Just opened a 5500 round case of Federal Copper Plated 22LR .
The case was dated 10/5/93 and each bulk packed 550 round box was priced at $8.88 . Sure miss those days .

Yep me too.
But they are gone forever.
The new normal around here is 8-10 cents per round.

I got plenty so i don't have to buy any right now.
I started buying a brick every payday when Barry
Obama got elected the first time. It served me well.

Chuck

__________________
They hold no Quarter

Dad once told Me He paid $1.80 Per Brick of .22 Shorts back in The Early 50's Wow 18 centcs a Box!

Yep no more unfortunately. Ever notice how prices use to increase a little at a time instead of tripling on most items. Now I am lucky to get a box of CCI or Rem. 22 magnum for $16 per 50.

I am now in the process of using up some older Winchester Wildcat ammo from about 9 -10 years ago. The stickers on them say $9.89 but I actually got them on sale for $8.99/Brick. Not only has the price sky-rocketed, but the quality of most has plummeted.

Price list from August 2003 per box of 50:
Eley Tenex $10.50
CCI SV. 3.69
CCI MiniMag. 3.39
Wolf ME. 3.30

My grandchildren will never believe that at one point and time you could walk into a store and buy all the 550 round bulk packs for less than $10.00 each you wanted. Now it's a two box of 50 limit .
I'm keeping a few of the bulk packs, with a price tag on , around so they will believe me .
I thought for a long time supply would improve, but last trip to Cabela's proved me wrong.
Gary

Compare the cost of a Chevy pickup from 1950 to today and you will see it is not just ammo that has gone up!

I wonder if the price will change after January 2017.

Nick:
Found an empty CCI Mini-Mag box of 100 marked $2.66. Can't make myself throw those away. Make such handy see-thru small parts storage containers.

I can recall the early 50s, when I got my Marlin 81DL, 22 Shorts were a penny each ($ .50/box) & LRs slightly higher. But then again my weekly allowance was only $ .25. Got my 1st job packing groceries for $ .30/Hr so I could "feed" my rifle.

Back when society was polite, a girl's ankle was thrilling, boys climbed trees, everyone drank water out of the garden hose, you rode your bike for miles every day, & most of us survived.

(Sigh), Hank M.

I found a box (50) of Remington LR from TG&Y for $.99 in a box of odds and ends recently. They looked fine and should go bang.

Yep my memory was of saving my 35 cents per week allowance for a couple of months to buy .22 shells for the annual trip to my grandparent's house. I seem to recall that LR was .25, Longs were .22 and Shorts were about .20.

I remember when those 100 round plastic boxes of Mini Mags were $1.99 at Kmart.

Thanks for the nostalgic post Nick. Just think how lucky we are to have this forum lest folks not know what you are talking about.
Steve

__________________
Birds like shiny new toys too.

Hey brother, I don't want to burst your bubble, but old .22 ammo like that, especially from the 1990s can be very dangerous. There are many confirmed reports of them blowing up guns when fired and just handling them will give you are rare case of a deadly (within weeks) form of lead poisoning. I have been disposing of old ammo for many years now. Send it all to me, I'll even pay half of the shipping cost and I safely dispose of it for you.

When I first started shooting, the Mini Mags were $0.99 and you even got a nice reusable plastic box with them. I bought them at SS Kresgees Co. a few years before Kmart was invented. Just before they closed down the price had risen to $1.29.

They even sold surplus guns. I have a beautiful 1893 7mm Mauser that cost $9.99 and a Swiss Long rifle that cost $19.99. The unissued Springfield 03/A3 cost me $29.95, but I sent it back because of light primer strikes. They had none left to replace it with so I got my money back.

Of course, now I am acquainted with Numrich arms and know that I could have replaced the firing spring for a buck and a half. Boy, wish I still had that 03/A3.

Until 2008 most common .22lr ammo bought in bulk was no more that 2 cents a round and less sale.

__________________
Freedom is never free!!
SWCA #3437

Truer love hath no man.

I got a can of H110 on my desk from my college days priced at $1.65.

