Tell me about the 1950's
- Thread starter timothy75
- Start date
- Status
threefeathers
member
I was born in 1938.
Guns weren't a big deal in the 40's and 50's except mostly we couldn't afford one. We teenagers made our own.
If anyone took note of a kid walking down the street with a 22 rifle it was usually something like, "Hey boy, can you shoot that gun. I had one just like it and I could hit .........."
Guns could be ordered from ads in magazines, including most of the WWI and WWII guns, even (I recall) a antitank rifle.
The guns were delivered to your door by the postman.
The first handgun I ordered through the mail was a $18 38 Webley revolver.
I can't recall the first "Sporting Goods Store" but there was Sears and Wards.
We use to buy our shotgun shells and 22 shells from the corner grocery store. If you couldn't afford a whole box the clerk would sell you 10 shells or whatever.
I remember in the 50's surplus WWII German military 9mm ammo was fairly inexpensive for the $20 mail order German Lugers and was bought at "military surplus stores".
Even as late as the early 60's you could buy GI 1911A1 pistols ($17), 03A3 & 03A4 rifles ($14.50) and M1 Carbines ($20) directly from the government.
I still have mine.
$17.
$14.50.
Funny how during those times when guns were as common as Ice Cream there were no school shootings, gun free (killing) zones, or kids "accidentally" shooting family members.
SSN Vet
Member
My good friends dad used to bring his break action shotgun to highschool and keep it in his locker because he was a fanatic pheasant hunter and would hike straight into the field after school to maximize his daylight hours of hunting.
This was in Flint Michigan in the mid 50s
He is pushing 70 now and is still an avid bow hunter (hunting with guns ceased to be enough of a challenge for him long ago) and fisherman.
He's one of the nicest men I've ever met and he knows the woods and wild very well (used to trap as well).
I asked him what the teacher or principal said to him when he walked down the hall with his shotgun.... and he replied that they would just ask if he got any birds last night.
OBTW.... he says that they were not allowed to put locks on their lockers.
America was a different place, where kids were raised to respect adults and authority. A school shooting was apparently unthinkable.
My mom was born a farmers daughter in the early 30s and attended a one room school in Michigan untill high school.... and much of her instruction was in German.
My wifes reports that this was her dad's mantra..... but that was in the early 70s
This was in Flint Michigan in the mid 50s
He is pushing 70 now and is still an avid bow hunter (hunting with guns ceased to be enough of a challenge for him long ago) and fisherman.
He's one of the nicest men I've ever met and he knows the woods and wild very well (used to trap as well).
I asked him what the teacher or principal said to him when he walked down the hall with his shotgun.... and he replied that they would just ask if he got any birds last night.
OBTW.... he says that they were not allowed to put locks on their lockers.
America was a different place, where kids were raised to respect adults and authority. A school shooting was apparently unthinkable.
My mom was born a farmers daughter in the early 30s and attended a one room school in Michigan untill high school.... and much of her instruction was in German.
My wifes reports that this was her dad's mantra..... but that was in the early 70s
Last edited:
Oddly, that is my experience too. I'm the oldest of seven children and neither my parents nor my siblings had (or have now, for that matter) any serious interest in guns. And yet, at a very early age (since probably age ten or so), I was consumed with knowing more about any kind of firearm and still am. I collected fifties gun brochures (many of which I still have) and I still have the tattered remnants of a couple of old Gun Digests and Shooter's Bibles from back then. I remember my dad telling me that if I spent as much time with my nose in the King James Bible as I did with the Shooter's Bible, I'd turn out to be a much better person. He was probably right...
Let's not put too golden of a glow on the past. Perusal of sites like this one will show you that there has been a general downward trend in (genuine) accidental shootings over at least the last thirty years. A little googling around will also show that there are fewer accidental shootings by hunters in the field than there were in years past.
Guns being more common, in some contexts, and people more casual about them didn't mean everybody handled them safely.
Guns being more common, in some contexts, and people more casual about them didn't mean everybody handled them safely.
All the way up to the early to mid nineteen sixties we took shotguns or rifles to high school and placed them in our wall lockers. After school we went hunting. The 1968 Control Act brought us a different United States and it wasn’t for the better.
Standard Remington Rand M1911A1, except for the sights, grips and glass-beaded finish. For $17, a man could afford to customize them. FWIW, Rem. Rand made the most M1911A1's, more than Colt did. Heh, a typewriter company!
Much of the time good guy/bad guy status would have been determined by skin color.
Well, yeah Joe, I'm sure there's more gun safety education now and, accordingly, fewer firearm-related accidents-and that is important and I would never downplay its significance. But lots of things are safer now-cars, workplaces, lawnmowers and ladders I suppose. But the "golden glow" you speak of had more to it than just ignorance. We had enough common sense back then to know a gun is intrinsically dangerous-and we didn't need a warning label stamped on the barrel or a little padlock shipped with the gun to make sure we understood.
Last edited:
"For those of you that were around back then id love to hear what the shooting scene was like at the time."
I wasn't around back then but i heard young people carried 1911s also.
