Flour Sack Pistol

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I remember seeing ads in gun magazines back in the mid 1970s for that bank in Colorado (Bank of Boulder); they use to give depositors a Weatherby rifle or shotgun in lieu of receiving any interest on their deposit. I think after 10 or 12 years they got their deposit back.

It has been a long time since I've seen those ads. Thanks for the memory. :)

As to the original question, it is the first I have heard of it. I do recall area that era there was a program(s) in which you sent in so many coupons (or whatever) from pipe tobacco and got a free revolver. IIRC, the revolver was a super cheap, .32-caliber "suicide special" of some kind.
 
Google 'Bank of Boulder Weatherby'.

Or, 'North Country Bank & Trust'.

Then click images!!!

Good old times back then!!

rc
 
I remember doing research on boys' 22 rifles and came across an old ad that stated the "Prettiest girl in Iowa will send you this rifle." You had to sell seeds and once you sold the seeds and sent her the $$$, she'd send you a single shot rifle. Dunno about flour sack revovlers though. I'll ask an older guy I know.
 
I sure hope 'The prettiest girl in Iowa' wasn't named Hillary???

You would never get your free gun, no matter how many seeds you sold! :D :D

rc
 
I am pretty sure that would have been Earl May Nursery from Shenandoah, Iowa. When I was young (way back when) we got free Zucchini Squash seeds with an order. We planted the seeds just once and practically never got rid of all those stupid squash.
 
Girl Named Hillary

rcmodel, Don't worry if Hillary had been from Iowa Marion Morrison would have hung her from a tall tree with a short rope. And yes there are tall trees in Iowa. You just have to look hard to find them.
 
If you figure an ounce of gold cost $28 back then a $4.50 pistol would would have been the equivalent of .16 Oz of gold. That .16 Oz of gold would cost you $192 with today's $1200 gold. It was a cheap gun then . It would be a cheap gun today.
 
I'm trying to imagine who would give you a new $10 gun for buying a 100# bag of flour for $5. Anything's possible I suppose, but I've never heard of a deal that good.

My grandparents were farmers and all born in the 1890s. My father was born in 1922, etc. They bought flour 100 pounds at a time a few times a year. Both grandmothers baked loaf bread a couple of times a week - plus daily spoon bread, batter bread, drop biscuits,etc. and cooked three meals a day - one of them on a big wood stove even though she had a new electric range. (Money just doesn't change some people. They had plenty of free stove wood from 1500 apple trees.)

John

edited to add:

http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2014/ar...dex-and-the-american-inflation-experience.pdf

Prices of selected items, 1934:
• Potatoes, 1.7 cents/pound
• Flour, 5.1 cents/pound
• Rice, 8.1 cents/pound
• White bread, 8.3 cents/pound
• Round steak, 27.4 cents/pound
• Butter, 35.4 cents/pound
• Bituminous coal, $8.36/ton
An engineer made $2520 Year in 1934

http://www.paper-dragon.com/1939/priceguide.html

Figure the same job ( depending on market ) for an M.E. or civil engineer in 2016 at $130K . That is about 52:1 . Now look at the prices you have there. $.08 lb for rice. Thats $4 a lb today. Round steak at $.27 lb. Thats $14 lb in todays money. OUCH. Gas was ten cents a gallon . That is $5.20 today. All those penny amounts are really deceiving. Look at butter. Can you imagine paying $20 lb for butter. We don't appreciate how historically cheap food is today.

I used to own a house built in 1900. I found an ad for it circa 1928 when it sold for $2500.
 
yugorpk - current price of gold (and silver) is manipulated down via the sale of paper (future) metals. There hasn't been free market price discovery for decades. Gold should be at least $4k an ounce (but be grateful it and silver are manipulated down).

Back on topic - at TFL Scorch mentioned that a single shot 22 rifle was included in a big sack of animal feed.
One of the most famous was a 22 single shot rifle in a sack of animal feed. Can't remember the make right now, but that was the only way to get one, and they were quite common years ago, but with the 10" barrels they had, it would be frowned upon nowadays
.
 
Hamilton Boys' Rifle (free with purchase of Windmill)

With a couple of pieces of machine-cut wood for a stock and forearm, a spring, and a few standard screws and pins as the remaining parts, Hamilton 27’s could be produced so cheaply that they sold at retail for under $3.00 for most of their production life. Most were sold for far less. In fact, they were often given away as purchase premiums to farmers who bought Hamilton windmills; and the Model 27 was wholesaled in huge numbers to firms recruiting youngsters to sell salve, seeds, and other products door-to-door. Winning a rifle as a prize was a strong motivation for young entrepreneurs!

http://www.nrvoutdoors.com/HAMILTON/HAMILTON%2027.htm

We're still looking for flour sack revolvers.
 
FWIW, better dollar ratios would be 45 to 1 for 1890-1910, 35 to 1 for 1930-1935.

The problem is that modern mass production, plus imports from nations making goods cheaper (due to paying workers less or even using what amounts to slave labor) distorts the picture. There are few products that are made here and made the same way they were in, say, 1934. Guns might be one, but even with guns made in 1934 and still made today (like the M1911A1), production methods have changed; the old machinists with their gauges and micrometers have been replaced with CNC machines. Even farming and cattle raising are a lot more efficient today than in past decades.

Jim
 
If I remember my reading correctly. the promotional items were not in every sack, but only in a select few, it was somewhat like a lottery, if you were lucky you hit the jackpot, other wise you still got a sack of what ever. It was just a way way to get people to use your store rather than the one across town.
 
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