Cheesy gun-related things you secretly miss?

[BrentN]

Stretch Armstrong - that gelled corn syrup filled latex doll, from the late '70's made a great reactionary target

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Confirmation from that "put a thumb in it" guy.

 

[Member 52301]

Believe it or not, Trader Joe's used to sell ammo in their early, early years. That was back in Cali too. Boy that ship has since sailed. But cool shirts though now....

I have never been in one of those TJ stores.

Cool on the ammo sales way back when!

I have never been to CA.

I have read the name, Trader Joe, online and I thought that it was only a grocery store like Kroger or Winco.

We do LIKE the WINCO store that opened up in this college town very much. GOOD people, CLEAN store, good products and they are NICE. My husband compliments them in person and I do this on the telephone too. GREAT customer service!

There is NO Kroger store here in this college town like the one that I used to go to in farm/lake country - Great Lakes region. That was 30 to 60 miles ONE WAY depending on the store from my rural house. When I shopped there - I stocked up and tried to make it a TRIP for other things too. I did not go there often as in once a week or several times per week. When I worked in the city, I would do some of my shopping there after work too.

I used to support local village stores too. They did not have many of them 2.5 miles away from my rural home but they did have a FEW. They still have a meat store/meat locker and many LOCAL farmers sell to them. One long gone restaurant used to buy most of their meat including their famous PRIME RIB meat (Friday/Saturday.) from that butcher. The old meat locker people DIED but a young man in the area actually bought the business and it continues to THIS DAY!

Cate
PS: I remember gasoline prices in the 30 plus cents range too!

 

[CountryGent]

@Moderators If he starts talking in Valley Girl, who's got the Thorazine?

Thorazine, eh? Enough to stun a rhino? I didn't think so, but well played.

 

[edzz]

Pawn shops pre internet with owners that liked to turn their stock and army surplus stores before chinese crap.

 

[fstdraw]

OK, here's something I miss. Little boys wearing toy gun Western rigs! My folks bought me a double holster set (leather) that include two six-shooters you could load, thru the loading gate, metal dummy rounds. Each round had a spot for the green little caps you put on the case head, pull the trigger and boom! Had bullet loops and spare cartridges. My parents would let me wear it out to dinner in public, to the store and in the car. NOBODY EVER made a deal about it, it was totally acceptable during the Roy Rogers heyday. I can remember men would look at me and finger fast draw me, damn that was cool. To a five year old, that was good times.

Now days? Well you know.

 

[Diamondback]

Thorazine, eh? Enough to stun a rhino? I didn't think so, but well played.

Okay, MORO-709, standard tyrannosaur dose it is then... *looks up Muldoon, Robert in Rolodex*

 

[Yarome]

Cap guns of any type, but the metal "western style" cap guns complete with plastic holsters where the envy of all. Ran on paper rolls of caps and fed your spent cap strips up and out the hammer action. The corrosiveness of the caps fouled up your guns real quick if you didn't take care of them, but the rolls of caps where fun in and of themselves.

Remember "stripping" a line of them with your fingernail on the sidewalk? That was some GOOD fun! Or if you could afford it, slamming a rock or hammer down on a full roll would rock your world! Experimenting with alternate ways to set off your caps, like lighting them on fire like a fuse to see how many in the string would go off before the flames burn out... or... trying to shoot them with your daisy lever action... which always seemed to turn into BB gun tag. Hearing the phrase, "you're it!" still makes a shiver go down the back of my neck.

Getting a 5 box pack of cap rolls for Christmas was about the equivelent of hitting the lottery! Those you kept locked and hidden away in your "stash box".

What would be an intereting thread.. what age where YOU went you were given your first daisy? To be followed by, how old when you were allowed to take it out at will without any type of adult supervision?

My how things have changed.

 

[nammac]

Cap guns of any type, but the metal "western style" cap guns complete with plastic holsters where the envy of all. Ran on paper rolls of caps and fed your spent cap strips up and out the hammer action. The corrosiveness of the caps fouled up your guns real quick if you didn't take care of them, but the rolls of caps where fun in and of themselves.

Remember "stripping" a line of them with your fingernail on the sidewalk? That was some GOOD fun! Or if you could afford it, slamming a rock or hammer down on a full roll would rock your world! Experimenting with alternate ways to set off your caps, like lighting them on fire like a fuse to see how many in the string would go off before the flames burn out... or... trying to shoot them with your daisy lever action... which always seemed to turn into BB gun tag. Hearing the phrase, "you're it!" still makes a shiver go down the back of my neck.

Getting a 5 box pack of cap rolls for Christmas was about the equivelent of hitting the lottery! Those you kept locked and hidden away in your "stash box".

What would be an intereting thread.. what age where YOU went you were given your first daisy? To be followed by, how old when you were allowed to take it out at will without any type of adult supervision?

My how things have changed.

Loved those cap guns, the side of the cylinder pivoted up to allow the loading of the roll caps. Who knew they'd evoke such deep connections with our collective psyche….

