Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire How much did you pay for your first gun?

For me, $144 for a new Remington model 1100 from the local K-Mart. I had my first real job making $1.25/hr, minimum wage in 1972.

A year later I bought a Texas Instruments SR-11 pocket calculator for $89. So, back then an automatic shotgun cost about twice as much as a pocket calculator. Now the ratio is more like 100:1.

Twenty dollars for a '03-A2 Springfield. Feeding it started me reloading with a set of Lee hand dies.

That would have been about '65.

I worked all summer in '66 for the next one, a Ruger single-six. The Ruger is still in the gun safe, the Springfield is long gone.

$31.88 for a Glenfield Model 20 was what my first gun (Christmas present, I didn't pay for it) cost at the K-Mart in Washington PA in December of '69 IIRC. The next year I bought a Model 94 30-30 with my own money at J. C. Penney for $89 on sale. I was going to get a Marlin but the Winchester ended up being ten or so dollars cheaper because of the sale price.

Still have them both.

About $74.00 for a Ruger 10-22 in about 1974. Still have it & it's perking along very well.

$125 for a used Ithaca Model 37. Had a Cutts Compensator, wrench and multiple tubes IIRC. Not sure of the year, maybe 1975 or 1976. Loooooooong gone!

First gun of my own was a .410 single shot H&R shotgun that my Dad paid $28 for when I was 8. First one purchased on my own four years later was a Remington Model 76 nylon lever action 22 that I paid $40 for at the local hardware store after working for two months for a farmer driving grain truck. Still have both of them.

McInnis,

I think it was $110 for a Savage .30-06 with a 3-9X Leupold. That was 1962.

$68 in 1970 for a .30/30 Marlin and a box of ammo. Sold it for $80 when I went in the army in Feb. '73. Smart, huh?

My grandfather paid $38.00 for my first gun...a Mossberg bolt action .410 in about 1966. Its still in the safe...next to all of his guns.

First gun I personally bought was a New Schmidt 22 revolver for $32. The same gun store had a used one for $27. Talked my dad in making the transaction as I was only a freshman in high school. I wanted it for running my trap line. This was sometime in 71 or 72.

Sorry. The Marlin was my first rifle. First gun was a Western Auto bolt action 20ga with Poly-choke. $25 at Blair's in Williamsport in 1966. Still shoots well.

The first gun I bought was a Sheridan 5mm pellet gun, and I still have it. It's still a hoot to shoot, and many chipmunks and red squirrels met their maker courtesy of this little gun. The first rifle I bought was a Mauser someone had dropped into a Fajen Monte Carlo stock. That one cost 25 bucks.

My first gun and the first one I bought are two different things. I paid $100 for a SKS.

Nine bucks for a brand new single shot Remington .22. I can't recall the model number but the safety knob was on the back of the bolt and to change it, you would give it a 1/4 turn. I shot a crow out of the air as he attempted to fly over me but have never been able to do that since then. That was in 1948.

My first one was a 20 ga H&R Topper, bought at Western Auto when I was 15. Can't remember how much. Killed lots of squirrels with it.

First one I bought was a slightly used 16 ga. 870. Paid $65. A year of so later bought my 1st rifle, 582 Rem 22RF. Think it was $42. not sure. I do remember the 270 M700BDL I bought in 1972 for $168, brand new. Still have both rifles.

Well it wasn't my first gun, I had several hand me downs, but the first one I bought with my own money was a single shot 20 ga. I can't remember the brand other than it was a cheepie and cost around $40.00 brand new in the early 70s. I was around 12 years old. I figured a 20ga wouldn't whop me as bad as some 12s that I already had all the access to that I wanted, and I wanted to move up from a .410 -- Boy was I ever wrong!! I don't think that I've shot a 12 ga to this day that kicked like that little 20. It must of been choked real hard or something.

One day I decided to give an old Baltimore Arms SXS 12 ga. that was built on Feb 1st 1900, one of my hand me downs, a try a few years later. Half afraid of it, I fired off the first shell and it was mild -- I never shot that 20 ga. again. It sat in a closet for the next ten or fifteen years. Then this buddy of mine that I hunted ducks and pheasant with, who was married to a woman that I didn't care much for, asked me if I knew where he could find a cheap 20 ga. so he could get her used to shooting it and start bringing her along with us!!! "You bet," I told him, and sold him that kicking old mule for $40.00 trying not to smile when the deal was going down.

She never did come along hunting with us either!

When I was seven years old a negotiated a deal with a farmer neighbor to buy a 12ga double hammer for gun for $1.75 (my life savings at the time) only upon the approval of my father. Well dad put the hammer on that deal (never forgave him).

