Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Back In The Day (Old Country Store)

You could buy shotgun shells by the each , didn't have to buy a whole box. I don't remember how much they cost each though.

I wonder if there is a store anywhere in the USA that still does that ?

Mike

Passing times my friend...
I remember my first handgun,paying for while while still in college,the store owner sold me 12 rounds for a dollar...

Growing up the old store had 22 short for 1/2 cent and long and long rifle were a penny a piece. I believe the shotgun shells were 5 maybe 6 cents a piece.

I wasn't very long after the price went to 1 penny for short, 1 1/2 cent for long and 2 cent for long rifle that they quit selling them like that.

As a 10, 11, 12 year old I bought many shells that way

we used to buy .22 shells individually out of boxes...could also buy smokes the same way.
we sent off lots of squirrel tails to the mepp spinner co. to feed our habits.....

Mike, my Dad said back in the depression era that they bought 3 shotgun shells for a nickle. He also said that if they wounded an animal that it was his job as a boy to run the game down and finish it off w/a stick. They would never waste a shell for a finishing shot on an animal. He told a story of having only one shell and a jackrabbit jumps up and my grandpa missed the shot. He said he cried because he knew there would be no meat to go w/the water bisquits. powdr

Only a few years ago I was in a shop in Casper, WY and bought individual brass. I lost two 7 mag cases out of my box while after antelope and picked up two at that store, can't remember the name.

This is a pic of my great-grandfather in his country grocer in Cleveland, Tn. About 1958.

with the Kayo milk man dropping off delivery.

The original image is much crisper obviously, with a silver certificate the old man is ringing into the drawer.

way cool. my grandparents owned a little store when i was a kid. I still have some of the store tablets. papaw sold groceries on credit to certain people. man i used to love getting a big baloney sammich in there.

My dad owned the local gun shop in the late 50's/early 60's in our small town. He'd sell you whatever as long as you had the cash. IIRC a typical gun purchase went like this ... How much is that used model 94? It's $22. Here's $22. Enjoy your Model 94. He had a 50cal and a 30cal machine gun on tripods in the front window. Both had the firing pins removed. My brother and I used to climb into the window and strafe passing cars.

When I would go to the Jack Sprat grocery store with Mom, they would let me take one cookie from the bin to eat while she shopped. Mohr's IGA across the street would let you buy a nickel Popsicle and have them split it in half so you could take half with you to eat and leave the other half in their freezer to come back and get whenever you wanted.

Bought my first shotgun in the early sixties by wadding up five and one dollar bills and sending them away to a gun store in the south (saw the add in Shotgun News). Thinks it was called Vic's for Guns. It was a used NRA very good sxs 16 made in France. Couple weeks later the postmaster said he had a box for me. Shoved some of my Pa's roll crimped Peters shells in it and started shootin ducks off the Poplar river. I was too young to drives so I just threw the gun over my shoulder and hiked through town and down to the creek.

If ya wanted to buy shells, you might have to wait in line behind the farmer picking up some dynamite or strychnine. Things have changed. Not all for the better.

Remember when .22 shells came in the "chicklet" packs?

When I was a little kid in the 50's we lived in Young AZ, where my old man was from. No electricity, lighting by candles or kerosene lamps, the proverbial two-room school, a couple of dirt roads thru town. There was a rambling general store in Young operated by two bachelor brothers, Ray and Glen Hougland. Houglands' store sat on a small rise in the middle of town and had a gravity gas pump out front. I remember one day walking over to Hougland's store with my dad because Glen asked my old man to help him inventory the place. I sat on the counter eating saltine crackers while Glen and my dad heaved stuff around and dug thru years' worth of accumulated odds-and-ends. At one point, I specifically recall my dad tossing back a dusty tarp to reveal an enormous folded pile of brand-new Levis 501's. When he pointed them out to Glen, Glen basically scratched his head and muttered about "wondering where those were." Later, my old man removed the covering from a large wooden barrel and discovered the barrel was full of money! Because Young had no bank, the Houghlands simply kept their cash in a barrel in their store. Glen shrugged, considering the matter completely unremarkable.

Ray and Glen are both long dead, and their store, insofar as I know, has long been closed. I still wonder about that barrel of money, however....

Little country store near here, with dry goods, local food stuffs/preserves, butcher shop, little deli, beer, hardware & plumbing and basic housewares, ammo of course, hell. Almost bought an angle grinder one day while picking up meat.

Prominent "CCW Welcomed" sign on front door. God Bless America!

After church on Sunday, Dad and I would go to the dump with one of those packs and shoot cans and (gasp!) bottles.

Yup, great memories.

One Sunday it was so cold that our old tomcat spent the whole day licking his balls so that they didn't freeze and fall off. We drove to the dump, kept the car running and the heater going, and I rolled down the window and shot from the car. I suppose that I (like kids everywhere) never told Dad thanks for the effort he put in to see that I got to do things.

Wish I coulda included the smell of the store.

No kid with a good dad ever says thanks enough. Now, I know that leading a productive life is all the thanks they ever wanted. ;-{>8

not quite as old but my first gun was my grandfather buying me a Winchester 190 at JC Penney for $75.

I was rationed a half box of shells each Saturday and had to make it last all weekend.

I still have the gun and gave it to my son.

Bought many a shotgun shell at the liquor store, the Mom 'n Pop stores besides the gas pumps use to have a large jar of pickeled pig nuckles at the check out, and the local hardware had model cars for $1.98 and pocket watches for less than $5.00.

I have set of those scales