Those who have gray hair, like me, remember the glory days of buying Swede Mausers from Ye Olde Hunter in the early-1960s.
The M96s were $22.50, but nobody wanted the longer barrel. M94 Carbines, selected ones, were $29.95. Just send in the money and they sent you a rifle.
I even had a Norwegian Krag in 6.5X55 that I bought absolutely mint (for $19.99 postpaid) and that was an elk killing SOB. I remember shooting one big bull right up the ass with a Norma factory 156-grain steel bullet ... the bullet ended up right next to his windpipe and it had expanded to 1�-inches; looked like a propellor.
Just as bad, when I was fourteen, I ordered a 50-pound keg of "4350 Data Powder" (H-4831) from Bruce Hodgdon. The cost was $14.95 postpaid and shipped by Railroad Express Agency. When the keg came in at the Portland train depot, I got a call.
Me and my friend, Ted, stole my dad's car and drove down to the train station. Heck, the old guys there even loaded the keg in the trunk of the car. One of the guys asked, "Steve, are you old enough to drive?" I answered quite truthfully, "Sir, I'm a lot more familiar with a Ford tractor, but I'm doing OK."
Can you imagine a skinny and very gunny 14-year old ordering and taking delivery on a 50-pound keg of powder in today's world? Frankly, we have lost our innocence and our trust and that is a very sad thing.
To put things in proportion, I started working at age ten to support my gun habit. I went to school and worked until 7 or 8 at night in an Associated gas station (remember the flying red horse). Gas was 17.9 a gallon and I worked for sixty cents an hour.
When Karen and I got married in 1964, I was working in a gun and reloading shop for $1.00 an hour; my boss gave me a raise to $1.25 the day we got married. We were both going to college and we bought our home the month before we were married. I'd go to PSU from 7AM until Noon, then work at the shop from 12:30 until 10PM. Then, I'd dive home and study. We finished university with no loans, totally paid for my job at the gun shop.
Then I started the jewelry store in 1966 and the rest is history.
God Bless,
Steve
PS. You might have fun with this. Scroll
sloooowly down to Page 2:
http://www.gunsmagazine.com/1958issues/G0758.pdf 
