Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles I'm So Old - I Can Remember....

Shootems "I'm so old" thread on the CampFire forum got me to thinking about an incident that occurred this last Friday here at my local gunshop.
The owner of the shop had gotten in a small shipment of reloading powders and it was selling FAST!
Including a powder that was on a "want list" of one of my Hunting partners.
It was H 4831 SC - at $50.00 a pound!
All five pounds of that pricey stuff on the shelf sold while I was there trying to get my partner on the phone. Including the last 3 pounds going to a woman who was buying this H 4831 SC for her husband and sons.
Anyway as I was still waiting for a return call I noticed some good old H 4831 (standard stuff - normal cut) and it was priced at $50.00 as well.
Anyway back in 1959 at age 12 I taught myself to reload centerfire ammunition and back then I bought H 4831 (surplus?) for 99 CENTS a pound!
You had to bring your own container and they scooped it out of a large keg of the stuff - but it worked well for me.
In other words I am so old I remember when some reloading components cost 1/50th of what they cost today!
I'm so old I can also remember many decades when primers were ALWAYS on shelves and "shortages" were extremely rare.
Anything you are old enough to remember?
Times they are a changin.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Lawn darts.

Not that old, but do remember the smell of the REAL Hoppes No 9.

What's really disturbing is that the same pound of powder was $22. just a few years ago.

I remember when the Kimber 82 rimfire was a brand new thing.

I can remember when 100 primers were just over a buck.

I’m so old, I can remember…….ah……uh……..now what was that I remembered?
😁

And if I wanted to get fancy the benchrest ones were about twenty cents more.

TeeBone: My VarmintDaughter always puzzled at the aroma of Hoppes #9 and even as a child noticed when I had been cleaning my guns.
Anyway some years ago I bought a Hoppe's #9 "air freshener" tree for my VarmintTruck.
She noticed it was losing its aroma and bought me a "six-pack" of Hoppes #9 air fresheners for my vehicles.
I now have a lifetime supply.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Mathman: I have always opted for the "Benchrest" quality primers - I don't know why.
I am just thankful, I had in the past, the foresight to buy a lifetime supply of Federal Benchrest 205M's.
By coincidence a gun-nut friend of mine who is in the retail firearms industry reported that NO Federal Rifle primers will be available at retail for at least the rest of this year - I don't know and I don't know why?
"Something" is goin on.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

I ordered a Herters model perfect 357 in the mail. I sent a check and said I was 18. The pistol came in short order.

Very pleasing to your VarmintNose, I'm sure. Must get some. What a magnificent idea. God bless America...where else would someone think of that?

I remember (because I saved the boxes):

100 ct of .243” 100 grain Hornady bullets for $4.99.

One pound of IMR4350 for $4.79.

100 CCI large rifle primers for $1.79

Purchased a Remington M700ADL in 6 mm Remington for $119.99

But in perspective, these were ca. 1970 prices. $10 then is worth $74.51 today, making the rifle above worth $886.70 today….all due to inflation, not price gouging. Let’s go Brandon….and a host of other administrations.




.

I'm so old that my farts smell like Hoppes.

One thing I can remember is Remington 700 BDL rifles NIB for $379 and as I remember an ADL NIB was $299.....Hb

DR I bought an adl .222 for that price. I remember used model 70's pre 64 for 60 to 75$ Most were open sights once in a while a peep. Krags were $15-25.. Model 12s $50. The .222 was brand new. The others were used prices. If I had only known.

I remember buying a new Remington 788 for $89 bucks. Think it was about 1979.

I bought a new BDL in 270, got to go through and pick the nicest wood out of 20 rifles for $134. from a Gibsons.

Yep. I bought the above mentioned 788 at Gibson’s Discount Center.

I still have the metal can that I bought surplus 4831 I bought for 52 cents a pound in that 50 pound can. I used it all up about 10 years ago.

I bought some H335 that came in plastic lined paper sacks for less than $1 /pound. My Model 88 Winchester was $126 back in 1965 shipped to my door. Later a 6.5 Swede for $69. I walked into Montgomery Wards and paid $12 for a 1903 Springfield.

$50 for a 1949 Plymouth Coupe.

Gibsons. That was the Cabelas for me in the 60's

Gibson's and Howard's