GUNS Magazine February 1958 Issue

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http://gunsmagazine.com/G0258.pdf

Are bolt guns obsolete?

How to shoot a Flintlock

Is the .410 a Duck Gun?

And guess what folks, we felled ducks where I come from with .410s using 2 1/2" shells!!
Some hunting spots one was invited to, one was limited to using 28 ga or .410!!

I was born in 1955, I have a few issues from 1955.

6mm vs .243 is one article, I am not sure that debate has been settled yet...

Life is cyclic, all the questions folks post on Internet, have already been asked, debated, cussed, fussed, had fist-fights over, before Internet.

The ad in 1963 was for a handy .223 carbine, for use on farm, ranch, small game and varmint hunting. It sold for $173, this carbine was Colt AR 15.

From American Rifleman in 1954 :
Remington and Ithaca - $29.95 with two mags
Colt with two mags - $32.95
http://www.mouseguns.com/blast/colt45.jpg

Blast from the past is right!
 
Oh, about them ducks. See I learned to shoot with a .22 nine shot revolver at age 3.
Flooded timber, and I was allowed to and it was legal for me to shoot my first Greenhead with my Hi-Standard Sentinel, maternal grandma gave me.
She was there, assisting, and when that greenhead I had picked out got in front of that timber ( backstop) I shot and felled.

Hey, I was not big enough to shoot the .410s like grandma and others, not even the littlest kid sized one.
I got to use my pistol. *smile*
 
I think I'm gonna be ill...
Click to expand...

Actually you'd be shocked. At today's value of the dollar that rifle would cost
$1,178.52 using the Consumer Price Index formula for value over time.

Not much change.
 
nagant revolvers were 40$ and colt 1911's were only 50$

im glad to see atleast one of them only increased via inflations
 
I first went to work in the cop shop industry in 1969. My cost on most S&W revolvers started at about $60 and went all the way up to about $150 for the high end models. Colts ran me $70-$80 up. Used trade ins and property room guns as low as $20 depending on type.

Let's see, prices I paid for some things and remember for others:

$60-$80 M1 carbines, including M1A1 folding stock models
$70-$80 Universal carbines, .30 & .256 Win Mag
$190 AR-15, Armalite AR-180
$90 Browning Hi-Power
$30-$40 Schmidt-Rubin M96/11 long rifles/Enfields/Mausers
$90 MBA Gyrojet pistols/carbines, rockets $.80 each
$75 Ruger .44 Deerstalker carbine
$70-$80 High Standard 8104, 8111 riot guns
$60 Ithaca M37 Deerslayer 12 ga, slightly used
$60-$70 Walther P-38, Nazi marked
$2-$3 30 rd M1 carbine mags, new GI
$.75 5 rd M1 carbines mags, new GI
$5-$8 30 rd Ruger Mini-14 factory mags
$3-$5 30 rd M16 mags, new GI
$2-$3 20 rd M16 mags, new GI
$10 Browning Hi-Power mags, factory new

Back then I had the use of the company's Hodgdon wholesale ID card and bought all my reloading supplies at dealer cost.

The 1960's and 1970's were good to me, and would have been much better if I hadn't been a low level flunky and made more money. :)
 
Oh, those Webley prices. I'd happily lead the boys over the top if I had those Webleys - especially the 22 LR insert.


BTW, over the top is in reference to storming a bar and helping ourselves. I'm not jumping over any trench and gitt'n myself machine gunned down.
 
I was born too late! :banghead:
I don't care about the prices... The firearms I enjoy were readily available and you could have them mailed right to you.
 
Last edited:
OMG! A garand listed in that ad, completely rebuilt, for $85!!!!!!! I'm gonna be sick.
 
As others have mentioned, those prices you see are nearly the same prices you see today. $10 bought an awful lot more than it does today. Thanks, Federal Reserve.

-Sans Authoritas
 
Same Questions and Debates...

...from the good old days, are still going on today. *yep*

Articles as well.
There is much truth to society being cyclic, and gun magazines and now Internet gun fora are cyclic.

i.e Field & Stream in 1955 when Robert Ruark's works were part of the magazine, in other sections were guns and fishing.

