Pics Paperless Nam Bring Back

[wtf_calguns_migration]

I missed all the US stuff (American iron was expensive, $100 bucks and up for Garands), in '76 I was makin $3.35/hr in ag out in Vernalis. I mainly got the cheapest commie "junk" I could find in the late '90s and just caught the tail end of .303, 8mm and M80. I'm from Freekmont and there used to be a Traders in San Leandro, many great Army/Navy stores all over the Bay Area that we'd spend a day checking out, fuel was $.25/gal and there was free wine tasting from Morgan Hill to Livermore without crossing any bay bridges. As a kid I remember the pickle barrels full of rifles from $5 to $20 bucks, then the racked guns for $50, then the ones on the walls for $75 and up. I think the most you could pay back then was like $125 for a Johnson.
Fire up the time machine!!! PAX

Yeah man, the journey was key. I rolled around the entire Bay Area, then LA when I lived down there in the early 90s.

My uncle had a thing about buying milsurp ammo in the 70s. If the lt didn't shoot or was iffy we would bullets, coffee can the powder, pour down gopher holes to smoke them out.

That generation of guys all grew up with the concept that $5 worth of gas and a $2 pack of bullets turned into a bbq.

No reason to buy rifles. Just go thru the literal piles of them everywhere and cobble together something that shot.

The mentality was very different. Guns and ammo were mostly inconsequential bc they were so plentiful.

 

[echo1]

I remember one of the family friends coming to my uncle's house on 98th Ave in Oakland, by the tracks east of Nimitz, laying prone shooting a gopher at 7-10 feet with a Colt Woodsman, in the front yard. Us kids had to be still and lay there quietly behind him. 1959 I think it was. PAX

 

[wtf_calguns_migration]

I remember one of the family friends coming to my uncle's house on 98th Ave in Oakland, by the tracks east of Nimitz, laying prone shooting a gopher at 7-10 feet with a Colt Woodsman, in the front yard. Us kids had to be still and lay here quiet behind him. 1959 I think it was. PAX

We did tons of that. Use small calibers, don't shoot fast, wait until a guy your grandfather knows is on duty. Maybe he will come by later with a Beretta and let the kids knock a mag or 2 out.

There was a time when you left your rifle or shotgun in the principals office bc you were on a shooting team or skeet/trap club.

No cared if you were capping rats at the dump with a 22, bc it's the dump. They might wanna take a few shots themselves bc they get bit every so often working there.

The best part is my dad's generation were Nam vets. A lot of them were mid 60s so they trained and were still deployed together. They knew each other.

My grandfathers generation were WW2 vets. The WW2 vets tended to not only have better trophy pistols...they carried them. Lots of pistols floating around in their era.

I miss my granduncles telling my uncles they didn't know anything. Also remarking what utterly ty pistols were floating around Vietnam compared to ether WW2 theater.

 

[echo1]

When we moved from Oakland to Freekmont, it had just been incorporated from 5 townships, Warm Springs, Irvington, Centerville, Mission and Niles. A few of us boys, 8-10, would plink our way to the rifle range on Durham and Mission Blvd. If a cop happened by, he'd make sure we weren't carrying loaded, give an impromptu gun safety lecture and be gone. We hunted from the salt marshes along the bay to the foot hills, no furried or feathered critter had a chance. My first rifle was a Mossberg M44US bought at the base surplus shed for $5 bucks, a one hole wonder. PAX

 

[wtf_calguns_migration]

When we moved from Oakland to Freekmont, it had just been incorporated from 5 townships, Warm Springs, Irvington, Centerville, Mission and Niles. A few of us boys, 8-10, would plink our way to the rifle range on Durham and MissionBlvd. If a cop happened by, he'd make sure we weren't carrying loaded, give an impromptu gun safety lecture and be gone. We hunted from the salt marshes along the bay to the foot hills, no furried or feathered critter had a chance. My first rifle was a Mossberg M44US bought at the base surplus shed for $5 bucks, a one hole

I know that training rifle. They were cheap in the 70s and 80s. WW2 and Korea era guys knew them well. The thing about this bring back thread is how few of my father's Nam era buddies bothered with bringing anything back.

There is the usual suspect Aks and various foreign submachineguns. These guys were early so some of them were done late 67 or 68 and could register it. Very few combloc pistols bc frankly I still have the receipt for a S&W bought brand new for $68+tax at Markell in 1969. Your average Luger, P38, Beretta, etc from ww2 were way more desireable. Soviet pistol was a crude blowback pos. Maybe it was a soviet copy of a 1900s Colt design in a weird caliber. An American could buy the real thing cheap when they got home.

