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Old 03-27-2016, 06:35 PM   #121
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Default Re: 1980s American Cars, Guns, Gadgets and Consumer Goods [Atmosphere, look, minutiae

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Ah, ok. Shorter than the Baton Lights, then. Either a very late manufacture of the 1st Generation or a 2nd Generation light, if I've understood their website for generational markings. In GURPS terms, many, if not most, Kel-Lite flashlights seem to be 'Small Tactical Lights' with extra heft, to be usable as batons. Of course, a large head, multi D-cell one might count as a 'Large Tactical Light'.

Thanks a bunch.

Now I just have to hope for an expert in larger lights of the 70s to turn up. What would give a 100-yard beam in GURPS terms in the 70s and early 80s?
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Old 03-27-2016, 06:40 PM   #122
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Default Re: 1980s American Cars, Guns, Gadgets and Consumer Goods [Atmosphere, look, minutiae

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Ah, ok. Shorter than the Baton Lights, then. Either a very late manufacture of the 1st Generation or a 2nd Generation light, if I've understood their website for generational markings. In GURPS terms, many, if not most, Kel-Lite flashlights seem to be 'Small Tactical Lights' with extra heft, to be usable as batons. Of course, a large head, multi D-cell one might count as a 'Large Tactical Light'.

Thanks a bunch.

Now I just have to hope for an expert in larger lights of the 70s to turn up. What would give a 100-yard beam in GURPS terms in the 70s and early 80s?
Dad was a fireman, he needed a reliable light much more than he needed a club. He bought it in 71 or 72.
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Old 03-27-2016, 06:46 PM   #123
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I got my first deer gun (a Remington 700 in .243) at age 12, approx 1983-1984. Of course my father bought it for me, though. Soft points were readily available.

The deer gun to be found in every pickup truck was a .30-30, though- a Winchester or a Marlin, usually. Ballistics are very roughly similar to 7.62x39mm.

I grew up walking around town with a .22 rifle. (In rural Pennsylvania.) We'd head off to the creek to shoot frogs, and to the dump to shoot rats. This was "good clean fun." My neighbors would hire me to shoot the groundhogs that were digging up their gardens. Armed children were status quo, I guess. In most places the kids were released in the morning and told to come home "when the streetlights come on." They were free-range kids- they'd show up at home when they got hungry (if they didn't eat at a friend's house).

And, yes, the first day of deer season was a de facto school holiday.

"Sporterized" Krags were getting rare in the 80s. The performance is lackluster, ammo was getting scare, and the rifles were old and worn. Enfield or Springfields would but much more like for bubba gunsmithing into an ugly hunting rifle. (And, if course, some custom shops made excellent hunting rifles out of them.) I wouldn't mind a nice Springfield sporter.

A surplus MX/991 flashlight might be common. Otherwise, when you say "tactical flashlight in the 80s" I think of MagLite.

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Old 03-27-2016, 06:58 PM   #124
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Default Re: 1980s American Cars, Guns, Gadgets and Consumer Goods [Atmosphere, look, minutiae

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I got my first deer gun (a Remington 700 in .243) at age 12, approx 1983-1984. Of course my father bought it for me, though. Soft points were readily available.
That was pretty awesome of your father.

Do you recall anything about the ammunition in the 80s, who made it and how it was marked? Were those Jacketed Soft Points? How heavy were the bullets?

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The deer gun to be found in every pickup truck was a .30-30, though- a Winchester or a Marlin, usually. Ballistics are very roughly similar to 7.62x39mm.
One of the PCs already owns a Winchester Model 92 in .30-30 and one or more of the NPCs will own a Marlin 336 in the same.

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I grew up walking around town with a .22 rifle. (In rural Pennsylvania.) We'd head off to the creek to shoot frogs, and to the dump to shoot rats. This was "good clean fun." My neighbors would hire me to shoot the groundhogs that were digging up their gardens. Armed children were status quo, I guess.
You won't hear me claiming it is anything but good clean fun for children to shoot frogs and groundhogs. Now, arming bears, however...

