Bent Ramrod
05-14-2017, 08:08 PM
Another one of those topics that only approximately goes anywhere, but I guess the "Manuals" part is as close as it gets.
Shooters in the old days could send in a quarter or half dollar and get a book in which they could enter their sight and target data, with weather, wind, light and other conditions and the scores obtained on the standard targets at standard distances. These were offered by the gun and ammunition companies, or sometimes by a noted shooter. Spare pages in the books offered shooting tips and ads for gun related stuff.
Whenever I can find one of these things at Gun Shows for a sawski or less, I seem to grab them up on general principle. Paper ephemera from the old days is often more archeologically interesting than the more solid artifacts of the same eras. It's certainly less common, like finding a Mayan Codex versus the same pictographs on a Stele, or an Egyptian Papyrus Scroll vs the same hieroglyphics on a monument. Or old ammunition, or a gun in the original box rather than loose.
The low-key advertisements and the careful draftsmanship of the target diagrams is a nice change from the high-pressure ads and computer graphics of now. Maybe it's because they are so uncommon any more, but I like to look at woodcuts and line drawings more than many of the modern photographs or lithographs.
Col. Morton Mumma was an expert shot, and the father of ADM Mumma, a WWII Naval officer of note. Major Goddard, who was the consultant for the US Cartridge Company scorebook, was in the National Guard; can't find too much about him.
195563 195564 195565 195566
Shooters in the old days could send in a quarter or half dollar and get a book in which they could enter their sight and target data, with weather, wind, light and other conditions and the scores obtained on the standard targets at standard distances. These were offered by the gun and ammunition companies, or sometimes by a noted shooter. Spare pages in the books offered shooting tips and ads for gun related stuff.
Whenever I can find one of these things at Gun Shows for a sawski or less, I seem to grab them up on general principle. Paper ephemera from the old days is often more archeologically interesting than the more solid artifacts of the same eras. It's certainly less common, like finding a Mayan Codex versus the same pictographs on a Stele, or an Egyptian Papyrus Scroll vs the same hieroglyphics on a monument. Or old ammunition, or a gun in the original box rather than loose.
The low-key advertisements and the careful draftsmanship of the target diagrams is a nice change from the high-pressure ads and computer graphics of now. Maybe it's because they are so uncommon any more, but I like to look at woodcuts and line drawings more than many of the modern photographs or lithographs.
Col. Morton Mumma was an expert shot, and the father of ADM Mumma, a WWII Naval officer of note. Major Goddard, who was the consultant for the US Cartridge Company scorebook, was in the National Guard; can't find too much about him.
195563 195564 195565 195566