground tank expands when warm....(you will watch gasoline run down the side of your truck) they arent un-usable but that's one big area that I do agree we have made improvement. I'm always surprised when I fix one that the in-Cab tanks seemed to rust through almost as bad as the 70s in-frame tanks. I would have expected them to last much better than the ones with the exposure.
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Yes indeed! BTDT!
 
You talk about those behind the seat gas tanks. My dads 63 ford had one. One day when we were out the fuel pump quit. My dad had the idea that I should ride in the bed of the truck with my mouth over the filler hole and blow as hard as I could in the tank and keep it pressurized. So I did. The truck kept running and we made it the three miles or so back to the house. Of course I was blue as a Smurf when we got there.:scrutiny:
 
Paul R Zartman said:
My Remington 512 has rack scratches from its early life, the left side (port side for you captains out there) has obvious marks from sliding it in and out of the truck, left them alone because that is its memories and history.
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Yup. The thing many of us wallowing in nostalgia are likely to forget.

Aside from sliding in and out there was the bouncing and banging of most of those racks too.

A lot would lock a rifle down but, my experience is that most did not.

Now, throw in the buckboard ride of older 4x4s and you see why so many opted for police/GI vertical mounts in hunting vehicles.

Todd.
 
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Picked up a truck gun rack at a Wal Mart about 8 years ago for about 10 bucks. Has a nice nostalgic look to it. Has only had a couple guns in it because most don't fit well. Headrests interfere with the lower section. Ceiling interferes with the upper part. But that's OK because the thing comes in handy for plenty of non-gun things. My snow brush / ice scraper rides there all winter... IMG_4065.JPG ...... Or a set of snowshoes ... IMG_3901.JPG ..... Only gun that fit well is the kid sized Savage Rascal that the step grand daughter uses in the summer and I only put it in the rack a couple times coming home from plinking at a friends place. Not even sure if it's legal to drive around displaying a gun in the back window any more. IMG_7317.JPG ...But it sure has an old school, retro coolness factor to it.
 
357smallbore said:
Back in the late 70's , early 80's when I was in High School, (Sierra Vista AZ) I carried my Winchester 94 or my Winchester Model 12 in a gun rack in my pickup. How those wonderful days are missed.
Anyone remember those days? Today you would be foolish to attempt that.
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Mine held fishing poles. My gun was in a case behind the seat. Michigan had stupid gun laws.
In Oklahoma my rifle rides next to the gear shift for easier access.
Coyotes don't give you much time.
 
I graduated in 01, no guns allowed on campus then. That didn't mean during deer gun season there weren't a few in the parking lot locked in trunks or under a pile of clothes.

I did buy a gun rack for my Ford Ranger back then. I even tried driving around with my 870 in the rack, but it only lasted about 5 miles before it came crashing down. The plastic in the Ranger's trim just wasn't up to the task of holding that much weight. So I just kept a couple fishing poles in the rack. Back then the fishing poles were used weekly anyway, while my 870 only was used a handful of times a year, and mostly just on my parent's property shooting clays or hunting.
 
I kept a H&R 12ga shotgun in the rack of my 1970 model C-20 pickup truck when I was in high school and a few years afterwards...I didn’t think anything about driving to school with that shotgun in the rack .. I don’t think I ever locked the doors on that truck
 
ColtPythonElite said:
Saw it all the time. Usually a .30-30 or semi-auto .22 and lots of times an old man's cane....lol
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Yup. In lambing or calving seasons ours was a 722 Rem in .257 Roberts because that gun was scoped and easier to hit predators at a distance than the 1894 .30-30...that was for deer season. And yes, my grandfather kept an old hickory cane in the lower rack to whack rattlesnakes with. :thumbup:

Ahh, the memories of youth!

Stay safe.
 
Armored farmer said:
View attachment 907393 this was my high school ride. I got it in August 1980. I passed on to #1 son in 2007, then to #2 in 2010, then to #3 in 2018.
Now its waiting in my shed for my grandson.
View attachment 907398 it has a rifle rack, and another feature behind the seat that you cant get anywhere......a gasoline tank!
(What could possibly go wrong?)
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That was almost our truck on the ranch!! Only differences were it was all-green and with factory hubcaps.

Stay safe
 
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