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What did your grandparents pack for personal protection in the Golden Era?

Fatdutchman

Practically Family
Messages
559
Location
Kentucky
Hey, where I live, guns ARE everywhere! Let me tell you though, rural America (or rather, what's left of it) is vastly different from urban America in SO many ways! For a small town country boy to go to a large city like Philadelphia, Chicago, etc. (or vise-versa) it's like landing on another planet.
 

Marc Chevalier

Gone Home
Messages
18,192
Location
Los Feliz, Los Angeles, California
All this talk is making me want to rent Zardoz again: "The gun is good. The ***** is evil. The ***** shoots seeds, and makes new life to poison the earth with a plague of men, as once it was. But the gun shoots death, and purifies the earth of the filth of brutals. Go forth... and kill!"


.
 

Fatdutchman

Practically Family
Messages
559
Location
Kentucky
My father is from northern Illinois, so I was never close to my paternal grandparents (simply due to distance). When Grampa died, I got a couple of his guns, but they were relatively new. A Mossberg 20 ga probably from the '70's, and a nice Remington 870 16ga. My uncle got the Weatherby .22 rifle and, I think, a Marlin .30-30. I practically lived with my maternal grandparents, who lived about a mile down the road from me. My grandfather was a cabinetmaker, and I grew up in his basement shop cutting out toy guns on the bandsaw from scrap pieces of walnut and cherry wood. I used to borrow his nickel S&W .22 kit gun...he finally told me to just keep it! An old one from the '50's with the flat thumb latch. I had to have a new cylinder stop put in and the cylinder aligned, as it was worn and leading the breechface pretty heavily. The sight was shot, too, and I have the sights off and still haven't gotten around to installing them. I also have the aforementioned .25 auto and another S&W .22 masterpiece of his. I remember he traded off a nice pump .410 shotgun (also that I used to borrow!) for this pistol. It's a nice five-screw. I killed a squirrel with it a couple of years ago...head shot, even. I had to do it, it was self defense. Dang squirrel was throwin' hickory nuts at me!
 

carebear

My Mail is Forwarded Here
Messages
3,220
Location
Anchorage, AK
Those K-22 Masterpieces are wonderful guns. The phrase to remember for any future squirrel encounters is "It was coming right for me!" :D

-embarassing factoid-

It was years (I was in my 20's) before I figured out that the "kit guns" weren't bought and assembled from kits (call me Capt. Literal :eusa_doh: ) but were for throwing in your kit (backpack, tackle box, jacket pocket) for camp meat and plinking.
 

carebear

My Mail is Forwarded Here
Messages
3,220
Location
Anchorage, AK
Couldn't find a sound clip but I think this actually says it all-

Shane: A gun is a tool, Marian; no better or no worse than any other tool: an axe, a shovel or anything. A gun is as good or as bad as the man using it. Remember that.
Which applies to t'other as well. :p
 

lindylady

A-List Customer
Messages
383
Location
Georgia
My grandfather was a WWII vet. He had a small collection of handguns. I remember seeing one with a pearl handle. I can't date it, though. Maybe late 40s.

As my grandparents were from the south (rural Mississippi), they owned a couple of shotguns, mounted proudly on the wall for all to see lol
 

Harp

I'll Lock Up
Messages
8,508
Location
Chicago, IL US
Colt .45 1911A1

John in Covina said:
I do favor the 45 in the 1911A1 format

I once carried a .45 as standard sidearm until a range jam caused
a revolving cylinder conversion akin to a nasty divorce.lol
 

carebear

My Mail is Forwarded Here
Messages
3,220
Location
Anchorage, AK
lindylady said:
My grandfather was a WWII vet. He had a small collection of handguns. I remember seeing one with a pearl handle. I can't date it, though. Maybe late 40s.

As my grandparents were from the south (rural Mississippi), they owned a couple of shotguns, mounted proudly on the wall for all to see lol

"They're ivory. Only a pimp from a cheap New Orleans whorehouse would carry a pearl-handled pistol." -(var.) Gen. George Patton

Oh, just so you know, I don't happen to agree with the General. :D
 

matei

One Too Many
Messages
1,022
Location
England
My grandfather was also a WWII vet, however he didn't have any handguns. He had a German rifle (Mauser?) from the war and a few small shotguns, which he used for hunting.

For protection, he had my grandmother. Her big mouth would scare away any would-be attackers.
 

carebear

My Mail is Forwarded Here
Messages
3,220
Location
Anchorage, AK
matei said:
My grandfather was also a WWII vet, however he didn't have any handguns. He had a German rifle (Mauser?) from the war and a few small shotguns, which he used for hunting.

For protection, he had my grandmother. Her big mouth would scare away any would-be attackers.

Almost certainly a Mauser 98k, one of the most common bring-backs (when that was still allowed) of the First and Second World Wars. You'll still find a lot of them around having been "sporterized" (new stock, removal of bayonet lugs and other heavy unneeded accoutrements) for hunting rifles and rebarrelled to different calibers. A good solid action to build on.
 

lindylady

A-List Customer
Messages
383
Location
Georgia
carebear said:
"They're ivory. Only a pimp from a cheap New Orleans whorehouse would carry a pearl-handled pistol." -(var.) Gen. George Patton

Oh, just so you know, I don't happen to agree with the General. :D

lol You sure know your quotes
 

Atticus Finch

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,718
Location
Coastal North Carolina, USA
Hi Folks,

In the nineteen twenties, my paternal grandfather had a chrome, .38 short, Smith and Wesson. It is one of the break-back models, I forget which. My father, who was a P-47 pilot in WWII, carried it instead of his issued .45 because the .45 was "big and heavy and got in the damn way of everything in the cockpit". Now I have that Smith and Wesson.

My maternal grandfather, who was raised in the hills of Tennessee, had a open-hammer, 12 guage, Remington double gun with Damascus barrels. It was old when he got it in the late nineteen-teens. He had to quit using it when black powder shells were no longer available. For his birthday, Mom and my grandmother pitched in and bought him a new Remington model 11-48 when they were introduced in 1948. Now I have those guns, too.


Atticus
 

Oktagon

New in Town
Messages
34
Location
USA
My grandparrents did not carry any weapons off duty because they were denied this freedom in corrupt communist USSR.
I now carry two engraved S&W 640 J frame revolvers and own more then 120 firearms.
 

thunderw21

I'll Lock Up
Messages
4,044
Location
Iowa
My grandaddy packed a Win. 1897 12 guage in Nebraska. We still have it.

My other grandaddy carried an M-1 in WW2. We don't have his but we do have one just like it. :D
 

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