Where did people get gun info before the internet?

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Where did people get gun info before the internet?

Posted: 1/14/2006 9:48:42 AM EDT

I made a few regrettable purchases of firearms/accessories but fortunately not too many. Where did you get your info before the internet? I can't believe all the mistakes I've avoided.

Posted: 1/14/2006 9:49:46 AM EDT

[#1]

I was lucky enough to be from a family of shooters.

Posted: 1/14/2006 9:49:50 AM EDT

[#2]

Other people

Posted: 1/14/2006 9:50:13 AM EDT

[#3]

GUNSHOPS!!!

Posted: 1/14/2006 9:50:36 AM EDT

[#4]

Special Ops/ Seals at the Gunshows

Posted: 1/14/2006 9:53:16 AM EDT

[#5]

Gunshops, and most of them around here tell downright lies.

Posted: 1/14/2006 9:55:39 AM EDT

[#6]

Quoted:
I was lucky enough to be from a family of shooters.

I had a cousin who's mother is Jewish and she moved the family to Israel from Czechoslovakia. He served in the IDF for 3 years and was called back for the invasion of Lebanon. He moved to Canada while I was living there. Other than that, I didn't know a single person, family member or otherwise, who was into firearms while growing up. My father was in the Hungarian Army but barely remembers qualifying with a pistol.

Posted: 1/14/2006 9:56:27 AM EDT

[#7]

Quoted:
Special Ops/ Seals at the Gunshows

That is why I allowed for multiple answers.

Posted: 1/14/2006 9:57:08 AM EDT

[#8]

The special space shuttle door gunners at the gunshop, my pops and uncle, and of course through painful personal experience.

"Hey, why don't we shoot metal with our shotguns?"
"Duur, whatever could go wrong"

Posted: 1/14/2006 9:58:56 AM EDT

[#9]

I was casting lead in molds at age 4-5 with my now deceased Great Uncle. He was a hobbyist gunsmith, 2nd Amendment Advocate, WW II veteran sharpshooter, hunter, history expert, conservative gem of a human being.

I was shooting on the range with him at age 6.

I've missed terribly since he died in 1994.

Posted: 1/14/2006 10:01:01 AM EDT

[#10]

Weren't gunrags and gunwriters useful at one point?
I think there was a time when the media was more than another avenue for advertising.

Posted: 1/14/2006 10:02:29 AM EDT

[#11]

Right. Books and magazines.

Posted: 1/14/2006 10:59:17 AM EDT

[#12]

Magazines, magazines, magazines.

And to imagine before the internet I used to actually believe what I read in them!

aa

Posted: 1/14/2006 11:00:53 AM EDT

[#13]

For me, definitely magazines, gun shops and friends.

Posted: 1/14/2006 11:06:43 AM EDT

[#14]

Gun magazines, mostly. Back then I thought the 1911 and Colt Python were just about the coolest guns that existed. That hasn't changed much.

I also thought the MAC-10 with the scope mounted on the suppressor in Escape from New York was the ultimate tactical weapon. I was 13 at the time, though.

Posted: 1/14/2006 11:08:11 AM EDT

[#15]

I doubt my interest in firearms would have ever blossomed into much if it weren't for the internet.

Posted: 1/14/2006 11:09:09 AM EDT

[#16]

Yep, gun rags.

Posted: 1/14/2006 11:20:25 AM EDT

[#17]

Books

Posted: 1/14/2006 11:40:35 AM EDT

[#18]

Quoted:
Gun magazines, mostly. Back then I thought the 1911 and Colt Python were just about the coolest guns that existed. That hasn't changed much.

I also thought the MAC-10 with the scope mounted on the suppressor in Escape from New York was the ultimate tactical weapon. I was 13 at the time, though.

I already have a 1911. I must own a Colt Python before I die.

Posted: 1/14/2006 11:42:34 AM EDT

[#19]

Magazines, Lots and LOTS of magazines

Plus my dads a Marine with LOTS of Weapons training, but the Magazines DID help

Posted: 1/14/2006 11:44:05 AM EDT

[#20]

I wasn't into guns before the internet as I was only 14 in 1990.

I do remember browsing rec.guns via a local BBS with my awesome 14.4K modem.

