Neat little article on old gallery targets

[rkt88edmo]

Shooting Gallery targets as Americana Art.

http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/fun-with-guns-the-art-of-the-arcade-target/

We need more ranges with reactive targets for .22s.

[Chaos47]

Very cool, thanks for sharing!

[sofbak]

Wow, I just time-traveled back to the 60's and the state fair of Texas. Neat!

Some of those sure look good, but pricey too. Found a couple of examples on the interweb:

http://www.rubylane.com/item/574500-3289/Antique-Soldier-Cast-Carnival-Shooting-Targets?gclid=Cj0KEQiA7tCjBRDulMny5rfM0dkBEiQA7fcshSauF8QHDx368FLOmgd-VmKQB8FntfTGiottTu2AZK8aAlwU8P8HAQ

[bsg]

thanks for sharing. it's wonderful stuff and part of our history. i have a number of folk art pieces in my home; you never know when and where you might find some genuine treasure.

[GMG]

Thanks for sharing OP, brings back memories. My dad in the late 40's early 50's used to take me to the Santa Monica Pier, they had a shooting gallery. I constantly bugged my dad to take me back. Great memories for sure!

[softmentor]

fun to remember back to when I was a kid in the 60's and we would go to Disney Land in CA. Yep, that's right, Disney Land in "Frontier land". Of course I always wore my cowboy hat! That shooting gallery was air pellet gun but just as much fun as a .22. Cost a B ticket. No one else wanted their B tickets so I would wind up with lots and shoot for what seemed like an hour maybe. I remember the ducks, fish, owls (not that I would really want to shoot an owl), squirrels, coyotes, stars, moons, row after row and I would plink off each row and start on the next. Some were big and easy, but I liked the more challenging small ones. Some were moving too. I was pretty good too and seldom missed a shot.
I remember the one at POP too, Pacific Ocean Park. (now the Santa Monica Pier)

[langss]

I was just talking to my wife about Shooting Gallery's and the ammunition this morning. How ironic.

[200Apples]

...fun to remember back to when I was a kid in the 60's and we would go to Disney Land in CA. Yep, that's right, Disney Land in "Frontier land". Of course I always wore my cowboy hat!

Contrary to my post-writing style, I too am old enough to remember the shooting gallery in Fronterland, however my experience was just a few years ealier than yours as I recall the .22 shorts and the scent of .22 powder... I remember being almost too small to handle the little rifle! This was likely '60 or '61...


OP, thanks for the link to the terrific story! Love cast iron! and these old gallery targets are indeed special.

:-)

[justin4fun]

Thanks I enjoyed that. Wish someone would start up the old gallery's again. Bet insurance would eat up all the profit.

[VictorFranko]

Trip down memory lane.
Before I opened the link, I was thinking "seems to me that the rifles shot .22 shorts, not longs" and the link confirmed that.

[Vee3]

I have a kinda cool one around here somewhere. "The man in the moon," I guess, lol...



Also have one of the rifles widely used in the old shooting galleries, a Rem Mod 24 in 22 short...

[sonofeugene]

Cool! 'Reminds me of the gallery at the Santa Cruz Beach and Boardwalk. Fun!

[Cato]

Thanks I enjoyed that. Wish someone would start up the old gallery's again. Bet insurance would eat up all the profit.

I bet someone could make a fortune on that. Lots of guys would pay say $40 per person to shoot those cool moving metal targets. Indoor ranges would be packed if they had one of those set ups.

[Vlad 11]

Really cool article.

I remember going to Disneyland Frontier Land and shooting at the gallery and my dad teaching me how to aim and lead the targets. I wanted to hit it up every time we passed by the gallery. A bygone era

Somewhere in the 80's it switched to lame electric beam shooting



PacificOceanPark was before my time unfortunately, but my brother would tell me stories.

The park and shooting gallery appear in some of the tv shows of the time



'Work the gun not the jaw'

Twilight Zone - In Praise of Pip





'A warped barrel is a fools frustration'

Get Smart - Wax Max