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

Drooling over a S&W 29 at a Montgomery Wards.

Klein’s Sporting Goods catalogs lying around the house when I was a kid.

I bought my first center fire LH 700 Rem 270 win at Gibsons in Albuquerque. $169. They had 5 of them all 270 so I got to choose. All fence post but boy was I proud. Shot the barrel out and put on a 24”. It’s about shot out . Man times have changed . In 73 I bought my F150 4x4 extended cab for $4100. We are of a fine group!

When Gibson went out of buisness I bought all of their bullets , all calibers that I wanted Spent over $2000. In todays market they are worth about $10,000. Still have a bunch of them

Bought my first rifle a Stevens Model 10 .22 brand new for $19.00 then a few years later bought a brand new Golden 39A for $89.95.

Remington 700 ADL, 243 for $101.89 worth of yard cutting funds in about ‘66. R-P factory loads were $3.40 per 20. I once hd two full boxes and felt rich. 😊

Well lets get up with the times...

in 30 to 40 years, our children and grand children will be telling others, that they remember when their dad actually owned guns and loaded ammo for them.. that you could just buy it at the store or over the internet....

that people were able to legally own firearms, load their own ammo, and actually had freedoms...

and it wasn't illegal to defend your family, you home and your possessions....

and most people will hear that, and laugh, and respond... "yeah Right!... I bet... ya friggin Liar!"

I can remember when places that sold ammo, gun shops and hardware stores mainly, would sell shotgun and centerfire rifles shells individually. Around here we called it "broken box" buying. I can remember buying a few that way back in the mid 1960's, when I was a teen and didn't have much money.

I remember buying CCI standard vel 22 ammo for $1 for 100 count box.
First rifle I ever loaded for was my 444 Marlin. I loaded 100 rounds of ammo for $20. That was for a 1lb can of IMR4198, 100 Speer 240gr Flat Nose Soft Points, and 100 primers (I had the brass).

Oh yes, I remember this too. When I was a early teen I would buy 5 to 8 shotgun shells at My local Western Auto before My next squirrel hunting trip but occasionally I was able to buy an entire box and damn! I felt rich when I had a whole box of shells for my Winchester Mod 37A Single shot 12ga 😁.....Hb

The Howard's near me had a fish bowl full of odds and ends shotgun shells sitting on the counter of the gun section. It's where I got most of my 12 gauge ammo in those days.

Seems like I recall buying 22LR for 50 cents a box and a brick was $5.00 at the grocery/hardware store in our town, but then again my memory is a little fuzzy.
I got a brick for Christmas one year. Man was I rich!

K-mart would sell bricks of 22 LR for $5/ brick.

I remember the fish bowls with loose ammo as well.

I bought a brick of Winchester 22 LR HP's when I was about 16, and I could not have felt any richer than if I'd had a million dollars in the bank.

I remember when.....
In 1963 I bought (and still have) a used Winchester model 63 for $65 bucks in Downtown Indianapolis and
carried it unsheathed to the circle and up the monument without a second glance from anyone.
Couple years later a used Ruger 357 with leather for $50.
Colt 22 pistols for $35 used.
Rebuilt 56 Chevy 3 speed tranny for $35 with trade in.
My Mother bought $1 of gas each week whether she needed it or not.
Cigarettes were $.25 a pack.
I could get 4 coney dogs and a large root beer and 3 cents change back from a dollar.

I remember when...........
That Savage 99 Featherweight cost me $95 in 1960 ..... through a wholesale catalog.

And that canoe outfitter wouldnt sell me a pistol because i was 'too young.'

A few years later the Savage 99 ( 300 Sav ) acquired a Weaver K4 scope [post n cross hair] mounted in a Pachmayr Lo-Swing mount. The scope cost about 45. That rig accounted for quite a few whitetails. Is still in my rifle cabinet. Has aged a lot better than i have.

The pistol, a Colt Frontier Scout, was finally purchased by my father with my cash for $49. The pistol still works well. Still have the original box and bill of sale.

Remember that back in 1969 i acquired an Ambassadeur 5000 fishing reel for $24,and met a young lady who was well worth having around.

Still have the reel, and that lady and I well celebrate our 50th wedding Anniversary next month.

Things ain't really changed that much when you think about it. :-)

In August of 1977 my younger brother and I were invited to go squirrel hunting in Sugar Creek State Forest outside of Kirksville MO. My oldest brother was going to college there and said hop on Amtrak and come on down. So my my Mom drove us to the Amtrak station in Galesburg, IL and said have fun. My younger brother (he was 14, I had just turned 16) and i hopped on board that train with a duffel bag holding clothes, hunting knives and shotgun shells. Brother carried his cased Savage 20ga SxS; me my trusty 20ga Remington 870 Wingmaster.

We threw everything in the overhead as the conductor stood and watched us. Finally he said "what are you boys doing?". We joyfully replied that we were going squirrel hunting in Missouri. He just smiled and said "Well have fun". I think he wanted to join us.

As a side note. Elvis died while we were on that trip.

The point of my story was that you could never do that today, especially at that age. And that conductor was genuinely happy for us.