Posted: 1/14/2006 11:45:27 AM EDT

[#21]

Go read a few average threads. We're STILL not getting gun info.

Posted: 1/14/2006 11:48:25 AM EDT

[#22]

Quoted:
I doubt my interest in firearms would have ever blossomed into much if it weren't for the internet.

A big +1

I would have been to terrified to put down a few hundred bucks on an AR had i not learned what to look for from the interenet.

Posted: 1/14/2006 11:50:04 AM EDT

[#23]

Quoted:
Magazines, Lots and LOTS of magazines

Yep.

Of course that was when I was a youngster,and I didn't realize that just because some guy in a magazine wrote it, it might not be true.

It took the internet to teach me gun magazine writer's suck.

Posted: 1/14/2006 11:58:54 AM EDT

[#24]

tons of magazines......I still have a lot of them, too.

Some good info from other people, but you have to be careful, then and now, a lot of it is worthless. Just like on ARFCOM!!

GR

Posted: 1/14/2006 12:10:42 PM EDT

[#25]

There was a time before the internet?

Posted: 1/14/2006 12:24:37 PM EDT

[#26]

Did some reading, talked to others at the range, Shows, shops suck because every damn gun shoots "great" especially if they are selling it, painful experiences rate right up there, there was a reason auto ordnance are and were half the price of a "real" 1911s

And why minis never hit crap on shows.

Posted: 1/14/2006 12:29:11 PM EDT

[#27]

Painful, painful personal experiences are the way we learned...

God Bless the Internet

Posted: 1/14/2006 12:43:58 PM EDT

[#28]

My grandfather, one of the last old-time cowboys. He rode horses long before ever getting a car, taught me how to shoot, how to play gin & solitaire, and the value of hard work at a young age. We'd drive into the hills and shoot, and my first time shooting over the backstop was my last. He gave me my first BB gun. It was a sad day when Alzheimer's ravaged his once-keen mind. An unscrupulous family member took almost all of his guns when he died, but I treasure the .22 rifle & pistol that we salvaged. I grew to be almost as tall as he, but always remember him as a giant.

Oh, and my Guns & Ammo subscription expired in 1986, just barely into my teenage years. I remember drooling over the "Machine Gun Annual" and daydreaming about buying one at age 21. Little did I know...

Posted: 1/14/2006 12:55:17 PM EDT

[#29]

Before the internet all you had were :

Magazine articles

I picked up a vast amount of firearms knowledge from reading Peter Kokalis in the pages of SOF magazine.

Dram out

Posted: 1/14/2006 1:09:50 PM EDT

[#30]

Most of family either still shoots all the time or did, I picked up most of what I know from them. I've learned quite a bit from this site as well. I doubt this could be said now, but according to my Dad there wasnt much BS in the gun mags of the 60's, 70's and early 80's, and you could actually believe what you read in them, so he got alot of his info from gun mags, and alot more from just experimenting with different things, or listening to the older shooters at Silhouette matches.

Posted: 1/14/2006 1:19:40 PM EDT

[#31]

Magazines and Shooter's Bibles.

Posted: 1/14/2006 1:23:15 PM EDT

[#32]

Chuck Norris taught me everything I know about guns.

However, he didn't teach me everything HE knows about guns.

Posted: 1/14/2006 1:26:34 PM EDT

[#33]

Ex-navy seals.
I've learned a lot from them. 1000 yard shots with m16 open sights, all gouped in 2 inches.
Back then, bullet drop was minimal.
And a lot of tactical advise, and stories that blow all holywood flicks away.
Seems like hollywood based all the movies on these guys' stories

Posted: 1/14/2006 2:33:58 PM EDT

[#34]

Quoted:
Go read a few average threads. We're STILL not getting gun info.

Well, it has happened more than a few times that people will post a question and get several answers that completely contradict each other.

Posted: 1/14/2006 3:36:37 PM EDT

[#35]

We spent $3-4 on gunmags. There we learned that EVERY NEW GUN THAT CAME OUT WAS GREAT! And they never jammed and all of them shot little tiny groups. Yeah, it was great...........NOW, we get on here and we see all kinds of $$$ stuff and we're REALLY broke. I don't know which is worse............And I thought it was expensive buying gun magazines. Yeah right.

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Where did people get gun info before the internet?

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