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Camp Perry - 1939

9K views 33 replies 15 participants last post by  Plain Old Dave 
#1 ·
Camp Perry in 1939
From the LIFE Magazine Archives - Bernard Hoffman Photographer








 
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#5 ·
Interesting the number of gals there. Many right shapely and attractive. Also interesting the number wearing high boots with walking heels and britches (or maybe Jodhpurs). Interesting time, wonder how many people realized the world was about to go crazy?
 
#12 ·
noticed that as well


and both Marbles Goss and Vaver rear sights used,

some fronts that I did not recognize,

also noticed on the pic with the young lady applying makeup, apparently in a hut, the 3 bottles in the lower left of the pic,

guessing drinking at night was a thing then too,,,(we kept a large cooler of beer, as well as a few bottles of Bourbon around)
 
#13 ·
It is also interesting that the positions and use of the equipment still shows the sport of .22 cal. shooting was still seen a adjunct to full bore. The use of the M1907 sling, the military -chic looks of the female shooters. I have a 1928 catalog an they still spend a lot of time on the 200 yard .22 cal shooting.

Some years ago while overseas I had a chance to speak to a fullbore/22 prone shooter who gave me quite an education on the sport form the pre war period. .22 cal. shooting really took off as the costs of fullbore made it beyond the means of most folks in the 1930s. So they shot .22 cal and in palces like New York city it was the only other alternative, the closet place to shoot fullbore being out in Westchester county or long island.

Great pictures. If there are more, please post.
 
#14 ·
pistol shooter with the box the ground, and detroit police hat,

that box of Western ammo is placed just right,,,,;)

looks like 2 High Standards and a 1911 in that nice, maybe Pachmayr, box,
and a Unertl spotting scope
 
#17 ·
LIFE magazine was the equivalent of "main stream media" in 1939---could you imagine the MSM doing favorable coverage of Camp Perry 2017??? Some things were better "back in the day"--
On a happier note, would love to have the Colt revolver equipped with the King rib, and who knows what else!
I agree our guns are technically better today, but they just do not seem to have the class of those old beauties in
these photos--
 
#18 ·
Few More
There were actually 240 pictures in this set, I haven't tried to find the actual LIFE Magazine issue to see how many were actually published, on average maybe 5-10% of the photographs taken by a LIFE photographer ever saw print







 
#20 ·
Few observations:

1) How skinny everyone is, even the old guy with the beard. People were a bit less porky, even the late middle aged folks.

2) These folks had good equipment. Lot of Winchester model 52 and model 37 Remington's, even as a boy in the 1970s these rifles had a following.

3) Shame there is no Full-bore pictures (other that the slow fire 200 yard targets). I seem to recall that at either the 39 or 40 matches they had M1 gas trap Garands on hand for the small arms school. Be nice to see those.

4) Some famous shooters like William B. Woodring (of small bore fame), Robert R. Lausten (with his wife) and who I think is Alf Hemmings of the Detroit police team (who set a record in 1939 in the .45 team match) in those pictures.

5) Thanks for posting, what a time capsule.
 
#21 ·
Shame there is no Full-bore pictures (other that the slow fire 200 yard targets). I seem to recall that at either the 39 or 40 matches they had M1 gas trap Garands on hand for the small arms school. Be nice to see those.

Thanks for posting, what a time capsule.
Thanks,
I definitely would have posted M1 Garand pictures if there were any
I have seen Gas Trap M1 Garands in other LIFE albums though;

 
#22 ·
Just checked my copy of the 1938 NM report (American rifleman October 1938) and the woman in two of the pictures with the curly hair and the fedora is Kay Woodring, the wife of William Woodring, who won the high ladies or Tom Lewis trophy with a score of 399-27X in that year.

I am sure if one had sufficient old material I think many more famous shooters would be detected.
 
#23 ·
Well looking at my 1939 Camp Perry report from October of 1939, I note the M1 was used by the advanced group in the 1939 small arms firing school. They did fire a match at short rang with it, but I do not see it being recorded in the match entries.

In any case the M1 gas trap would have seen use in the 1939 rifle matches in that capacity.
 
#26 ·
Carbide lamps. The image of the kneeling revolver shooter, with Detroit Police cap, shows him plying the flame from a lit carbide lamp on the front sight. Guessing here: to add soot to the sight to then reduce reflected sunlight? A lamp also appears on the small table where a female shooter is writing on a note paper in an earlier image. Standard procedure when they had a strong sun?
 
#28 ·
Well, seems to. Especially if in strong sun. But my recollection is that I made slightly higher scores in indoor smallbore with smoked sights than without. Sights were sharper it seemed, and that made for better shooting. Can't recall when I saw anybody with a carbide lamp last, though.
 
#32 ·
Not that it matters any more, with optics now dominating the "service" rifle category, but carbide black was by far the darkest non-light refracting surface you could have. On a bright day with the sun directly on the front sight, you really saw the difference between carbide and pain or spray black, which had a slightly greyer tone to it.

By the way as I write this the kids are milling about waiting for Santa to arrive, they seem to keep popping back down stairs, to the detriment of "Santa's" ability to set up things.

Merry Christmas to all tonight and hope you all have a good 25th of December.
 
#33 ·
1911A1'a, what looked like S&W model 14's and some Colts thrown in for good measure. And of course a bunch of model 52 Winchesters. Many years ago local gun shop had a bunch of target rifles And I bought a 1946 barrel dated 52B and was told it had been used by a Mr.Lane still have it today. Had the barrel set back 1" as the carbon ring was almost all the way around inside the barrel.Frank
 
#34 ·
Awesome thread. I happen to have a star gaged 1903 that's a SRS hit for the week before the 1939 National Matches.

Merry Christmas.
 
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