Golden Era of Guns Is Over. Or is It?/

[Cosmoline]

While you might buy a rifle from Newton's Buffalo Arms Company, or a .280 Ross (if you had the money), there were very few sporting bolt actions being produced in the US in that period. Developments like the .357 and .44 Magnums were far in the future. The great Model 70 Winchester wasn't developed yet. Even many out-of-production classics like the Colt Woodsman and the Winchester Model 52 weren't yet developed.

The hot loading of .38 Specials, .44's and .45 Colts was certainly underway during that period. THis is what led to the formal adoption of magnum catridges.

The "great Model 70 Winchester" is for all intents and purposes a sporterized Mauser '98. It was a revelation for American shooters to have a high-quality Mauser sporter at an affordable price, but it was hardly a new design.

The Colt Woodsman begain productin in 1915, so again we are in the golden age.

And the Winchester Model 52 was developed towards the end of WWI and was introduced in 1919, right at the tail end of the golden age.

I rest my case

 

[ctdonath]

End of golden era: 1934. First practical national ban (MGs, SBRs, SBSs, suppressors, AOWs).
End of silver era: 1968. Registration (yellow form) begins; no by-mail.
End of bronze era: 1986. First all-out ban (MGs).

We now live in the twilight, gleefully refining what we can have but with little hope of owning the future: M4, FN P90, HK MP7, FN 2000, etc. - all based on increasingly exotic combinations of full-auto, short barrels, and armor-piercing ammo. Civilian-legal technology goes little beyond the M1911, M1903, and AR-15 - all 50-100 years old, and we increasingly have to ask permission.

 

[No_Brakes23]

I will take today's innovations over yesteryear's machine guns. FA is undeniably fun, but not that much fun.

I guess 85-89 was the best of the last century, but widespread CCW and modular EBRs make 2005 and beyond a bit of a renaissance, (Outside of places like Cali, that is.)

I think the future will consist of less restrictive access to firearms and CCW, but at the cost of more documentation/mandated training/"safety" laws.

 

[benEzra]

I agree with Ian. If you live in a free state, we're still in it.

 

[1 old 0311]

I remember as a kid looking at a Sears catalog and seeing all the guns for sale. This was through the Mail with no paperwork.

Kevin

 

[Vern Humphrey]

The hot loading of .38 Specials, .44's and .45 Colts was certainly underway during that period. THis is what led to the formal adoption of magnum catridges.

The "hot loaded" .38 Special dates to the 1930s. Hot loaded .44s were the brain child of Elmer Keith -- well into the 1920s.

The "great Model 70 Winchester" is for all intents and purposes a sporterized Mauser '98. It was a revelation for American shooters to have a high-quality Mauser sporter at an affordable price, but it was hardly a new design.

When you consider what you got with the Model 70 -- from its side swing safety to its trigger, plus pre-tapped for mounts, and in almost any caliber you wanted, that's a long way from a surplus Mauser.

The Colt Woodsman begain productin in 1915, so again we are in the golden age.

They were rare, since war production limited availability.

And the Winchester Model 52 was developed towards the end of WWI and was introduced in 1919, right at the tail end of the golden age.

I rest my case

Still outside the era.

Most of the guns we regard as classics were developed later -- and you can get things today you couldn't get then.

 

[Grey54956]

The golden era is still coming...

Have faith, Brothers and Sisters...

 

[Monkeyleg]

If you're talking about craftsmenship, it was back in the fifties and sixties. If you're talking technology that makes that hand-fitting unnecessary, then we're there now.

Politically, though, we've been screwed for decades. The Golden Age of Guns ended when civilians could no longer possess the same guns as used by our military: 1934.

The beginning of the end of the Second Amendment.

 

[Cosmoline]

Vern, we're talking about two different things. I'm talking about the golden age in small arms development, you're talking about the golden age of being an American firearm buyer. It took several decades for the innovations of the 1890's and 1900's to find there way to US markets. But they WERE innovations of the 1890's and early 1900's. From smokeless powder to virtually all modern parent cartridges and action types, it began right there. That was the era where Browning, the Mauser engineers and even the French were churning out one phenomenal design after another. Nobody alive today has witnessed anything like that period in small arms development.