Just Curious - Gun Thread....

[Big RR]

Here in Delaware, it is illegal to hunt anything with a modern rifle. (legally defined as made since 1897) I don't know about muzzle loaders. The local deer hunters I know use bow and arrow. I don't do it, I have not hunted anything here but birds since I moved to Delaware in 1972.. And that was mostly to watch a good dog work. I was used to hunting rabbit and squirrel with a .22. It just did not seem right to me to go after them with a shotgun, just too likely to ruin too much meat for eating. My rifle shooting since then has been limited to paper targets or rifle hunting with local friends in New Mexico, Nebraska, Michigan, or Pennsylvania. I used a bolt action rifle for all of it

snailgate

I think that restriction is common for most of the smaller states, either an outright restriction on rifles or a limitation on the caliber that can be used (because larger, higher powered bullets can travel further). I don't hunt, but as I recall (from earlier years), NJ only permitted shotguns for deer and pheasant hunting (not sure about smaller game; they may permit smaller rifles (like 22 rim fired) but I am not sure.

few of the kids in my old Boy Scout troop had .22-caliber semi-auto rifles (that was back when you could buy one off the floor of a goddam Holiday gas station for less than forty bucks!!) and used them at summer camp to get their Marksmanship merit badge

I got my marksmanship merit badge in Boy Scout camp using single shot 22s that the camp owned; I never recall anyone at the camp having their own rifle. Were they held by the camp staff or could the scouts keep them in their tents? I do recall that we could carry knives (hunting and penknives) and axes when you "qualified" (the scoutmaster would issue some sort of permit called a tote and chip when you demonstrated you had the skills to use them) and we kept them in our tents, so rifles and guns would not surprise me in some areas. I remember one guy I worked with grew up in a rural and he said they could bring their guns (usually 22s) to school so they could hunt on the way home--they were stored in the janitor's closet during the school day.

[Bicycle Bill]

I got my marksmanship merit badge in Boy Scout camp using single shot 22s that the camp owned; I never recall anyone at the camp having their own rifle. Were they held by the camp staff or could the scouts keep them in their tents? I do recall that we could carry knives (hunting and penknives) and axes when you "qualified" (the scoutmaster would issue some sort of permit called a tote and chip when you demonstrated you had the skills to use them) and we kept them in our tents, so rifles and guns would not surprise me in some areas. I remember one guy I worked with grew up in a rural and he said they could bring their guns (usually 22s) to school so they could hunt on the way home--they were stored in the janitor's closet during the school day.

Yes, they had to be turned in to the camp's instructors, and they were tagged and held in storage at the rifle range by the camp staff, along with any ammunition they might have brought along... although the camp was charging only two cents per round at the time and also provided the 'official' paper NRA-approved targets, so the two or three kids in my troop who brought their own weapons left their ammo at home.

We were allowed to keep our own archery equipment in our tents, however.  I brought my Ben Pearson fiberglass bow (semi-recurve, no sights) and arrows from home when I shot for my Archery merit badge.  After all, I was used to the draw weight, and I'd shot a helluva lot of arrows off it just horsing around at the old clay pit behind the old country club — although I always called it 'practice'.  (as an aside, that was back in the day when a guy could ride his bike across town out to the clay pit on his own with his BB gun or bow and arrows in plain sight, and people thought nothing of it.  Kids today will never know that kind of freedom, and I feel sort of sorry for them)   And I don't mean to brag or anything, but I qualified for the merit badge in both disciplines — standard target archery (think the tournament scene from 'Robin Hood') as well as field archery.

I also remember the old "Totin' Chip" that was issued after you'd satisfied the knife and axe safety course — so you could carry or tote around (hence the name) and use a knife, hatchet, or two-hand axe without without needing an adult standing by.  I carried mine in my wallet until it wasn't much more than lint.

-"BB"-

[Big RR]

2 cents a round--I recall that at camp as well. I don't know for sure, but i think they were 22 shorts that were rim fired, and the rifles were single shot manual bolts. But it was one of those merit badges you could get in a week at camp (like lifesaving, swimming, canoeing, and hiking (cooking too I think), so it was one a lot of us got.

I came from NYC so I never knew anything about carrying guns, but our local park had an archery course (or whatever it is called) set up and we brought our own bows and arrows; when it was open, there was always one of the rec staff there to keep down the horseplay (I recall an older guy (I was around 8) who was trying to convince a kid to let him shoot an apple off his head--he was barred from the course for 2 or 3 months and his parents had to come in to talk to the rec staff member). The tried to run a tight ship.