Reloading. 56 years ago

[nettlle]

Heter's wasp waist boat tail bullets. Sheesh!
Maybe a dozen rifle powders.
Rare to find pistol components.
No Haz Mat fee.
.222 Remington the king of bench rest.
Ferris Pindell.
No internet. Mail order. Not shipped until the check cleared. Two weeks.

It was hard to find and buy components 56 years ago. But it was easier then than now.

 

[Bayou52]

Also, in the old days, we could walk into any decent gun shop that handled reloading supplies and buy virtually anything that you’d be looking for - in one spot…

Bayou52

 

[Wis-Harpo]

My brother and I ordered a Model 93 Mauser that came with 100 rounds of ammo in 2 piece boxes and a bayonet for $12.95--- and it came through the mail. We thought about the Model 98 Mauser, but it was $19.95, way too much money. Bought a Lee whack-a-mole reloading set for said 7mm Mauser, went to the hardware store and got primers and powder, and we were in business. Right before the dreaded FUN ban started, I bought a new Universal Arms M1 Carbine from Florida and got that through the mail also. This produced the need for a Lee whack-a-mole in 30 carbine. Both guns are gone, but not the fond memories of a simpler time. Also every farm or country boy (me) had an EVIL pocket knife in his pocket at school, and a shotgun or .22 rifle in his car or truck during Hunting season in the school parking lot.

 

[BigAlShooter]

Yep, I'm not that old, but I do remember waiting about 2 weeks for mail order, looking out the window when you hear the UPS truck drive by, hoping he was stopping at your house, but he didn't. I guess it beats now, putting items on backorder and checking email every day and hope they process it, but it takes 3 - 6 months to process an order for some ammo or dies.

 

[jmorris]

Also, in the old days, we could walk into any decent gun shop that handled reloading supplies and buy virtually anything that you’d be looking for - in one spot…

Bayou52

Even if you were a kid that rode there on your bicycle.

 

[Ironicaintit]

Well I’m not old enough to remember THAT long ago.... but I do remember the pre-‘net days. Daydreaming through catalogs and having to call or mail in your order...

even so, I still use the same powders that were available back then. Unique, bullseye, IMR 4198, 3031 and 4895

 

[Blue68f100]

Back then we could also buy the Cherry Bomb fire cracker or any other thing we wanted without question. But shotgun reloading you did not have the plastic hulls, had to deal with wad stacks.

 

[.38 Special]

Well, okay. But I remember sending money orders and waiting "4 to 6 weeks" for things to arrive. I also remember a lot of really bad products - Herter's wasp waist bullets being one of them!

There's a lot of good stuff from "back in the day", and I sure miss some of it. But I also try to be thankful for how much better most things are now. If only I could find somewhere that sells primers...

 

[GeoDudeFlorida]

I remember ordering Speer half-jacketed .357” bullets and tins of Hercules Unique at the sporting goods counter in Sears-Roebuck. No adult signature required. Primers required prepayment and an adult signature.

 

[bullseye308]

I remember and enjoyed looking through the catalogs every month, filling out the order form and calling it in using my dads credit card way back in 89. I know, not as long ago as some here, but definitely a better time. Then I discovered Midsouth Shooters Supply is only 60 miles north and a nice drive. Call it in, pay for it, then hit the road.

 

[Airborne Falcon]

I remember going into the local Western Auto (50s and 60s) and buying powder in paper sacks by the scooped-out pound ... same powder reloaded Pop Bill's shotgun shells and his 45 ACP stuff which he cast his own boolits for ... used to fascinate me. Wish I could remember the name of it for absolutely sure but I am almost positive that it was a Herco of some sort.

Primers were like gold to the man. He kept them in a special jar in his kitchen cabinet.

He reloaded shot shells with a wooden dowel a 16 penny nail and a carved star crimper and he reloaded for his 1911 with a Lee Handloader which I still have but never use. He had Lee scoops for his shotshell loads and his 45 loads ... never once saw him scale powder.

There were quite a few guys handloading back then in the little no traffic light town where I grew up in SC .... even more these days but back then they used to meet and talk and share info.

I miss that old man. I am older now than he was when he died.

Anyways, it wasn't until insurance companies started giving hardware stores problems with their rates in the mid to late 90s that a lot of them got rid of ammo and reloading supplies.

A lot of them are getting back into it now ... I've never understood the ebb and flow of the reloading supply market quite honestly. It has always been up and down. The craft has been around for ages, literally a couple of centuries, yet it has been about as volatile over the years as the tulip market and the paint market ... it just never makes any sense to me.

Geo, you're right brother. I remember the Sears Wish Book selling reloading supplies and you could order it and then pick it up from your local county distribution office ... they would even call us to let us know it was there waiting for pickup.

Those were the days. Sears was the Amazon of yesteryear in a lot of ways.

 

[FROGO207]

Oh the days! Going into the local store in townwhen about 9 years old, plunking down a bit of silver(less than $.50) and walking away with a box of .22 short ammo to use plinking the afternoon away. Or going to the local larger town buying powder from a large cardboard drum, putting it in a paper sack and then buying a case of dynamite/caps with my grandfather. Always begged for the money to buy a SMLE out of a wooden barrel in the drug store in that same town only to be told the ammo was too expensive to buy and could not be reloaded. Simpler times for sure.