I wasn't around back then but i heard young people carried 1911s also.
Actually, if you made $5,000/year, you were successfully in the middle class.
You could order guns from the back of gun magazines (how Ruger got started)
It was a rifle/shotgun society for hunting and a few shot targets. Handguns were not necessary for daily carry as crime was not as rampant, and they weren't typically allowed in a CCW manner
There was a LOT less paranoia about bad guys at every corner
New and like new guns like the GI 1911A1, 03A3, 03A4, and other military guns were so plentiful and cheap that we thought nothing about "customizing" them.
I remember I sold a like new GI 45 for $25 and I felt like I cheated the guy.
About in the 80's when a friend saw how I had cut down the 03A3 stock and shortened the barrel of the 03A4 he said I should be horse whipped.
I told him when I did that the guns only cost $14.50. Sometimes even cheaper in the back of magazines.
All in all I'll take what we had in the 50's compared to the widespread anti-gun atmosphere in the country today, especially the brainwashing the kids receive in school now days.
Things were simpler in the 50's. But then think about it, those that want to impose their ideas on everyone have had 60 years to get elected and pass laws and more laws, and teach everyone that being wealthy is a crime and society owes everyone anything they want...oh, you don't have??? just take it, society owes it to you.
Heck folks, I feel really old cuz I remember 1 gallon of regular gas priced at only
$0.18 cents; and $3.00 would fill my brand new 1967 VW "beetle" up~! T'was
still about a year away from owning handguns- 
Some more 50's pricing:
Bread = .15 cents a loaf
6-1/2 oz. COKE = .06 cents (in a glass bottle)
corn cob pipe = .25 cents (for smoking wild "rabbit tobacco")
candy [BIG TIME, 3 Muskerteers, Hollywood, etc.] = .10 cents
a pack of 100 BB's = .05 cents
$0.18 cents; and $3.00 would fill my brand new 1967 VW "beetle" up~! T'was
still about a year away from owning handguns-
Some more 50's pricing:
Bread = .15 cents a loaf
6-1/2 oz. COKE = .06 cents (in a glass bottle)
corn cob pipe = .25 cents (for smoking wild "rabbit tobacco")
candy [BIG TIME, 3 Muskerteers, Hollywood, etc.] = .10 cents
a pack of 100 BB's = .05 cents
Last edited:
This thread has convinced me I was born in the wrong generation. I could live with only 3 channels, I don't watch much TV as it is.
I know I'll be getting calls from the school this fall, my step-son is getting a Rossi .22 single shot with the additional .410 barrel for his 8th birthday. He'll tell his friends, and of course, we'll be viewed as psychotic murderers and freaks by the teachers and school staff, even in rural Michigan.
Teach them responsibility? Why, when there are adults who can't spell the word, let alone tell you what it means or practice it themselves.
I know I'll be getting calls from the school this fall, my step-son is getting a Rossi .22 single shot with the additional .410 barrel for his 8th birthday. He'll tell his friends, and of course, we'll be viewed as psychotic murderers and freaks by the teachers and school staff, even in rural Michigan.
Teach them responsibility? Why, when there are adults who can't spell the word, let alone tell you what it means or practice it themselves.
Don't get too rose glasses about this, folks. A few other items to remember:
--Widespread anti-CCW laws.
--Ninety one percent tax bracket
--Compulsory military service
--Every man had to look like Drew Carey
--Jet travel was for the uber wealthy
--Your neighborhood was your world
--There were like three kinds of beer
--Ruger only had a couple of firearms in production
--Life was pretty bleak for women and minorities
--THR didn't exist yet
--Widespread anti-CCW laws.
--Ninety one percent tax bracket
--Compulsory military service
--Every man had to look like Drew Carey
--Jet travel was for the uber wealthy
--Your neighborhood was your world
--There were like three kinds of beer
--Ruger only had a couple of firearms in production
--Life was pretty bleak for women and minorities
--THR didn't exist yet
Well, pre 1968...
My brother and I walked into the local "Rummage Barn" and bought our first single shot rifle together, for $14. (Remington) He was 16 (I think, cause he was driving...) and I was 14. I used to shoot a box a day (lived on a farm). .22 shells were (I don't really remember, about 45 cents) The neighbors asked me to come over and shoot their blackbirds and grackles...
oh, and our local YMCA had a .22 rifle course, coached by my bus driver...
My brother and I walked into the local "Rummage Barn" and bought our first single shot rifle together, for $14. (Remington) He was 16 (I think, cause he was driving...) and I was 14. I used to shoot a box a day (lived on a farm). .22 shells were (I don't really remember, about 45 cents) The neighbors asked me to come over and shoot their blackbirds and grackles...
oh, and our local YMCA had a .22 rifle course, coached by my bus driver...
Hey, you broke my warm happy feeling. Everything you listed is correct, but I didn't have arthritis, I could see iron sights and had much more hair. Rose colored glasses back on.
I remember picking up pop bottles along the road to trade in for a box of .22 shells.
towboat_er
Member
- Joined
- Jan 5, 2011
- Messages
- 889
- Status
Similar threads
- Locked