My brother and I received Red Riders for Christmas from our Grandparents. I was 7 and George was 9. Best memorable gift I ever received. We walked home every day from school and from about Thanksgiving to The day before Christmas we stopped by to feel and shake two identical wrapped presents.
We were convinced we could hear BB's rattling when we would shake the presents. We would go from elation to depression wondering if BB guns were really in the boxes. We counted the days until Christmas arrived, worried that we might have to go another 365 days without a BB gun to roam the desert with.
Two boys were never happier then the moment that the wrapping paper came off, and the Daisy box was reviled. Every spare moment from that day on was split between hunting mainly English sparrows and trying to hunt for returnable soda bottles to fund our new passion.
The name brand bottles brought 5 cents. We always tried to get enough to buy what we called "The 30 cent pack." Daisy's yellow tube with a black cap. Held 350 bb's. We would dole out the bb's using the black cap as a way to equally split the ammo. On bad days we might only find a couple of bottles, in which case the little store we went to had a "10 cents pack" only about 100 bb's. I cannt recall if the name brand was Winchester or Federal but it came in a small red card board tube and the end was crimped like a shotgun shell.
Our independence and the love of the hunting and can be traced directly back to those Daisy's.

Growing up in New Jersey in the 1940's you could't own a BB gun so I had a class mate buy a Red Rider for me when he vised family in Pennsylvania,mom did't like guns.In 1951 I was able to get my first cartridge rifle a Sears J.C.Higgins single shot 22 cal. for Christmas. J.J.

Wow, I never thought that anti gun movement was strong in the WWII era?

I grew up in western Pennsylvania post WWII and lots the kids had BB guns, 22's and some had shotguns. I would get a very red ass if I even pointed a cap gun at anyone and was taught gun safety from the time I can barely remember now. I killed my first rabbit while hunting with my father when I was 9 (one shotgun that he would carry if we saw anyone around). I could take my 22 out to hunt alone when I was 14, can you imagine that?

For me, anti gun kicked in during the late 1960's, but even then I could walk in and but ammo and guns in stores like Sears or Western Auto. They even sold surplus military rifles, for just a few dollars, through magazine ads and mailed to the house. When they tried to get rid of "Saturday night special's" was when I noticed things changing.

Robin

it was still that way in NY's southern tier/western NY then as well- I could go to Western Auto and get my own BB's or .22s - My Mom used to tell my kids about how my friends and i would be gone for a couple days

I have the two .22's my Dad and his brother each bought when they were kids, they made a half faced camp back in the hills and would stay there and eat what they shot

all before the cities in the state decided they had to tell us rural folks how to live for our own good

after president john kenndy was killed is when all the mail order guns were done away with..i too as a boy could buy a gun and ammo you could even by dynamite as a kid...when i was 10 i traded a older gent my daddys pocket watch that had chimes in it for a top break 38 smith and wesson ...2 nd time i shot this gun one half of of the breach area broke off the old gent had brazed and put shoe polish on it to hide the brazing...i shot it sum with a rubber band to hold it together..i finally sold the trigger spring out of it for 50 cents and the gun was lost in history...charlie

Great story Charlie!

The Kennedy assignations (JFK '63 and Bobby in '68) caused the gun control act of 1968

Before that you could buy most anything out of the back of a magazine

I remember one dealer that sold Thompsons that were "deactivated" by the barrel being permanently plugged then just below that he ran an ad for Thompson barrels NOS

I always wondered how good those bicycle handle bar mounted BB machine guns advertised in Boys Life worked

and Charlie. Speaking of dynamite - every year in school we had a presentation - not for "stranger danger" but to show us the newest style basting cap and to tell us if we found one on the ground -not to touch it and to tell an adult :)


Not sure my wife believed me until this past weekend -antiquing in the southern tier I saw one of those safety displays in an antique shop we were in. Should have bought it

Here you go!
 

Here you go!

http://www.gunsinternational.com/gun...n_id=100828864

xxx

Art Isaacson is a very fine gunsmith, one of the best when it comes to Brownings, and a gentlemen's gentleman.
You would do well not to besmirch his good name.
You obviously know nothing of the man or his excellent work.:knowbetter: