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

Shorty after coming to this country, I was introduced to the joy that is the Browning SA 22. Went to Ace hardware, and found that 500 rounds of bulk 22’s were less expensive than I used to pay for .17 cal air rifle pellets in the old country. Joy upon joy, tempered only by the ability of that little Browning to digest ammo while shooting ground squirrels.

I picked up a replacement a couple of years ago for the one that wandered off into the mists of time. Just looking at it makes me smile. It’ll go to the first grand kid in due time.

I bought a brand new 6" blue Colt Python in 1978 for $350. In 1962 as a junior shooter the gun club sold us .22 ammo for .50/bx. When I got old enough for a .44 Magnum I bought ammo in the Rexall drug store. Starting to reload in 1973 powder was $7.00 a #, K-mart sold .22RF for $10. a brick.

I remember when ALL Winchester Model 70's were pre-64.

I was born way too danged late!

I remember when my Remington 1100 broke while duck hunting on Sunday morning before church and I called the gunsmith after church and he had it fixed in time to go out hunting in the afternoon.

And I remember back then most of the players on the high school football team had a shotgun or .22 in the trunk of the car or stuck behind the seat of the pickup so we could get out for a little hunting after practice. And nobody had ever heard of a school shooting.

Sometimes it feels like I was just born yesterday.

I enjoyed bringing all sorts of weaponry in my pick-up to school, depending on what season was open, to go hunting directly after school. Again, no one ever got shot or held hostage. If anything, I made more friends and learned more about hunting, guns and loads and game.

$8 for a pound of powder

Zero shortages of nothing, more surpluses of anything

Gas less than a dollar per gallon.

A gold box of federal premium featuring nosler partitions was cheap, less than blue box stuff today. Only bullets offered in federal premium center fire line was sierra and nosler.

Copper pipe elk bugles

Oh yeah, nobody thought a thing about all gun racks in the back window's of pick-ups at the school parking lot, usually loaded with an old 870 pump and a .22lr of some flavor, lots of Marlin Mod 60's and Ruger 10/22's......We would go hunting straight after school....I am so thankful that I was raised in that era, it was a fantastic time to grow up 👍.....Hb

I remember those old Western Auto stores and even feed stores having reload supplies and firearms for sale. We had a grocery store in town called Buttery's that sold firearms and 4831 powder out of 50# barrel containers. They'd also sell it in a bag and scout it out by the pound.

When I was a kid I mowed lawns, chopped wood, and dig shovel work and one summer purchased an carbine at an garage sale. Nobody cared.

Skipping study hall in the spring to go out and shoot gophers.

WildHare: Indeed time has flown by - I am approaching 3/4 of a century on earth here in a week or so and it seems like its been just a wonderful but short dream.
Time flies.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Gunswizard: As a young policeman I can clearly remember "pining" for many years for a Colt Python for duty use.
I had to qualify "Expert" (which I eventually did in a couple of years) first and then have the pistol inspected by our departments armorer.
I just could never get together the monies needed back in 1971 - 1972'ish ($325.00 as I recall).
Eventually our department allowed for issuing Smith & Wesson Model 66's which I "settled" for! Still have that pistol to this day - but never did get my duty Python!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

I remember military 03-A3’s for less than $10.

I'm so old that I remember Remington's advertisement that said, "The 7mm Express - it bridges the gap between the .270 and 30/06, and out performs both." Neither was really true, but I still wanted one for about the next 40 years! I believe a brick of .22lr was $9.99 back then too.

My memory isn't as good as it used to be, but it seems like I could buy .22 LRs for 25 cents a box, and .22 Longs were a nickel cheaper. That extra 5 cents seemed like a real extravagance to a nine-year old. It may have actually been 50/45 cents, hell I dunno. Too long ago.

There was a burger place in my neighborhood that sold burgers for 24 cents, and a milk shake was 24 cents. I think the place was called "Wolfy Burger."

When gasoline actually hit a buck per gallon I felt devastated. It seemed surreal. 1974-ish, it seems? Or was that when it hit 50 cents??

Bugger: When I was 7 or 8 years old (1954 - 1955) I distinctly remember my father and my uncles (his two brothers all three of whom were WW-II veterans) sitting around the kitchen table getting their $23.00 together to send off for a military surplus 1911 pistol!
The pistol eventually arrived and was in great shape - and I watched my dad and uncles shoot it into the huge Cedar stumps on our property in Puget Sound country.
That pistol would be worth about 60 (sixty!) times that amount today.
A few years later when I was 11 or 12 my neighborhood friends and I got our monies together and bought a surplus Lee-Enfield Jungle Carbine and some ammo - IIRC on that one we paid in the high thirty dollar range for it.
Thank goodness none of us were injured nor that we injured anyone else!
Yeah those days are long gone - in so many ways.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

I remember my first batch of reloading components for my new .22-250 in 1972. I bought a pound of IMR 4064 for $5.86, a box of Hornady 55 grain softs for $3.12, and a pack of CCI LR primers for $.99. At the time I was starving my way through college and the components were enough to last the year. The powder lasted two years.

I remember having an opportunity to purchase NIN Colt Python or Annaconda for 395$. Should have purchased a suitcase full of them. Also remember when there were no soda or beer cans.

Doesn't seem that long ago pulling Fnta bottles out of the Firehouse soda machine for 15 cents or a quarter.

I remember the vending machines offering a bottle of Coke for a dime. I thought it was highway robbery when it went up to 15 cents. Candy bars were a nickel and the jumbo candy bars were a dime. A paper kite was a dime, and the premium quality kite was 15 cents. A new VW Beetle was $995 around 1969.

The Gunning-Casteel drugstore at the end of my street had Smith & Wesson revolvers in the showcase along with electric razors and such. I don't recall the price but I'm sure it would have been shockingly low by today's standards. I'll guess that they went for about $129 or so.

Just remembered my ‘70s vintage Sierra load book. Now I know how to get 2800 FPS with a .30-30.