Gun Shops and Sporting Goods Stores of the 1950s and '60s

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Hello! I'm Mr. Ed

Blog Created: 11-9-2022

Greetings ~

Gun shops! The smell of gun oil, old musty aromas, darkened corners, boxes of antique gun parts and accessories and the old man behind the counter. These are some of my visions of the gun shops of my youth.

Back in the 1950s and '60s, my father was a gun collector. Or what we would today call a "gun nut". He had guns all over the house. In cases standing in the dining room corners and the corners of the living room. And stuffed in the back of his bedroom closet. There was a German Luger in it's original holster in the nightstand drawer. And, of course, there was his workshop in the basement full of gun reloading equipment and stacks of old dusty gun magazines. There was cans of gun powder, boxes of primers and the stacks of lead for making bullets.

My father around 1960.

Dad worked at Firestone Tire and Rubber Company in Akron, Ohio and they had a "bone yard" out back behind the buildings. Firestone would discard stacks of lead in this field and it was our job to go a couple of times a year with our trailer on the back of the '58 Packard and retreave hundreds of pounds of it to take home. There we would stack it in the back of the garage and through the winter months dad would break off large pieces of it and melt it down on an old gas stove in the basement and cast his bullets. There was always wooden boxes in the workroom full of .44 magnums, 30.06, 30.30, .45s, 25.20s, etc. Back then the only ammo he couldn't reload himself was .22s and shotgun shells. Those we had to get at the gun shops.

I loved to go to the gun shops around town with the old man. Back then there were no spit shined shops like today. They were mostly in older buildings or private homes. Dusty, greasy, smelly and dark, and the treasures that I found in all of them. I was a gun lover too since I was around 4-years old. At that age, I actually started with a bolt action Marlin .22 rifle. At the age of six, I had a Winchester lever action 25.20. That was my favorite gun as it was my first taste of the old west.

The gun shop owners always seemed to be old guys. Or maybe it was because I was so young then. Looking back they were probably in their 40s or 50s at the time. I also remember that the old wooden floors creaked and you could hear the furnaces rumbling. One or two shops then also had woodburning potbellied stoves which was a great idea with all of that gunpowder on hand. But we never had explosions or fires back then at gun shops in our area. A miracle!

Back then, many gun shops were gathering places around the wood stove where tall tales of hunting and fishing were told. Some may have actually been true.

The 1950s was a time of no gun laws or regulations. You bought the gun and took it home now much like a head of lettuce or a bag of potato chips. You could buy a 30.06 and a box of ammo for it and head right out the door...legally! There were plenty of farmland and fields and wooded areas all around the outskirts of the city to target shoot at. I was lucky as my parents also owned a summer home in Cook Forest, Pennsylvania where our backyard was the woods. We target shot there all summer long and dad hunted deer and mom fished in the Clarion River that ran across the road in front of the house.

Dad bought his supplies such as primers, powder and bees wax at the gun shops both in Akron and at shops around Cook Forest. It was nothing for him to spend a few hundred dollars at the shops. Back then a good Remington, Winchester or Marlin rifle might set you back around $50 to $100. a nice .22 rifle costs around $30 new. For $100 we could pack the truck full of ammunition and supplies.

Our guns at the house in Cook Forest: 1 - Dad's 30.06 deer hunting rifle with scope. 2 - My 25.20 Winchester Lever Action. 3 - My .22 bolt action, my first gun. 4 - Dad's 30-30 lever action. 5 - Dad's police .38 Smith & Wesson revolver in holster and his hunting knife. Photo taken in 1961.

Dad knew the owners of most of the shops by their names. There were racks full of guns behind the counters and even in the isles. No gun locks back then. No need for them. No one bothered stealing a gun from a shop. People had pride. Of course, the ammo was put away. Pride only went so far.

