The Good Old Days are Gone

Picher, you sound like those guys in the 70s who were willing to throw over the handgun crowd to protect their "legitimate" firearms. Even Jim Carmichael was making those types of noises, haven't read an outdoor life since.

I wonder what other firearms you are willing to throw under the bus. I shot my first deer with an AR-15 SP1...wait a minute, I shot my second deer with an AR, I shot my first deer with a Colt SAA.

My over agitated point is, we all have to show a united front and not go all linguini spine on each other. The poop for brains intellectually vacant pinheaded wowsers can't get our firearms unless we let them.
 
Back in elementary school we carried knives and no one had a single concern. When I was in high school we carried knives and had our hunting rifles and shotguns in our vehicles. No one cared.

Well you do that today and your in big trouble. My how things have changed.
 
In 1950 at age 16, I walked into a gun store in downtown Austin, Texas, and gave $35 for a Colt Woodsman.
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In the '50s, I could only dream of buying something that cost $35. Of course, I was a kid then but still, that was a big chunk out of a typical paycheck for the grownups back then.
 
It's insightful reading these posts, my 'good old days' was about four months ago when I could stroll in to Cabela's and grab a box of .224 75gr BTHP or a can of H4895 just because I was in the area. :D
 
I remember those days when I would just stop in a unkown gunshop because I was working in the area. I would just buy some reloading supplies, because I was there and wanted it, but didn't need it. Now I need it and every thing is off the shelves and they dont know when it will become available again.
 
Back in the 70's we used to take guns to school for show and tell. In the 80's every pick up had a rifle and shotgun in the back window. And some the cars had them in the back seat or in the passengers seat. Heck I always had a .22 revolver on the passenger seat for running my trap lines.

Those were the good old days for me.
 
I'm just reacting to what is happening with shortages. Until shortages are alleviated we need to keep as many of us shooting as possible. Maybe we need to make our shots count instead of the "spray and pray" waste.

Equipment technology has never been higher than in the past few years. Gun prices are higher than 40 years ago, but so are wages. I remember buying 20 rounds of 30-06 ammo in 1960 for $12.75. My father was earning $70 per week. In my spare-time job, I earned 50 cents an hour. I saved a long time to buy a Savage 110 for $120.

WalMart was selling the same ammo for $15 a year or so ago. Minimum wage is around $280 a week. That's 18% of wages compared with less than 5% for most people today. (Of course we didn't have cable TV, cellphones, and other ways to spend our money back then.)
 
I think we need to get away from the AR and other semi-auto toys/games and get more into accuracy games that don't use either overly expensive ammo or large quantities.
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I use my AR for target shooting from 50 to 300 yards. I load my own rounds and get satisfaction from working up to the most accurate round I can make. I only load 5 rounds in a magazine because I shoot 5 round groups, it may take me 10 minutes to fired those 5 rounds. The reason I enjoy the AR platform so much is that I have a torn rotor cuff that cannot be repaired, the recoil of an AR is very soft on my shoulder and I like the semi auto better than a bolt action because of limited mobility in my right arm. The AR is my choice and I am not about to give it up or get away from it.
Shoot whatever you enjoy, but leave my choice to me.
 
The good old days when primers were less then $10 per thousand, now they are over $35..............................but I can afford $35 primers now more then I could afford $10 primers back then.

Guns are more expensive now also.............but I didn't have any money when they were cheap.

Use to play cops and robbers and cowboy and Indians with cap guns during recess. If I was to hang around the playground now someone would call the cops on me.

I cut a lot of wood with an ax and bucksaw when I was a kid, now I use a chain saw and can cut a winters supply in one day.

Use to have to squeeze time to go shooting between work and raising a family. Now I walk out in the back yard and can shoot all day. Use to load up a couple rounds then wait for my day off to go try them, then back to the drawing board. Now I load a couple round, shoot them from the window I cut in my shop so I can shoot.

Just a couple steps from my reloader to my range.

I use to think I'd like to have lived 100 years ago, but if I lived 100 years ago, I'd be dead.

Good old days..........it's relative.
 