Also, do you recall anything about the .22 LR ammunition you used in the 80s? What brands could you buy and what kind of bullets did those have? Was there anything soft or expanding? What about 'ball' ammo, under what name would it be sold in stores?

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And, yes, the first day of deer season was a de facto school holiday.
On the subject of school holidays, did you get a long Christmas break or just time off for the actual holidays themselves, i.e. Christmas Day and maybe the day before and after?

The PCs are in a tiny village on the 20th and 21st of December, 1988, and I'd like to know what the status on the local school is and where all the children will be during the day. Even if there is no teaching on those days, would there be some sort of day-care for younger kids still operating?
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Old 03-27-2016, 07:07 PM   #125
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On the subject of school holidays, did you get a long Christmas break or just time off for the actual holidays themselves, i.e. Christmas Day and maybe the day before and after?

The PCs are in a tiny village on the 20th and 21st of December, 1988, and I'd like to know what the status on the local school is and where all the children will be during the day. Even if there is no teaching on those days, would there be some sort of day-care for younger kids still operating?
It's normally a long break of c. 2 weeks. Public schools let out the last Friday before Christmas and don't pick up again until the first Monday after New Year's. If the actually holidays are being obnoxiously mi-week or inconvenient in some other fashion adjustments will be made but the circa 2 weeks will be met about as closely as possible.

Day care is unlikely in such a rural area. You have extended family or even stay-at-home moms. It's probably not a friendly area for lots of pink collar jobs.
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Old 03-27-2016, 07:14 PM   #126
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That was pretty awesome of your father.

Do you recall anything about the ammunition in the 80s, who made it and how it was marked? Were those Jacketed Soft Points? How heavy were the bullets?
Jacketed soft points, yes, as were almost all US 'hunting loads' at the time. Remington. Not sure of the size, but I tended to favor light bullets at that age, for reduced recoil. Maybe 80 grains? (Don't quote me.)

12 was the legal age to hunt. And I've always been a bit of a shooting prodigy, of which my father was inordinately proud. But you know I think I mis-remembered: I used my uncle's .30-30 for my first deer season, so I got the .243 when I was 13. Then I got a scope when I was 14. And I still have that rifle. I haven't fired it in a decade, but I just can't sell the deer gun my dad bought for me...

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Also, do you recall anything about the .22 LR ammunition you used in the 80s? What brands could you buy and what kind of bullets did those have? Was there anything soft or expanding? What about 'ball' ammo, under what name would it be sold in stores?
I'm pretty sure these were usually Remington, too. You could buy bricks of 500 rounds. There were other bargain brands, though, for plinking. What was the brand? I'm blanking. And there was another common inexpensive brand that had gold-colored bullets. Grr- I can't remember. But, yes, hollow points were commonly available. High-quality Lapua target ammo was hard to get, but could be had if you wanted it badly enough. Usually your FLGS would have to order it for you. You bought it by the box of 25, though. That stuff was (and is) expensive.

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On the subject of school holidays, did you get a long Christmas break or just time off for the actual holidays themselves, i.e. Christmas Day and maybe the day before and after?
We had a long Christmas break, usually through New Years Day. But that was Pennsylvania. And if you had already had a few snow days they would shorten it, or shorten spring break. School districts vary a lot in the US- there is no national curriculum.

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The PCs are in a tiny village on the 20th and 21st of December, 1988, and I'd like to know what the status on the local school is and where all the children will be during the day. Even if there is no teaching on those days, would there be some sort of day-care for younger kids still operating?
Public day care?!? In the US in the 80s? Of course not! Thats why you have a mother, and preferably an extended family in the area. The kids will be out sledding or whatever is popular locally. "Free-range" kids, remember? :)

EDIT-- Aha! It was the Remington budget/inexpensive .22 ammo that had gold bullets! They still sell them in 36 or 40 grain.

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Old 03-27-2016, 07:16 PM   #127
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It's normally a long break of c. 2 weeks. Public schools let out the last Friday before Christmas and don't pick up again until the first Monday after New Year's. If the actually holidays are being obnoxiously mi-week or inconvenient in some other fashion adjustments will be made but the circa 2 weeks will be met about as closely as possible.
That's right fine. Suits the adventure perfectly.

