Back in the day

[Walks]

I forgot this bit of interesting fact until I read ReverandAl's post about ISRAELI Mauser's.

The first brass I loaded for that 7X57 Carbine was necked down 8X57 ISRAELI brass. When I bought dies from Bowers, they had no 7X57 brass in stock. I cast bullets & had them ready to load when I got home from the range with those 20 empty W-W cases. But ol' WesThompson, who owned/ran that Juniper Tree Range had 50+ once fired cases. Two bucks for this poor young College kid. I've still got one up on the souvenir shelf on my bench.

[Skunk1]

My first Ruger security six was a police confiscated gun. Stainless $150 out the door at a gun show. Daughter a few yrs ago got a guy down to $40 on a old H&R 22 bolt with a heavy barrel. Her first and favorite gun. She won’t part with that.

[john.k]

you dont need to go back ,my nephew works in a gunshop sometimes when staff are off,and he s always telling stories of what the shop pays for guns people bring in for sale......here we have licensing,and when a relative dies ,you got a couple of weeks to dispose of the guns.The shops have got them over a barrel.........how about a 1886 Winchester for $50,..K98 s for $20,unfired NIB Ruger No 1 for $60.

[KenT7021]

There was a lock,bicycle,and gunshop called Allen's in Hannibal,Mo.back during the 60's.Allen had just about any old rifle,shotgun,or handgun you could think of.Lots of cap and ball revolvers,Single Action Army's,trap doors,Winchesters,etc. Just about everything was for sell.I always wondered what happened to guns when the guy passed on.

[Thundarstick]

I remember Turner Kirkland paying 10 for every trapdoor he could get and folks thought he was crazy. My first trapdoor cost $25 with a cigar box of FA brass and ammo a bullet mould and an old tong tool. Dad thought I got skinned.

Turner Kirkland, wow, when I was a kid we got to go to Dixie Gun Works for field trips! Can you imagine any school taking junior high kids to a antique gun store, firearm, and gun history museum today? I still get glazed eyes everytime I stop in!

I lived in another town years later and a fella ran a gun shop from a back corner of his dad's grocery store that dealt in surplus guns. I got my hands on a bunch I wish I still had, the 8mm Hakeem (I'm sure this firearm caused deafness to many Egyptians),a 7.62 98K Israeli, but I still have my prize SKS! The dealer had two cases of the SKS that he didn't have time to clean and made a deal with me to clean them, and I could have a rifle of my pick for the job. It cost me a roll of quarters at the car wash, a gallon of mineral spirits, and a good days work. Chinese arsenal refurb with all matching serial numbers, stock, and bayonet! Steel core ammo for about what good 22LR cost today. Still got some of that ammo as well!

[Remmy4477]

Late to the game.
But I remember in the mid to late 90's buying my first Mosin Nagant 91/30 choked full of cosmoline for $49. SKS's were selling for $69, bought two back then.
And the BPCR game was just starting to get popular. My first Navy Arms Rollingblock in 45-70 was $300 out of the box. Most of the single shots and levergun copys at the time were under the $500 mark.
Miss those days!

[gmsharps]

There used to be a store here that had barrel guns.
I think it was Gibson's.
A big wooden barrel, with rifles stuck in it.
Can't remember how much they were, but they were all the same price.
Never had the chance to buy one. To young.
I've been told that the Schmidt Rubin 1889 I have, was from the barrel sale.
Back then, you pay and take it with you.
No ID, permit, background check, nothing.
Those were the good old days.

I remember the Gibson's store and on Washington's birthday they had the barrel guns. They were Schmidt Rubins for $10 each. I would have enough money to buy 3 of them. I was about 12 those days and I would clean them up sell 2 of them for $30 each and buy a couple of boxes of ammo for $20 per box and shoot the other. Didn't start reloading until I was 16.

gmsharps