Winchester 1897 Black Diamond Trap

[Bill Murphy]

There is a video out there right now that shows a slingshot master. It is worth looking at. It is a You Tube video.

[Steve McCarty]

Messing around in some drawers in my gunroom. Found these. Might take you back. I don't know how long I've had these boxes of old .22's, maybe forever.

[Steve McCarty]

Where are you going to store your firecrackers? Why in your box of .22 shorts, of course. The logic of a 12 year old. Here is a picture of a few more old boxes of .22's. There is a box of longs in there.

[Steve McCarty]

Originally Posted by Dave Noreen

My this has wandered from the Winchester Model 1897!!

You got that right! I think it is mostly my fault, but sometimes this is like sitting around the campfire BSing. I am sorry for breakiing the rules. But I have had fun! I will try to be better in the future.

And Bill, thanks for the personal recollections about the Quick Kill program. It is an interesting concept. Plinky Topperwin was famous for shooting wooden blocks tossed into the air. I wonder if the Army had read about her and decided to adopt the program. Other guys did it as well, including Ad Topperwin. (sp?) I believe he broke most of 10,000 once.

[charlie cleveland]

steve i remember that what kids gave as christmas presents them big old firecrackers..or cherry bombs...if i recall right if you could not afford a box of them fire crackers they were 2 for a nickle...now adays a man would go to jail for saleing these things... boy i sure did like lighting them things.... ps nice old 22 boxes.... i wish i had stuck some them firecrackers in something... charlie

[Steve McCarty]

Originally Posted by charlie cleveland

steve i remember that what kids gave as christmas presents them big old firecrackers..or cherry bombs...if i recall right if you could not afford a box of them fire crackers they were 2 for a nickle...now adays a man would go to jail for saleing these things... boy i sure did like lighting them things.... ps nice old 22 boxes.... i wish i had stuck some them firecrackers in something... charlie

Charlie, I was nearly expelled from college for putting a cherry bomb in the men's room of the men's dorm with a cigarette stuck on the fuse. I placed it on top of the wall between the toilets and walked out. When that thing went off it must have deafened the guys in there! I recall sitting in my dorm room down the hall waiting for the explosion. Somehow my participation in the event got to the dean and I was in hot water. Luckily my grades were okay, or I would have been an enlisted Marine and probably not writing this.

I had a pal in the service who was raised in Cassville, MO. He said he'd buy a gross of cherry bombs each 4th of July. When they got to .25 each he couldn't afford them. He discovered he could buy dynamite for 19 cents a stick. Now in those days, prior to 1968, you could go down to the local hardware store and buy a case of dynamite. It came with fuse and blasting caps. No license or age requirement. If you wanted dynamite you just bought it. Farmers blew stumps with it.

This guy would cut the sticks into quarters and use the bits like cherry bombs. He fished with them, dropping a piece into a stream, which killed the alligator gar and carp. This fellow had lots of stories of what he did with his dynamite. You can't have fun like that anymore. Too bad. It all stopped when idiots began blowing up draft offices.

[MarketHunter]

Funny to get on line and read the replies to this thread for today. Just this morning I was sorting out a big leather bag full of loose cartridges I got out of an estate. The best ones in there were 17 rounds of 40-82, some other interesting stuff.

I also moved all my various .22 .32 S&W and .38 S&W ammo into a separate drawer so I could make room for some other stuff I thought worked better in that spot. Yeah, when I kick off the estate sale people are going have a field day.....


Destry

[Grantham Forester]

Reminds me of my Granddad's farm near Mt. Vernon- we could buy DuPont graded dynamite at the local hardware, kept downstairs in big wooden boxes and the red sticks were packed in sawdust and the cover kept on the box-- We'd use waterproofed fuse and strap a stick to a cinder block, light it and drop it from the boat into the farm pond- and "haul bass" away- we had a 14 foot wooden lapped design fishing boat with a Mercury 5 hp. outboard- we'd get away from the center of the pond- a "depth charge" like in the WW2 movies about submarines- and then the stunned catfish would start emerging- nowadays, the PETA and SPCA would be all over that like ugly on a ape!

[Steve McCarty]

Originally Posted by Grantham Forester

Reminds me of my Granddad's farm near Mt. Vernon- we could buy DuPont graded dynamite at the local hardware, kept downstairs in big wooden boxes and the red sticks were packed in sawdust and the cover kept on the box-- We'd use waterproofed fuse and strap a stick to a cinder block, light it and drop it from the boat into the farm pond- and "haul bass" away- we had a 14 foot wooden lapped design fishing boat with a Mercury 5 hp. outboard- we'd get away from the center of the pond- a "depth charge" like in the WW2 movies about submarines- and then the stunned catfish would start emerging- nowadays, the PETA and SPCA would be all over that like ugly on a ape!

That sounds like it was fun!

Yep, today you'd be thrown in prison for life.

Dupont black powder used to be so cheap that we'd buy a pound of it, punch a hole in the cap, knot a length of fuse and pass it through the hole, and replace the cap. We'd lite it and run off a bit. It didn't go BLAM but sort of WHOOOSH. We had an old M4 tank in the park. We'd place a can of BP on the seat in the turret and run of to watch the puff of white smoke that boiled out after the muffled explosion.

Then I joined the Marine Corps and got to blow up other stuff!