Well ive just got the same yarn to tell as all you boys...same age group dictates that i guess...
Growing up in the 70's-80's, i rekon every third or more home had either a 22 or an air rifle, or both...!!, either behind the parents bedroom door or stuffed in Dads side of the wardrobe...
Everyone knew i shot stuff growing up, so all the kids at school used to all rave about their dads gun stuffed in the wardrobe, & here is the thing...!!!...We all knew where Dad kept the ammo...!! YEp...!!...Even the boys that werent supposed to know where he kept it, knew where it was...
And just to go against the grain of popular beliefs of today, i dont recall seeing any names that i went to school with in the headlines for having shot anyone...!!!...Go figure...
Things were different...Hell i remember the old mans shed, all the guns on racks mounted on the wall...with the various configerations of Wini 92's in 32-20 levers taking pride of place...!!
I knew where the key was hidden for the shed, & you know to this day i dont know if my mother even knew that i knew where it was...
I know the old man did...i was playing darts in there one night after school & missed the board & hit a window, & to my utter amazement it didnt break the window--just left a hollywood type hole in the glass with the cracks radiating out--to this day the old man doesnt believe me that i wasnt shooting the air rifle or a 22 in the shed...!!,,he knows i wasnt that stupid--but if you saw the window youd think as he does...!!
I remember as a young lad--probably adolescent heading into teens, a couple of the blokes in the street used send the message out thorough their sons or neighbours that their air rifle was missing spoggies &/or starlings...so id head up the road the following Sat or Sun if wasnt playing sport & check the sights & shoot a target in their yard...
Id check it by putting out some bread on their back lawn & wait for 5 mins & pop an incoming spoggy or 2...sometimes the blokes would say to stay a while & shoot a few more if i didnt have to run home straight away & they'd get their missus to make me a Milo & vegemite sandwich...
I used to look up to those blokes & felt important & respected, not to mention have a sense of pride that i could help them out--imagine that today--a young fella feeling proud because Mr Jones made him a milo for sorting out his gun...
(I didnt do anything to the rifles-these blokes just couldnt shoot..!! i just adjust the slide on the front sights to its closest setting...
)
How good was it eh...none of those blokes were shooters, they just had a rifle because it was what we were founded on, & mostly from our great grandfathers having to feed the mouths with bunny meat to ride the depression they had to endure...!!...to have a rifle was a right of passage, & despite the laws being so relaxed back then, we all had sensibility--not one of those blokes would have tolerated me being an idiot & shooting birds off the neighbours roof...our sensibility was founded on respect, & having to (or not wanting to) endure the wrath of our parents & feel the shame of doing stupid things with guns...
Could you imagine the average 27 y/o fella now having to go out & feed his family from hunted meat--because of necessity
--
--yea right...!!
...what...shoot a gun...no way... guns are dangerous...
I remember my target air rifle--peep sight would take out a pin head at 10 metres, so i used to head shoot starlings (perfect size head for target peep sights
) out to 15 or more metres as easy as pi$s...it actually got boring...
And Elmer...!!...i used to work in Rundle street, & got to know the bloke running the gun dept in Super Elliots very well-boy did he have the contacts...!!!...maybe even your mate in that gun shop knows of him...??
Anyway, i too remember walking down Rundle Street or Mall with a rifle over your shoulder & no one blinked...
Once if i remember correctly i walked a rifle to the cop shop in Vic square wrapped in a towel with the stock & barrel poking out...
The world, particularly this country has gone mad...we'll give a madman a drivers licence, but anyone who has a gun must be half a brain cell removed from a Psychopath...
I remember decades ago, "someone" being pulled over by a copper on a country dirt road because their tail lights werent working..., they were obviously shooting bunnies & had a silencer screwed onto the end of the rifle...(this was in the day when you could own them but officially not use them...
)...
The copper said to this handsome young sharp shooter to pack it in for the night go back to camp & replace the fuse & resume tomorrow night...
Sensability & responsability...what ever happened...
The man who knows everything, doesnt really know everything...he's just stopped learning...