You nailed it right down to the rock and hammer for igniting a full roll at.a time. Fond memories and countless hours of fun and adventure playing with them.

Remember heading to the dry goods store on the corner and plunking down my quarter for a days supply of roll caps.

Thanks for invoking such a deep memory, closing my eyes imagining those days, I can almost smell the smoke they'd make…

 

[Spitpatch]

I kinda miss the old Herter's catalogs.

View attachment 1180059

"Wasp-Waist Bullets!"

 

[oremike]

I miss those complaint department hand grenades with the take a number hanging off of the pin.

 

[papersoldier]

I might get some flak for this, but I secretly really like the aesthetics of the scout rifle concept, even though there's pretty good reason to consider that whole area of rifles pretty cheesy in our modern times filled with (much more useful) modern semi-automatic rifles.

 

[Mikej]

I missed all this stuff. I was afraid of loud noises when I was very young. I remember being taken to a 4th of July fireworks show, couldn't say how young I was. Five maybe? And being on the baseball field at Derks Field in SLC. I guess I really freaked out at the high-up BOOM-Flash things. I was taken from the field screaming "IT BROKE- IT BROKE". Or so I'm told. I had those cap guns. But probably didn't play with them until some years later. The little belt probably didn't fit any more. LOL. The folks probably kept me away from such noises for years.
We did the rock/five rolls at a time thing with the caps. OR, carefully thread a needle, thread attached, through the center of each little powder charge. Put the skewered roll such ways that you give the thread a pull and the friction would set the whole roll off. That is if it didn't go off while you were pushing the needle through. We also played around with salt peter. With a couple additives. Can you still buy that at the local pharmacy?
I missed out on a lot of stuff every one else did because dad wasn't into guns. Any more. He had old guns the he picked up when he got out of the service in '47. He did some smithing with his brother in a gun shop in SoCal for a period. But he never got me into guns. I only started in 2009 when he gave me his REAL old guns that hung on the mantle in the basement for many years. M66, M 86, old Mauser, Burgess shotgun, model 12 shotgun, and some others. So basically, I'm still at the adolescent stage, a stage of wonderment, compared to all you guys that were introduce to fire arms at an early age. I have really been enjoying it too.

 

[ajgunner]

Here are a few "not so long ago" advertisements for everyone to drool over. Wish a bank would run a similar program now.

 

[RVTECH]

Little boys wearing toy gun Western rigs!

I actually had one of these! I was surprised to find a vid of an ad for it so quickly!
I remember the plastic 'clips' on the bullets broke off fairly quickly however!

 

[Yarome]

I mean... come on. What young man wouln't be mezmorized....

I have to admit. I never knew about those. We didn't have TV so exposure was limited to what you found at your local general store. Heck... if you wanted to know anything about anything that wasn't a part of your every day life you had to visit the grandparents house, who, by default owned a set of encyclopedia's... or knew someone who did and would borrow the "H" or the "L" for you if you asked.

 

[fstdraw]

I had one of the Mattel rifles. Can you imagine the stink now days about a gun that could shoot small plastic bullets! Cool stuff. I'd watch Bonanza and shoot at the screen if the parental units weren't around.

 

[Mikej]

I actually had one of these! I was surprised to find a vid of an ad for it so quickly!
I remember the plastic 'clips' on the bullets broke off fairly quickly however!

That is so G-D cool.

I wonder how many of those kids that played with those ended up being criminals? Probably a fraction of the kids that grew up in single parent homes, that grew up to be criminals, yeah?

 

[Spitpatch]

For realism in toy guns, nothing beat the "Johnny Eagle" series: A rifle/handgun partnership centered on a theme:

"Commando": An M14 and a Model 11.

"Red River": A Winchester '73 (complete with red feather hanging from the barrel), and a Colt's Single Action Army.

"Magumba": A Winchester Model 70 Super Grade (with scope), and an Auto Mag.

Bolts and actions worked much like the real thing, came with dummy cartridges, and they were very near life-size.

Second only to Mattel's M16 that was life-size, and you wound it up with the charging bar, pulled the trigger, and a realistic recording of full-auto fire emanated from a speaker in the magazine. With it, "Machine Gun Nest" was a favorite game, where we'd charge the nest, get mowed down, and the shooter got to "judge" who did the most gory realistic death, awarding the actor with the gun for the next round.

 

[fstdraw]

I'd not thought about the Jonnie Eagle set in over 55 years. Always wanted that set. How could kids not want Western Themed guns? All the great TV shows had the best guns. Gunsmoke, Bonanza, Have Gun, Wanted Dead or Alive, all had the sweet guns. I loved looking thru the Sears and Roebuck catalogs.

 

[orygun]

I'd not thought about the Jonnie Eagle set in over 55 years. Always wanted that set. How could kids not want Western Themed guns? All the great TV shows had the best guns. Gunsmoke, Bonanza, Have Gun, Wanted Dead or Alive, all had the sweet guns. I loved looking thru the Sears and Roebuck catalogs.

The Christmas catalogs were the best!