the way things change and how quick they change.

OLDE RETIRED COASTIE

OLDE RETIRED COASTIE

Member
Joined
Jun 7, 2020
Messages
585
Location
Mobile, AL
You know I was reading the opening pages of the 2000 GUN DIGEST, and they were showing some grandparents and their grandkids, and how H & R was looking forward to the coming years, and folks shooting their guns.

Over the years H & R made some good guns, including the M-1 Garand for WWII, and other wars.

Things sure have changed
 
The very first brand shiny new gun I bought was a Smith & Wesson model 10 with inch barrel. $90.

Sears early claim to fame was mail order. Now mail order is back big time in the form of internet shopping. But Sears seems to be on the way out. Go figure.
 
Riomouse911 said:
Change? I sure wish 50-round boxes of .45 Colt were still $16!

View attachment 1178750

Stay safe.
Click to expand...
I worked sports/auto counter at the local K-mart in the 80s. There was a guy who used to come in regularly to pick up a brick of 22lr. I ran into him at a garage sale some years back and he had 10 bricks of 22lr selling for $4 a brick. Dude lived right around the corner from me all this time with that ammo I sold him just sitting on a shelf. Still had the price tags dated '87 or '88. I think they were like $8.90 a brick.

I'll have to dig around and see if I still have any of those.
 
I kick myself for not buying a Finnish Mosin back when they were $100 and a couple cans of 7.62x54R, but then I was young and dumb and didn't know any better. Now I'm older and dumb...

My dad bought a Remington made 1903 date stamped 12-41 out of a barrel in Montgomery Ward in the 60s for maybe $10...
 
Things change alot, but they also stay consistent.

Mail order has just become online order, And surplus although not dirt cheap, is still around and available.

Past week some family came over and we trained them on .22s. Albeit they were Glock 44s, but still part of the American way of life.
 
I got my first M1 Carbine out of a barrel at either Dave Cook or Gart Brothers for about $35 back when pterodactyls were still flying around. I also got a Carcano rifle also literally "out of a barrel."

Those were the days before guns were so demonized and restricted that retailers could have surplus guns out in open racks and.... barrels... for anyone to pick up and examine before purchasing.

You selected a gun, paid your money, and out the door you went. And you didn't need to be escorted to the door.

Terry, 230RN
 
Riomouse911 said:
Ya, me too. $3.35 an hour manually unloading semi-trucks at a warehouse didn’t buy me a lot of ammo back when I started paying my own bills, buying my own guns and shooting. 😞

Stay safe.
Click to expand...
$3.35/hr was minimum wage when I started my first job at a fast food place. Of course, I lived at home, so it was just enough to buy a pizza and play some video games and several boxes of 22LR. My childhood life and adolescent years, for the most part, revolved around shooting. When I wasn't at school, church, or work, I was in a field near my house practicing with the 22.
 
I remember my Dad buying an M-1 carbine out of the Sears Roebuck catalog back in the early 60s.
 
OLDE RETIRED COASTIE said:
I have heard someone is trying to bring back H & R, and even make new M-1 Garands with the H & R name on them, I kinda hope that happens
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PSA is already there with there H&R M16 repros. They are working on other models. Although H&r was not in the M16 game it's nice to see retros...
 
OLDE RETIRED COASTIE said:
You know I was reading the opening pages of the 2000 GUN DIGEST, and they were showing some grandparents and their grandkids, and how H & R was looking forward to the coming years, and folks shooting their guns.

Over the years H & R made some good guns, including the M-1 Garand for WWII, and other wars.

Things sure have changed
Click to expand...
H&R was only brought into the M1 program as Korea was heating up. All WW2-era Garands were produced by Springfield Armory and Winchester.

Ya, they made some good guns, mostly in the 1920s through 40s, but postwar examples steadily declined in quality until they were kaput. Ive had H&Rs from both extreme ends of the spectrum, lol.

A guy tried to sell me an H&R/Reising SMG at a show recently for a suspiciously low price.......
Nice try BeeAyeTeeEff.

I miss the old Shotgun News Catalogs. 🤪
 
Riomouse911 said:
Ya, me too. $3.35 an hour manually unloading semi-trucks at a warehouse didn’t buy me a lot of ammo back when I started paying my own bills, buying my own guns and shooting. 😞

Stay safe.
Click to expand...

Indeed. That was minimum wage when I started working, and explains why the only gun I had purchased with my own money was a Crosman Backpacker pellet shooter. The real guns I got to fire were owned by others, like my dad, grandpa, and friends.
 
When I turned 21 I was able to scrounge enough for an Iver Johnson TP-22, and later a Taurus Model 66 .357 mag. I just didn’t get to fire the Taurus much before it was sent down the road to pay a bill for something. (I still have the TP-22)

IMG_3416.jpeg

Stay safe.
 
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