My fathers era grew up with cheap ww2 milsurp and more ammo than I was used to seeing in the 80s and 90s. The funny thing is how many M1 carbines were popular with them as a "just in case" gun. Small, handy, does what you need at the distances you care about. Stupid plentiful and cheap at the time.

There wasnt much combloc ammo available, bc Cold War. Unless there was a real reason or story behind a gun mostly the Nam era guys didnt care. America makes way nicer guns and they were everywhere up to and including hardware stores and feed stores stuffed in a literal barrel.

 

[aghauler]

Did a bunch of people miss the literal piles of m80 ball, 54r, x39, swiss ball, 8mm mauser, m1 and m2 ball, 30carbine, 303brit, carcano, etc everywhere?
Surplus stores, army/navy stores, big 5, the sporting good megamarts like Tri City in Fremont, Traders in LA, on and on.

Those places stank of old treated wood cases of milsurp ammo. Cosmoline stained plastic sheet was everywhere. Lead painted boxes of old ammo were everywhere. Dudes made furniture out of the packaging bc trailer parks.

It's like people forget Ruger made tons of revolvers in 30carbine bc the ammo was practically free and everywhere compared to 357/38/44/45

Ya missed Fed Ord in South Elmonte, or San Francisco Gun Exchange.

 

[wtf_calguns_migration]

Ya missed Fed Ord in South Elmonte, or San Francisco Gun Exchange.

Going to SF Gun Exchange and Markell with my old man was better than going to the zoo.
Funny thing though, Marines always had unusual guns in a bag to sell.
Most of the dads were Army, but one of their high school buddies that got put in that line would appear once in a while.

Guns are money to Marines.
Sometimes things get tight, they roll by and talk to everyone in the back of the garage.
Problems solved, time for pizza or tacos.

Its hard to describe to people that werent raised by 'Nam vets that its like a gang where members spent time in different prisons.

 

[ZeroFoxGiven]

I wished my dad had brought something back but after the War he didn't touch firearms anymore. He wasn't against them or anything, bought me plenty of cap guns, etc as a kid. Never talked bad about the military, but also never said one word about his time over there.

 

[Heatseeker]

I love reading the stories of days gone by. Although you fellas may have a few years on me, I came up in some of the same areas. I bought my first pistol, a Bakial Makarov, from Traders in San Leandro in 1992. My second pistol purchase, a SIG 226, happened at SF Gun Exchange later the same year. My dad used to take me to all the cool spots when I was a youngster, Markell's, High Bridge and a couple down the peninsula that I can't remember the names of right now. Not to mention the Army/Navy surplus store off of Mission St and the gun shows at the Cow Palace. He had a few surplus buys that he has since handed down to me. My favorite is the sporterized Enfield that he bought at the surplus store out of a barrel the year before I was born. He claims the sport job was done by High Bridge, which was owned by Bob Chow at that time and was just down the street from the surplus store. I think he said he paid $19 for the rifle and $40 for the sport job. I learned to shoot with that gun. I think he did it to punish me...lol!

Anyway, keep posting and I'll keep reading!

 

[echo1]

I've got a couple sport Enfield's, here's one with a 5 round mag, cut barrel and wood that's not coming back and one with an Eddystone that I can salvage them both and have the parts to. PAX

 

[Plenty_Pack_556]

I got a Vietnam War SKS. Has Kill Notches.

All matching numbers, bayonet, and got it for 300 ppt at the height of covid, 2019. Serial number dates it to 1960.

 

[Heatseeker]

Here's the Enfield I mentioned in my previous post. What really made my day several years back was when one of our calgunner friends, MJ1, came by my place to pick up an item I sold him and told me that this sport job was one of the nicest he'd seen on an Enfield. Whether he blowing smoke or serious didn't really matter to me. He is (or was, I haven't been able to contact him in a couple of years)THE Enfield authority to me. he knew so much more about them than I ever will. I felt like I was in high cotton.

 

[echo1]

Great looking Enfield.
I picked up a very sharp 03A3 Smith Corona Sporter years back. It was so clean I thought it was a G&H and contacted them with questions about it. Their archivist was kind enough to get back to me and point out the differences between what I had and what G&H produced. He said it was nice but not one of theirs. PAX

 

[Heatseeker]

What a coincidence. I have a 03-A2 that was sporterized very nicely back in the 60's. It actually had a Mk No. 32 scope on it. That was the item I sold to MJ1 because I felt it would be better suited for the rifle it was intended for. He gave me a nice early Weaver K5 as part of the deal. This is what it looked like when I got it. I thought I had some better pics, I will have to take some one day. It had been in a basement for many years. I scraped the barrel and action with a copper penny for a long time and brought it back to it's past glory...almost, anyway. I have taken it out a couple of times and it shoots straight as an arrow!

 

[echo1]

Looks great. Those craftsman of days gone by did wonderful work. PAX