Most shops had figurines and statues of western figures, hunters, fishermen and so on around the place. Some were for sale while others were there just to look at. Today black powder shooting is all the rage. Back then these were always antique guns that most would not actually shoot. Just hang on the wall. No companies made muzzle loaders then. But it was really cool checking them out and looking them over. An old muzzle loader musket then sold for about $10 to $20. In the 1970s and '80s I owned several black powder guns that I shot. I still have them. I actually built three myself. A Kentucky rifle and two pistols. I enjoy black powder shooting.

Most musket rifles back then were used as wall decorations.

Gun shops in those days were also a place where men gathered for conversation. The small 8c bottles of Coca Cola was sold in the old vending machines. There were always the vending machines with peanuts and candies such as bubble gum balls. Some shops also sold candy bars for a nickel. And some even had coffee pots with the paper coffee cups that had the folding handles. There was no hot tea sold as these guys were coffee drinkers. No mamsy-pansy tea drinkers at these shops. Coffee was a man's drink after all.

As I stated before, the floors creaked and cracked as you walked through the shops. The wooden floors were old and showed their wear. There were no security systems at these places back then. People then used guns for hunting. There was no need to steal a bunch of guns. People mostly just bought them. I remember a case here in Akron back in the middle 1960s where a gun shop was broken into and the owner was shot and killed. As it turned out, he was one of the few shops that had a license to sell fully automatic rifles and it was his own teenage son that broke in to steal one. When caught he killed his father. Of course, the son was caught and convicted. I have no idea whatever happened to him.

Many of the gun shop owners then lived in an apartment at the back of the shop or on the second floor. So, they were their own security system. And many had dogs that roamed around inside the shops at night and even during the day. That was another reason I liked going to the gun shops...the dogs.

Dad dealt with a guy in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio who was actually old. He was around 70 at the time. My age today. Wow! Anyway, the man had a gun shop in an attached garage at his home. It was all finished out and was a really neat place. Dad bought his Blackhawk .44 Magnum revolver there. He got the gun, western holster, a cleaning kit and a box of ammo and payed a whopping $100 for the works. And the gun was new at the time. Holy crap!

The man's shop was the shop of the '50s. Just a really cool place. All total, dad had dealings with around eight to ten local gun shops. They all knew his name.

When I first got into black powder shooting back around 1978, I bought a .44 caliber cap and ball revolver from a shop in a man's home basement in Fairlawn, Ohio. The gun cost me $79. It was a nice shop. I also bought a .38 police Taurus revolver from Dick's Sporting Goods shop in the early 1980s for $89. I began dealing with Dick's for several years until they closed down. I had bought two shotguns and a couple of old World War II Japanese rifles, a 6.5 and a 7.7 from Dick's. The Japanese rifles cost me $25 each. Those were the days.

Today, gun shops are too sterile for me. They are all bright, sunny places where I just don't feel very comfortable. I go in, get what I need and get the hell out fast. They are run by young guys and everything costs a ton of money. A box of 50 rounds of .44 Magnums back in the 1980s cost me about $8. Today they are well over $50. Back then 30.30s were $6.50 a box at 50-rounds, today about $45 at 25-rounds. And back then .22s were 100 to a box at $3.95. Now 50-rounds for $15. Still fairly cheap. And guns are bought today for several reason. Mostly for self protection. But there are still a few hunters out there.