Couple years later (seeking no approval this time) I traded a bike that I had worked out for a single shot 22 rifle. No money in the deal just a couple days work picking cherries. Don't recall what I traded that rifle off for.

At sixteen brought home a Colt government 45 auto that I traded for. That didn"t go over mutch better than the earlier shotgun attempt at age seven. Man I wish I had kept that old 45. GW

$18 for a 303 Enfield in about 1962. Army/Navy store

My 1st one was a Sears .22 rifle that turned out to be a very good Marlin. I still have it 40 years later. I can't remember the price but it was under $50.
Years later, I bought my son a Marlin .22 that's almost the identical gun. Most of the parts, including the bolt, are interchangeable.

First one as a gift.. Sears lever action .22 LR $15 in mid 60's. First ones I ever bought were in the mid 70's.. Rem 870 Wingmaster $125 and at the same time a Rem 742 in .308 for $150.

I think my Marlin 25 bolt action .22 cost ~$79 from Montgomery Wards. Nov. 1984. It was given to me as a gift by my parents.

The first gun I ever purchased was a 10/22 w/ a Eaton 50-round drum. $120 from a small sporting goods store in downtown Mesa, AZ. 1985.

Bought a Sheridan 5mm or a Winchester model 270 22 pump. I don't rememberer which was first, about 63 or 4. Sold the prone to jam POS Winchester couple or so years later. Still have the Sheridan, killed a squirrel with it today.
Don't remember what I paid for the 270, gave $27 and change for the Sheridan.

Next was a used Single-six for $30. I guess in todays world it would be illegal for me to own one as young as I was then.

WHOoooo,....1957 ?

All chipped in with my brothers ( older )

a "trapdoor" Springfield,....from "Ye Olde Hunter", ....the funny lookin' cartoon with the hillbilly holding a droopy barreled pidstola.

There was balloon head cases,.....original BP / lead included in that order,...it came by mail.

We coulda' "put our eyes out" or "hurt somebody".

....never happened.

BTW,.....you can reload old .45-70 cases with Match-head primers, and home brewed BP,..........with slugs formulated outta' sinkers ( that's before you learn to recover your spent bullets)

I'm REAL confident that a new generation of kids will glom right onto these monkeyshines,....directly the power goes off.

GTC

August 1969 Win 94 3030. &79.95 at the Base Exchange on Mather AFB. Bear

Model 121 Winchester in 1970 for $21...still have it.

First gun of my own I think dad probably paid $190 for in 1992, remington 870 express youth 20.

First gun with my money was the next year, 1993. Remington 700 adl, 270 winchester, $330 on sale �t Kmart. BDLs were $360, I didn't have the extra $30 and I thought the BDL stock was as ugly then as I do now.

It is a remington pump, I believe it is a 760 field master 22. Dad gave me a deal, "you come up with half, and I will help with the other half." So he let me use his lawnmower and paid for gas the entire summer. Do you think I may have come out ahead on the deal? It did teach me that I need to work extra for the things in life that I want, I had no idea about bills or anything else at that time but it was a good lesson. That christmas I go a tasco 4X scope, and it is still one of the straightest shooting guns I own.

I have to just smile remembering all this good thread.

Spent my first ten years coming up like my Dad wanted me to, Christmas gift, Glenfield .22 bolt.

Stupidly traded it 8 years later for $40 worth of gas money to get home.....didn't have anything else with me I could part with that was worth anything.

My first gun was a M37 Ithaca 20 gauge that my mother paid 94.95 at Sears. This was my Christmas present at 12 years old. The first one I bought was the following summer, using all my grass cutting money. It was an Ithaca X5 Lightning .22 semi. for 49.95. Still have them both in good working order.
1D

I bought a bolt action 22 from someone for $15.Seems like it was a mossberg.

A bolt action Kessler Westchester 12ga. $35.00 then a Ithaca mdl 49 22lr for $10.00 both are still in the family.

1958 I bought a Winchester 1890 pump rifle in 22 WRF for $5.00. Shells were frightfully expensive and it wasn't long before I had more than the purchase price invested in shells.

Being the astute horse-trader I was I soon sold it to someone for $4.00, and if I remember correctly he shot it about twenty times, all my ammo, before he agreed to buy it.

A 22 Long Rifle, a Remington 550 for $29.00, looked awful good from that day forward.

$219.00 at Mills Fleet and Farm in MN..

444 Marlin.. 1981..

still have it..

