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  • Biggfoot44

    Ultimate Member
    Aug 2, 2009
    32,884
    Sears , Monkey Wards , Zayres, Memco, Best Products, Hermans , early Sports Authority all had respectable sized Gun Departments .

    Other than if the Owner happened to be a gun enthusiast , by the '70s , maybe half the Hardware Stores would have a few boxes of .22lr b shotgun shells , maybe .30-30 and ..30-06 .

    Before K Mart gained the crown as Nation's Largest Gun Sellers , it used to be Western Auto .
     

    Huck Hound

    Member
    Mar 8, 2020
    84
    When I was 13 I could walk into a sporting goods store and buy 22lr for 39 cents for a box of 50.

    When I came to DC in 1965 there were barrels of rifles at Sonny's Surplus. In 1968 I was gonna buy a Browning Hi Power from Atlas Sporting Goods in downtown DC for $117. Decided not to complete the sale because the wife might have used it on me.

    Bought and sold a number of handguns without the intervention of the govt, before they made it illegal. I think the driving force for all the anti-gun legislation sprang from the politicians' awareness that they could be used on themselves. They weren't concerned much about the citizenry killing one another. Of course, there wasn't much firearms homicide back then either. People were not as violent, angry and just plain nuts. (The more or less intractably insane were confined for their own good and that of society. Now they drive public policy.)

    I remember Sonny Surplus....it was one of my favorite stores. I remember my father taking my brother and I there to buy his cub scout uniform in the mid 60s. He also bought him an axe, a knapsack, canteen and a 6" hunting. My father looked at me a saw that I felt like sh!t because he was getting all this stuff. Then he bought me the same exact thing except the uniform. I still have that stuff today except have no clue what happened to the canteen. SS used to have great WW2 military stuff. But toward the end they changed the name to just Sonnys because they just started to sell non surplus stuff that was junk. That was probably in the 90s when they went out of business.
     

    Huck Hound

    Member
    Mar 8, 2020
    84
    Sears , Monkey Wards , Zayres, Memco, Best Products, Hermans , early Sports Authority all had respectable sized Gun Departments .

    Other than if the Owner happened to be a gun enthusiast , by the '70s , maybe half the Hardware Stores would have a few boxes of .22lr b shotgun shells , maybe .30-30 and ..30-06 .

    Before K Mart gained the crown as Nation's Largest Gun Sellers , it used to be Western Auto .

    Correction...I'm the OP...I said Penn Jersey, but meant Western Auto. I forgot all about them.
     

    brucaru

    Active Member
    Sep 14, 2011
    150
    I was 12 years old and borrowed my brothers 22 marlin to go shooting in the basement of Patterson high school in baltimore city. Open carried the gun the two miles I had to walk to get there. Those were the days!
     

    JoeRinMD

    Rifleman
    Jul 18, 2008
    2,014
    AA County
    Sears , Monkey Wards , Zayres, Memco, Best Products, Hermans , early Sports Authority all had respectable sized Gun Departments .

    Other than if the Owner happened to be a gun enthusiast , by the '70s , maybe half the Hardware Stores would have a few boxes of .22lr b shotgun shells , maybe .30-30 and ..30-06 .

    Before K Mart gained the crown as Nation's Largest Gun Sellers , it used to be Western Auto .

    Back in the early 70s, there were not one, but two gunshops in the Iverson Mall in Prince Georges County. I remember riding my bike up there just drool over the guns at the Montgomery Wards gun department and the Marvin's Sports City. At MW, the gun dept was under the escalator on the first floor. And there were still a few guns at the Western Auto, not more than about 400 yds away in the Marlow Heights Shopping Center.

    JoeR
     

    tallen702

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Sep 3, 2012
    5,102
    In the boonies of MoCo
    Sears, KMart, J.C. Penney's, and Montgomery Wards continued selling guns in their WV stores until the mid-1980s. For about 3 years, you could buy a gun at the mall downtown in Charleston WV from any one of three anchor stores (Sears, J.C. Penney's, and Monkey Wards) that had a firearms counter. I feel like KMart stuck in there a little longer, but not by much.

    As to what happened? Hippies and Yuppies. Stores changed their offerings to reflect the desires of those wielding the most money at the time. Sales at gun counters slowed, it didn't make sense for large corporations to continue paying for so many licenses, so they closed them down and replaced them with expanded sporting goods sections with more home exercise equipment or whatever the fad of the day was. By the early 1980s, former hippies were firmly entrenched in the middle class and the latter half of the boomer generation were climbing up the corporate ladder quickly. They had the money, their folks hadn't passed on the hunting and shooting traditions as much, or they shied away from guns for social reasons, and that was it.
     

