Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Remember when you could buy guns at department stores like Sears & JCPenny?

Used to look at Penney's catalogs as a young buck and still remember the add for the M94 30-30... "dependable, easy operating deer rifle" $99.99 IIRC.

Bought my first rifle, of my own at K-Mart...a Mossberg bolt action .22, can't remember the model.

First deer rifle that I could call my own was a Rem 760 pump, 30-06 also from K-Mart. I think maybe those big box stores sold seconds as I remember the fore end was a lot lighter wood than the butt stock. It was a very accurate rifle and trouble free.

Gibson’s Discount Center had the best & biggest Sporting Goods Dept in my home town. Huge hunting and fishing department. Bought the 2nd or 3rd pistol I had ever owned there in HS. A Ruger BlackHawk.

We also had Sears, Wards, Western Auto, and JC Penny’s that all had small Gun departments and a little bit of fishing gear.
I bought a Ted Williams Model 70 in 30-06 from Sears in HS.
And we also had the TX based Grocery Chain, Furr’s Super Markets that I worked for in HS that had a great Gun Dept. Bought a new Colt Python there my Senior year for $375.

We also had a K-Mart that had a crappy sporting goods section with a few guns but mostly fishing tackle.
We didn’t get a Service Merchandise until they built the new Mall, the year after I graduated HS. They had a small Gun Dept with not much of a selection of guns & ammo.

Still miss the old Gibson’s Discount Center. I think they’re only 2 stores left in TX. One in Weatherford and one in Kerrville. I don’t believe they’re owned by the Gibson Family, but they look the same. Not much of a Sporting Goods Dept, either, like in the 60’s and 70’s when I was a kid. 😬

I still have a Browning BAR 30-06 I bought at Sears in Woodfield Mall Schaumburg, Il when I was about 20.
$375.00 I believe out the door in 1979.

When I turned 16 in 1976, I ordered a Remington 1100 from the JC Penny catalog. I had applied for a credit card and was approved. I think I was making $5 or $10 a month payments. Paid something like $350 for it, I think.
I still have it and it’s my favorite gun.

Your old like me! 😜 I also turned 16 in 1976. 😬

The Ted Williams Model 70 I bought new in HS that I mentioned earlier was also purchased on my first Sears Credit Card. I couldn’t BELIEVE they approved me. 🤠 I think the payment was $10 per month. 🤪

My wife and I bought our wedding rings at Service Merchandise 41 years ago. I can't find the ring. I set it down and now it's lost. I still have the wife.

kwg

A lot of cool history there!

E.J. Korvettes, S. Kliens,

Still have a Ruger 10/22 in the box from JC Pennys. $60.00 in 1977

Marshall Fields in downtown Chicago had a magnificent sporting goods and gun department.

Foster-type slugs. I bought three boxes of those about 1960 for my first deer hunt. I think I still have some.

Barely 10 hours on this and 3 pages already. People miss America.

That tells me how dumb these companies are. They don't care what people want. It's like they don't want to sell anything.

And as you know, today is even worse. Look at Disney. How did they come up with that target market?

My dad used to talk about going Sears in the early 60s, and they had trash cans in front of the store filled with military surplus rifles. Prices were around $20 give or take, a lot of these fell into the hands of amateur gunsmiths.

Woolworths had barrels of ma users in front of the counters, most of them were Argentina. Ammo too

Bought an 1100 magnum and a case of shells a few years earlier with my whole summers paycheck

Zayre,s, Woolco/ Woolworths , Sears, Kmart, Service Merchandise, Western Auto, Grants, ect ect ect


Bought guns at a couple of those places in the 70,s and early 80,s.

Sears had JC high-end and Ted Williams, Western auto had revelation, holiday gas station had imperial ammo. Remember 2.29 high brass 12 and 20 gauge ammo and 59 cent 22

I remember my dad buying a rifle and a shotgun from sears in late 50’s

I managed what Skagg's called The Lobby in Reno in the mid & late 1960s. It was the cigarette/tobacco/photo/handgun/ammo counter. We had RCBS reloading equipment, powder, bullets, primers, etc. It was a long rectangular counter at the front of the store.

Sam Skaggs used to visit the store often and play the slot machines in the Lobby. He just signed for rolls of nickles.

Oh...and I bought my Winchester 67 Youth rifle at J C Penny's when I was nine; my dad took me and I used my lawn mowing money.