It was the early sixties and I had several yards that I mowed. The biggest one paid 4.00$ and the others less and it was hot and I had to push it to wherever I had to mow. I fell in love with a Winchester model 100 in 308 at the local (Fred Robertson's)gun shop and he let me put it in the layaway. Every Saturday, I would take him money I made cutting yards. The price was $120.00 and I think the most I took him at one time was $12.
Finally the day came when I had the last of the money and when I took it to him, he said "What about the tax?". WELL, I didn't know much about that but after some power begging he forgave the sales tax. Then he said "Boy, you got any bullets?". WELL I hadn't thought about that either. Fred was a gruff kinda typical gunshop guy but I guess he felt sorry for me and gave me a box of that 7.62 ball match ammo that the 'Nam snipers used that cost $1.50 a box. I went to a neighbors pond and shot turtles with it. Man would it blow them out of the water! Like a dumbazz, I sold it or traded it years later.

most of my 'first guns' were free, but I remember paying about $75 for a new flat top Ruger .357, $90 for a .44 Mag, and about $150 for my first SP1 AR15.

First 4 were gifts: A Winchester 62 A when I was six, a Winchester M37 .410 AND a Stevens tip-up .22 pistol when I was 8, finally a Winchester '94 in .32 Win Spl at 12 when I shot my first deer with it. Still have the Winnies and my oldest grandson has the Stevens.

Bought my first service revolver, a S&W M&P for 58.00 bucks in 1966.

Not my first but the one that sticks out in my mind was a Ruger Bearcat that I bought new for $37.50.

The first gun I bought for myself was a Ruger Single Six convertible for around 50 bucks in 1971. I took it out to the dump and shot most anything that moved and lots of stuff that didn't for the price of a buck to the old smelly guy who lived in the shack out there. Every 17 year old should have that opportunity.

$125 for a Beretta AL2 20 gauge, mid 80s I think.

My first gun was a Winchester Model 69A that I received for Christmas 1957. The first rifle I paid for was either a Model 1903A3 Springfield that I got from the DCM in 1958 for $15.00 or a Remington Rolling Block in 7mm Mauser that I purchased mail order from Golden State Arms for $8.99 plus shipping.

I still have both. Unfortunately, I "sporterized" the 1903A3.

$37.95.. Winch. M37 in .410.. And yeah, that tells you I'm old..

First "gun" $5.54 for a Red Ryder via Sears and Roebuck in 1948.
First shotgun was a Christmas gift. Winchester M24 in 16ga 1950 still have it.
First rifle. Win M70 fwt 270 that I paid $94.50 wholesale through the local general store. 1954 still have that one too.

BCR

You are indeed an "astute horse-trader". You managed to lose $1 plus an investment in ammunition. Being the lousy horse-trader I am, I probably would have lost even more!

Since my folks wouldn't even let me have a BB gun growing up, I didn't get my first until the week I moved out to go to college. I bought a Remington 700 ADL (wood stock) in .270 and put a Redfield Partner scope on it. Paid $325 for the rifle and $40 or so for the scope.

Seems like I had 5 guns or so by the end of that first year. Boy was my mother pissed. Don't have the .270 anymore as I gave it to my best friend who was needing a hunting rifle.

H&S imports .22 revolver for $80. 1989

Winchester 9422XTR, NIB, $215 in 1981, still have it. Back then that took a good chunk of the paper route money I was earning and my dad had to make the actual purchase since I was still a youngster at the time.

Remington model 700 in .270 for $99 (new). I'd been reading a lot of JOC articles. Got a scope and mounts and rings at a Herter's store for $30.

1976- Remington 870 Wingmaster w/ vent rib- 3" magnum = $180.00 NIB

Gonna take it hunting today!!

the first one I bought myself, a Winchester 37a in 16ga. $65 in 1975. My first centerfire rifle was a Remington 788 in 308.

When I was in the navy my brother borrowed that shotgun for a freind of his. He left it leaning against the truck as he backed out of te driveway. He ran over the muzzle making it an oval. I had it ciu off and rifle sights installed, killed a few deer with that shotgun.

$40 for a Davis 16ga "certified" shotgun.

My first ones were gifts too. A Marlin 12 gauge pump from my Uncle, a Remington model 12, 22 rf from my Grandma, a model 270 Winchester .22 pump from Mom and Dad and a Browning 2000 12 gauge from Mom and Dad as well. Still have the first two. The first gun I bought was a model 788 Remington in 308. It was under $200 with tax at TG&Y. Came with a 4x Tasco already mounted and iron sights packed in the box. I took my first Whitetail with it. My first handgun was a 949 H&R .22 from a local hardware store, now long gone. I think it cost less than $150, all-told.

paid 175 for an ithaca 37 corn cob 16 ga

Parker-Hale Super..243 $150 in 1968


Ingwe

$O,Grandfather handed over a model 99 .300 Savage,for deer hunting the swamps just south of Houghton lake in north central Michigan.

