Ignition Override
Member
The Night Rider: That's interesting.
how did it start for you?
- Thread starter docwharden1881
- Start date
Best times of child hood was going to grandparents house to visit. Got to shoot bb rifle in the basement. They bought me first cap gun when very young, then those miniature muskets that fired cork balls powered by caps. Grandfather gave me first firearm when turned 12. Single barrel 20 gage and family small game hunting excursions.
AlexanderA
Member
As a general rule, camouflage uniforms (especially including helmet covers) were not used by the Allies in the ETO.* That's because camouflage was widely used by the Waffen SS, and confusion as to which side you were on could be fatal. This was a historical inaccuracy in the Combat series.
*An exception was the Denison Smock used by the British airborne.
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Miami_JBT
Member
My Father was a hunter, competitive shooter, collector, and a cop. I had toy guns, BB guns, etc... got my first shotgun when I was about six. I remember shooting .22 pistols with Dad when I was four or five. I had a "bullet trap" that my Dad rigged up in the backyard of our house in Miami for my BB gun. It was old metal shelving. That was behind the cardboard boxes he'd put in front with paper qualification targets. We'd go shooting off Krome Ave by the Everglades with real guns. I'd bird and waterfowl hunt in Palm Beach County on the south end of Lake Okeechobee.
Also, my family fled Communism. So just about all the men in the family were armed and I had an Uncle who was retired from the CIA, a veteran of the Bay of Pigs, etc... he politically shaped me and told me as a kid, "free people are armed, disarmed people are slaves to the state." He would tell me that while there was a Browning Auto-5 and Browning .22 Auto leaning against thr wall in the closet and a Walther PPK was in the dresser drawer.
Also, my family fled Communism. So just about all the men in the family were armed and I had an Uncle who was retired from the CIA, a veteran of the Bay of Pigs, etc... he politically shaped me and told me as a kid, "free people are armed, disarmed people are slaves to the state." He would tell me that while there was a Browning Auto-5 and Browning .22 Auto leaning against thr wall in the closet and a Walther PPK was in the dresser drawer.
red rick
Member
- Joined
- Aug 11, 2009
- Messages
- 3,164
I use to love Roy Rogers when I was a kid . My mom said that I would throw a fit if we had go somewhere before I watched the Roy Rogers TV show in the morning , I think Saturday mornings .
My grandpa was a farmer and I spent a lot of time at his farm and there was a gun in the corner of his house and in his truck and on his tractor . It was just a natural progression I guess , shooting and hunting and watching westerners on TV . My grandpa also had cowboy hats that I would wear .
My grandpa was a farmer and I spent a lot of time at his farm and there was a gun in the corner of his house and in his truck and on his tractor . It was just a natural progression I guess , shooting and hunting and watching westerners on TV . My grandpa also had cowboy hats that I would wear .
tws3b2
Member
I watched cowboy tv and movies, played with toy guns, cap pistols and bb guns when a kid. But I was never really "into" any of them.
I was about 14 when I walked into Littles Hardware. A local old time, real hardware that was owned and run by "Who Else But" Mr. Little. Hardware stores back then should have been called box stores because they were kind of small and packed from wall to wall, floor to ceiling till it could hold no more of everything. Then outside into the big stuff area, pipe, farm equipment , hay, you name it.
Anyway, there next to the front door was the long gun rack and handgun counter. I picked up a Stevens 410 single shot. Mr. Little said I could put it on layaway If I wanted. I had $7 in my pocket I had earned helping my dad for a week of work. I don't remember exactly how much it cost but I put 6 of my hard earned $7 down on the gun and a box of shells and I think I still owed around $16. How or when I would ever get that $16 I had no idea. That was a lot of money to a 14 year old kid back then.
Some weeks later it was payday after helping my dad again. We were headed home from our work when he asked what I was going to do with my pay. I said I'd like to pay some on my gun. Gun? I had never told him about the layaway. We stopped by the hardware and he paid off my gun.
That was a lot of years ago. I've not been without guns since.
I was about 14 when I walked into Littles Hardware. A local old time, real hardware that was owned and run by "Who Else But" Mr. Little. Hardware stores back then should have been called box stores because they were kind of small and packed from wall to wall, floor to ceiling till it could hold no more of everything. Then outside into the big stuff area, pipe, farm equipment , hay, you name it.
Anyway, there next to the front door was the long gun rack and handgun counter. I picked up a Stevens 410 single shot. Mr. Little said I could put it on layaway If I wanted. I had $7 in my pocket I had earned helping my dad for a week of work. I don't remember exactly how much it cost but I put 6 of my hard earned $7 down on the gun and a box of shells and I think I still owed around $16. How or when I would ever get that $16 I had no idea. That was a lot of money to a 14 year old kid back then.
