Going Back?

P-990

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I was looking over my inventory of shooting-related stuff the other day and had a hilarious idea: remember the days when a .22 rifle, a shotgun and maybe a 9mm pistol, combined with a couple hundred rounds, was a lot? :eek:

Please tell me I'm not the only one who has had this thought before! And found it amusingly quaint.

(And for the record, yes, I am aware of how spoiled I/we are by our affluence and ability to acquire things.)
 
Not really. I grew up in a rural area and it was more of a "Family gun" thing. The family just had a lot of guns from generations before and just kept adding.
 
remember the days when a .22 rifle, a shotgun and maybe a 9mm pistol, combined with a couple hundred rounds, was a lot?
It's still that way for many people.
Those who frequent gun forums are not the "norm"
 
I don't have many firearms

But the hardest thing for me to do is stockpile ammo. I always bought what I shot, plus a box or two for hunting.
 
remember the days when a .22 rifle, a shotgun and maybe a 9mm pistol, combined with a couple hundred rounds, was a lot?

That would be anytime within the last couple decades when a news reporter talks about guns.

They would (and do) call it an "arsenal".

100 rounds is a massive stockpile of ammo, to them.

I remember my own version of those days, although it was much more likely to be a .38/.357 than a 9mm pistol.
 
Honestly cannot remember a time like that. By the time I was old enough to notice, say around 5 years old, my dad was a competitor in bulls-eye pistol competition and hunter. So there were more firearms and variety than that list. By the time I graduated High School more were added from inheritance and purchases, most of which I now have. Plus some that caught my eye...
 
Three guns?
Who needs three guns?
During my formative years, we had two in the house, a .22 rifle and a .32 revolver.
Not counting the Daisy Red Ryder, of course.
Back then, before the infamous 1968 laws, there wasn't much reason for most folks to stockpile.
With no more fanfare than acquiring a hand tool, one could just go buy them at Sears, the local hardware store, the corner gas station, and sometimes, even the grocery.
Often on the way to the range or hunting grounds. :)
The good ole' days.
On the other hand, back then, if ya' got strep throat, more than likely ya' died.:(
 
Three-gun people were the poor folks around where I grew up.

I don't know how much more affluent we are today compared to our parents. Debt is a much larger factor in our lives than it was in 1965, when a mortgage and car payment (for two years), was about all the debt we saw.
 
In my opinion, I have no evidence to support this opinion:

Gun control has put more guns in the publics hands than it would have otherwise
 
I grew up in a 3 gun household, with the 4th & 5th not being bought until I, and then my brother, turned 12, or old enough to hunt. That was more than 50 years ago, and our family was anything but poor.
 
Grew up on a farm, not poor or rich. There was the deer rifle,
the shotgun, the 22 rifle and the pistol (a high standard 22). One partial
box of rifle ammo, maybe 2 boxes of 12 ga., probably the remains of a
brick of 22. All of them working tools, all of them loaded at all times.
Well cared for as a tool should be--but not pampered.

I've still got all of them, although they are now pretty much "lost
in the crowd". Heck--with the wife and I both shooting USPSA competitions,
we probably go through more ammo in a summer than my previous
3 generations did in their lifetimes combined.
 
remember the days when a .22 rifle, a shotgun and maybe a 9mm pistol, combined with a couple hundred rounds, was a lot?
No.

Since we're "going back", lets go back to the 70's, 80's, and 90's, when ammo was cheap, and we could afford to buy and feed our squirt guns and belt feds. :)
 
In my opinion, I have no evidence to support this opinion:

Gun control has put more guns in the publics hands than it would have otherwise
There's plenty of evidence to show that anti-gun laws and officials being elected generate more sales and drive up prices
 
Yes. I remember when I hardly kept any ammo around. My stockpile of ammo consisted of:

2 20 round boxes of 22-250
2 50 round boxes of 38 special
less than 200 rounds of .22lr

And, I thought that was a lot! I would just pick up a box of ammo or two whenever I went shooting. I would reload for the 22-250, but a total of 40 rounds was more than enough.
 
Not me! When I started handloading in the 70's, I enjoyed it so much, I WAY over loaded, WAY over bought components, etc. Still have bullets & powder (stored correctly). Only issue I had is I somehow have misplaced a 3/4 full keg of Red Dot (or someone walked out of my shop with it!).
 
When I was a little kid we had only a bolt action single shot 22 with the bolt lost. Not much shooting going on there.
When I was five my dad bought my older brother a bolt action 22 with a tube magazine. Probably the rifle I was most fond of ever because when my brother left home he left the gun there and I used it until I left. My dad wasn't a shooter. it was us boys that did the hunting. By the time I (the youngest child) left we had amassed two 22s, a single shot 12 gauge, and a 30-30. A big stockpile of ammo was one box of 30-30, two boxes of 12 gauge, and a 500 round brick of 22. We didn't keep that much. It might drop to 2 rounds for the 12 or 30-30 and a half dozen for the 22. There was never any fear of not being able to get more. Just had to wait until the next time one of us went to town. I could buy ammo when I was 12 or 13. Age wasn't a problem in buying ammo where I grew up. One thing I remember was that a fifty round box of 22 ammo could last me a month maybe. I went "hunting" three or four times a week sometimes but it was mostly an excuse to get out of the house and roam around our pastures and the neighbors' pastures. I had free range at least three miles in any direction back then. BTW, we lived twelve miles from the nearest thing that could even remotely called a town. I thought I hated living so far out back then but I sure miss it sometimes now.
 
Growing up, my Dad had a 22 rifle, then we got a 22 revolver, then a 357 when I was 16, and now I have a small collection :)
 
The world has changed a mite, too.
Back when buying guns was easy, money was not.
Before taking on debt became normal, everything had to be saved up for.
The first gun I bought for myself was merely $35, but it took many months and sacrifices to be able to buy it.
Being able to flash a credit card and leave with your new joy makes a huge difference.
 
Growing up my grandfather (I was raised by my mother and grandparents) had two .22 rifles. He kept 1 or 2 fifty round boxes of ammo around and that was it. He didn't hunt and only used the rifles for pest control. He did always have a switchblade in his pocket and a reputation for being handy with it.
 
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