
Ah, for yesteryear and the chance to shoot a real .22 rifle at the county fair.
“The slide-action gained rapid popularity through the early twentieth century. In carnival and amusement park shooting galleries, the slide-action became the “gallery gun.” These were chambered for the .22 Short and provided many a young shooter his first live-fire experience. Television, and later gun control, reduced and soured interest in gallery shooting, with the video-game arcade finishing the job.”—C. Rodney James, Gun Digest Book of the .22 Rifle, from the chapter “What Kind of Rifle?”