Some weeks later it was payday after helping my dad again. We were headed home from our work when he asked what I was going to do with my pay. I said I'd like to pay some on my gun. Gun? I had never told him about the layaway. We stopped by the hardware and he paid off my gun.
That was a lot of years ago. I've not been without guns since.
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EIB0879
Member
My Dad started taking me squirrel hunting with him when I was five. My Dad was a LEO so I was around firearms all my life. I did have toy guns and later firearms and knew the difference.
bannockburn
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- Apr 24, 2007
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- 26,307
The Night Rider
I don't know about Vic Morrow having no use for guns; it was just that he truly hated lugging the 10 lb. Thompson around every day. Initially he had asked if he could have the lighter weight M1 Carbine (5.2 lb.), but that was already earmarked for Rick Jason (Lt. Hanley), to use. Likewise the actor Jack Kirby (PFC Kirby), had a similar complaint about the weight of his weapon, the 16 lb. M1918A2 BAR. Eventually the production crew made up lighter weight prop guns out of wood and painted them to resemble the real thing. The "substitute" weapons were used then until the actual guns were called upon to be filmed with firing blank ammo in scenes that called for it.
I don't know about Vic Morrow having no use for guns; it was just that he truly hated lugging the 10 lb. Thompson around every day. Initially he had asked if he could have the lighter weight M1 Carbine (5.2 lb.), but that was already earmarked for Rick Jason (Lt. Hanley), to use. Likewise the actor Jack Kirby (PFC Kirby), had a similar complaint about the weight of his weapon, the 16 lb. M1918A2 BAR. Eventually the production crew made up lighter weight prop guns out of wood and painted them to resemble the real thing. The "substitute" weapons were used then until the actual guns were called upon to be filmed with firing blank ammo in scenes that called for it.
EIB0879
Member
Yeah this and Batman were my favorites. For my seventh birthday my parents had a portrait picture made of me in a toy helmet, green bomber jacket, and toy submachinegun. It was somewhat prophetic.Watching these guys. For the young people, the tv series Combat; my age was 7 or 8 iirc. Episodes on Youtube seem to be free.
We only had three tv channels in the 60's. "Social media" was going outside to play with neighbors. Nobody we knew hid inside..
Why did I lose or break my plastic full-scale Garand or perfect duplicate black metal Luger (maybe a cap gun) ? These days brandishing that toy, but Solid metal Luger could get you killed.
Old Dog
Member
Toy guns since the age of three... my grandma and Dad were great enablers. Combat, Rat Patrol, Gunsmoke 12 O'clock High were mine and Dad's favorite TV shows in the early-mid '60s. The Peacemaker and 1911 were my favorite handguns by the time I was seven or eight, lever-action Winchesters and the Thompson my favorite long guns. TV shows were a huge influence to American boys back in the day.
At around the age of nine, I got this
The real wood-stocked Crosman M-1 Carbine, .177 cal. BBs. Ah, those were the days. No birds, squirrels or chipmunks in our neighborhood were safe, sadly.
At 12, Dad broke out his 1918 Steven's Favorite .22LR. When I was legal to hunt, it was a Winchester 94 .30-30 and an Ithaca .410.
At around the age of nine, I got this
The real wood-stocked Crosman M-1 Carbine, .177 cal. BBs. Ah, those were the days. No birds, squirrels or chipmunks in our neighborhood were safe, sadly.
At 12, Dad broke out his 1918 Steven's Favorite .22LR. When I was legal to hunt, it was a Winchester 94 .30-30 and an Ithaca .410.
OP
OP
docwharden1881
member
I was allowed to only "hunt" tin cans, soft-drink containers, etc. If I had shot at or killed any animals I would have been in big trouble. My granddad hunted for food but not for sport so I always drew a distinction between the two. The rat invasion of '06 was an exception.
The Night Rider
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- Feb 16, 2022
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- 2,147
One of the NCOs in Easy Company got bayoneted by another Soldier when he woke him up for Guard Duty wearing a German poncho
bigpower491
Member
When I was a we lad around 8 my Uncle used to work in marketing for the Stroh Brewery in Detroit. He used to get magazines from publishers wanting them to buy ad space. Included in the monthlys that he received were Outdoor Life and F&S. Stories of hunts from O'Connor and the likes peaked my interest. Then a few yrs later my dad bought his Python. The Christmas after he got that my parents bought me the Glenfield 60 that I literally shot to death. Twas game on after that, mainly rifles til the mid 2000s
WestKentucky
Member
My grandfathers got me started, but that’s way over simplifying things.
