I remember boxes of take off Smith & Wesson and Colt factory grips behind the counter in gun stores. They couldn't give them away. Everybody who bought a new revolver, the first thing they'd do it swap the grips for some kind of custom grip. And the store had several different kinds of grips in stock too.
There was alway a "box O holsters" back there too. Someone would trade a gun in, in the holster. Gun went in the cabinet, holster into the box.
One thing I'm glad is gone is the tendency to throw away the box. I know I traded in guns in the box, and watched them throw the box into the trash.
Brown hunting coats from Sears with a game pocket in back (as well as Sears guns, which I've got two of). And "Jones" style hunting hats...also in brown. If you showed up with a red bandanna sewed onto the back of your coat, you were considered sort of odd. I remember the first time I wore a blaze orange hat. I like to never heard the end of it.
Speaking of Sears, I wonder how many hours I spent pouring over a Sears "wish book" until I knew the gun/hunting/fishing section by heart? My first two guns came by mail, from Sears. The second one I picked out for myself and made the money myself. My mother had to make the call and order it though. I think I was 15. For years I didn't know there was another gun store except Sears.
I've still got a glass front gun cabinet, and you can still buy them. I've seen them in furniture stores, but not gun stores.
Couple other things that killed gun racks in pick-ups. Pick-up cabs used to be metal. You could just screw a gun rack in and leave it. Doesn't work with plastic liners...(same thing with mounting CB radios...they don't work well screwed to a plastic dash). The last gun rack I bought was for an S-10 pickup. A pump shotgun with a 28" barrel wouldn't fit.
too long.
Wooden dog boxes in the back of a pick-up. It seems today everybody has a factory made one.
Someone riding around with a dead deer on the back of said dog box. That was a big thing back in the day. Gut the deer, toss it on top of the box, and tie it down...position the antlers so everybody could see it. We used to joke about the president of the hunt club being "down of Broad Street in Richmond, showing off that deer".
Does anybody else remember seeing the adds in the back of magazines for "Surplus Jeeps packed in cosmoline, $50.00" (or some such silly price). They were supposed to be disassembled. All you had to do was put them back together. Man I wanted one of those things.
