50's Gun Shop/Sporting Goods Store

[Colorado Cowboy]

My Dad owned a sporting goods store/gun shop for over 40 years. It was not in a strip mall and before big box stores. H e sold guns, ammunition, boats & outboard engines, athletic goods, fishing tackle & camping gear. He also rented guns (yep...it was legal then), camping gear and small outboards. My Grandfather ran it and did rod & reel repair. Dad rented a local home garage and had a taxidermist there. The store did everything. I started working there when I was 12, sweeping floors, dusting, cleaning glass and stocking shelves. I worked in there off and on until he closed it.
Eventually Dad closed the store in 1985 when he just couldn't compete with the big box stores and he wanted to retire. Dad was an aerospace engineer during the day and worked it evenings and Saturdays.
The picture is my Grandfather and was taken in 1955. Gramps retired from the railroad and ran the store during the day.

 

[Winchester]

Very cool CC !!

 

[JimP]

I miss those kind of stores. I remember when I was a kid and my dad traveled around the western US with his job the first couple of stores that I would find in town were the sporting goods and the hardware stores, and quite often they were the same store. I purchased my first hunting knife in such a store, a Case XX fixed blade. There was another one that I wanted that had a smaller knife included but I couldn't afford that one. I still have that Case XX after 60 years. A little bit worn but there's lots of good memories that go with it.

 

[mallardsx2]

Very cool! Thanks for sharing!
I bet that photo brings back a lot of memories.

My great uncle was the owner and operator of a gulf gas station, and the big GULF sign was up on our hunting camp outside building wall until I was about 15 when some jerkwad stopped and stole the GULF sign....I have a lot of pictures of my mom in the gas station in the early 60's standing under that sign.

 

[DRUSS]

I really miss those kinds of stores. much more personable. usually much better help when asking questions too.
thanks for sharing

 

[buckbull]

Travesty we are losing these kinds of places.

 

[Colorado Cowboy]

Travesty we are losing these kinds of places.

We had one in Cortez, but when WalMart put in a super store, it went belly up. We do have a couple of gun shops that are doing ok.

 

[JimP]

I have found that when a big box store moves into a area that has those small mom and pop stores, that the mom and pop store needs to specialize in service.

I know a couple of them in Utah that outsell big sporting goods stores left and right just because of their service even if they do sell things for a bit more.

 

[dan maule]

When we were dating and after we first got married, whatever town my wife and I would travel too, I would visit every little sporting goods store I could find. I still do, but there are very few to be found these days. I really like looking at used firearms and there are a few that I am always on the lookout for. She never complained and now she will point out a gun shop when we are passing through a town. I bet there were some great conversations and relationships built at your dad's store. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Ikeepitcold]

That’s so dang cool!

I bet he had the best place around for years to get sporting goods! Man I miss the days of the locally owned businesses like that. There are a few around here that I frequent.

 

[ColoradoV]

Man that is an awesome history!!

 

[Yell Co AR Hunter]

Thanks for the reminder of those days. At my age I got to see a short time of those type business. The said part is I also got to see the fall of them as well. I chalk it all up to the greed of society and wanting to do business with who every had the cheapest price.

 

[RICMIC]

When I was in high school and living in Ely, Minnesota, my older brother bought a Ruger MK 1 .22 at the local Coast to Coast hardware store for $44. He later sold it to me for $50 and thought he had made the deal of the century. I sold it 20 years later for $125 and thought the same.
I am friends with the sons of Dave Johnson, who had built the first Polaris Snowmobile. He told us about walking across the street from their farm equipment fabrication shop and buying a Brigs & Stratton 4 stroke (6 or 8 HP) to power it from the hardware store.
It seems that the small town hardware store is about the last vestage of the old mom & pop stores that many of us grew up with.

 

[Colorado Cowboy]

My Grandfather was a very interesting man. He was born in Stevensville Montana. His mother (my GGrandmother) was from the Metcalf family. His cousin was Lee Metcalf, a US Senator from Montana. He also served in the US Army and chased Poncho Villa in Mexico. I really learned a lot from him.

 

[Yell Co AR Hunter]

When I was in high school and living in Ely, Minnesota, my older brother bought a Ruger MK 1 .22 at the local Coast to Coast hardware store for $44. He later sold it to me for $50 and thought he had made the deal of the century. I sold it 20 years later for $125 and thought the same.
I am friends with the sons of Dave Johnson, who had built the first Polaris Snowmobile. He told us about walking across the street from their farm equipment fabrication shop and buying a Brigs & Stratton 4 stroke (6 or 8 HP) to power it from the hardware store.
It seems that the small town hardware store is about the last vestage of the old mom & pop stores that many of us grew up with.

I have visited ELY a couple times for family fishing trips. Nice place in the summer to get away from the heat in Arkansas.

 

[kidoggy]

everybody misses those stores but few would trade the prices of big box for them coming back.
big box is now going under to amazon. many will miss them also but few will stop frequenting amazon.

 

[ScottR]

My Dad owned a sporting goods store/gun shop for over 40 years. It was not in a strip mall and before big box stores. H e sold guns, ammunition, boats & outboard engines, athletic goods, fishing tackle & camping gear. He also rented guns (yep...it was legal then), camping gear and small outboards. My Grandfather ran it and did rod & reel repair. Dad rented a local home garage and had a taxidermist there. The store did everything. I started working there when I was 12, sweeping floors, dusting, cleaning glass and stocking shelves. I worked in there off and on until he closed it.
Eventually Dad closed the store in 1985 when he just couldn't compete with the big box stores and he wanted to retire. Dad was an aerospace engineer during the day and worked it evenings and Saturdays.
The picture is my Grandfather and was taken in 1955. Gramps retired from the railroad and ran the store during the day.
View attachment 43118

That is some pretty incredibly cool history there CC!

 

[RICMIC]

I have visited ELY a couple times for family fishing trips. Nice place in the summer to get away from the heat in Arkansas.

I now live only 50 miles from Ely. After I retired from law enforcement, I was able to spend seven summers as a wilderness canoeing guide in the area and two provinces of Canada. Like much of rural America, Ely is struggling economically. Tourism doesn't pay all the bills, and the Feds recently shut down the leases to the largest nickel & cobalt deposits in the US that is only a few miles from Ely. China as well as Amazon are our new box stores.
CC - pardon me for diverting from your post. Your dad was someone special, and you are fortunate to have the time that you had with him, and I am sure that he was a great influence on your success in life.