When each grandson was about 4 my dad’s dad brought home a nice but affordable rifle for the grandsons. The girls got cast iron toy stove sets. (This was the 80s so somewhat collectible but not necessarily exciting for them). My gun was and still is a marlin 60 squirrel stock semiauto. That same grandfather had a great love for doing things with his hands but as he aged he quickly lost a lot of mobility but he could sit on the back porch and peel apples off of the tree and eat them all day long. He kept a BB gun handy for catbirds and wasps. I learned some from him.
On the other side of the family my grandfather lived on a farm but he didn’t work the farm anymore due to health reasons. He had a single shot 22lr that has zero markings on it whatsoever, but his grandfather bought it for him when he was little, and it was used way back then. He also had a BB gun, and several walnut trees in his yard. We would shoot the walnuts with the BB gun to knock them down. We would ride up and down his little country dead end road learning to drive and riding our bikes, visiting his neighbors… anything to get out of Granny’s sight when she was mad at him which was pretty much constant. He was a prankster and he loved his rubber mouse, and granny hated it with a passion. It got out in drawers often or ties to a fishing pole and ran through the house… we stayed gone a lot. At each end of the road there was a bridge with a small creek and lots of chub minnows. Water snakes would eat the minnows, but he used the minnows for fishing so we shot snakes.
So from 2 grandfathers I was getting plenty practice shooting small targets that were generally moving. I got pretty good, and thoroughly enjoyed showing off a bit. Still do. My kids are finally getting old enough to enjoy it with me as we do more than just rattle coke cans and poke holes in paper.
Sadly my grandfathers are both gone. One gone in 2003 and the other in January of 2024, but every time I touch their guns (which I have guns from each of them) I can almost feel their presence and hear them laughing like when I shot the wings off of a wasp and then got scared when it was crawling at me looking for revenge, or when I would be handed an empty gun to shoot a snake and just as I would pull the trigger and hear a click I would get pinched on the ankle as Paw hissed loudly. I miss my grandfathers terribly, but when I take the girls shooting I try to pass on the things I learned, and we still have a rubber mouse tucked away for a rainy day.
When each grandson was about 4 my dad’s dad brought home a nice but affordable rifle for the grandsons. The girls got cast iron toy stove sets. (This was the 80s so somewhat collectible but not necessarily exciting for them). My gun was and still is a marlin 60 squirrel stock semiauto. That same grandfather had a great love for doing things with his hands but as he aged he quickly lost a lot of mobility but he could sit on the back porch and peel apples off of the tree and eat them all day long. He kept a BB gun handy for catbirds and wasps. I learned some from him.
On the other side of the family my grandfather lived on a farm but he didn’t work the farm anymore due to health reasons. He had a single shot 22lr that has zero markings on it whatsoever, but his grandfather bought it for him when he was little, and it was used way back then. He also had a BB gun, and several walnut trees in his yard. We would shoot the walnuts with the BB gun to knock them down. We would ride up and down his little country dead end road learning to drive and riding our bikes, visiting his neighbors… anything to get out of Granny’s sight when she was mad at him which was pretty much constant. He was a prankster and he loved his rubber mouse, and granny hated it with a passion. It got out in drawers often or ties to a fishing pole and ran through the house… we stayed gone a lot. At each end of the road there was a bridge with a small creek and lots of chub minnows. Water snakes would eat the minnows, but he used the minnows for fishing so we shot snakes.
So from 2 grandfathers I was getting plenty practice shooting small targets that were generally moving. I got pretty good, and thoroughly enjoyed showing off a bit. Still do. My kids are finally getting old enough to enjoy it with me as we do more than just rattle coke cans and poke holes in paper.
Sadly my grandfathers are both gone. One gone in 2003 and the other in January of 2024, but every time I touch their guns (which I have guns from each of them) I can almost feel their presence and hear them laughing like when I shot the wings off of a wasp and then got scared when it was crawling at me looking for revenge, or when I would be handed an empty gun to shoot a snake and just as I would pull the trigger and hear a click I would get pinched on the ankle as Paw hissed loudly. I miss my grandfathers terribly, but when I take the girls shooting I try to pass on the things I learned, and we still have a rubber mouse tucked away for a rainy day.
When I was about 10 my older brother bought a .22 short rifle from the Sears & Roebuck catalog & he would take me to the woods behind the house to shoot cans. Then as I got older my friends went to the back side of the local strip pits to do a little shooting but the only thing that I could afford was an old 45 cal black powder rifle. When I started hunting I found I also needed a .22lr to hunt squirrels so I bought one. Then a buddy started going to gun shows so one of the times I was with him I saw they had surplus Mosin Nagant rifles for $50 & cheap ammo so that was the first large caliber cartridge rifle I bought & that is what got me hooked.
