Ahhhh BEFORE Bu-bye's good'ol days!!!!!

[FormerLaCrescentan]

The year was 1981, I was a highschool sophmore in California. My friends and I were loyal readers of the Shotgun News (SGN) and Soldier of Fortune (SOF). SGN was chock full of ads from the likes of Al Wadel's Scionics do-it-yourself suppressor kits, soda bottle screw-on silencers, drop in auto-sears, 22LR threaded bretta barrels on one page/silencer replacement parts on the other, AR's, AK's, and a plethora of other unmentionables. SOF had ads for REAL mercenaries, and brass knuckles. The Pomona gun show was unneutered. B&B sales was rockin' in North Hollywood (were you there back in the day? Was that not the shizzle?). We'd hit Angeles Crest for a family fun day of shooting. Those were free times, UZI's, AR's, and AK's stacked high on the dealer shelves. NOW THOSE WERE THE GOOD OL' DAYS!!!!!!! I moved out 15 years or so ago, but I still have fond memories. Hope you guys gain keep gaining ground.

[Ryan HBC]

Thanks, now i'm depressed.

[Stanze]

Thanks, now i'm depressed.

No waiting period also(on long guns).

ETA: Thanks for the correction EBWhite!

[MrTuffPaws]

Hmmm, in '81 I was in 3rd grade, but still, I remember the good old days.

Anyone remember gun racks in the back windows of pickups? With actual rifles in them? Loaded? I do.

Anyone remember toy guns that actually looked like guns? No orange barrel. No cartoonish looks. 1911 cap guns that had the action move when you pulled the trigger. I would give me left arm for all of the toy guns that I had as a kid.

[Blacktail 8541]

This is the Chritmas season, don't be so DEPRESSING!

[EBWhite]

there was a waiting period in 1981, only for handguns, 15 days.

[Stanze]

Anyone remember toy guns that actually looked like guns? No orange barrel. No cartoonish looks. 1911 cap guns that had the action move when you pulled the trigger. I would give me left arm for all of the toy guns that I had as a kid.

Meh. We had lame cap gun/water gun fights, the toys looked better than the day-glow crap nowadays, but kids today have Airsoft(Readily available), that's one cool thing they have and we didn't when we were kids. I would of been a super happy camper to have some high grade airsoft guns when I was a kid!

[CALI-gula]

I would also like to add, that the gun store was where you went to get "collectible" or special stuff. You went to the guy that dealt guns out of his basement to get an AR, AK, or H&K, Galil, or the "new" VP70, etc.

But for most all other times, we shopped for guns and ammunition at Sears, K-Mart, True-Value Hardware (or other hardware store), or the local sporting goods store that also sold "non-gym-floor-marking" soled shoes for your kids. Usually the local General Store on the corner sold the latest Colt 1911 or Cobra Detective Special, as well as drywall screws. And that wasn't rural podunk or trailer-town - this was usually the "downtown".

I remember getting the huge Sears Christmas catalog at 8 years old and flipping through the gun section just as eager I flipped through the toy section!!

.

[bwiese]

Ah, the mid-80s.

No AW ban, no 'safe gun' list. Smoke grenades sold at shows. Lower crime rate.

I fondly remember Arms & Ammo in San Bruno, and Victor Halbrook's H&H Enterprises in Redwood City.

Sure, sometimes pricing was screwy, but it was almost difficult to NOT find an AW there on the shelf - ARs, AKs, HKs, Valmets on above-eye-level racks.

Every once in awhile H&H would be robbed by low IQ folks. Robbing a gun store is pretty stupid, and robbing a gun store just down the street from the police station is even stupider.

I remember the mid-80s cash & carry (just a 4473) Norinco AK days. (Piece o' crap, but fun.)

[JPglee1]

Anyone remember gun racks in the back windows of pickups? With actual rifles in them? Loaded? I do.

Anyone remember toy guns that actually looked like guns? No orange barrel. No cartoonish looks. 1911 cap guns that had the action move when you pulled the trigger. I would give me left arm for all of the toy guns that I had as a kid.

I still see gun racks and rifles from time to time, amazingly enough.

I know at least 5 people that daily-carry a rifle in their vehicle.



I used to have really cool water pistol machine guns... I think Laramie made them, looked like UZI pistols, came with a spare magazine so you could reload when you were out of water.


I remember in 4th grade I took a pellet rifle to school for show N tell, and I'm only 26...that would never fly today.



JP

[bu-bye]

Gosh, in 81 there was no "good'ol day" for bu-bye as I was born that year. I do remember all the cool toy guns and I even remember a kid bringing his pellet gun to school for show and tell. He had to leave it with the teacher all day but he walked right it without a problem. i remember going over to a neighbors house across the street and the guy had a full pegboard wall of guns. I had no idea what they were but I knew they were the good stuff. Remembering back he had AR's, AKs, uzi's, HK's, MAC-10's. Turns out the guy was a crack head and a major drug dealer. We must have seen 3-4 full-on busts/raids at that guys house. We lived in a nice Mid-class area but a drug dealer with enough money can move in just about anywhere he or she wants. Come to think of it, couple years after he was busted another crack head dealer move in right next door to us . I felt really bad for his family because he was crazy and would beat his wife and kids. Very sad.

My parents never liked guns. When i would get one for Christmas or my birthday from a family member or friend they would hide it before I could remember that I had it. then one day when I was 8 I found a Big trash bag full of toy guns in my parents closet. There must have been 15-20 toy guns that shot water, darts, ping pong balls, and even cap guns. I still remember my heart stopping the second i opened the bag. At 8 I figured out how to turn a simple cap gun into a real gun that shot BB's. I also converted a dart gun to shoot nails fast enough that they could stick in a 2X4. Those stock springs were too weak .

[VeryCoolCat]

Yeah I remember the 80s.... in the womb... and the cradle....

You people are old .... I remember this one guy on the forum telling us the story about when they were building the 405 past LAX and that entire area was dirt and he'd go and ride their bikes on the freeway.

Hell, bwiese even wrote a book about the commodore 64....... you're all old enough to be my parents

Enough of that... I was born in the UK so I wouldn't of had any weapons anyways.

[JPglee1]

Enough of that... I was born in the UK so I wouldn't of had any weapons anyways.

Yah you would have, you limey bastage


The UK gun ban didn't go into effect until the late 90s right???

Shoot I dunno...


JP


p.S. I was joking above... I was kidding about you being a bastage...Limey

[donger]

Yeah I remember the 80s.... in the womb... and the cradle....

You people are old .... I remember this one guy on the forum telling us the story about when they were building the 405 past LAX and that entire area was dirt and he'd go and ride their bikes on the freeway.

Hell, bwiese even wrote a book about the commodore 64....... you're all old enough to be my parents

Enough of that... I was born in the UK so I wouldn't of had any weapons anyways.

You little whimper snapper.

I owned a Commodore 64. Loved it. I bet I would be the reigning M.U.L.E. and Archon, Calguns champion.

[phish]

Cap guns...

Somebody please tell me what series this was: early 80s, the caps were on plastic strings that you could link up for belt fed happiness, the pistols cut and ejected said caps and were even fed with magazines.

Those were hands down, the best cap guns ever made. I had the Luger and some kind of carbine.