Mine was a Cooey, can't remember the model # though it's still in the safe. It is a tube feed, bolt action, I seem to recal is was around 12 or 14 dollars in 1969. Bought it with money saved up off my paper route.

1971, i was 13 years old and working at a deep rock service station. there were a couple other guys from school working there. they had drivers licenses and were all about buying cars.

i put a 700 bdl .17 rem on layaway at the woolworth store in town...
when it was all paid off for ~$175 i brought it home with a hardcase, 2 boxes of ammo and a weaver k4 mounted up on it...


i was still working there when i was 16 and bought my 67 fairlane the week before i took my drivers test...

Not my first gun, but the first I paid for ... Remington 700 BDL in .308 new $33 in 1973.

I worked at a West Coast chain in college and we got stuff at cost +10%. This one had been in the store's inventory since 1962 with an original cost of $30.

Same as most, my first guns were gifts. But the first gun I bought on my own was after watching Dirty Harry. I tried to find a SW29, yeah right! So I settled for a SBH 7 1/2" barrel. Don't remember what I paid for it; in '72 I think.

Bought a pre-mil Savage 99-F .308 in 1975 for $165 and killed my first buck with it that fall.Gun's gone,but I still have the receipt.

An '03 Springfield sometime around '62. Think I paid $12.00 for it. That was a fair amount of lawn-mowing money at the time.

Ninety dollars. Bought in 1969.

A Remington 721 .30-06, Redfield mount & rings, Weaver KV,
and an old leather case.

Mine was the same rifle at about the same time. If I recall it was $39 and I think I paid for half and the other half was a birthday present. Mine was tube fed and my brother got the identical clip fed model. Still have it although I haven't shot it in about 15 years.

Jerry

First one I bought myself was a 10/22 in 1980. On sale at Kmart for $89.99

Prior to that it was hand me downs, in particular a tight choked plastic stocked Montgomery Wards labled 20 gauge single shot. It weighed about 3 lbs and made the recoil on everything else seem pretty tame.

About $150.00 for a new Remington Model 742 in 1967.

In 1956 my dad bought me a JCHiggins pump 12ga for $48.88 at Sears. I was 12yrs old. You could have filled a pickup bed with the all the quail that I shot with that gun until well after I was married.
Life is good.

paid $40 for a nearly new Stevens 311 in 16 gauge with 3 boxes of shells and a cleaning kit in the mid 90's at a garage sale......picked it up and asked how much and to this day i think the guy just thought a kid should have it cause every other gun he had was priced higher after i made the deal on the Stevens....

In the late summer of 1953 I purchased a Winchester Mdl 37 single shot shotgun for $21.55 at Henrikson's Hardware in Molalla, Oregon. I still have it. It accompanies me to deer and elk camp and harvests a fair amount of blue and ruffed grouse in the Blue Mountains.

Small world ... dad got me my first gun Christmas 1962 ... Winchester 37A in 20ga he picked up at the sporting goods store in LaGrande. I also still have that one.

Not counting BB guns and pellet guns ('cause they don't count) - my first "real" paycheck was spent, almost entirely, on my first real gun.

I wanted a Winchester Model 70 in 300 Winchester Magnum (because my Dad used a 30-06) and I found one in one of Vancouver's biggest chain-stores. They had the plain-jane cheapest model of the Model 70 on for $172 - so I bought it. The guy went to wrap the one everyone had handled - and I asked for one fresh-from-the-box, unopened.

When I got home and opened the box - there was a Deluxe Model 70 - in 300 Winchester magnum.

I was a bad boy in in 1972, because I never did say anything about that.

My first was also a Win. mod 37 20ga. Got from a friend of my dad, gave him a $20 dollar bill and $10 bucks in quarters, nickles, and dimes. Looking forward to teaching my daughters to shoot it.

$30 for a single shot 20 gauge, that broke down by pulling back the trigger guard.

The first gun I bought was a Remington 870 Wingmaster with slotted forend and uncheckered buttstock 12 ga modified choke. The year was 1963. I paid $89.95 new from Montgomery Ward. Wish I still had it. I sold it in 1964 when I came home on leave from the Navy. I needed money to buy my hunting license. I got enough money for my license and the dealer threw in a Lefever 12 double to sweeten the pot. Try that today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I bought my first firearm in 1962, for $22. It was a Marlin model 25, .22 L/R that I bought at Sears.

