72,500 shots with 9 misses

[Macintosh]

Shelburne VT.

I live less than an hour from there. Guess I’ll have to check it out.

 

[Formidilosus]

I live less than an hour from there. Guess I’ll have to check it out.

It’s defiantly worth it. There are a few rifles that I am almost certain they got the dates wrong on, but overall the rifle exhibit is excellent. What it really shows in my view is how common aperture sights really were with hunters in the 1700 and 1800’s.

 

[Macintosh]

I’ll definitely check it out this winter.

…What it really shows in my view is how common aperture sights really were with hunters in the 1700 and 1800’s.

Case in point, right off the museum website:

 

[Formidilosus]

I’ll definitely check it out this winter.



Case in point, right off the museum website:



View attachment 954222

Oh yes. There’s probably 70-80 rifles in there, I’d guess 50+ have legit sights. The greatest collection that I’ve seen of contemporary long rifles.

It’s a whole other interest I have, but you may know that the “knowledge” of what rifles were in the 1700 and 1800’s is that they were extremely short range rifles with notch and post sights at most. Nevermind that nearly all the rifles were destroyed during the steel drives of the two world wars…. But, it’s always seemed preposterous to me that the rifleman of the era didn’t use aperture sights as the various long rifles were born out of German Jeager rifles- which commonly wore such sights. As well the belief that the rifleman only used a ridiculous drawn out affair with shot/possibles bags and not bullet boards, quick loaders, etc.

 

[Billy Goat]

When I see stuff like this it makes me wonder, how much did 22LR cost back then?

Like, 100k rounds seems to me like that would be a chunk of change back then, modern automation makes things like that cheaper.


Of course I could be wrong, I really dont know.

But hearing stories of guys splitting open stumps to reclaim lead makes it seem valuable. But, in Appalachia, everything is valuable.


Anyone got any idea, or how to figure a relative value of 100k .22 rounds from then? Like as a percentage of average income?

 

[Macintosh]

@Billy Goat that question has chatgpt written all over it. I look forward to your book report.

 

[Formidilosus]

Anyone got any idea, or how to figure a relative value of 100k .22 rounds from then? Like as a percentage of average income?

In 1910 it would be equivalent to about $1.00 a round today.

 

[Billy Goat]

In 1910 it would be equivalent to about $1.00 a round today.

I kinda figured more.

Just thinking of how it compares to sponsored events now.

 

[Billy Goat]

@Billy Goat that question has chatgpt written all over it. I look forward to your book report.

I have only used AI to create images or characters, you can use it for other things?

 

[Formidilosus]

I kinda figured more.

Just thinking of how it compares to sponsored events now.

It was human labor intensive- but human labor was way cheaper than it is now.

 

[gbflyer]

When I see stuff like this it makes me wonder, how much did 22LR cost back then?

Like, 100k rounds seems to me like that would be a chunk of change back then, modern automation makes things like that cheaper.


Of course I could be wrong, I really dont know.

But hearing stories of guys splitting open stumps to reclaim lead makes it seem valuable. But, in Appalachia, everything is valuable.


Anyone got any idea, or how to figure a relative value of 100k .22 rounds from then? Like as a percentage of average income?

My grandpa was born in the 1920’s and lived in what was then rural Oklahoma. As a kid he could get a box of .22 shorts for .20 but usually didn’t have it so the hardware store would sell him half a box for a dime.

Little later obviously but some context to cost.

 

[Castle Rock]

Doing the same dumb stuff over and over doesn’t mean much

 

[Slickhill]

Ever hear of Jelly Bryce? He was a policeman and later FBI “Gman” back in the prohibition era. Once billed as the fastest gun alive. He was local to this area, I have friends whose family were friends of his.

My Grandfather tells of Mr Bryce coming to the local fair when he was a kid back in the 30’s and 40’s to put on shooting demonstrations for a crowd. He would shoot impossibly small targets while drawing and firing his 3rd model S&W 44sp or a 22 revolver. For the grand finale he would produce a silver dollar and get a volunteer from the crowd to throw it as high as they could. He would then shoot it out of the air with a 270 and the scramble would ensue amongst the kids as whoever found the dollar got to keep it. He says he never remembers him missing.

Afterwards they’d all wander over to the pavilion to listen to Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys.

Probably all of the exhibition shooters were gifted with exceptional hand eye coordination and eyesight. But they all were most likely passionate about their pursuit and practiced constantly to get as good as they were. After they’d been “discovered” many were employed by firearms and ammunition companies as traveling reps and would have had access to unlimited amounts of ammunition, guns, and targets to continue to hone their skills.

 

[RockAndSage]

exceptional hand eye coordination and eyesight

Good eyesight and coordination are hugely helpful, but what's almost never mentioned outside of some pretty rarified circles is the ability to shift your eyeball focus rapidly, and your mental focus connected to those eyeballs, and connect your perception and focus to the target you're looking at without distraction. Moving your eyeball focus rapidly across multiple planes and distances across numerous targets is a physical thing, but connecting your mental focus to what you're looking at is a psychological and neurological training thing. All of it is absolutely trainable, but it's probably the least spoken-of aspect of high-performance shooting.

 

[Moose83]

Indeed. As well the two world wars did more to kill actual high level knowledge of shooting as a whole than anything else. The path the shooting world was on was spectacular: real data, real information, and with shooters/competitor’s shooting massive quantities of ammo per year. In just a couple of decades it went from custom rifles proof groups from the builders being 20 to 50+ shots per group as a standard, to “well the only thing that matters is the first 3 shots”.

This is an interesting thread and a cool shooting history lesson. I'm not really up on American history (I'm Canadian), but do you think the great depression also had a factor in killing general shooting knowledge as there was less disposable income generally to devote to ammo costs? I try to read everything shooting related I can and I have noticed somewhat of a trend among gun writers of a certain era who either grew up then or had parents who grew up then who liked to mention that shooting more than necessary was generally frowned upon as wasteful. It was also around this era that the 3 shot group started gaining traction.

 

[Formidilosus]

This is an interesting thread and a cool shooting history lesson. I'm not really up on American history (I'm Canadian), but do you think the great depression also had a factor in killing general shooting knowledge as there was less disposable income generally to devote to ammo costs?

Sure it did. But the WWI had a huge hand in the depression.

 

[HuntHarder]

Only 9 misses is pure BS.

 

[Eleven]

Oh yes. There’s probably 70-80 rifles in there, I’d guess 50+ have legit sights. The greatest collection that I’ve seen of contemporary long rifles.

It’s a whole other interest I have, but you may know that the “knowledge” of what rifles were in the 1700 and 1800’s is that they were extremely short range rifles with notch and post sights at most. Nevermind that nearly all the rifles were destroyed during the steel drives of the two world wars…. But, it’s always seemed preposterous to me that the rifleman of the era didn’t use aperture sights as the various long rifles were born out of German Jeager rifles- which commonly wore such sights. As well the belief that the rifleman only used a ridiculous drawn out affair with shot/possibles bags and not bullet boards, quick loaders, etc.

I had no idea! I live 45 minutes away from that museum and I build longrifles. What a resource!!