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Prices have gone up a bit

HangfireHangfire Member Posts: 3,010 ✭✭✭
edited January 2018 in General Discussion
This is the year and month I started working in a gunshop.. I was 14 yrs. old, in Junior High..I wanted to buy a car when I got my learners permit at 15..During Christmas break,my Dad and I drove around and happened to see this newly opened gunshop/second hand store..The owner hired me for Saturdays at first, and within a month it was every day, after school, and full time Saturdays ,Holidays, and vacations..I was the only employee for the next 8 years.. I transferred to a new college, and the owner moved to Jackson Hole.. California was a free State then.. Tons of fun..

http://tinyurl.com/y8v5jfgp

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    droptopdroptop Member Posts: 8,367 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Could still buy dynamite fuse and gunpowder over the counter. No age restrictions. The friendly welding shop would weld the caps on your pipe firecrackers for 50 cents.[:D]
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    wpageabcwpageabc Member Posts: 8,760 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Things have certainly changed
    "What is truth?'
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    fideaufideau Member Posts: 11,893 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I am a couple years older than you then. Yes I remember the local hardware stores where there were switchblade knives for sale and I could buy dynamite fuse and ammo and a gun if I had the money. No gun stores pre se but several places that sold some guns, like Western Auto. Probably had that magazine, and I still have a 45th. edition Lyman manual. A good time to be young.
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    hillbillehillbille Member Posts: 14,184 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    we had an old hardware store 3 story brick place downtown. Just inside the front door was a large 55 gallon wooden barrell. I would be full of rifles/shotguns whatever the owner happened to get a good deal on by the lot, usually 10-12 and I never remember the price more than $50 each, my dad was a winchester man and once when we went in the barrell was full of savage 99's. I remember him saying a savage wasn't worth $50 dollars.....[:0]
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    Riomouse911Riomouse911 Member Posts: 3,492 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Man, a thousand bucks back then spent on the surplus guns listed would show a hefty profit today!

    I love the .358 Norma Magnum ad...and Elmer Keith complaining in one paragraph a 300 grain .338 bullet doesn't exist and bragging in the next that his SWC design is the best of all time [:D].

    Sadly, these times be long gone. [V]
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    mnrivrat48mnrivrat48 Member Posts: 1,711 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    I could spend a lot of time talking about the past bargains. Not just what was available for a small percentage of todays prices, but the lack of anti-gun crap in society back then. At 14 I could open carry a handgun into the local store to buy ammo. Nobody thought twice of a 11 or 12 year old walking down the road to get to a favorite hunting spot. (gun in hand)

    My first .22 rifle was a Remington M510 Target Master bought used for $8. My first shotgun was an exposed hammer SXS I bought for $5 when I was 11 years old. (sold it for $10 later that year)

    Military surplus guns from $10 to $30 were wide spread. 1917's, 1903's, Enfield's, Arisaka , Remington Rolling blocks for $8.95 out of comic book ads. And on and on.
    My first revolver was a S&W M&P purchased out of a cardboard box full of them and Colts from a local police department who had upgraded. $15 and that's about what age I was at the time.

    I also had to work hard for 50 cents an hour so you also have to look at that side of the good old days. Still , there are many days I would return in a heart beat.
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    minitruck83minitruck83 Member Posts: 5,369
    edited November -1
    $.50/hour? I've worked from can to can't for 50 cents, and a couple times times for supper!
    A dollar in your pocket on a Saturday morning would get you good day in town, hitchhike the 8 miles, hang around outside Woolworths, if you met a girl, you had enough to treat her to a movie, and an ice cream, and... maybe get lucky enough walk her home! (town girls were the bestest, if she lived up a holler, you usually had to fight your way back out![V]
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    He DogHe Dog Member Posts: 50,960 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    And a 14 year old kid could buy a brick of .22 for $5.00 and feel like a millionaire.

    How's your daughter Bob?
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    HangfireHangfire Member Posts: 3,010 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Besides the prices, the variety of surplus arms was staggering..One particular place here in SoCal was Golden State Arms..Huge building-2 stories, and a basement..Seemed like endless racks of guns, barrels and bins of bayonets..Cases of ammo from around the world..This was just one of MANY distributor/outlets within the greater Los Angeles area-about a 1 hour drive for me..

    quote:Originally posted by He Dog

    How's your daughter Bob?


    Dale-Talked to Sam this morning, and she sends ya a big 'HI[:D]'..
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    He DogHe Dog Member Posts: 50,960 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
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