July 1955 – January 1962 (Main Street USA)
June 1962 – January 1982 (Adventureland)
LOCATION
Main Street Shooting Gallery – Guests could find the shooting gallery on the left-hand side of Main Street USA, in the space used as the Gibson Girl kitchen today.
Safari Shooting Gallery – Like the Main Street gallery, the Safari Shooting Gallery sat on the main drag of its respective land. The Safari gallery building was the largest in Adventureland at the time, taking up much of the right-hand side of the walkway. Today, this building houses Adventureland’s gift shop.
BACKGROUND
Main Street in 1955 had a lot more arcade-style games than it does today, and the shooting gallery was one of the most popular games on the street. With its prime location in the middle of the street, the small gallery drew major crowds and quickly became one of the most popular attractions in the park.
The Safari Shooting Gallery was the Main Street Gallery’s larger counterpart, with more exciting moving targets and more pistols to shoot from. Both galleries drew in crowds of all ages, and brought an added level of excitement to the park.
EXPERIENCE
Both of the shooting galleries had a simple premise; guests could shoot at moving or stationary targets with a pistol. The Main Street gallery had standard targets to shoot at, while the Safari gallery had animals and other jungle-themed targets.
The following map from Yesterland.com shows the original locations of Disneyland’s three shooting galleries (including the Frontierland Shootin’ Exposition, the only one in the park today).
CLOSURE
After almost a decade, the small Main Street gallery could not longer keep up with demand, and the loud popping of guns didn’t really fit into the land’s cheerful mood. So in 1962, Disney closed the Main Street location in favor of the Safari Shooting Gallery, which opened a few months later in Adventureland.
During its 10-year run, the Safari Shooting Gallery had several name changes, including the “Big Game Safari” and “Big Game Shooting Gallery”. Though it was a fairly popular attraction, the park already had a successful gallery in Frontierland (with bigger fire power), and the Safari Shooting Gallery closed its doors by 1982.
TRIVIA
Before the Frontierland Shootin’ Gallery changed to infrared guns in the 1980’s, all of the targets in the galleries had to be repainted each night, since the “bullets” from the pistols chipped away at the paint throughout the day.
Question,
Did Disneyland ever sell BB-Guns in or around the park?
They did sell wooden and plastic rifles and “pirate guns”, but I haven’t heard anything about BB-guns.
Interested in some Disneyland shooting gallery memorabilia? Check out OldSchoolGamer1984 on eBay.
The companies that run (ruin) the inter-net are so anti-gun this was about the ONLY example of an amusement shooting gallery I could find. Wikipedia redirects to a “SHOOTING RANGE”, and emphasizes TRAINING AND LAW ENFORCEMENT over amusement and fun. A .22 Short from a rifle is neither loud nor is it powerful, but it can be dangerous. Then I thought, DISNEYLAND! Yes Disneyland had a shooting gallery in Frontier Land. On some very STUPID advice from the police, my father put a rare expensive small scale Browning SA22 (Semi Auto) .22 Short youth sized “gallery rife” in the attic in Phoenix. The gun was loaded with .22 Short match ammo and all the wax & lube on the ammo melted itself together. I had one big stick of probably 12 or 15 rounds of .22 Short all stuck together and stuck to the follower. I took the gun outside pointed it into a sand pile racked the action and pulled the trigger 10 or 12 times pulled the feed rod in and out, saw a lead bullet moving back and fort. The follower looks just like a bullet so I decided that must be the follower, so it must be empty. Nope! When I got inside to put the gun back in it’s proper case I pointed it into the corner of the room, away all from people, pets, pipes inside the walls, and major appliances pulled the trigger and it shot a hole in some of the furniture. It was a small hole and it’s under drawer pull so no one can see it. Usually shooting a gun off indoors is very unpleasant, often resulting in injury to the ears, especially if it is a big bore pistol round. This was no louder than a cheap cap gun. California has become such a disgusting place, with their DOJ confiscating guns law abiding gun owners registered in good faith, that I am driving 40 miles one way to a spring FACTORY in Arizona and spending a $25 handling fee to NOT spend money in California to repair guns. If I can’t find parts for a gun on line, that gun is usually from the 1800s or the 1700s, or even earlier. There are a lot of obscure guns made between 1900 and 1930 that are also hard to find parts for. Target shooting was once much more popular than Golf, and it’s not that golf was never unpopular. The last dedicated “Gallery Rifles” were discontinued in 1987. Those were Remington Nylon 66 .22 Short Gallery Rifles. By the 1970s, the traveling arcade attractions at state fairs mostly all went to using air guns and a helical screw compressor from which they all shared a supply of compressed air. Then they went to BB guns, and that paper target with the airplane gimmick, that is almost impossible to win. The air is turned down just low enough that the ONLY way to completely shoot out that airplane is to cut a ring around it. I am glad someone has saved the history of shooting galleries at Disneyland. I had to stop showing pictures of myself with guns on Facebook. After 5 years the ONLY pictures Facebook saves are ones that have identifiable gun in them, with a person, so it looks like the only thing I or anyone else are into, is guns. They deleted 1000s of pictures of what I do every day and only saved the 18 or 19 with guns in them.
You have issues man.
.22 shorts at main Street. Then 2400 psi McGlashkin air rifles with lead ball shot at the shooting galleries. 13 shots for a quarter. I don’t recall any pistols.
I was hoping you would have a picture of the Main St. Gallery. I would respectfully suggest a correction to your story. It appears that you used the Sam Mc Kim map to determine the location on Main St. The actual location of the gallery is now the Gibson Girl kitchen and back rooms. When the gallery was removed the Penny Arcade Was expanded to include what we called “the south end”. Since the Candy Palace took over the Penny all that is left of the Penny is what we called “the Penny section”.
I have a couple photos that show front of the gallery with guns,
however this forum does not allow me to post them. I have worked in Arcade Maintenance, of and on since 1974 and also have a good friend that started in arcade when the shooting gallery still existed.
Hi David! Thanks so much for the insider info. I will definitely update the location per your expertise 🙂
Good Website – Greatings from München 🙂
ahh, the good old days of disney land. thanks for sharing, bless.
I thought Disney got rid of all gun stuff in their parks?
They did, for the most part. Disney no longer sell any toys that resemble guns (including bubble guns), and the Shootin’ Exposition is the only shooting gallery left. But those guns are firmly anchored and hidden inside the range, so they really aren’t visible unless you’re standing very close by.
I work in the department that keeps the fronteerland shooting Expo running. Recently I had to replace a rifle. I then walked through the park with the broken rifle. It felt odd to do that. Years ago it was no big deal.
I was a cast member at Disneyland for about a year and a half from 1969 to ’70. I was a ride operator, which means I dressed in costume and helped guests on and off the rides in Frontierland. I worked the shooting gallery one summer and it was very busy, but a ton of fun. California is a different world today. That’s why I live in Arizona.
This game is so hard. I never know if I hit anything.
I have a hard time too. The more people are playing, the harder it is to hear when you hit a target. And I usually have a tough time knowing if I’m aiming correctly or not. It’s fun, but definitely not easy!
nice post