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Wonderland On Paper: 70 Classic Gun Advertisements Published in Field & Stream from 1940 to 1960
Wonderland On Paper: 70 Classic Gun Advertisements Published in Field & Stream from 1940 to 1960
The ‘40s and ‘50s were unique for hunters and shooters because there had been no civilian guns manufactured from 1941 to late in 1945. In addition, hordes of returning servicemen wanted to get back to hunting, and the result was a demand for new guns that has not been seen before or since.
It’s hard to imagine now how important these ads were. There was no Internet, no Outdoor Channel, and damned few stores. If you wanted to ogle a new gun, this was the only way to do it.
I hope you enjoy them. God knows I did more than half a century ago. --David E. Petzal
Issue date: November 1946
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Photo Gallery Comments (35)
I would love to go back in time with a pocket full of cash and grab up as many of these guns as I could.
i love 27
can you believe that most of them cost 50 dollars or less?
Win Model 70, right off the bat. I'd love to get a replica poster or tin sign of this ad.
Back then the dollar was worth more though.
well...someone just needs to invent a time machine
Yes...the .300 Savage...A real Smasher!
HA.
I have a 99 in .300, and it's very effective on a lot of animals that people will tell you it can't kill nowadays (elk, black bear), but it's surely no SMASHER!
I always enjoyed this type of advertisement. Actually a few approach artwork even if the information provided is sometimes ambitious. I remember the days of our data sources concerning firearms being limited to magazines plus what the hardware store employees and our shooting friends told us. The rest we had to figure out for ourselves.
Want to blow away some snowy owls? Get a Winchester!
#27 is truly awesome
The holiday ads especially give me the warm and fuzzies. Sadly a gun as a gift sounds sick and twisted to many now.
Takes you back!
That is some great artwork!
I like that a lot feature father and son, or man and his dog.
minigunner111, my Father was hell both in the Field and on the Skeet & Trap Range with his Model 12 with a Full Choke. Shot slugs like a rifle and hit Clays as any fine fine trap & skeet gun!
It must be a treat going through all those old F&Ss. Seems they put a lot more in print in those ads than they do today.
Winchester sold roller skates?
Is the Cassell who signed the ad in #48 any relation to Jay?
"A marvel in rugged simplicity."
That ad statement kind of sums up the USA as our country used to be.
I was disappointed to not see any ads for the old mossberg 22's.
Fun post, thanks for the nostalgia!
i got a topper m48 20 ga.!!!
Cool ads! Thanks for sharing these w/us.
I have never seen an ad for the Marlin 90 over and under (38) before and it was a treat. I had one for a few years and liked it pretty well-an underrated o&u.
I really enjoyed the Savage 99 .300 ad with the deer (3) and moose (46) and the Marlin .22's (21&47).
The ad I enjoyed the most was 67 for the Remington 725. An ad like that can really influence one's opinion. Thank you very much for posting this artwork.
It's also interesting how none of the rifles are shown with a scope. I was 19 years old before I shot using a scope with any regularity, and that was with a borrowed '06. Now I bet there are many youngsters who never have used iron sights!
I pade $101.00 for a Winchester M-100/243 in 1963
at the main US.PX and commissary, in Saigon, S/Viet
-nam. shiped it home-for the 1966 hunting season
bberg - I took note of the lack of scopes. The idea of a world with no rifle optics makes some of the long rangers on here quiver!
When these ads were current, it was a rare hunter who had a scope. For hunting deer I feel comfortable out to 100 yards or a bit more with good aperature sights. It changes the type of rifle you need too if you only need to shoot 150 yards. I use a scoped rifle, but want to get an iron sighter for the really bad weather days I am out in where the shots won't be long anyway.
The ads are awesome... I also found a few on other sights that propmoted family shooting and passing on hunting and shooting heritage to our youth.
It's refreshing to see youth related firearms ads from yesterday if only those ads were more accepted today.
It's awesome to see such ads in a time of a more or less self righteous and politically correct society.
I remember many of these adds. I owned some of these guns, and shot many more. Most were good and some were great.
Today Winchester is just another gun, but in those days it was the gun to own.
Buck@score-your-hunting.com
It was my first gun when I was 9 years old. It is the most accurate gun and probably shot thousands of rounds out of it and I still have it today.
I rememberand was influenced on many of these ad from my "yoot" many the guns I have bought through the years by them. I have no regrets. I bookmarked and saved them. So I can see them more often.
