Monday, December 22, 2014

Guns, 1964


So, I am reading Guns Magazine from 50 years ago... What?

Anyhoo...  Noticing stuff.

By November 1964, it had been a year since the president was shot by a cheap surplus mail order rifle. The magazine has taken more of a political bent in reaction to pols and their gun control talk. Fighting the good fight with the same rational arguments we still use.

 And the ads seems to be drifting away from cheaper guns at any rate...

At least the rifles.

Fewer Carcanos to be had...  Maybe 20 years since the War the source of supply is starting to dry up.  Good stuff available tho.  $80 Garands and the like 

Even Kleins of Chicago (where Oswald got his gun/s). If you want to assassinate anyone now you can't be a dirt poor Marxist. And M1 Carbines are getting more prevalent of late.  Like I said maybe the furren surplus is drying up. But hold the phone...  Hmmm, the .303 Enfield, sporterized with a scope is still less than a double sawbuck... You pay 15 bucks more for an Enfield with the issue stock. And a flash hider so they can call it 'Jungle' Enfield.  So if you got a bone to pick with LBJ you might need to use a venerated Limey model.  Not much use for an M1 Carbine on a killing spree.   Unless you are Charles Whitman.  He had one with him in 66. 

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Same issue, there is an ad for this new sproting rifle from Armalite that shoot a good gopher round.  Earliest ad for an AR15 I have seen.


Plus a controversial article denigrating snubbies! You snubby really sucks, apparently.  You can hit jack with it.  According to some guy name Chic Gaylord. Who actually was kind of a halfway big deal gun writer back then.  Unfortunate name...  Anyway, your barrel length should be at least 3" if you want a chance to hit anything beyond bad breath distances.  AND you need a lot of geegaw after market parts on your gatt.  The more things change, the more they stay the same.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

The M1 Carbines were prevalent because the US military began releasing them as surplus a year or so earlier. Gun World began publishing a spree of articles on how to sporterize your Carbine, including a variety of wildcat cartridges like the 5.7mm Spitfire.

Besides his book "Handgunner's Guide," Chic Gaylord was best known for manufacturing CCW-friendly holsters. Here's a 1958-vintage catalog:

http://www.delfatti.com/photos/photos/Gaylord%20catalog.pdf