Before the internet.Way before :)

[The Sarge]

...I learned "stuff" about guns at the feed store. Cleaning tips, best this or that, trigger job "tricks"...all of it. I guess the moderators back then were the "old guys" who sat around in a cloud of smoke drinking coffee.

Also we did not have a shooting range. Never even thought of that concept. Went out in the country. Pay somebody to shoot on their property? What a great idea!

I thought everybody on the planet reloaded their own rounds.

The Sears catalog was a big deal at my house. When it came everybody had their turn to look through the pages and dream. Yes....Sears sold guns and reloading equipment.

What else guys? What was your experience in this shooting community before the internet?

 

[Dan Bear]

Wait..... there didn't used to be a internet??

 

[Dr_B]

When I was a kid we just went out in a field somewhere and shot cans and bottles. Threw stuff off of bridges and shot it as it floated downstream. I learned how to clean my gun from older men in the family. The only guns I got to try were the ones other people had in the family or maybe some other guy at the range had. Everyone had a shotgun and most people in the family had one in their truck. Keeping a shotgun around was like having a knife, fork, and spoon in the kitchen.

 

[lowerunit411]

before the internet people actually talked to eachother

 

[newbuckeye]

When I was in 5th grade I walked down to the LGS (about 5 blocks) during lunch because we had ran out of 22lr and my older brother and I wanted to go camping that weekend (ALONE......!) I bought 4 boxes with what money I had from the owner (a good friend of my dad's) and went back to school. I was late getting back into the class room and when I told the teacher where I had been, she said she had better hold onto my ammo until school was out.

That was way before the internet too......about 1980ish.

 

[zoom6zoom]

When I needed the answer to a question, I had to get on my (three speed) bike and ride into town to the library. Use a catalog written on index cards to find the information on your subject, then track down the actual book, hoping it wasn't already checked out.

 

[Michael R.]

Boy those were the days....

 

[AFDavis11]

Just like on the internet, when we asked five friends a question we always got 15 answers, and one reply that went something like "What difference does it make?"

 

[Ragnar Danneskjold]

Wait..... there didn't used to be a internet??

Well we haven't always been blessed by Al Gore, so it stands to reason there hasn't always been an internet.

 

[lowerunit411]

how ironic...we live in an era of almost unlimited communication. where "facts" and reports and so on is widely available yet now...no one talks to eachother. email, tweet, text, youtube......enemic...everyones saying something...just not to eachother

 

[DoubleTapDrew]

I was in high school when al gore invented the internet. Before then it was all hands-on knowledge from dads and grandpas. On the weekends when I was about 10 or so I'd drool over the pages of guns in the Shotgun News. Back then detachable magazine guns used "clips". You had to have a "class III license" to own a machine gun or suppressor. I hadn't heard of cooper's 4 rules or color codes, but went by the NRA's 10 gun safety rules learned in hunter's safety class.

 

[Skyshot]

My dad retired out of the Air Force in 1969. He had three brothers, One in the Air Force also and two in the Army. All were hunters and all owned numberous firearms. I got my first .22 rifle when I was 8 years old and still have it to this day. I have a battlefield pick-up mauser from Normandy that my uncle used to fight his way back to the front lines, after the C-47 they were in got blasted out of the sky. I just grew up with a lot of War vets in my family that taught me all that they could. And I am so greatfull for it. They have all passed away now and I sure do miss the days when one of them would come to our house with a new rifle or pistol to shoot. They would always let me burn some rounds off. It's funny when I think back, I never heard them complain much about any weapons. My uncle would always say, you go to war with what you have and you damn sure better keep that SOB working.

 

[P5 Guy]

When I was in my apprenticeship, after high school, Al and Tipper Gore were still trying to convince congress that if you played "Stairway to Heaven" backwards it said "sell your kids to Satan".
And the interweb is good?

 

[Dnaltrop]

Gun shows were something to actually look forward to.

 

[maskedman504]

I feel lucky being on the teeter totter of technology. My younger years were consumed with th Encyclopedia Britannica, I remember our first 28.8kbps modem and having to wait for a picture to download. I remember search engines before they were usefull. Seach for giraffe and get information about an above ground pool. A set of Encyclopedias used to cost north of $1000 and now you can get a used set for $50. A shame, really.