230RN
2A was "political" when it was first adopted.
From my THR introduction if interested:
Born, raised, schooled in New York City, Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, and North Shore of Long Island.
Cap guns, BB guns only at our summer house out on Long Island --not in the City.
Not a "draft dodger," but Married Student status got me a 2S draft deferment. New York's propaganda basis is that "only cops and crooks have guns" and "You can't fight City Hall." Bow your heads and obey.
Wife1 and I moved out to Colorado's Free Air in mid-1960s and I was shocked to find you could buy a "Guh-uhn!" if you were a resident. Bought my first handgun the day after I established residency in the state --off and running ever since.
I have a long-term perspective on the gradual erosion of freedom by do-gooders and other corrosive political elements.
I am constantly recommending review of the PREAMBLE to the Bill Of Rights:
Note this is not the Preamble to the Constitution itself. This was the addition of ten strong spelled-out prohibitions in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of the government's authority.
Terry, 230RN
Born, raised, schooled in New York City, Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, and North Shore of Long Island.
Cap guns, BB guns only at our summer house out on Long Island --not in the City.
Not a "draft dodger," but Married Student status got me a 2S draft deferment. New York's propaganda basis is that "only cops and crooks have guns" and "You can't fight City Hall." Bow your heads and obey.
Wife1 and I moved out to Colorado's Free Air in mid-1960s and I was shocked to find you could buy a "Guh-uhn!" if you were a resident. Bought my first handgun the day after I established residency in the state --off and running ever since.
I have a long-term perspective on the gradual erosion of freedom by do-gooders and other corrosive political elements.
I am constantly recommending review of the PREAMBLE to the Bill Of Rights:
Note this is not the Preamble to the Constitution itself. This was the addition of ten strong spelled-out prohibitions in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of the government's authority.
Terry, 230RN
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Steve in NC
Member
Raised in the country and back then hunting/fishing season wasn't a sport. What was killed or netted was cleaned and eaten. Walked miles in the footsteps of my dad and/or grandfather in smallgame season.
My dad shot ATA registered trap in late 60s early 70's so my job as a little kid was to make sure I got the wad in the wad guide and my fingers clear before dad pulled the handle on the old MEC. So, I got the shooting and reloading bug honest and early on. I still remember my brother and I as really young boys earning a couple dollars to set birds during league shoots. Again, making sure you got that arm reset, bird placed, and fingers clear!
No way would a parent these days ever allow a 5-7 yr old go "downrange" to set birds onto a spring loaded arm and get your fingers out of the way. But we loved it and made a dollar or 2 for a whole day's work and cases of birds later.
Then also my dad and grandad would get the big yearly Gun Digest books and reading about precision rifles and shooting long distances just fascinated me. So mowed yards and bought my first metallic reloading equipment around 10 yrs old.
And the addiction continues to this day. I get to hunt fish and shoot with my sons. Neither like reloading though.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane. Cool stories throughout this thread.
P.S. Chuck Conner was my TV hero!
My dad shot ATA registered trap in late 60s early 70's so my job as a little kid was to make sure I got the wad in the wad guide and my fingers clear before dad pulled the handle on the old MEC. So, I got the shooting and reloading bug honest and early on. I still remember my brother and I as really young boys earning a couple dollars to set birds during league shoots. Again, making sure you got that arm reset, bird placed, and fingers clear!
No way would a parent these days ever allow a 5-7 yr old go "downrange" to set birds onto a spring loaded arm and get your fingers out of the way. But we loved it and made a dollar or 2 for a whole day's work and cases of birds later.
Then also my dad and grandad would get the big yearly Gun Digest books and reading about precision rifles and shooting long distances just fascinated me. So mowed yards and bought my first metallic reloading equipment around 10 yrs old.
And the addiction continues to this day. I get to hunt fish and shoot with my sons. Neither like reloading though.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane. Cool stories throughout this thread.
P.S. Chuck Conner was my TV hero!
theotherwaldo
Member
I was nuts about those old cowboy shows and always had my holsters and cowboy hat until I was about three.
After that we were moving all of the time and I lost all of my toys and only had access to broken toys, which I quickly learned to fix.
I still scavenge up other people's broken 'toys' and put them back in operation, including some actual toys like the Fann'r .50 and similar cap guns... .
After that we were moving all of the time and I lost all of my toys and only had access to broken toys, which I quickly learned to fix.
I still scavenge up other people's broken 'toys' and put them back in operation, including some actual toys like the Fann'r .50 and similar cap guns... .