 

[Catpop]

Yes in 1962 I was 11 and bought some kind of old Italian rifle complete with bayonet for $11. The bayonet was $3.95 and for another $7.95 I got the rifle. It was a weird one with a ramp behind the bolt to guide the bolt in and out. Never figured out what cartridge it used? Maybe 6.5?
I bought rifles from local Sears, and mail from Klein’s and Potomac Arms—- all with no paper work!
And M1 rifle AP ammo in enbloc clips on bandoliers that came into my town’s RR station with freight that cost more than ammo! Hey, I only did that once! My Mama didn’t raise no craz youngun!
And Herters where I bought all kinds of cool stuff.
And shot old BP muzzle loaders almost every day thanks to Dixie Gun Works!
As a kid I was in gun heaven! I was lucky to have lived in a small town surrounded with plenty of farm and forest land all about to shoot whenever I pleased.

 

[kerreckt]

This is a bit off topic but I bought my first 22 rifle (Marlin 81) for $19.95 in 1967. I was 13 yrs. old. The only question asked was "does your father know you are buying this". He did and I still have the rifle. Best wishes!

 

[Cemetery21]

Filled out order blanks and mailed to Brownells with a blank check (no way to figure shipping). They always treated me right.

 

[Reinz]

Well I reckon you can somewhat relive those good Ol ‘ days if you want to.

 

[jmorris]

Sears was the Amazon of yesteryear in a lot of ways.

I wouldn’t hold my breath on Amazon ammunition.



Sears was bigger than Amazon, go back far enough and there might be two books in a house, the Bible and a Sears catalog.

Even up to the 80’s Sears was the largest retailer in the US, Walmart (now the largest with more than double the sales of Amazon last year) only had 276 stores in the US at the time, now over 10k of them worldwide.

 

[Howa 9700]

Got the powder in paper sacks at John Wall's Grocery, Blairstown, MO. Red Dot, Green Dot, 700X and Herco. Still have some residuals from that era in my stash. Still have the Texan loader dad bought me cause he could no longer afford to keep me in factory shells. I went through what he thought was a lifetime supply in one year. It was a good year.

Was going through some stuff recently and found part of a sleeve of ALCAN large rifle primers. When was the last time you saw some of those?

 

[GBExpat]

I have only been reloading for 53 years, so I am just a young whippersnapper, but we (Dad & I) discovered the won-der-ful-ness that was the Herters Catalog PDQ. T'was much better than paging thru the Sears Christmas Catalog when I was a pup.

And how can we older members forget that patience-practice-process whereby you complete the order form, mail it with a check and then try to forget about it until whenever it happened to suddenly arrive.

 

[George P]

Also, in the old days, we could walk into any decent gun shop that handled reloading supplies and buy virtually anything that you’d be looking for - in one spot…

Bayou52

Those "old days" were only 3 years ago.................

 

[Cemetery21]

John Wall's Grocery, Blairstown

Now that was no ordinary grocery or even hardware store! He had train tracks behind the store(s) and got guns/supplies in by the train carload. If you ever met John once, he would call you by name thereafter, no matter the number of years since your last visit. And, he knew what he had in stock and the price without looking it up. You want a Diana or a model 12 Skeet Pigeon Grade? He would lay out a half a dozen for you to pick from. Remarkable man from a remarkable time.

 

[black mamba]

I remember $3.65 a box for high brass 12 ga. shells in a little Western Auto store on the way to my Papa's farm.
And $12 for a brick of primers or a pound of powder. My first .22 was a Ruger 10/22 for $49 from Woolworth's, with a walnut stock.
My first center fire rifle was a model 70 in 30-06 for $150, and first handgun a Ruger Blackhawk in 45 Colt for $125.

 

[tightgroup tiger]

I remember dad dropping me off a Paul Jorden's hardware on the way home from Church to get rifle or pistol ammo.
I was about 9 and I would be sent in to get 22's, .243's and Prince Albert pipe tobacco.
Paul would just say , How's everyone at your house.
Now and then he would look out the window to make sure Dad was sitting in the car outside.
Bullets a,nd gunpowder he didn't worry much about but the pipe tobacco products he watched a lot closer.

 

[Jim Watson]

No mallet loader for me in 1970, I splurged on a W.H. English Pak-Tool. Actual press type leverage in a hand tool. That got old, my Rockchucker is marked 71.

 

[Airborne Falcon]

No mallet loader for me in 1970, I splurged on a W.H. English Pak-Tool. Actual press type leverage in a hand tool. That got old, my Rockchucker is marked 71.

So is one of mine, my first one, I bought used in '77 for $20 with a balance scale and 38 Special die set ... but it is marked '71. Very very little difference between it and my newer Rock Chucker that I bought probably in 2004. Auto Prime screw holes and there is a slight difference in the pistons.

I remember dad dropping me off a ... hardware (store) and Prince Albert pipe tobacco. ... Bullets and gunpowder he didn't worry much about, but the pipe tobacco products he watched a lot closer.

Prince Albert in a can is what killed my grandfather ... well, he rolled his own for 50 years so I can relate to buying his Prince Albert while he waited outside. And you're right ... kids could buy bullets ... amd worms. Usually one or the other on Saturdays. We never hunted on Sundays but Dad did let us fish on Sundays.