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Day care is unlikely in such a rural area. You have extended family or even stay-at-home moms. It's probably not a friendly area for lots of pink collar jobs.
Right.

Does it break the bounds of plausibility for a lonely, widowed middle-aged female teacher* to also offer day-care/remedial schooling/colouring lessons for the youngest children in the mornings over the Christmas break, at least on the weekdays of 20th-23rd and between Christmas and New Year's?

Even stay at home moms might like to be able to drive up to Fort Kent, Caribou or Presque Isle for Christmas shopping without having to drag their tribe of toddlers with them.

*It's established in the adventure that she was at the school on the 22nd for reasons having to do with children, but it doesn't have to be teaching as long as she was expecting a deposit of one or more delightful tykes.
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Old 03-27-2016, 07:28 PM   #128
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Jacketed soft points, yes. Remington. Not sure of the size, but I tended to favor light bullets at that age, for reduced recoil. Maybe 80 grains? (Don't quote me.)
Wonderful. The exact loads my NPCs need are light JSP bullets for the caliber, meant to have reduced recoil.

For the more middle-class members of the hunting party, an important factor in weapon choice will be ammunition availability. Some of them will choose whichever of .22 LR, .22 WMR, .22 Hornet, .243 Winchester or .30 Carbine offers the best selection of available ammunition that will a) Be able to humanely kill a coyote at 100-200 yards when used by an average shooter and b) Won't blow up a fox at close range, but rather kill him dead with minimal damage to the fur.*

*These might have to be two different loadings, as long as they are both available for the same gun.

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We had a long Christmas break, usually through New Years Day. But that was Pennsylvania. School districts vary a lot in the US- there is no national curriculum.
Good point.

The tiny town in the adventure is actually its own school district and so it doesn't break plausibility for me to have them run to a slightly different schedule, if, say, some of the schoolboard would like it.

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Public day care?!? In the US in the 80s? Of course not! Thats why you have a mother, and preferably an extended family in the area. The kids will be out sledding or whatever is popular locally. "Free-range" kids, remember? :)
Sure, sure.

Not public, then. I was wondering about a private day care, run by a widowed teacher, for some 5-10 children. For example, two particular children important to the backstory of the adventure, whose father was too drunk to watch them or earn much money, for that matter, and a mother who worked a lot of odd jobs to prepare for Christmas.
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Old 03-27-2016, 07:40 PM   #129
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Not public, then. I was wondering about a private day care, run by a widowed teacher, for some 5-10 children. For example, two particular children important to the backstory of the adventure, whose father was too drunk to watch them or earn much money, for that matter, and a mother who worked a lot of odd jobs to prepare for Christmas.
Well, yeah, there's always some old lady around who runs an off-the-books daycare. Even today. Back in the 80s? I'd say that off-the-books daycares are more common than licensed daycares.

I could be a case of sampling bias, but in my hometown mom just stayed home, or worst-case an aunt or neighbor took charge of you. This was rural, though. I'm sure that cities were different.

Of course, my mom worked at the grocery on the other side of town (when she worked) so I could just free-range and swing by her place of work if there was a problem.

P.S.- a 200 yards shot on a fox with an M1 carbine would be a nice trick. Well, not terribly hard, but not really a reliable instant kill. .30 carbine drops pretty rapidly, so you'd really have to know your range.

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Old 03-27-2016, 07:51 PM   #130
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That's right fine. Suits the adventure perfectly.


Right.

Does it break the bounds of plausibility for a lonely, widowed middle-aged female teacher* to also offer day-care/remedial schooling/colouring lessons for the youngest children in the mornings over the Christmas break, at least on the weekdays of 20th-23rd and between Christmas and New Year's?

.[/SIZE]
Some arrangement could be made and as acrosiome says care in private homes was the norm rather than licensed public day care.

If it doesn't break anything for you the lady could be watching he kids at some church-related facility. Churches were also active in this sort of thing.
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