I still enjoy guns and shooting. I do not hunt. I have no problem with hunters, I just don't want to roam the woods in the snow and cold. But I do like target shooting at the range or in the woods and fields. Today guns are hated by many people who want a lily white world where the closest they ever get to shooting is blowing the paper sleeve from their drinking straw. Well, that's not the world that I see today. Crime and violence has gotten more and more young people interested in owning a gun. But for a rather dark reason. It's sad. Guns made this country. From the pioneers who traveled over the land and through Indian territory to make homes in new places, the old west with the marshals, outlaws and cavalry to the military in all of our wars and then through the gangster period of the roaring '20s and the 1930s, this country has always been a gun culture. With so many gun manufacturers going out of business, such as Winchester and others, it's sad how, in a few short years, gun culture has changed. With all the laws and regulations they have imposed on gun ownership, it's really sad. Believe me, I understand some of it, it's just sad that our society has gone in that direction where we need all these new laws. And the gun shops of the past? What happened? They went the way of the horse and buggy and the cap and ball weapons, they simply outlived themselves. Back in those days, gun shops, like grocery stores and drug stores, filled an important spot in society. Today, not so much. Back then fathers gave their sons a gun for Christmas and their birthdays. It was considered another step toward manhood. And the father taught the son how to safely use the gun and how to take care of it. When you were given a rifle or pistol back then, it was a humbling experience. Today kids do not have the same respect for a firearm. In so many cases the gun is a play thing or toy and this often leads to tragedy. Maybe it's because there are fewer fathers in the home today or because fathers don't take the time to teach their sons the value and the importance of safe gun usage, or both.

Two of the guns that I have built are a Kentucky rifle and a pistol. Both .44 caliber black powder cap and ball weapons. And, yes! I shoot them all.

In any case, the gun shops of my youth are all but gone today. And that is the really sad part of it all for me. I remember better times in gun ownership. But I still enjoy my guns. I do not have a thought of doing harm to anyone with them. However, in the case of a break-in, etc., I know what to do and how to do it. My dad always taught me to safely use a gun. To care for it and make sure it stayed clean and to enjoy using them. His and my target shooting sessions are some of my favorite memories. He's been gone since 1967 when he died of cancer at the age of 56. I was 16 years old when he passed and I am today 71. But I remember well what he taught me. And I remember well the gun shops of the 1950s and '60s. I can still smell the gun oil and the coffee brewing. Oh wait! That may be coming from the kitchen. I think I'll go and pour a cup and, maybe, I'll clean a gun while I'm up.

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My personal favorites are the antique firearms from the pioneers through the old west.

Most of the shops that I remember were smaller buildings loaded with guns.

Back then supplies and accessories were well made. Tackle boxes such as these were made of metal, not cheap plastic like today.

Father and sons looked over the merchandise together.

Big sale at Zinick's Sporting Goods in the late '50s.

Some were at the sale for the deals and some saw the cameraman snapping the pictures. This guy probably never thought at the time that, one day, his picture would live forever on an internet blog.

Barth's Sporting Goods Store.

Bob's Sporting Goods.

Burnham Brothers Sporting Goods.

Dakin Sporting Goods. Bangor, Maine. c1937.

Daytona Beach Area.

Dick's Sporting Goods.

Many of the shops had really cool displays.

A young man checking out a new rifle at a local gun shop in the 1950s.

Edwin Wier. Wier's Gun Shop. Ann Arbor, Michigan, October 1948.

El Cerrito, California.

Gun Room at Paramount Studios in Hollywood.

Another place that guns and ammo could be had was the hardware stores.

Jackson's Sporting Goods, 16 S. Colville, 1961.

Krause's Sporting Goods Store.

Pacific Palisades, Ca.

Sam Pollack at his gun shop. Rifles are right inside the glass window. That would never happen today.

Gun prices are posted at Sam Pollack's shop.

Sanders Sporting Goods Store. Sherman, Texas, 1951.

Shopping at the sporting goods store in the 1950s.

Tyson Sporting Goods. Kenoshsa, Wisconsin. 1960s.

Some shops today still have the flair of the old time places.

Dick's sporting goods is a great store that I have dealt with several times. But it shows the ways that the gun shops have evolved over time.

Frank Lava Gun shop. Little Italy section of New York City. The shop has been there for decades.

Frank Lava Gun shop at night back in the day...or night.

Guns has always been a great way for fathers and sons to bond while hunting.

FOR WEB Woodlawn rifle team - 1956.

