The Good Old Days are Gone

[Picher]

About a year ago, I wrote a blog, stating that we were in some of the best of times regarding guns and shooting. There were wonderful new guns, great ammo, plentiful supplies and after-market parts. Laws were the least restrictive in decades.

How quickly things can change. Laws are soon to be at least somewhat more restrictive. Ammo has suddenly become scarce and prices are going through the roof!!!

Will our sport soon become, once again, the utopia we had come to expect? Not likely.

[hooligan1]

Well Picher want to be more optimistic and try to believe that when the pain from all the terror goes away out of the limelight maybe it will be fun again, and stock be plentiful once more.

[the rifleer]

There are a few online stores that are starting to get ammo back in stock at relatively decent prices... I think there is hope.

[Double Naught Spy]

The Good Old Days are Gone

The beauty of nostalgia is that things in the past always seem so much better than today. I would argue that your blog of a year ago was already AFTER things had gotten bad. My good old days preceded yours by several years and I am sure somebody else's preceded mine.

Of course, progress does not come without change. For the good old days to remain good today, there has to be change. Otherwise, everything gets really boring, drab, and seemingly pointless. Of course, change can be good or bad.

If you are living in the past, then you aren't looking to the future and you aren't doing enough to take advantage of the present. If you don't like how things are, then now is the time to be innovative to make now interesting enough to compete with then. Otherwise, in a few more years, you are going to have missed what was great about now because now will be good old days at some point in the future.

[Water-Man]

Everyone has their own opinion of what constitutes the good old days.

To me, you'd have to go back to the 50's.

One way or another, even today is better than what's to come. I'm not optomistic.

[Fire_Moose]

Originally Posted by Water-Man

Everyone has their own opinion of what constitutes the good old days.

To me, you'd have to go back to the 50's.

One way or another, even today is better than what's to come. I'm not optomistic.

Out of curiosity, what's the variety spread between the 50s and now?

[PetahW]

Originally Posted by Fire_Moose

Out of curiosity, what's the variety spread between the 50s and now?

IMO, the variety's "up", but the quality's "down".




.

[B.L.E.]

IMO, the variety's "up", but the quality's "down".

Particularly with .22 rimfire ammo. A .22 failing to fire was practically unheard of in the '50s and '60s.
On the other hand, .22 ammo was less affordable, few people bought it by the brick.
There's high quality rimfire ammo still availabe, but you have to pay for it. I buy Wolf MT at about $50/brick because it's like the good old days .22 ammo at a price that good old days ammo would cost if you factored inflation.

I miss paper shotshells, there's nothing like the unique smell of a paper shotshell being ejected from a break open shotgun.

[sunaj]

Well the ammo shortage is being driven by government/LE sales

[B.L.E.]

The ammo shortage is being driven by consumer panic. The government/LE did not buy up all the .22 rimfire ammo, the muzzleloading percussion caps, the buckshot for reloading shotshells, the smokeless powder and primers for reloading etc.

[sunaj]

Well I suppose that is also true, esp. re: 22s and black powder, although i am not sure i would call it a panic, which suggests a run without good cause,
I think the action of this government and the masters who pull the strings gives good reason for citizens to stock up,
however it is also true that the bulk of ammo for modern rifles/pistols is being bought up (and ist priority) to Gov/LE
sunaj

[UtopiaTexasG19]

"I think we need to get away from the AR and other semi-auto toys/games..."

I shoot my AR's for long distance and accuracy and many times shoot no more than 15-20 rounds per hour. Does that still qualify my AR's as wasteful, toys and a game?

[Art Eatman]

In 1950 at age 16, I walked into a gun store in downtown Austin, Texas, and gave $35 for a Colt Woodsman.

In 1952 at age 18, I carried my 1917 Enfield down to that shop for some work, on a city bus. The driver casually asked that I remove the bolt. A little old lady across the aisle began a conversation about guns'n'hunting.

As a student at UT-Austin in the fall of 1951, I had my .22 and the Enfield in the dorm room. My best buddy had his Garand in his room. Not secretive about it, either.

[Revoliver]

Originally Posted by Picher

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.

Excuse you!

Look here 'b'udd, just because your view of a particular type of firearm is clearly scewed negatively, does not in any way mean that there is anything inherently 'wrong' with it or that it is inherently 'less worthy' of protection, use and dissemination to the people under the 2nd amendment.

[4V50 Gary]

Back in college when I was laid off because of Proposition 13, I got my last check (barely over $100) and stopped by Markell's (a gunshop on Judah in San Francisco). They had a M-1 Carbine (Saginaw) for $105. They normally went for $200 if you found a GI surplus one. I said, "You don't see them for that price anymore." The salesman said, "That's right. We won't see this one here for long." I signed my check over to them right then and there.

In 1980, after class my friends and I would take a HK-91 ($385 to $425) to the 100 yard range and smack the gong with every shot. Ammo was $2.00 for twenty rounds (brown box, PMC from Korea). .38 special reloads was $5 for a bag of 50. You got $1 back if you brought back the shells.

I bought used Pythons for $325 back in 1984. Years in 1990 I bought a worn reblued Python for $399. I also picked up a 4" 22 LR Diamondback for $200 in 1992. Try finding any of those critters today.

Back in the '70s, Lyman (Lyman 48) and Redfield both offered steel construction rear aperture sights. I should have bought a ton of used ones as no one wanted them anymore. Excuse me while I beat my head with a stick.

Yep, the old days are gone.

[jimbob86]

"The Good Old Days" are skewed by nostalgia .....

...every time is fraught with it's own problems ...... the near future is certainly going to be "interesting", in the old Chinese blessing/curse sense of the word.

[Water-Man]

"The Good Old Days" are skewed by nostalgia


Yea, for those with a bad memory.

[Art Eatman]

"The Good Old Days" are skewed by nostalgia ....."

Ehhh...I'd say more by useless do-gooder laws. There is a difference between hard numbers and actual events, as opposed to fond memories through a haze.

[RetiredMajor]

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.

Who's WE? Shoot what you want and leave me alone. I'll extend you the same courtesy. With Firearm supporters like you....who needs the anti's?

[2ndsojourn]

Growing up in the good old days, '60's & 70's, in somewhat rural Pennsylvania, there was a shotgun and .22 rifle next to the back door in the laundry room and a handgun on the shelf. I had a rifle rack in my bedroom with my shotgun and my rifle (my grandfather gave me his Savage 1899 30-30) on it. My dad kept a couple more rifles and shotguns in a glass front cabinet. Folks drove around with rifle racks in their pickup truck window, usually holding a rifle and fishing rod.

Back in the good old days you could order a gun mail order and it was mailed to your house. If no one was home the mailman just left it at your door. My brothers still have a couple rifles in the original mailing boxes.

Back in the good old days you could buy milsurp rifles for $20 to $50. I still have the $20 Mauser.

Back in the good old days you could shoot off your back porch....I gotta get outta here.

[salvadore]

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.

[BIGR]

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.

[B.L.E.]

In 1950 at age 16, I walked into a gun store in downtown Austin, Texas, and gave $35 for a Colt Woodsman.

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.

[Hawg]

Back in the good old days you could buy milsurp rifles for $20 to $50.

2ndsojourn, I used to buy mauser's and arisaka's out of 55 gallon drums for 15.00 at Gibson's.

[Achilles11B]

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.