KC

That sounds like my wifes old .410, it is Brazilain made "Boito" shotgun if I recall correctly. It was her first gun.

My first gun was a single shot winchester 12 gauge model 37 given to me for my 12th birthday. The fist one I paid for was a enfield number 4 mark 1 that had ben semi sportarized. I paid $17 for it. tom

Paid $155 for a 12g Mossy 500 in 1985. Bought a box of slugs and promptly taught myself how to flinch. I still have it. (the gun, not the flinch ... well on good days anyway).

1966, I think. 13 years old. I bought a Rem 870 Wingmaster for $105 (all the money I earned that summer, washing cars for $1/day- yup, that's right, $1/day). I didn't even know 'til years later that dad had to go down to the gun shop to ok the sale. It wasn't until 1973 that I bought my first calculator for $120. I still use the Wingmaster. Who knows what happened to the calculator. I recently bought a calculator for $1 that has all the functions of that first one.

Ooops. Didn't read the title well. Didn't pay for my first one either. 30-30 Win carbine was a gift.

$89 for a Marlin 30-30 336, new from Gibsons in 1972(?). Dad had to do the paperwork, but I earned the money selling fish I caught that summer.

90 bucks for an SKS after I saw my Dadster had bought one. It started an addiction.

I don't even remember really. The first firearm that I bought myself that wasn't a gift was likely a Remington 870 Wingmaster in .410. At that point I probably "owned" a dozen guns I just didn't pay for them.

$50. Kodiak 22 magnum.

$176 in 1975 for a brand spanking new Ithaca model 37 featherlight. Still have it too.

1960-17yrs old, mowed lawns, cleared lots, birthday money. Used mod.70 winchester in .308 w/balvar 8 scope, $125. Wish I had it today.

Tigre

Nothing my grand dad gave me his old Marlin Octagon Barreled 22 Lever Action and a old Damascus twist Double Barreled Shotgun. It was only safe to shoot low base 112ga Shot Shells through it as we were afraid it would come unwound.

First deer rifle was a Remington Model 742 BDL in 30/06 paid about $250 NIB.

First new Shotgun was a International Arms Springloaded 12 Ga Semi Auto for about $250 NIB

First new Handgun was a Ruger Security Six just after Ruger released the Security Six on the market paid $97.50 NIB.

All three of the last three was purchased in the middle '60's.

Paid $129 for a Remington 788 6mm Remington from Rankins Hardware in Warrenton Va. It was 1975 and I was 15 yrs old.

First one I bought myself (not a gift from my parents, etc.) was a Winchester Super-X, Model-1 shotgun I purchased in 1976 for $230.00 from my local hardware store.

First one I bought myself was around $200 for a Marlin 1894 in 44 Magnum at K Mart.

Before that my Dad bought me a 6.5mm Carcano for $35 or $40 for my 10th or 11th birthday. It was about the same size as a toy gun that I had so I thought it was cool.

Come to think of it, my Dad did buy us some cool toys. At one time I had a toy '03 Springfield, a toy M-14 that shot spring loaded plastic bullets and a battery powered toy M2 on a tripod.

The first one I bought with my own money was a Marlin Model 60 22lr. I paid about $60.

My first rifle was an Ithaca lever action single shot 22, fifteen dollars used back in 1970.

My first one was a J. C. Higgins shotgun that I received for Christmas at the age of 11. The first one I bought myself (in 1961) was a .30-06 Model 70 Fwt. from Fed-Mart (anyone remember them?). It cost $101.25, as I remember. I don't think that Texas had a sales tax in those days...

Savage 410 single shot for $8 from a traveling salesman, later a 1917 Enfield for $15 from the J.C. whitney catelog.

Heck, this makes me think - I'm getting old.
I got my first rifle, a single shot, bolt action .22, with S&H green stamps in the 50's.
S&H were 'trading' stamps we got from the stores we shopped in.
I don't know the face value of the rifle, but recall that my brother and I saved a lot of stamps to trade them in for the rifle. Actually our father traded them in for us - that's all, no dumb government rules or silly PC stuff back then.
And, my brother and I survived to lead productive, responsible lives! Without all the government intervention!
Go figure.
Merry Christmas!

I paid about $60 for a Marlin semi auto .22 with a Tasco scope when I was 14 years old in 1970. I hitch hiked to a department store(Monky wards, sears or something, cant remember) and hitch hiked home with it. This was in PG County MD. Try that today! The gun never did shoot right.