 

[Standing Wolf]

Before the internet, we all had names, and firing off one's mouth was generally considered rude; conversely, if it wasn't in a gun magazine, there wasn't much way to find out about a new product, and if a gun was for sale 1,000 miles from home, somebody else would buy it.

 

[mljdeckard]

I gotta be honest, I mostly got bad advice. I was in Vietnam. A .45 will pick you up and knock you over. A .50 BMG will rip your skin off. Glocks are non-metallic. A Mini-14 is a great deer rifle. You need to file the tips of the bullets to a point to make sure they fire accurately out of an Enfield. Shorter barrels give greater velocity because they don't let the bullet encounter as much resistance.

I have started reloading, and it has been entirely with help from this forum. I never would have tried that before the internet, I would have asked for help from.....the guys who told me the stuff above.

 

[Liberty1776]

(PRE '68) All guns were the same. We bought a .22 - just were lucky it was a good accurate Remington single shot. I used to charge shells at the local general store on my mom's account - sit on the front steps and shoot at timothy hay heads. neighbor across the road (Old Man Petrie) told us to come over and shoot all the damn blackbirds we could find on his lawn...

 

[2ifbyC]

I grew up in Western PA where people still cling to their guns and religion.

Since my Mother was against guns, the best I could muster as a boy was a toy cap gun. But these were no ordinary toy guns; I believe Mattel sold them. They used cartridges with snap-in plastic bullets. They sold ”greeny stickem caps” that stuck to the base of the cartridge. The hammer would strike the cap, explode, and the plastic bullet would be propelled out the barrel. Less dangerous than a BB gun but it got me hooked. With shows like “The Lone Ranger” and “Rin Tin Tin” on Saturday mornings, the kids in the neighborhood had our own version of the Wild West right in the Monongahela River valley.

As we grew older, my friends and I would head out to many of the abandoned coal mines in the area with our .22s. My Dad would let me borrow his single-shot bolt action Ted Williams .22 that he paid $10 for in the forties. Although out-gunned by my friends, we all had fun shooting bottles and cans that we placed against the hillside of the mine’s entrance.

And as in the movie “Stand By Me”, it’s your childhood memories that never leave you.

Ironically, I graduated with a B.S. in Computer Science well before Al Gore had that gleam in his eye.

 

[snakeman]

As a rancher I too have learned some things from the feed store but nothing about guns. Then again I was also there to buy feed.

 

[bikerdoc]

Born in 48. Like the OP if you didnt get mentored you didnt learn. Guess I was lucky.

 

[btg3]

... heading out to the dove field. Car packed with guns, shells, sandwiches, etc and... NO SUCH THING AS A CELL PHONE TO INTERRUPT THE DAY.

And for that reason, I turn it off some weekends and those memories live on!

 

[gbran]

Before the internet? I'm still having trouble with my first smart phone. Just can't let go of the past.

[/IMG]

 

[Malachi Leviticus Blue]

I'm younger than Al Gore, so as far as I know there has always been an internet.

 

[GoWolfpack]

Gun shows were something to actually look forward to.

Because really good deals weren't available 24/7 like they are now. Sure, the internet ruined gun shows by bringing the gun show to you any time you feel like and easier to search. Plus no one else's lack of personal hygene is forced on you. Gun shows don't have great deals anymore because there are great deals on the internet ANY TIME YOU WANT.

I love the internet. I think overall this communication tool has greatly improved individual quality of life and facilitates greater freedom for everyone with access.

My brief experience in the gun community pre-internet: it was exponentially more expensive in time and money to become really knowledgeable about guns.

Subscribe to Shotgun News or some other gun rag: $$
Check out books from the public library to research: TIME
Find catalogs listing books for sale your library doesn't have: TIME
Buy books your public library doesn't have: $$$$$$$ (No Amazon, no good place to find a wide variety of used books. New books are megabucks)
Take correspondence course in gunsmithing: $$$
Pester a local gunsmith (if there is one) to teach you things: TIME and irritating an old man.

Today with the internet and the very basic BS detector I can become extremely knowledgeable about guns in short snatches of time and for next to no money.