Posted on 11/20/2016 2:58:23 PM PST by w1n1
It's a blast from the past, who doesn’t enjoy looking at vintage gun ads? It's funny to see how they marketed firearms back in the early to mid 20th century, not to mention the prices!
Here are 20 beautiful vintage gun ads from a bygone era. While some of these ads are from long ago, some are fairly recent. They speak to not only much cheaper pricing, but also to the changing cultural mores of the day. Here’s our time machine, sit down and enjoy.
Ok, this one is just weird and dangerous!
This one that promoted hunting tigers, which would raise a lot of hackles in social media today. See the rest here.
I think I saw one at the gun this weekend for almost $5000.
I like my Nylon 66!
I had a model 341 which must have been similar to the Remington model 34.
It was a tubular magazine bolt action repeater. That action was really complex looking. A whole lot of things were going on when you cycled the action.
Despite the complexity, it functioned smoothly and perfectly. Also really fine workmanship.
Remember this. Back in 1962, Thomas J Dodd and Emanuel Cellar proposed a ban on 5 shot bolt action army surplus rifles and handguns to “prevent crime”. The REAL reason was they wanted to protect Winchester, Remington and Savage from cheap competition. All they wanted was an excuse and the murder of John Kennedy gave them that excuse.
For the next five years we were hounded with calls to ban “evil army surplus rifles till they got their ban in 1968.
Soon was added the “evil” Foreign Saturday Night Special pistol!
Now get this! ARMY SURPLUS rifles were banned, but POLICE RIFLES which came from the same factory were still legal to import.
Meanwhile handguns were still the primary target. First they wanted to register ONLY handguns, then ALL Guns.
Then they wanted to ban and confiscate ONLY Saturday Night Specials.
Then ban and confiscate ALL handguns.
The promise was rifles were not to be banned!
SURPRISE, SURPRISE! Back around 1984 came the first calls for American produced semi-auto rifles!
They NEVER give up.
Middle-aged guys with manly jawlines clenching their pipes and looking pleased with whatever the hell happens to be going on, even if they are probably experiencing hypothermia in their impeccable "Fudd" outfits. Think Mitt Romney with a Dr. Grabow and a Winchester Model 12.
Kids either wistfully hoping for a new first gun or doing the "WOW!" thing having received one. Low-end arms for the young 'uns... who in another couple of years will be sneaking the old man's Anschutz 64 out to shoot with his friends because he is embarrassed by his "kid's" gun.
"Grandpa" yarning about the good old days... or amazed past dignity by some recent offering that makes everything else obsolete (until next season). He often resorts to "dadgummit"," "new-fangled" and the like.
No-nonsense, B&W ads taking up large blocks of space hawking surplus and/or closeout guns at ridiculously low prices ("Genuine Ruritanian bolt-action rifles as used by the feared special commando security units" - $10.00; collector grade - $12.00; bayonet - add $5.00; 500 rounds of surplus* ammunition - $9.95
Mr. niteowl77
*steel jacketed, berdan-primed and waiting to corrode as only Ruritanian wartime ammo can; retrieved from the dank, damp, crumbling building where it had been hastily stockpiled in the Summer of 1945… ads never pointed out these attractive features
That was my first rifle.
Yep, me too - I'll have to kill some time looking though the various catalogs at www.wishbookweb.com and see if I can find the year that those first turned up. Back then, Sears tended to slap its name on all the airguns and firearms that it sold. I've seen many Crosmans and a few Sheridans with Sears markings, but never a spring-piston rifle.
Rifle ping.
See post #40.
I can just barely remember what it was like to live in that country.
Back in the mid 1990s a guy came into a gun shop I hung aroud and tried to sell a Sears 30-06 rifle. The owner who I knew well was not interested. I asked him if it was OK if I bought it and he said OK so I paid $140 for an excellent commercial FN Mauser with a simple but nice walnut stock.
It was not marked J.C. Higgins or Ted Williams. It simply said “Sears”. I did not get to use it much as I sold it at a gun show a few weeks later. I more than doubled my money and the purchaser still got a good deal.
Yes, I recall seeing some of the ones marked “Sears” on display in a nearby store - probably mid to late ‘70s. I think the J.C. Higgins and Ted Williams marketing had been discontinued by that point. I briefly had a Sears marked Model 3T .22 semi-auto rifle, new in the box (’70s Winchester 190).
Dad bought a new Remington Logmaster chainsaw from a local dealer, and thanks to a company promotion couple weeks later a new Nylon 66 showed up in the mail. It’s hanging a couple feet above my head as I type. Mid-late 50’s or so. I turned 800 down for it just the other day.
Back in the day - when Liberals didn’t wet themselves over firearms.
Owning a Solothurn may lead to “Unintended Consequences”....
That is quite the exhibition.
I bought a comic book some time back with the Mattel add on the back inside cover. Had it framed and it hangs below my wall displayed mint 1967 AR-15 along with the original dealer letter announcing the price (pincled in) for 194.50 dated August 15, 1964 and the add slick for the first add that came with the letter. Oh, and the first edition Vietnam cartoon cleaning pamphlet. It’s my personal
mini AR museum.
Now I’m working on gathering stuff on my Sterling AR-180 mounted next to it. It’s taken me years to gather s/n data as apparently all the records have disappeared.If anyone by chance has any info please drop me an email.
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