We played "War" all the time as kids. Toy guns were the toys of preference. TV was mostly Westerns. Lots of shooting. I was raised around horses and my father always had a pistol on his hip when riding. He was also an avid Duck/Rabbit hunter, so I grew up around a hunting and shooting environment.
I got a BB gun for my 11th birthday. A Daisy pump. I still have it. My first real gun was a broken Remington 22 Rifle that I got from a friend when I was 14. The bolt handle had broken off and it was useless when he gave it to me. Luckily, my High School Shop teacher Brazed the bolt handle back on for me. Back then, my high school had a pistol range in the basement, so braising a bolt back on a rifle was not a big deal for a shop teacher. I still have that rifle. It was missing the clip when I got it so it was always a single shot. I used it for rabbit and squirrel hunting when I was a kid. I need to see if I can find a replacement clip for it.
From there it just kept on. I started truly collecting in the mid 90s. Around that time I also got into reloading. I enjoy reloading as much as collecting and shooting.
I got a BB gun for my 11th birthday. A Daisy pump. I still have it. My first real gun was a broken Remington 22 Rifle that I got from a friend when I was 14. The bolt handle had broken off and it was useless when he gave it to me. Luckily, my High School Shop teacher Brazed the bolt handle back on for me. Back then, my high school had a pistol range in the basement, so braising a bolt back on a rifle was not a big deal for a shop teacher. I still have that rifle. It was missing the clip when I got it so it was always a single shot. I used it for rabbit and squirrel hunting when I was a kid. I need to see if I can find a replacement clip for it.
From there it just kept on. I started truly collecting in the mid 90s. Around that time I also got into reloading. I enjoy reloading as much as collecting and shooting.
Armybrat
Member
Fort Sam Houston, 1947 or 1948 - that’s me on the left with the bad trigger discipline….
This is a great thread indeed. Very enjoyable reading. Westerns were and still are my TV of choice. INSP network, GRIT and Starz Encore Westerns is where my TV Remote tunes the channel 95 percent of the time.
I read an article stating that in 1959, 30 different Westerns were on every week during Prime Time. None were cancelled that year, with 14 new Westerns having been added. Amazing. Watching "Bonanza" and "Gunsmoke" with my grandfather is a wonderful memory for me.
He also liked to watch "Sergeant Preston of the Yukon", that was on in the early afternoons in reruns in the mid 1960s. I liked the Horseback episodes, but really enjoyed the Dogsled episodes.
Great memories. Simpler times.
I read an article stating that in 1959, 30 different Westerns were on every week during Prime Time. None were cancelled that year, with 14 new Westerns having been added. Amazing. Watching "Bonanza" and "Gunsmoke" with my grandfather is a wonderful memory for me.
He also liked to watch "Sergeant Preston of the Yukon", that was on in the early afternoons in reruns in the mid 1960s. I liked the Horseback episodes, but really enjoyed the Dogsled episodes.
Great memories. Simpler times.
Miami_JBT
Member
That's pretty standard in Hollywood going back forever. Rubber and wooden replicas are used for costuming. They're lighter, can't be shot, etc....
Hangingrock
Member
Boy-Scouts, Explore-Scouts and USMC.
doubleh
Member
I grew up as a little clod hopper, other wise known as a farm kid. Our farm butted up in a corner where 2 ranchs were divided by a barb wire fence. Their combined acreage was 153 sections so shooting was pretty safe. I might or might not have trespassed over there a couple of times. My dad let me shoot his 22 rifle as soon as I could hold it up. Then it was a SAA replica cap pistol that I very occasionally managed to get caps for. About the time I had wiped out all the indians within pistol range on the farm my grandmother gave me my youngest uncle's Daisy BB gun as he was in Germany with a real rifle and I got all those at longer range in the form of dirt clods. By that time I was large enough to hold up and usually hit what I shot at with my dad's 22 rifle so I was allowed to terrorise the rabbit population. We ate the cottontails and our 2 dogs got the jackrabbits unless it was a not grown one. Sometimes late on a summer day dad would drive the tractor with me riding and we would go rabbit hunting. One year he decided to go deer hunting in NM and my mother, one of the calmest people I have ever known, threw an absolute fit as a few shooting deaths were common in the state every year. He did not go. In my 11th year I found my very own 22 under the Christmas tree. Not too long after that a magazine publishing company had a deal where kids sold subscriptions to get various things and my dad hauled me around to all his friends selling magazine subscriptions. I sold enough to get a Mossberg 22 semi-auto rifle and shot it enough to wear the case hardening down on the trigger to where it would double now and then.
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