Ah the good old days of toy guns.

Had plenty of toy guns, but none of those specifically. I still have a Hubley "Dick" (Tracy) special around somewhere that I found in a gravel pit, half encased in concrete from the broken-up slab of our old elementary school. I can only surmise the pistol was thrown in the original foundation when it was poured and mummified there for 50 years. I carefully chipped away the remaining concrete, gave it a thorough clean/oil job and it still functions with roll caps. Original springs too!
 
I believe most of those were before my time. On the other hand, my family didn't have a TV until I was ten. I had a few store bought toy guns that I played army with but I made most of mine. I remember going through magazines to find pictures of guns I could make. An AK-47 and a FAL were among my favorites. Nothing like those in post 18, but I was only nine. I thought being allowed to use a jig saw and power drill was pretty cool.
 
Besides TOY guns, I was in the post WW2 times and bringbacks were common in the neighborhood. :what:

Mine was an Arisaka 6.5 ....carbine!
No bolt and fire charred. Hadn't thought til now but that charring could have been flamethrower induced. :eek:

Traded it for a hunting knife.
 
I've got one of the hubley 45 colt cap guns, it's somewhere some day I'll find it lol. Wish I had the picture of my dad,( he may have burned it lol) of him in about 1963-65 ish so maybe 8-10 years old. He had the full getup on, all white leather jacket, chaps, hat, holsters, Ivory handled nickeled Colts and his horse matching. Think it was a appaloosa since it had spots but think I remember him calling it something different. I don't know horses well. Picture was funny as heck and I would chuckle every time I seen it. I'm sure it was a pricy horse it was a gift from his uncle who was very wealthy( married into the hanse family).
 
I do not remember any toy gun commercials, but while we were "the first on the block" with a TV, even though I later watched Westerns, somehow ads never stuck to me.

I had a couple of roll cap guns with holsters and three BB guns which I was only allowed to shoot out at our summer house in Long Island. For a while I had one of those Nautical Cadets dummy rifles, but I wasn’t allowed to actually use it in us kids’ play. It was strictly for drilling.

I also had a rifle-sized ping pong ball gun, but that was inaccurate as hell and I don't know what happened to it.

One of my favorite TV adventure shows with a Western flavor and guns and planes was "Sky King." I was in love with his niece Penny King / Gloria Winters. But, I was also in love with Blondie Bumstead / Penny Singleton. Oh, and later, Margaret O'Brien after she had growed a bit. But I got over my fear of real girls and started to date them in the flesh and that was the end of my cap gun days.

Heh. And my mother wanted me to be a Priest.

Heh.

Terry, 230RN
 
Last edited:
tws3b2 said:
Remember the red rolls of caps. A couple in your cap gun and you could shoot all day.
No more. Cap gun control.
Click to expand...

Ah, loved the smell of those caps! I remember taking a whole roll and hitting them with a hammer. Left my ears ringing and scared the hell out of myself!

My favorite memory re: misuse of powder though was when my friend "borrowed" a large handful of his dad's black powder. We mounded it into a pile and made a tail to light. It would not stay lit, so my friend kept getting closer and closer until he just lit the pile directly. A huge flash and a dense cloud of white smoke later, he came stumbling towards me. Looked just like Yosemite Sam after going toe to toe with Bugs Bunny. His hair was blown back with the first inch of his hairline burned almost down to the scalp, eyebrows totally gone, and face lightly grilled. Pretty sure the only thing that saved his eyes were his Coke bottle glasses. I was terrified he'd done permanent damage to his face but also laughed maniacally. He got in a lot of trouble and smelled like burnt hair for a couple of days...
 
Actually, you could make decent firecrackers from the rolls of "solid" red caps (not the perforated rolls).

All you had to do was, take a long straight pin and "carefully", push the pin through the "dots" on the roll, one at a time and fold the next down on top like an accordion as you go. You end up with a small "stack" about an inch long with a pin through it. Wrap that real good in the tape you use to wrap presents with, and then "very slowly and very carefully", pull the pin out and then use a piece of that tape on top as a "fuze".

Those roll caps used to come in packages of 10 red/blue little boxes, and we'd spend a good bit of our allowances on buying a bunch. Then take the rest of the day making our "stash".

Definitely louder than hitting the roll with a hammer. :)
 
I wonder if there was a study that linked playing with toy guns to reduced crime? Let kids get imaginative with toy guns like we did as kids and maybe sh$t would not be so serious now
 
<Related to old cap guns and our experiences with caps>

Yeah, smokeless powder goes "fzzzzzzzz", black powder goes "FOOM !"

The powder in firecrackers and other fireworks is normally not black powder, but is "flash powder," with different ingredients and is a lot more energetic and unsuitable for guns. The powder used in caps is a percussive powder, also with different ingredients.

Hence the "DDTAH" warnings if you don't really know the details of what the hell you are doing.

The movies always show a trail of powder leading to the room full of powder kegs and when lit, it burns slowly toward the kegs and meantime two characters fight each other with the approaching danger of getting blown up and finally the hero wins out and gets the hell out of Dodge and the powder kegs go off.