Time passes and Bob Brister shared his works as Editor of Field & Stream and the same damn articles about guns, ammo, fishing, were in the magazine when Ruark's works were.

I quit taking a 'script to F&S when Brister quit being Editor, still I know, if I were to pick up a current F&S, I would see the same damn things again.

Today the same questions are asked that Brister shared with us when he was Editor.

Q. Does the height of the brass on a shotgun shell affect the power of a shot shell?

I am over 50, that question still gets asked, and the answer has not changed since before I was born.

*grin*
 
Those "good old days" are fun to think back on...but...I cut grass around the neighborhood for...ready?...$2.50. I used a regular mower. My son cuts the same yards...he gets $40.00. He's got a 50" self propelled and finishes in 30 min. That $85.00 for a Garand was HARD to come by in '63 for a thirteen year old kid. My dad would have ordered it, I just couldn't afford it!

Can't afford much of what I see now, either!

Mark.
 
I gathered coke bottles, washed them and turned them in for 2 cents each.

Now the Mom&Pop grocery store where I turned these in, had a Coke machine that took a Nickel. Insert nickel lift door and the cylinder turned to allow one to pull out a 6 1/2 ounce Coke.

They also sold loose .22 ctgs, in short, long and long rifle, along with other loose ctgs, and shotgun shells.

I saved my money turning in them coke bottles as I wanted a whole box, and these were on the shelf , again in short, long, and long rifle.

I had my very own .22 revolver as a kid and it was just normal for a kid to get ammunition...

I'll be damned! Returned Coke bottles started paying 3 cents each...I was so happy...until...my ammo had gone up too. *lol*

My lawnmower was a push mower, I mean 25 cents and using a push mower, and getting a dime to be on hands and knees trimmer with them hand shears!
Whew!

The first real gas mower was like $19, (forget) I had to pay for half of this mower, and pay for my own gas, oil, plugs and keeping the mower kept up.
My biggest yard was 75 cents, later I got a huge yard, and it paid me $1.50

I was in HS in the 70's.
I had a fella pay me 50 cents for every target I broke , shooting skeet, until I missed.
Raising money for a Vietnam buddy we all knew and his family.

Trust me, shooting for 50 cents a bird, beats the hell out of pushing a damn lawnmower!

Best recall the first time I was "sponsored" I ran 200 straight at 50 cents a bird in the 10th grade.
Senior year, backers paid me $1 per bird for a really special need, and seems I ran ~ 1200 straight that week.

I did not get any of the money , all the money went to our kind, such as 'Nam Vets and families.
My shells , mostly reloads, were covered, gas /ride to get there, food...I just showed up to shoot my best and get money per bird until I dropped one, or whatever the game was.

Shooting was one way I got money I really needed being the male of the household with 3 sibs...

Hunger, real need, will help with focus...
 
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't there once a time when you could order handguns from the Sears catalog and have them delivered straight to your door?

Ah, the good old days...
.
 
before you get excited by the prices, run them through this http://www.westegg.com/inflation/

For example that $96 the Ruger Blackhawk on the back cover cost adjusts to $699.62 in 2007 dollars (which is about $200-$300 more than what a Blackhawk will actually set you back today).
 
I enjoyed how in Rembrandt's first picture it referred to the 1911 as "old". If it was old then what is it today?
 
what got me ,

many of the gun companies where located in Southern California.
ammo prices were kind of high in todays dollars.
many magazines were called clips by the gun sellers.
 
When the 1958 issue of Guns was on the news stand I was a 17 year old senior in high school. I remember buying that issue, probably for the article on flintlocks and also for the ads for the surplus rifles. As cheap as they were, who had the money back then.
 
I was surprised how expensive 45acp ammo (230 ball?) was... $6 for 50. That's gotta be 25.00 in now dollars.
Click to expand...

It varied back then, depending on who had it...how much they had...how much they gave for it...and how much they thought they could get for it. I've bought GI surplus ball for as little as 2 cents a round, and if I bought 2 thousand rounds at a time, I could get it for $7.50 a thousand. Some of that "surplus" ammunition was stolen, I'm fairly sure...
 
Median family income in the U.S. in 1958 was $5100.

That's $98 per week on average for a family.

www2.census.gov/prod2/popscan/p60-033.pdf

John
 
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