My first gun catalog listed S&W's at $132 for mod 27's and 29's, $81 for K22's, and $65 for chief Spls.

Thanks for the warning . Sounds too unsafe to ship to you so I'll just put it out in the recycle bin by the curb .😉

Wages have also gone up. In 1950 if someone had a new car in the church parking lot on Sunday the Reverend would have had to come out and herd the lookers in the Church for service. Now everybody has a new car. When .22s were $0.50 a box I could only buy 2 per hour and only real rich people bought by the case. Gas was $0.20 and I bought 5 gal. at a time. Now I always fill my vehicle up with gas and in the last 3 weeks I have bought 3 cases of .22s. I remember old days but I don't remember the "good" old days. Larry

Well, that's your call, but letting the USPS handle it, is far safer than exposing you whole neighborhood, to the extreme dangers those little buggers create.

And if you couldn't pick up and redeem enough empty coke bottles to buy a whole box of 50 , the hardware store man would open a box and sell you as many as you could afford, usually 22 shorts because they were cheapest.
I well remember the day I had enough money to buy a whole 50 round box of the 22 longs. A summer week of mowing a few lawns had earned me $3.00. I didn't spend it all on ammo, just one box, I went to the movies and bought some comic books too !.....I was in high cotton then .
Gary

I just shot up a box I got at Grand Central for $.78. I use to buy Longs for $.50 a box. Shoot Jack Rabbits and sell them for $.50 apiece to a mink farmer.

That Stevens Favorite made me enough money to buy a Remington Nylon 66 for $66.00 when they first came out.

That 66 kept me in beer through college. My Son has it now. I've still got the Favorite.

__________________
Eccentric old coot

Well, since we're on Memory Lane, I remember in my early teens going into 7/11, of all places, and buying long rifle ammo for 39 cents a box. I'll bet a 14 year old kid can't even buy ammo any more.

I found this receipt tucked in the sleeve of a box of Winchester Wildcat 22 LR I had stuck in an ammo can many moons ago. $.02 per round for LR and $.10 per round for WMR HP's.

Gone are the days...

Class III

Attached Images

Scan0001.jpg (66.2 KB, 46 views)

I would agree that wages have gone up but without a real increase in the purchasing power of those dollars. I think the new car/big purchase thing is more reflective of changes in consumer buying habits than anything else. I know my parents scrimped and saved for major purchases and had very little debt. Loans were payed off as quickly as possible and credit cards were unheard of.

Nowadays we have become accustomed to the "get it now" lifestyle. Debt is part of our everyday lives. Many of us do have a habit of looking at the past through "rose colored glasses" but that is, I believe, human nature. Nostalgia for the good things and forgetfulness of the not so good. Things like the price on an old box of ammo remind us of things we enjoyed.

PS: And when the box is only ten years old and we look at current prices we wonder what the heck is going on!! lol

This thread need's a picture ...



Mini-Mgs were $8.00 & the brick of Remington rimfire was marked down to $10.
I'd never paid 16 dollars for a brick of ammo full retail!

GF

The good old days are gone and it wasn't that long ago you could walk into Walmart and they would have an rack in sporting goods loaded with 550 round bulk packs of 22LR ammo for less than 15 dollars and there wasn't a limit on them.

It seems that the days of buying 22LR for less than 10 cents a round is also gone.

Wal-mart is always a good place to shop now days.

You did not mention Price!

When I was a kid I think I paid around .35 a box for LR, the hardware store where I bought them had a glass bowl on the counter full of 22's, if you couldn't afford to buy a whole box you could buy them loose for .01 apiece.

__________________
Don

Well, to take a little of the sting out of it, that $8.88 price in 1993 is equal to $14.80 in today's money.

We're talking price here not availability.

The good ole days.

The sadder point in my opinion is how the average 40 hr a week workers wages have stagnated over the past 20 years to offset the inflated prices that are being mentioned here. Still waiting for the trickle down to happen? Don't hold your breath.

In 1952 in Coalport,pa. a box of win. 22 shorts 45 cents a box of long rifle 50 cents.