The only thing I miss from the "good old days" is the cheaper ammo and reloading supply prices, and that people were responsible for their actions. I like the present though for ammo and reloading supply choices as there are so many more to choose from, when you can find them. The shortages will pass in time, just like they did the last time and every time before.
 
Oh yeah, the "Good Old Days". I can tell you that the "Good Old Days" are greatly overrated, and they weren't that good to begin with. Sure, you could buy primers for $5 per 1,000, but back then I made $2.50/hr, so it took several hours' wages to buy those 1,000 primers. Nowadays I make $40/hr, so I can buy those $35/1000 primers with just slightly more than one hour's wages (after taxes, of course). My first rifle was a Winchester Model 94, bought it brand spanking new, and I paid $96 for it. Pretty cool, huh? Yeah, except minimum wage was $1.60, and it took 2 weeks of minimum wage work to earn the $106 it took to walk out the door with it (it actually took me several months to save up enough money to buy the rifle). Ammo was $3 a box (another 3 hours of work), and the gas it took to take a trip to the range was $.45/gallon. Comparatively, it is much cheaper today to shoot.

What has gotten worse is the political environment. Back in 1972, I took the Greyhound to go on my first hunting trip. Had all my gear, including the rifle. Nobody batted an eye. If I had bagged a deer, I imagine I would have had to figure out what to do with it, but planning was not my strong suit back then. Today, showing up at a bus stop with a rifle would prompt a call to SWAT. I would be considered some sort of extremist survivalist urban terrorist or the like, I suppose. Good part, I suppose, is that I would have my 15 minutes of fame and my friends would have thought I was cool (which they didn't, like most of us).

Nope, sorry, the good old days weren't that great. They were maybe a little better in that we had fewer obligations and responsibilities (or in my case because I was irresponsible). But like the OP, I sure miss them. Well, I mean I miss being irresponsible and going shooting all the time, I don't miss being broke. And I do miss being able to buy ammo and guns at a gas station while on the way to use the restroom. Mmmmmm, well, OK, not that much.
 
Picher said:
I'm just reacting to what is happening with shortages. Until shortages are alleviated we need to keep as many of us shooting as possible. Maybe we need to make our shots count instead of the "spray and pray" waste.
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Excuse you again!

Look 'b'udd, just because the antis have clearly brainwwashed you, does not mean that any type of high round count competition is 'spray and pray'. Nor is a high round count target or practice session.

please Please PLEASE! Stop being a clueless biased sellout.


It is 'supporters' like you that are the reasons why we are having this latest attack on the second amendment.
 
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I think we need to get away from the AR and other semi-auto toys/games
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Mine are for self defense... And trust me self defense isn't a "game"




Until shortages are alleviated we need to keep as many of us shooting as possible. Maybe we need to make our shots count instead of the "spray and pray" waste.
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Good thing AR-15's don't have the ability to "spray" bullets.
 
I think we need to get away from the AR and other semi-auto toys/games
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Sounds like some "anti gun" talk to me.

Kind of hard to shoot a Service Rifle Match without an AR now days.

Or an EIC (Leg Match) or the "President's Match", or even three gun.

I'm not really fond of those who condemn one sort of gun or shooting just because they don't fit his style of shooting.

I don't bow hunt, (couldn't hit the ground with a bow) but I certainly don't comdemn those who do use a bow.
 
Sheesh, I've been part of the culture for such a short time that my 'Good old days' where when my parents said I could finally have a rifle.

Dear lord, the $20 Mausers sounds like heaven.
 
I think the good old days were about 15? years ago. I spent hours every week at the range, banging away with 30 caliber ammo. I loaded that myself, and it was dang cheap.

Bulk powder was about $75 for a keg. Primers were $12 maybe? And high quality match bullets (Sierra 168's) were about 15 cent each.

Shot all afternoon (100-200 rounds) for about $20-30 bucks.
 
Back in the good old days gang bangers used homemade .22 zip guns instead of Glocks. Everybody wanted a model 70, not an AR. Or a Model 12, not some estupid Mossberg breacher. The world changed, and not for the better.
 
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