Nope. "FOOMBOOM" is more likely.

It's getting hard to find videos of comparisons of BP and Smokeless open burning rates. Somehow, I regard that, if deliberate on the part of search engine saints, as lying by omission.

</Related to old cap guns and our experiences with caps>

Terry, 230RN
 
Last edited:
230RN said:
One of my favorite TV adventure shows with a Western flavor and guns and planes was "Sky King."
Click to expand...
Loved that show. I lived for Saturday mornings (not the cartoons), Jungle Jim, Sky King, Roy Rogers, Lone Ranger, Zorro...

I had so many toy guns as a boy. My grandma had bought me this really cool Lone Ranger rig, black plastic belt and twin holsters, but actually nice looking faux floral-carving on the holsters and basketweave belt, silver cartridges in the loops (not as many as I wanted) and two nifty full-size metal (flash-chromed) SAAs with engraving. Fired the roll caps. Wish I'd saved 'em. Probably cost quite a bit for toy guns back in the day, but Grandma could be unexpectedly generous. Got a nice pic of me and my brother with our guns, hats and first cowboy boots in front of a Christmas tree, circa 1963.
 
Back in the mid 1960's or so, I had and all plastic toy M16 with the original charging handle design. You'd pull the charging handle back, which wound a spring, and you'd get a *brap* *brap* *brap* *brap* sound every time you pulled the trigger until the spring wound down.

ETA: Whoops! Just realized it was a toy AR-10, not a toy M16/AR-15.
 
Y-T71 said:
That's great you still have em!

How old would you say they are?
Click to expand...

They're around 30 years old at this point. I've got a couple more in the attic that didn't survive as well as those two.

Later on, my grandpa also gave me my first pellet rifle and my first gun, a 22lr. I still have both of those as well.

I never get rid of anything, much to the chagrin of my wife!
 
American_Fusilier said:
They're around 30 years old at this point. I've got a couple more in the attic that didn't survive as well as those two.

Later on, my grandpa also gave me my first pellet rifle and my first gun, a 22lr. I still have both of those as well.

I never get rid of anything, much to the chagrin of my wife!
Click to expand...

Hahaha...I get labeled a pack rat too.

I really enjoyed making these over the years.
It was very therapeutic for me (my wife was having serious health problems at the time and it was a good way of forgetting the stress for a little while)

My son loved em and I made a bunch for all the neighborhood kids.

Toy guns were a big part of my childhood and I wanted that for my son as well. Luckily we still live in a small, conservative town and don't have people get hysterical about kids running around the neighborhood with them.
 
Y-T71 said:
really enjoyed making these over the years.
It was very therapeutic for me (my wife was having serious health problems at the time and it was a good way of forgetting the stress for a little while)

My son loved em and I made a bunch for all the neighborhood kids.

Toy guns were a big part of my childhood and I wanted that for my son as well. Luckily we still live in a small, conservative town and don't have people get hysterical about kids running around the neighborhood with them.
Click to expand...

Well yours are beautiful! They look like the real thing.

I think toy guns are an important part of boyhood, and imagination. It certainly was for me too. It got me out in the fields and forests playing soldier with my friends and cousins. I miss those days!
 
Got my first gun in the mid-1950's.... A single action metal cap gun styled pretty much like all those revolvers seen on TV and the movies. It was chrome(?) plated and used roll caps. I know I never wore it out but am pretty sure my younger brother eventually took possession of it when I stopped playing with it. I often think about it when I pick up my stainless steel Ruger Blackhawk. When I was in the 5th and 6th grades I actually carried a concealed handgun in school in the spring when it got warm. If you count a squirt gun in your book bag as a concealed handgun. After school we sometimes engaged in squirt gun battles; I wore out a few of those back then and also discovered the "pointability" of the German Luger design when I had several Luger squirt guns. After inheriting a real Luger about 21 years ago I came across a Luger squirt gun on E-Bay and jumped on it. Here's my pair of Lugers... IMG_5523.JPG ..
 
I remember having two toy cap guns as a kid ...
Sixgun and holster like Paladin used on "Have Gun Will Travel " ... it even had the derringer in the belt buckle !!!
And a model 92 Winchester like Lucas McCain , The Rifleman , used with the large lever and cocking/firing mecanisim ... you could burn through a roll of paper caps with that bad boy !

I miss all the good old TV Westerns ... Gary
 
Can't believe that nobody recognized the young actor in the 2nd video about the bazooka that shot a blast of air? A very young "Snake" Plissken.

Cheers
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Rembrandt
  • Locked
Toy Guns of the 1950's - 1960's
2 3 4 5 6
Replies
145
Views
57K
RB98SS
R
R
  • Locked
"Guns are not toys," so why toy guns for kids?
2
Replies
37
Views
2K
Dave R
D
G
  • Locked
What to tell a child about pointing toy guns at others?
2
Replies
33
Views
2K
1911 guy
1911 guy
N
  • Locked
Ah.... the good old days!
Replies
23
Views
1K
number6
N
M
  • Locked
Time to Ban Toy Guns...
Replies
4
Views
380
primlantah
P
Back
Top