Remember when

[long colt frazier]

I wonder what some of our older members remember about gun prices when they started buying. I remember buying 2 colt match targets for $110.00 @ and letting my best friend have one of them. That would have been around 1970. I still have the one I kept.

 

[mtelkhntr]

A new 6" 28-2 for $175 in about 1977

 

[Bert Man]

New 15-3 in 1971, $96.00.

New Winchester M-12 in 1960, $97.00.

 

[feralmerril]

I well remember in 1957 when both colt SAA`s and pythons were listed at $125.00s. That looked to me like a couple thousand does today.
I bought a brand new winchester 94 in 1956 for about $60s. I belive my ruger convertable single six was also about $65s in 1961.
In the gun magazines klines out of chicago sold both colt and s&w 1917s in select condition for $29s, the average ones were $24.95. Mausers ran about $30s.
Now this one is going to sound unbeliveable but I dont recall the price. I got ahold of a bad underground comic book back in the 50s that on one page offered to sell you a deactivated thompson machine gun and on another page it had a ad that said, "New barrels for your thompson!!" I remember the comic book also had a page of "tips", one was how to make Knucks out of milk pail handels!
I well remember when s&w .357s and .44 specials ran about $65s new and I belive the m&ps were around $50s! All new!
The thing is that with inflation all those guns were close to buying the same guns value wise as they are today. A $1.75 or $2.00 a hour job was a GOOD job! I remember starting out on the conservation dept in 1962 for $320s a month! Wages in the NPS in 1960 and 1961 were about $1.80 to $2.10 a hour. I worked long hard nights in the late 1950s while going to school for green giant cannery for $1.00 a hour. No benifts nor OT pay either! Before that I worked in the fields in wisconsin alongside the "Brassero`s" for roughly 65 cents a hour weeding and blocking lettice on my knees. Buying a gun back then was every bit as hard and probley harder than it is now. What did change was the relative desirebility of the guns sold then as to now. In other words a off brand mossburg or whatever might cost you close as much as a winchester. They stayed cheap while the winchester is worth plenty now. Maybe a colt .45 auto or woodsman cost similar to a H&R sportsman or ruger or not that much more. Some guns climbed high in value and others did not that you payed similar for. A break open .38 s&w english enfield in those magazine ad`s ran about the same as a colt 1911 or colt and smith 1917s did! Thats the differance!

 

[Kanewpadle]

I have the original receipt for the 19-2 my dad bought in 1968 for $105.00!!!

 

[feralmerril]

About 1972 I bough a new colt .357 trooper for $108.00s. I belive around the same time I bought my new 5" s&w 27-2 for $168.00s.
It had no extras and I sent it back to smith and had the wide hammer, trigger, wo red ramp sight put on along with smooth presentation grips and bought the wooden case. I cant remember what all that cost but at the same time I had them enrave my name in a gold oval and I remember I paid $66.00s for the engraveing in gold!

 

[jaykellogg]

I had a small collection of Military pistols and I heard of a P38 at a gun store in Beaver Falls, PA. I called the shop and asked them to describe it to me. He said "If you're a collector, you'd probably want to get this reblued." I lost interest. Later I was in Beaver Falls shopping with my wife and I went in to see if it was still there. What I saw was a mint 1944 P38 for $75 asking. (You gotta dicker). I asked for a "best price and he said it'd sell for $65. Since it was Christmas time I put it on layaway.

 

[olcop]

Turned down a German Luger in 1963, the $25.00 asking price was too high for my budget.
olcop

 

[kimporter]

got my rem 870 wingmaster with vent rib at the first k-mart in lexington.ky for 119.00

 

[steamloco76]

The original receipt for my dad's model 36 from December 1968 was $87.50 plus tax. My first new S&W, a 617 with 8 3/8ths BBL. and full target options cost $389 in 1990.

 

[jaykellogg]

I have a Smith and Wesson Model 27-2 with an 8 3/8 bbl I bought July 6 1976 for $270 plus $16.20 state tax or $286.20 otd. I was the first person the cut the tape on the outer wrap (which I believe I still have). I bought it at Smith Brothers Gun Store in Rochester, PA. It is still 100%.

 

[MP22]

Man...this thread takes me back. Those were the good old days indeed.

 

[Flathead]

Bought a M1 Garand for $65 in '72. Wish I still had it. I seem to remember surplus 1911's sold on the back of comic books for $50. A lot of money then.

 

[Stevens]

Buying ammo at the corner 7-11 type store.
Steve W

 

[jaykellogg]

I was just newly married (June 1967) when the 1968 gun control act passed. I didn't have any disposible income at the time, but had I known then what I know now I would have bought a submachine gun and declared it during the amnesty period.

 

[deralte]

My best and worst was the purchase of an M-1 Garand from the government for $21.10 and later trading it for a motor scooter. By the way, it was brand new and still packed in paper and cosmuline.

 

[perrazi]

remember any matching number luger was 50 and p38's were 25-35 back in the day. got one of the ruger std auto's for the 37.50 price when i was 12. lot of money then, when mowing yards brought less than a dollar.

 

[mjr]

I well remember in 1957 when both colt SAA`s and pythons were listed at $125.00s. That looked to me like a couple thousand does today.
[snip]
The thing is that with inflation all those guns were close to buying the same guns value wise as they are today. A $1.75 or $2.00 a hour job was a GOOD job!
[snip]
Buying a gun back then was every bit as hard and probley harder than it is now. What did change was the relative desirebility of the guns sold then as to now.
[snip]
A break open .38 s&w english enfield in those magazine ad`s ran about the same as a colt 1911 or colt and smith 1917s did! Thats the differance!

When as a small kid I first started noticing ads for Enfields in Popular Mechanics they sold for $14.95. In today's bucks this would be somewhere around $240-$260.00. Not entirely unreasonable but not a great bargain, either. But Merrill, I don't remember any Colt 1911's quite that cheap!

(Not that it would have mattered to me--my allowance was 35 cents a week.)

 

[Xfuzz]

Graduated from the police academy in Sept of 1972.
S&W 19
S&W 36
S&W handcuffs
$202.00
The man from the credit union came with the gundealer.

 

[wbraswell]

I remember a K-Mart ad around 1975 for a Remington 1100 for $109. I went to a Ft. Worth gun show in '77 and there was a table with Model 10s from the San Angelo PD, your choice $110. Around 1980, in Ft. Worth, I bought a used Colt 70 series Gov't model .45, bright nickel, aftermarket sights, and a throated barrel, that feeds anything, in the box, for $257. I still have the 1903-A3 that my Dad bought in 1960, for $18.