Hubley Texan and Army 45

[GarandTd]

I have a couple of vintage cap guns that date back to 1940's and 50's. They are made by Hubley, a toy company that was located in Lancaster, PA. I'd like to say these were mine or from a family member, but they are more than twice my age. I saved these from the landfill when I used to drive a garbage truck picking up residential waste. These toys predate me by quite a few years, but that doesn't stop me from being nostalgic for a time long since passed.
Do any of you have any toy firearm relics like these, memories of them, or stories to share? I'd love to here them.

 

[T. O'Heir]

Somebody's mom throwing out his stuff?
Still have my Johnny Seven. Don't have any of the projectiles and the pistol is broken, but I'm ready to be a One Man Army if needs be. snicker.

 

[Paul B.]

You might want to look into the value of those two. Some cap guns bring in some serious coin these days. I had that Texan when I was a kid. My dad made a set of wood grips from some scrap walnut for it as the plastic got broken. Guess you could say it was my first "custom" gun.
Paul B.

 

[GarandTd]

T. O'Heir, I would be willing to bet it was someone's kids or grandkids that threw this stuff away.

Paul B. I believe there is some value in these old cap guns. I don't really know how much, but I'm not interested in selling them. They are a couple pieces of Americana and I just think they're cool.

When I was a kid there were lots of toy guns, but they were all plastic. Another one I salvaged was an original Star Wars blaster. It's from the late 70's.

 

[Thomas Clarke]

GarandTd, I had both of these as a kid. For me they were new when I was 8 or so, which is 1960. I think the Texan is about 1962 and the automatic is about 1964. I played with guns throughout that time, as did every other kid. Then came GI Joe and Viet Nam and it was no longer OK.

 

[GarandTd]

I roll my eyes whenever people blame certain toys or video games for the violent actions of a small percentage of our youth. Every generation for 100's of years has had toy knives, guns, swords, video games, and some form of music that their parents didn't approve of.

 

[GarandTd]

Thomas Clarke thanks for the years. I could find ranges of years, but it's hard to pinpoint when exactly they were from. It's amazing how many different variations of these cap guns that there were.

 

[highpower3006]

Seeing that duded up six-shooter reminds me of when I was a small kid in the fifties and I had a Roy Rodgers gun and holster set. I played with it so hard the mechanism failed and I couldn't pop the caps anymore.

 

[GarandTd]

The mechanisms on both of those cap guns are pretty rough and rusty. They're crudded up with residue from the old caps. They seem to function. Both will spring open when the levers are pushed/pulled. The rust on the mechanisms kills me, bit I know better than to clean things like these.

 

[GarandTd]

I hope this thread and the pics bring back some fond memories if nothing else.

 

[Hawg]

I had Hubley's and Gene Autry's and a bunch of others I don't remember the names of.

 

[fal308]

Have a set of Hubley 1860s IIRC with gunbelt /holsters. Used to play with them shooting bad guys on TV westerns. Also pulled the loading levers down and they became my submachine guns for TV war movies and neighborhood war games as a kid back in the 60s.

 

[Gaucho Gringo]

FAL308, are these the ones that have a two piece cartridge the size of of a .45? My Hubley looked like an open top Colt with a cartridge cylinder. The bullet was the length of the cylinder and had a brass cartridge shaped piece that fit over it with a hole in the back of it. You put the cap on the end of the bullet then slipped the brass piece over it to hold the cap in place and then you loaded it in the cylinder. A very realistic cap gun.

 

[Ricklin]

Who else?

There were plenty of cap guns when I was a kid too. By the time of the 60's and 70's the cool cap guns were about the size of a J frame or a Colt dick special.
They used a circular plastic cap, and were quite loud. Any one else remember those? I think the ring of caps had 8 shots.
Mostly cheap alloy like Zamak, they felt like a real gun when we were kids.

 

[GarandTd]

I was a kid of the 80's. We had the revolvers that used the plastic ring of caps also, but the guns were all plastic.there were also Uzis that would use a strip of caps similar to the rings, but in a straight line. As I got older they evolved into plastic machine guns with a mechanism that would mimic(poorly) bursts of machine gun fire. After those came the electronic ones.

 

[SIGSHR]

I had a Hubley Trooper. My first revolver was- a Colt Trooper.

 

[Aguila Blanca]

Cap guns are clearly not C&R eligible firearms, so I have moved this from C&R to General Discussion. It's really off-topic for TFL, but I'm sure many of us got our "start" with firearms running around with cap guns, so for now the moderators have agreed to let it run for a bit. At some point, though, if it gets too far off topic it may have to be closed.

 

[4V50 Gary]

I remember having cap guns as a child. Nowadays kids have airsoft.

 

[GarandTd]

Some of those airsoft guns are made out of metal now so I suppose things have made it around full circle.

 

[fal308]

FAL308, are these the ones that have a two piece cartridge the size of of a .45? My Hubley looked like an open top Colt with a cartridge cylinder. The bullet was the length of the cylinder and had a brass cartridge shaped piece that fit over it with a hole in the back of it. You put the cap on the end of the bullet then slipped the brass piece over it to hold the cap in place and then you loaded it in the cylinder. A very realistic cap gun.

Yes I believe that is/are the gun(s). The "bullets" are long gone but those look familiar. If I remember, I'll take some photos this weekend when I am home.