Life before 1994

[Pedernal]

Back in the early to mid 80s I was a running around my neighborhood with a pellet gun trying to snip birds at any and all opportunities. As were many of the kids around my neighborhood.

Sadly, I can't fathom what would happen if that scene played out today in the current snowflake society.

[EZE]

I was a kid growing up in the 70's. My Dad had a Colt AR15 that he bought at an Army Surplus I believe. They were definitely available to citizens but honestly that was the only one I saw as a kid. He was killed in 1986 by an ex-con that had just been released from prison. I still hear stories from old timers about my Dad and his AR15. Apparently he did some crazy things back in his day.

[EZE]

[ATTACH]1029585[/ATTACH]

A fun Bit of Info.

My Dad's AR looks exactly like this one!

["DOC"]

Forgot to add that Ad is from 1963.

[Worksalot]

I use to think the same way as most of the comments above until my coyote hunting partner started using one. It didn’t take me long to realize that I was handicapping myself by using a bolt gun. While the Savage 22-250 was a flat shooting, dead nuts accurate rifle out to 400 + plus yards, I had little use to shoot that far in East Texas and it was definitely too small for the occasional shot on a big boar hog unless conditions were perfect for a head shot. I found that for my use the AR chambered in 6.8 SPC was and is the perfect coyote and hog gun for me. YMMV

After living and working on cattle ranches in East TX, the need for an AR soon became obvious. In the beginning all I used was a lever action. I had never seen so many wild hogs up close before on a regular basis. They kept tearing up most of the areas I attempted to beautify or improve. Then they started visiting the creep feeders regularly to feast on at night. Almost every day I baited traps and would shoot any hogs out in the open. My boss could no longer have a nice lawn due to the fatties rooting it up.

[Tx_Wader]

My Dad and I walked into an Oshman's Sporting Goods store in Sharpstown mall way way back when the AR-15 first came out to civilians. The guy at the gun counter was a friend of my Dads and he bought one for around $200 bucks and 5,000 rounds of ammo for some sill inexpensive price.

I wore that rifle out, literally. When I got through with it in my high school days it hardly had any riflings and would shoot all over the place, but I killed a truck load of varmints and a doe or two with that rifle.

I didn't want another until a while back when a guy had one in 7.62x39 he wanted to sell so I bought it. Thing is accurate and is good on hogs and deer and I enjoy shooting it and it's a good looking rifle with the right bells and whistles. I like the red dot scope that is on it and it's fast to get on target.

[CBHunter]

Forgot to add that Ad is from 1963.

Figured it was pretty old based on the price.

[SmTx]

I remember being so jealous of some buddies that shot an ar in the early 2000s. Now I have one that never leaves the safe [emoji23][emoji23]

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

[RifleBowPistol]

Other info, it used to be very common for guys to use old WW I and WW II rifles that had been sporterized to some degree, back in the 1950s, 60s and 70s and even still somewhat common in the 80s. I went to school with multiple guys who hunted with sporterized old military bolt actions. I knew one guy who hunted with a old 30-40 Krag, then I knew a few guys who had 6.5X55 Swedish Mausers. I had one buddy who had a 7mm 98 Mauser, my step father back in the 70s had a 8mm 98 Mauser, then later a sporterized Springfield 03 A3.

Then back in the 70s, up to the mid 80s, I knew about three guys who hunted deer with M1 carbines. Then in the 90s, we also had a M14, we hunted deer with.

[Boldent2012]

Other info, it used to be very common for guys to use old WW I and WW II rifles that had been sporterized to some degree, back in the 1950s, 60s and 70s and even still somewhat common in the 80s. I went to school with multiple guys who hunted with sporterized old military bolt actions. I knew one guy who hunted with a old 30-40 Krag, then I knew a few guys who had 6.5X55 Swedish Mausers. I had one buddy who had a 7mm 98 Mauser, my step father back in the 70s had a 8mm 98 Mauser, then later a sporterized Springfield 03 A3.

Then back in the 70s, up to the mid 80s, I knew about three guys who hunted deer with M1 carbines. Then in the 90s, we also had a M14, we hunted deer with.

I use a 7MM Mauser for deer to this day! I love that old rifle.

[zr2chevy22]

I owned a "pre-ban" Colt lower. It allowed me to have the "evil" features such as a bayonet lug, flash hider and a collapsible stock. Those lowers were selling for 700+ back then. I also purchased a transferable converted SP-1 in 2006 and sold it 10 years later for a HUGE profit.

Never hunted with them just used them to burn ammo. But back then a box of 20 5.56 FMJ's were around 1.39 to 2.39 so burning through ammo wasn't as expensive. That's one reason that let to me selling my full-auto was price of ammo went WAY up and a mag dump of 30 rounds was pushing 10 bucks.

[gatt40]

I’m 69 and didn’t see many. Never considered them dear rifles until I bought my first around 2012.

[Jimbo47]

I've thought about what might happen now since there are so many AR's and the evil AK's out there now, so it's hard to wrap my mind around how they would enforce a ban like the one back then.
What would be the easiest, and most likely approach will be the taxing of ammo and new guns as mentioned in some other posts.
Something like that they could probably do signing an executive order in the middle of the night, and then fight it out in the courts while the order stays in effect.
The NRA has had a bad habit of compromise so I don't trust any of them!
There are way too many hunters/gun owners who will stand their ground and say,"you don't need 30 rounds to hunt and be effective." or "military type rifles are made for war, and not hunting!"
Don't get mad at me, as I am on the side of those who own them as do I, and I'm just repeating what I've personally heard several gun owners and hunters say!

[rvd]

Bought my first in 2002 for service rifle competition. That shut down shortly after I bought the rifle. Killed a few things and then sold it. Then built a few for fun. Unfortunately they were all lost in a tragic boating accident.

I can empathize, I lost all of my firearms in a tragic boating accident as well, in the ocean.

[Jimbo47]

I can empathize, I lost all of my firearms in a tragic boating accident as well, in the ocean.

Guns make excellent fish attractor reefs!