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.