Thread: A Blast From the Past. Firearms Licensing Old Style.

Mate of mine loaned a rifle to his friend who had been in Aussie for years, he knew the guy had a FAL from before he went to Aussie so never thought to ask to see it...anyway the guy shot a deer in the bush and it jumped into a cockies paddock (yeah yeah I know maybe bullshit) where he finished it off, while gutting it the cocky turned up and said the police were on their way, guy hung around for cop and duly showed his license, turned out to be one of the 'lifetime' ones, he never knew there had been a change while he was in Aussie. Went up before the judge and told his story, judge believed him and told police to hand back rifle to owner (my mate) and told police to sort a new license for the guy.
That rifle ended up being stolen years later by owners son who had joined a gang and rifle was used in an armed holdup, when it came to court it was found that the rifle had disappeared from police custody and that part was stricken from the case...if you ever come across a cop using a Browning BLR in .358 ask him how he came by it.

1980 Heading from Ak to Rotorua via intercity bus, Pack and rifle never made it onto the bus. Rotorua straight to the Police station, High Powered Rifle sighted in with 40 rounds, ready to rock. No major concern from the Cops, received the whole package at Kaingaroa a week later. So that had been on the foot path for 4 hrs at the AK bus Station. Different times

Back in mid seventies while waiting for the bus I walked up and down main drag of Dunedin for four (?) hours with my faithful Finnwolf slung over my shoulder.

Nobody batted an eye lid, no AOS materialized.

Changed days…

All aboard.Back in the early eighties before mad dog Prebble 'Saved' NZR along with his mate Roger Douglas, a man could buy a "Weekend Trampers Ticket" for the Friday evening train from Moorhouse Ave Chch to Grey (I think they now call it the Tranz Alpine or some other fancy name).Drop off point with prior arrangement was the unscheduled Mt White Bridge halt where there is no siding or platform or lighting.You would jump 7 foot off the stationary carriage with pack n rifle onto the ballast in the dark.Rark up the Waimak or Poulter deer over the w/end then picked up in the dark same spot on Sunday nite.Paid to jog the guardsman's memory to be expecting you on the Sunday nite.
So this particular Sunday nite I,m standing on the side of the rail & flick my torch briefly at the approaching Chch bound loco driver to stop which I didnt need to do as he was already slowing down for me as arranged.The engine & whole rake of passenger carriages slowly pass me without the train really stopping until its only the final guardsman van opposite me.The guardsman jumps down onto the track next to me and he's waving his signal lantern frantically ahead to the still moving Loco driver who by now is entering the first sweeping bend & can no longer see rearward the guard.I thought WTF & on the trot hurridly toss my three naught three & pack up into the floor of the vacant van just as the driver opens the throttles of the diesel electric.I heaved myself up just like in the John Wayne movies as we speed away from the poor forlawn guard with his lantern dangling limply from his hand in the dark.This of course well b4 the days of cell phones.Just like Sparky I thought I've got to stop the train cause we're all merrily on our way now to Moorhouse Ave.I look for the emergency brake cord but no, NZR dont have them in guardsvans.So then I tried to enter the rake of carriages, but the guard has locked the interconnecting door cause the van is carrying Her Majesties mail, & the key is in his greatcoat pocket.So me and the guard are well fucked by now.Poor old matey starts trudging east along the line for 3 miles to the gangers house at Cass.Knocks on the door & explains the situation.Ganger rings thru to Moorhouse Ave.They signal the guardless Chch bound train to stop at Springfield Stn after exiting the Waimak Gorge.Meanwhile the ganger & the guard jump on a jigger and head off down the gorge line 20 miles to catch up with us waiting 2 hours @ Springfield.Theres some mighty pissed people on the train by now cause they've missed inter connecting buses, flights ,taxis etc and we finally arrive in Chch about 2.00am. Needless to say I dont think the Tranz Alpine do the Mt White Trampers Special anymore- it wouldn't pass muster with the Health & Safety clipboard types these days

Great yarn - old Crumpy would have liked that one...

I don't think it's all doom and gloom, whilst the good old days are certainly well behind us more often than that I get more positive reactions and interested small talk when I walk out of the bush at wairere falls than I do fearful looks and a hurried pace.

Originally Posted by mudgripz

Great yarn - old Crumpy would have liked that one...

@mudgrips yeah nar but unlike a Crumpy tale this one is fair dinkum.Mad dog & Sir Roger have gone,NZR has gone,Guardsmen in their issue black woolen greatcoats their signal lanterns & their vans have gone,my smelly three naught three has gone,the Cass railway settlement with it's Briggs & Stratton jigger have gone, Addington Workshops & Moorhouse Ave Stn have long gone,Tranzrail no longer offer the Arthur's Pass tramper's weekend fare, and they don't even play cowboy and Indian movies featuring The Duke on the telly anymore!Progress

Originally Posted by bluebaiter222

All aboard.Back in the early eighties before mad dog Prebble 'Saved' NZR along with his mate Roger Douglas, a man could buy a "Weekend Trampers Ticket" for the Friday evening train from Moorhouse Ave Chch to Grey (I think they now call it the Tranz Alpine or some other fancy name).....

That's outstanding. A younger, more innocent New Zealand when respect was earned through deeds done and commonsense was a necessary life skill.

late 1960s..hopped on a bus in the Auckland suburbs, pack on back and .303 over my shoulder (no bag), into Auckland City on a Friday evening, walked down Queen St, passed 2 cops who nodded at me, onto the Limited Express to Wellington, hopped on the Interislander ferry (.303 locked in purser's safe), arrived in Picton and hitch hiked to Kaikoura, being picked up by a woman and her young child. No one objected or thought anything was amiss. Legally, you could still do all of that now, but how far would you get? Sigh.....................

A lot more recently, probably 1998, me and a couple of mates were driving up to Taihape from Waikanae. We stopped in Levin to buy some ammo from the sports store in the main st. Our rifles were just lying on the back seat, would have had the bolts in them but unloaded of course. Bought said ammo and walking back to the car heres 2 cops leaning on the bonnet. Asked us where we were going and we told them we were off hunting into the Kawekas. One of them reminded us to either put the rifles in gun bags, or at the very least throw a coat over them. We said "thanks mate", and were just about to head on our way. As we started the car one of them turned back and said through the window, "If ya get any spare venison you could drop it in at the station if ya like"
Need less to say none of it was spare