In the '50s, it was nothing for a young boy to go out in the country and doing some rabbit hunting alone with his rifle.

In the 1930s and '40s, women began coming onto the hunting scene.

Shop display of decoy anchors.

Old shop sign.

In the 1960s, gun laws was so relaxed that you could actually mail-order a rifle to assassinate a president.

The ads of the times show us just how cheaply priced guns really were.

Today, this pistol would sell for, at least, $185.

BB Guns were all the rage in the '50s.

And no matter how real they looked, no orange paint was added to the end of the barrel so a policeman knew it was fake. For one thing, no kid then was stupid enough to point a gun at a cop.

Guns and beer! An advertizment that would prove fatal in years since.

And while ads like this one catered to the needs of fathers all over the country...

...ads like this did the same for kids. And that was fine since kids were taught to be smarter back then.

Gun shops then had the coolest signs.

And as far as gun prices from then to now...HOLY SHIT!

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Me at the Cook Forest house shooting my .22 in 1958.

Again at the Cook Forest house. Here I am shooting my 25.20 in 1962.

Here's our house in Cook Forest in 1962. Dad's 1958 Packard is in the driveway.

My Scofield revolver.

Cabinet in my den displays my Army days trinkets on the top shelf and some antique pistols below.

My .44 Magnum "John Wayne Stagecoach" gun. It's a copy of the gun Wayne used in many films. His was a 44.40 caliber.

An original Winchester 30.30 model 1892. Last of the octagon barrel.

Stagecoach 12-gauge shotgun plus my Thompson machine gun from 1921.

The guns that I made hang over my den door.

Colt .45 in western holster.

Top flintlock pistol is an original .65 caliber black powder that dates to around 1770.

Antique black powder measure.

Old powder scales were homemade in the '50s or '60s.

A Glock and a Model 1911 Colt.

A few black powder pistols and my Scofield.

World War II anti-aircraft shell.

Original battle ax and spiked ball, or mace. They date to the 1600s and the ball is really heavy. No way would I want to get hit by that thing...or the ax.

This was my first black powder gun. I bought it at the man's home basement gun shop for $65. That was in the late 1970s.

Snake Eyes. I made this gun also as a copy of the pocket guns that the gambler's carried in the old west. It's .32 caliber black powder and has a flat top set of barrels that could be placed against the underside of a table pointed at the apponant.

Another picture of my Thompson. The full automatic has been disabled.

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In closing out this blog, let me say in case you missed it, the 1950s and '60s was a great time for guns and gun shops. I remember nothing but good times there. The grimy, soiled counters, the showcases that didn't match, the dust gathered in corners and the smells of gun oil and metal, what wasn't to like? The old dirty gumball machines were cool too. And the shop dogs!

I think the reason I remember the shops so fondly was because I spent the times there with my dad. He died when I was 16 but I really learned a lot from him. Gun safety, how to take care of my guns, the enjoyment of the loud BOOM and the kick on my shoulder. I have enjoyed those feelings for my entire life. I've gotten used to them and my shoulder no longer turns black and blue. So that's a good thing I guess.

The days of shooting in the back yard are long gone. And I don't get to the range as ofter as I would like. But I can still turn on the vintage channels of old shows and watch Lucas McCain and Marshal Dillon knock off the bad guns. Or I can watch a host of 1930s gangsters shoot up a speak easy. So all is not lost.

But the smells, sights and sounds of the gun shops have long disappeared and now it's like shopping at any other store. The feeling has gone the way of the old time hobby shops, gas stations and soda fountains. But I can still pull out my guns once in a while and oil them up and wipe them down and remember that smell of gun oil in the morning...or afternoon...or evening, whenever I please.

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CLICK THE FOLLOWING LINKS FOR MORE OF MY GUN BLOGS ~

My favorite shop today and one that feels more like the old time shops. I deal there all of the time. Plus they have a really nice gun museum.

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