You Know You Are Old When

[MossRoad]

Our Boy Scout leader was a National Guardsman. In the basement of the armory they had a rifle range. I got good enough that at 100’ I could usually put 9 of 10 in the 1” bull with iron sights. Always got 1 flyer never hit 10.

We shot 50' indoors. Bullseye was .22" as I recall.
5 shots per target.
So highest score would be 50.
I honestly can't recall the number of perfect 50s I and everyone else shot on the team. It was commonplace.
So commonplace that if we got a 49, we'd blame the ammo.

Best shot I ever made was with a BB gun. Friends and I were down by our neighborhood lake fishing. A kid casted out and got his hook hung on a branch of a half-sunken tree. So the hook is on the branch, his splitshot is hanging about 6" below the branch, then his bobber hanging below that. He's trying to pull it off but is worried the line will break and he'll lose the bobber. He lamented it was his last bobber. It was about 25-30 feet out as I recall.

An older kid had a BB gun. I'd never shot it before. I told him to give me the BB gun and I'd shoot the sinker to break the line. They all laughed at me. The older kid took a few shots and missed. Said it was impossible. I said give me that thing! I lined it up, took the shot and wham! Not only did it hit the sinker, but the sinker popped up higher than the hook and that caused the line to pull the hook up instead of towards us. It all fell off the branch and he got the hook, line and sinker (and bobber) back.

He reeled it in and we all looked at the sinker and it had a little dent in it. It was the stuff of legends in our neighborhood for years.

 

[Pixguy]

Yup! When I was in the 8th grade, we had this. Still have a small box that contains all the NRA achievement pins.

Ahh. those were good days...

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I photographed a huge urban HS (in Massachusetts no less) in the late 80's and early 90's that had JROTC along with a firing range in their HS. We thought nothing of it other than Good for them, preparing for the armed forces.

 

[jyoutz]

I photographed a huge urban HS (in Massachusetts no less) in the late 80's and early 90's that had JROTC along with a firing range in their HS. We thought nothing of it other than Good for them, preparing for the armed forces.

My HS had no shooting range in the 1970s, but we routinely drove onto and parked on campus with our hunting guns in the gun racks on the rear window of the pickups. And we would go look at each other’s guns at lunchtime.

 

[Jstpssng]

My best shot with a .22 was 97 yards at a grouse in the road. I could barely make it out in the iron sights but dropped the rifle in that nice 'V' the open door makes, aimed a bit over the body and took it right in the neck. I paced the distance and couldn't believe it so pulled out my hip chain and checked again.
It was a dead end gravel woods road and I knew there was nobody beyond me or never would have taken the shot.

 

[MoKelly]

That was then. Nowadays —— a rural hospital I’m affiliated with had a fundraiser. They are part of a much larger hospital chain based in STL.

The fundraiser was skeet shooting and the winner received a shotgun. It was successful and raised a good amount of money toward several new transportation vehicles.

The home office found out about the fundraiser and had a fit. All kinds of “we are so sorry”, “poor judgement” and “won’t happen again”, memos were sent to employees and donors.

They even allowed “mentally distressed workers” to see counselors on the job.

People say they are sensitive and tolerant —- except they stepped all over and criticized a fundraiser that made 100% sense for this rural community and all the folks that supported the event.

 

[Eagle1]

Every fundraiser that makes $$ out here involves a weapon as the prize,

 

[Jstpssng]

That was then. Nowadays —— a rural hospital I’m affiliated with had a fundraiser. They are part of a much larger hospital chain based in STL.

The fundraiser was skeet shooting and the winner received a shotgun. It was successful and raised a good amount of money toward several new transportation vehicles.

The home office found out about the fundraiser and had a fit. All kinds of “we are so sorry”, “poor judgement” and “won’t happen again”, memos were sent to employees and donors.

They even allowed “mentally distressed workers” to see counselors on the job.

People say they are sensitive and tolerant —- except they stepped all over and criticized a fundraiser that made 100% sense for this rural community and all the folks that supported the event.

This type of action just perpetrates the fear of firearms prevalent today.

 

[Jstpssng]

Every fundraiser that makes $$ out here involves a weapon as the prize,

I donate to many of them... just like every other raffle I buy with no hope of winning.

 

[ultrarunner]

Growing up we had a very popular kids show called the Marshall J show and complete cowboy themed.

J Alexander was a good shot and always had his 45 holstered where ever he went...

He would do sharpshooting demonstrations for the kids at public venues often shooting helium balloons from the sky and this is SF Bay Area in the 60's.

Difficult to imagine but true...

Just as hard to believe is he was also early Marlboro Man...

 

[jyoutz]

Every fundraiser that makes $$ out here involves a weapon as the prize,

Our local HS sports has raffles every year for really good prizes: truck, ATV, chainsaw, ect…

 

[Eagle1]

Well in a town of 600 and a graduating class of 10-15 you will never raise enough to pay for a a truck, etc. Now $200-400 boom stick will make a few bucks....

 

[BravoXray]

We would sometimes drive 2 hours over to St. Marys, OH to buy beer. As I recall, in OH the drinking age was 18 for 3.2 beer and low alcohol wine. 21 for hard beer and liquor.

Didn't seem to matter as they's sell us a couple cases of Little Kings regardless.

We used to drive to Ohio to buy fireworks, not beer. Couldn't stand that vile tasting stuff.
In fact, a few years ago on a trip to Ohio, we stopped at the same store, still there over 50 years later, being run by a daughter of the originals owners.

 

[MossRoad]

We used to drive to Ohio to buy fireworks, not beer. Couldn't stand that vile tasting stuff.
In fact, a few years ago on a trip to Ohio, we stopped at the same store, still there over 50 years later, being run by a daughter of the originals owners.

You know what's funny... fireworks were illegal to use in Ohio back then, yet you could buy them there. I think the store was in Lima, perhaps?

Remember years back here when you could buy fireworks in Indiana as long as you signed a paper saying you wouldn't use them here?

Then they legalized them, as the loophole was pretty stupid.

I read somewhere that since the legalization in Indiana, fireworks related injuries went down.

 

[jjeff]

.

 

[Pixguy]

 

[MossRoad]

 

[orezok]

Remember when

 

[MossRoad]

Remember when

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Couldn't see them. The windows were all fogged up.

 

[jjeff]

View attachment 858220

That meme is hilarious and quite fitting for this thread.

 

[masseyrider]

Remember when

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I still have a couple somewhere.
Later they started broadcasting on FM so you could listen through your car's sound system