Love the old gun ads! Winchester and Remington had the best I believe. I can still remember the Christmas gun ads when I was a kid in the '50s and to me there was no better Christmas gift than that long box under the tree with your name on it.
its great to see pieces of shooting and hunting history and that they are still around...
Wow i wish i had a time machine some of these are super cool
LOVE the old Remington 511 Scoremaster! What a tack driver! Can't find an "inexpensive" .22 today that will shoot like that! I wish I could go back in time and buy a few crates of them! At $10.95 I'd fill up a truck!
I actually have a Remington "target master" 510, well my father has it but I shoot it at my leisure.
Mercy, it took 'till #61 but there it was, Model 81, its older brother the Model 8 in .35rem. was my first loaner. Around my gramps house my cousins & I always kept our ears open for gun talk 'cause thats when we were allowed to handle(under supervision)"THE.35" as it was called. Trust me we also stood in line to handle "GRAMS GUN" a beautiful 99 Savage cartridge counter in .300 Sav. (SHANE post #7, winchester had a 180 ROUNDNOSE, from the reports I heard as a young'un it was a U.P.WHITETAIL SMASHER)The only gun we were not allowed to handle 'cause it was always loaded, was a Model 100 in .308 win..My dads Model 37(#66)is my wifes to shoot as she likes the solid feel & this huge SEARS installed CUTTS adj.choke.(we call it the "RAYGUN".# 67 brought a tear to my eye as it is a "HOLY GRAIL GUN" the 725 REM. in .280, I must leave now, as it is NOW time to pray.
This is GREAT! I love these ads! My favorite is the Kleins ad offering mail order for all different models. Its sad things have changed so much. I would have loved to get my first 20gauge in the mail. Very cool story..thanks F&S
Talk about regrets! Back in 1964 when my Chum, whose parents had a bush camp (rail access only) & I were 14, & shopping at the new K-Mart! A female clerk was taking "BRAND NEW 303's" out of a 4'x4'x4' wooden box. They were packed in grease & wax paper was wrapped around each one. She was taking them out of the wax paper, & just throwing them into a 4'x4' wire dump bin. We told her she should leave them in the paper, because they would get scratched, but she was told to dump them into the bin, minus the paper. We were really sad. We were trying to figure out how we could get $20, to buy 4 of these guns each. 1 to use & 3 to save for when we grew up. But, alas, the guns disappeared in a matter of days, & we couldn't get any money from our parents at that time. c'est levie!
P.S. TO ADD TO MY COMMENT
In case you think the math was wrong!
(the rifles were army surplus, with the adjustable peep sights BEAUTIFUL! )
THE RIFLES WERE $5 EACH!!
These are pretty cool. I like those vintage kind of outdoors things. I have some on my own wall.
Post a Comment
I would love to go back in time with a pocket full of cash and grab up as many of these guns as I could.
can you believe that most of them cost 50 dollars or less?
Yes...the .300 Savage...A real Smasher!
HA.
I have a 99 in .300, and it's very effective on a lot of animals that people will tell you it can't kill nowadays (elk, black bear), but it's surely no SMASHER!
i love 27
Back then the dollar was worth more though.
Want to blow away some snowy owls? Get a Winchester!
#27 is truly awesome
The holiday ads especially give me the warm and fuzzies. Sadly a gun as a gift sounds sick and twisted to many now.
Takes you back!
minigunner111, my Father was hell both in the Field and on the Skeet & Trap Range with his Model 12 with a Full Choke. Shot slugs like a rifle and hit Clays as any fine fine trap & skeet gun!
Win Model 70, right off the bat. I'd love to get a replica poster or tin sign of this ad.
well...someone just needs to invent a time machine
I always enjoyed this type of advertisement. Actually a few approach artwork even if the information provided is sometimes ambitious. I remember the days of our data sources concerning firearms being limited to magazines plus what the hardware store employees and our shooting friends told us. The rest we had to figure out for ourselves.
That is some great artwork!
I like that a lot feature father and son, or man and his dog.
It must be a treat going through all those old F&Ss. Seems they put a lot more in print in those ads than they do today.
Winchester sold roller skates?
Is the Cassell who signed the ad in #48 any relation to Jay?
"A marvel in rugged simplicity."
That ad statement kind of sums up the USA as our country used to be.
I was disappointed to not see any ads for the old mossberg 22's.
Fun post, thanks for the nostalgia!
It's also interesting how none of the rifles are shown with a scope. I was 19 years old before I shot using a scope with any regularity, and that was with a borrowed '06. Now I bet there are many youngsters who never have used iron sights!
i got a topper m48 20 ga.!!!
