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

[Fatdutchman]

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]

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!"


.

 

[RBH]

Here in rural Arkansas, my granddad toted a 12 guage shotgun. As a matter of fact I still have it.

 

[Fatdutchman]

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]

Those K-22 Masterpieces are wonderful guns. The phrase to remember for any future squirrel encounters is "It was coming right for me!"

-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.

 

[Tomasso]

All this talk is making me want to rent Zardoz again:

Link deleted -mod

 

[carebear]

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.

 

[lindylady]

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]

Colt .45 1911A1

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 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.

 

[matei]

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.

 

[Speedster]

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

lol lol lol

 

[carebear]

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.

 

[matei]

Thanks for that info - I was always curious!

 

[lindylady]

"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.

lol You sure know your quotes

 

[carebear]

lol You sure know your quotes

I know my Patton anyway.

 

[Atticus Finch]

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]

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.

 

[carebear]

You're blending in just fine. More guns than shoes is my motto.

 

[thunderw21]

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.