Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game As a youth, where do you remember

Going with your Dad, Uncle, Grandparents, mentor or just by yourself to buy your ammo and guns?

I recall going to Coast to Coast, Gambles, Farm Fleet, the Holiday gas station and at the end of the year Scheels for their "red tag" days. We also got some ammo from Sears of all places somehow...?

Just a stroll down memory lane, wish I could do that with Dad again!

Make it your best day!

Dober

Myself...no else in the family hunted or shot...

I remember gun shows with dad and Western Auto where I rode my bicycle to get ammo for my 22 and shotgun (and to also drool over their modest firearm selection). They never batted an eye at selling a 13 year old ammo.

Good times.

My first pay check after I Graduated High School, I ordered a Winchester 30-30 from Sears and Roebuck. The mail carrier just tied it to the mail box when it came. miles

they had a shop in AL called "The Army Barn" I remember well. Other than the occasional stop at K-Mart in the nearest town, it was always local shops, hardware stores (Ace), et al.

The local joint was Otasco. They even carried handguns. We had to go out of town to buy powder or bullets, but my uncle had an FFL for firearms we couldn't find locally.

"DiMezza's", a local family owned hunting & fishing shop. Got my first .22, shotgun and rifle from there, and the rifle (a 700 BDL) still remains my favorite hunting rifle as it was a gift from my father. Great times grabbing every rifle and shotgun in the place when I was very young, whilst Dad jawed with the owner.

The shop was two skips and a jump from my grandparent's farm, and I remember my father's stories of how he and my uncles would hunt on the way to school, park their rifles in one of the school rooms during the school day, then hunt on the way home. It was common back in the day, but it really shows how much things have changed in such a short period of time.

Wish I could do that again too, thanks for the thread. Nice to take the time to reflect now and again.

At the local hardware store. You went in and bought whatever tag you wanted.
And they'd sell 22 shells to us kids.
Hell, I used to hunt my way through the mill on my way to High School, and the principal made us check our guns in at the office.
If you drove, you could leave them in the back window of your pick-up, and park in the school parking lot.
I don't seem to recall anyone going to their truck and grabbing their rifles to shoot their classmates with.
My, how times have changed.

H.L.Hodges Hardware - THE gun dealer in eastern NC in the 1950's & 1960's. I used to go in and drool over the Winchester's and then visit the mule barn next door to look at all the mules for sale. My Grandma had an account there, she let me pick out a Buck Knife for my 15th birthday (I could have up to $15.00, one for each year) and charge it to her - I still have that Buck Model 301 Stockman today. My first new gun purchase (a Winchester Super X Model 1 shotgun) was made there in 1976. Great old store, long gone now, but I still have the knife, the shotgun, and some SK Wayne wrenches and sockets that came from Hodges. Both my Dad and my uncle hunted and taught the love of hunting to my brothers and me. You are right, good memories.

Hudson Bay Store Dinorwic Ontario and Max Nauman's General Store

Cob Yaroshuk's Skidoo dealership and Les Barretts Sports All except Hudson Bay Store were independant stores who knew me, my Dad and my Grandpa, and would throw in a hand of candies for a young boy
Randy

The local hardware stores, Coast to Coast and Midwest Supply.
Selmer

Coast to coast and another small sporting goods store in Camas,WA. Will have to call my dad to get the name. Remember drooling over guns in there at age 5 and they would even let me hold them. Times sure have changed.

Dober, Coast To Coast, Redwood Falls, MN. I can still smell the place...

There was a time when the laws in Washington (that is the state not DC) Would not allow the locale hardware store to sell spray paint to anyone under 21 but could sell long guns and long gun ammo to anyone 18. I could buy shotgun shells and or 22 ammo until I was about 16 then the law changed and no long gun ammo until I was 18 and no 22 (handgun) ammo until 21.

I have never thanked them for making me as safe as they have.



From the socialist republic of Washington
8mmwapiti

May mine never have to purchase centerfire ammo ...

COMPONENTS OTOH!!!!

GE

Heck, I used to hunt WITH my teachers, and fished with the principal.

I'd hunt before school, drive to school for the day, then jump in with one of the teachers to hunt after school.

In our high school yearbook, they tried to get pictures of everybody doing what they were "associated" with. They actually asked me and two buddies to pose behind the school with our muzzleloaders. We thought it would be cool to load them up with just powder, touch them off, and get a good picture of the smoke coming out of the barrels. Do you know that even with no ball, they still go BOOM when you do that?? We found out that day! Still didn't draw any unwanted attention though, just a few faces in windows until they saw what was going on.

Yep, it was different back then....

I remember hunting doves one day. I was all of 14 years old. We ran out of shells, so me and my buddy (also 14) walked over to our older friend who had driven. We said "We're out of ammo". He tossed us the keys and said "Go get some". What does that mean to you?? Yep, away we went, in a boat of a car. I was an old Cadillac (I think it was about a '72 or '74, BIG old thing). Neither of us knew how to drive, but what an opportunity! Into town we went, strutted into the Western Auto, bought as many boxes as we had money for, and drove back out to the field. The car's owner was going crazy! "Where were you guys??". Um, we went to get more ammo, just like you said....

Turned out that he MEANT their was a bunch of ammo in the trunk. Hey, how were we supposed to know?

I still laugh about that day. 30 years , and a lot of driving later, and I still don't know how we got that car into town, parked it, and got back out to the field without a single scratch or incident. I wouldn't want to try driving something that size TODAY!

Thank you, ColdBore. That taught me the price of ambiguity.

I was 23 before I started hunting, so I don't have any of those childhood memories. I did move to a place where my son could have caliber debates with his 6th grade teacher. We also bumped into him in the field while antelope hunting 110 miles away, and my son and his teacher could swap war stories.

Dad (85) will hunt this year with the pre 64 Winchester 88 he bought at a Sears store. Guns and ammo at Western Auto, Montgomery Wards etc, being able to actually buy a gun through the mail like a truely free man.
Being turned loose with a gun at 12, and buying 22 ammo as a kid.
Going to a gunsmithing night school class at a local high schools machine shop, and well under 15 years ago rifles in pickup back windows at the local HS parking lot.

Glad I have lived my life when and where I have, technology or not it was better/freer in a very recent past, at least to me it was.

In 1978 (I was 8) With money from mowing lawns, my first new 22 rifle came from Payless. My dad had to make the purchase but the store would sell me 22 ammo.