When these ads were current, it was a rare hunter who had a scope. For hunting deer I feel comfortable out to 100 yards or a bit more with good aperature sights. It changes the type of rifle you need too if you only need to shoot 150 yards. I use a scoped rifle, but want to get an iron sighter for the really bad weather days I am out in where the shots won't be long anyway.
The ads are awesome... I also found a few on other sights that propmoted family shooting and passing on hunting and shooting heritage to our youth.
It's refreshing to see youth related firearms ads from yesterday if only those ads were more accepted today.
It's awesome to see such ads in a time of a more or less self righteous and politically correct society.
Love the old gun ads! Winchester and Remington had the best I believe. I can still remember the Christmas gun ads when I was a kid in the '50s and to me there was no better Christmas gift than that long box under the tree with your name on it.
Cool ads! Thanks for sharing these w/us.
I have never seen an ad for the Marlin 90 over and under (38) before and it was a treat. I had one for a few years and liked it pretty well-an underrated o&u.
I really enjoyed the Savage 99 .300 ad with the deer (3) and moose (46) and the Marlin .22's (21&47).
The ad I enjoyed the most was 67 for the Remington 725. An ad like that can really influence one's opinion. Thank you very much for posting this artwork.
I pade $101.00 for a Winchester M-100/243 in 1963
at the main US.PX and commissary, in Saigon, S/Viet
-nam. shiped it home-for the 1966 hunting season
bberg - I took note of the lack of scopes. The idea of a world with no rifle optics makes some of the long rangers on here quiver!
I remember many of these adds. I owned some of these guns, and shot many more. Most were good and some were great.
Today Winchester is just another gun, but in those days it was the gun to own.
Buck@score-your-hunting.com
It was my first gun when I was 9 years old. It is the most accurate gun and probably shot thousands of rounds out of it and I still have it today.
I rememberand was influenced on many of these ad from my "yoot" many the guns I have bought through the years by them. I have no regrets. I bookmarked and saved them. So I can see them more often.
its great to see pieces of shooting and hunting history and that they are still around...
This is GREAT! I love these ads! My favorite is the Kleins ad offering mail order for all different models. Its sad things have changed so much. I would have loved to get my first 20gauge in the mail. Very cool story..thanks F&S
Wow i wish i had a time machine some of these are super cool
LOVE the old Remington 511 Scoremaster! What a tack driver! Can't find an "inexpensive" .22 today that will shoot like that! I wish I could go back in time and buy a few crates of them! At $10.95 I'd fill up a truck!
I actually have a Remington "target master" 510, well my father has it but I shoot it at my leisure.
Mercy, it took 'till #61 but there it was, Model 81, its older brother the Model 8 in .35rem. was my first loaner. Around my gramps house my cousins & I always kept our ears open for gun talk 'cause thats when we were allowed to handle(under supervision)"THE.35" as it was called. Trust me we also stood in line to handle "GRAMS GUN" a beautiful 99 Savage cartridge counter in .300 Sav. (SHANE post #7, winchester had a 180 ROUNDNOSE, from the reports I heard as a young'un it was a U.P.WHITETAIL SMASHER)The only gun we were not allowed to handle 'cause it was always loaded, was a Model 100 in .308 win..My dads Model 37(#66)is my wifes to shoot as she likes the solid feel & this huge SEARS installed CUTTS adj.choke.(we call it the "RAYGUN".# 67 brought a tear to my eye as it is a "HOLY GRAIL GUN" the 725 REM. in .280, I must leave now, as it is NOW time to pray.
Talk about regrets! Back in 1964 when my Chum, whose parents had a bush camp (rail access only) & I were 14, & shopping at the new K-Mart! A female clerk was taking "BRAND NEW 303's" out of a 4'x4'x4' wooden box. They were packed in grease & wax paper was wrapped around each one. She was taking them out of the wax paper, & just throwing them into a 4'x4' wire dump bin. We told her she should leave them in the paper, because they would get scratched, but she was told to dump them into the bin, minus the paper. We were really sad. We were trying to figure out how we could get $20, to buy 4 of these guns each. 1 to use & 3 to save for when we grew up. But, alas, the guns disappeared in a matter of days, & we couldn't get any money from our parents at that time. c'est levie!
P.S. TO ADD TO MY COMMENT
In case you think the math was wrong!
(the rifles were army surplus, with the adjustable peep sights BEAUTIFUL! )
THE RIFLES WERE $5 EACH!!
These are pretty cool. I like those vintage kind of outdoors things. I have some on my own wall.
Post a Comment