    G O B

    Ultimate Member
    Nov 17, 2007
    1,940
    Cen TX
    In the '70s we used to shoot in many of the abandoned gravel pits in PG Co. Occasionally the PG Police would come, and if we were safe they would tell us to 'have a good day', Once I let the Cop shoot my 03-A3 and he let me shoot his service revolver! My how things have changed.
     

    TWM

    Member
    Jul 4, 2013
    51
    Howard Co
    I remember going through the Best Products catalog every year begging my parents for my first rifle. I think my dad finally got me a Marlin 60 just to shut me up.
     

    TheOriginalMexicanBob

    Ultimate Member
    Jul 2, 2017
    32,181
    Sun City West, AZ
    Sears, KMart, J.C. Penney's, and Montgomery Wards continued selling guns in their WV stores until the mid-1980s. For about 3 years, you could buy a gun at the mall downtown in Charleston WV from any one of three anchor stores (Sears, J.C. Penney's, and Monkey Wards) that had a firearms counter. I feel like KMart stuck in there a little longer, but not by much.

    As to what happened? Hippies and Yuppies. Stores changed their offerings to reflect the desires of those wielding the most money at the time. Sales at gun counters slowed, it didn't make sense for large corporations to continue paying for so many licenses, so they closed them down and replaced them with expanded sporting goods sections with more home exercise equipment or whatever the fad of the day was. By the early 1980s, former hippies were firmly entrenched in the middle class and the latter half of the boomer generation were climbing up the corporate ladder quickly. They had the money, their folks hadn't passed on the hunting and shooting traditions as much, or they shied away from guns for social reasons, and that was it.

    During a summer break from school I worked at the local Monkey Wards. I drooled over the Marlin 39 and S&W Model 52 they had...and they sat all summer and were still there when I left for school.

    After graduation I worked for JC Penney for six years. I bought a Remington Nylon 66 and a Remington 870 Wingmaster there...still have both.

    As far as Penney's goes...the corporate masters decided to have a major image upgrade...it was referred to as "Fashion Project"...all hard lines (lawn and garden, tools, tires and accessories, sporting goods) were all done away with as they didn't fit the image of what upper management wanted. To be honest...Penney's was a soft lines company historically and I don't believe their old-line buyers and managers had a clue about how to compete in those markets. They went back to what they knew...clothing, sheets and towels and the like.
     

    Pale Ryder

    Ultimate Member
    Jan 12, 2009
    6,235
    Millersville
    I worked in Sporting Goods at Zayre’s during high school. The one peculiar thing I remember was having to “log” all ammo sales in a notebook with the buyer’s name and drivers license info. We were on the Canadian border, so perhaps this was to minimize the sale to Canadians? Not sure.


    Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

    Which state? I grew up in Michigan and they did the same thing. I left in 77, I think they stopped the practice in the mid 80’s.
     

    delaware_export

    Ultimate Member
    Apr 10, 2018
    3,144
    Prices corner, delaware, Sears (Ted Williams stuff), j c penny, Remington ammo, and about when things were switching to steel for waterfowl hunting. And woolworths. Milsurp stuff, I didn’t know that term then, just the garands and other stuff I wish I bought 20 of were dirt cheap! One of the many woulda shoulda coulda... didn’t! (Also hate thinking about the cheap ak’s in 07-08 I shoulda at a place in GA)

    Used to buy the ammo at Pennys while mom was shopping, and I was maybe 13 or 14 years old. And the you would let a kid like me handle the firearms. Dreaming about the 870!
     

    Baldheaded

    Ultimate Member
    Jan 18, 2021
    1,277
    A.A. Co.
    I remember going to Sandy Point State Park and using dogs to hunt rabbits with my friend and his father. That place was full of rabbits. We always got some.
     

    TheOriginalMexicanBob

    Ultimate Member
    Jul 2, 2017
    32,181
    Sun City West, AZ
    In the 1970s in Frederick there was Shipley's Sporting Goods in the downtown area. A buddy purchased a Thompson 1927 Carbine from them and simply walked down the street carrying it. No one gave him a second look. Doing so now would likely cause a SWAT response.
     

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