Remembering the Older Days of Reloading/Shooting

[cowboybart]

In the mid 80's everything was simple: $10 / pound, $10/ 100 bullets, $10/ brick of primers. Cast handgun bullets were 50% cheaper than jacketed.

 

[C-130 Dude]

While taking count of the remaining bricks of LR and LRM primers on my shelves, I began to pay extra attention to various price labels on some of my older supplies, and while we all know how much our sport has inflated in recent years, these old price tags brought back memories and a sting of the current state of things. The box of 215 magnum primers I bought several years back from the LGS in a clearance sale, and yes, I paid $3 for 1,000 (original was $7.99) and it is still full. I bought similar bricks of older primers in SP, SR and LR, and they were all like new and have worked without issue. However, I decided to save several of those to keep in my collection.

There were many, many more items with price stickers that today make me laugh, so I thought I would just post a few so the younger crowd can see how it used to be once.

Part 2: Added a few powders and 338 bullets. The $5 can is an unopened 1lb of WW 540 and the $7.95 is a can of W 452AA. The Sierra 338 bullets really made me laugh at $5.69. Was I ever that young?

Wow! Days gone by.....

 

[C-130 Dude]

When I was a 19 year old Lad, and enlisted in the USCG, I had a part time job at a gun club pulling trap and skeet. All the guys there were also hunters and reloaders of shotgun and rifles. My wife bought me a Rem 700 BDL in 7 RM (best wife ever, still have it, and still have her). My excitement to have the rifle was fairly quickly extinguished when I realized that it was almost $15.00 box to shoot it. When I told the guys at the club that I wasnt really able to shoot much, (enlisted wages) they were quick to invite me over to reload the 7mm. The components were so cheap that the nice guy actually let me reload a box of 7mm RM, for every box of 25 Winch AA shotgun hulls I picked up for him. Once he had a good inventory of hulls that I picked up, the deal moved to I can load one box of 7mm for every box of 12 gauge shotgun shells I loaded for him. They were all his components. They were all readily available, and they were all cheap.
I eventually reshingled his roof in trade for his rock chucker kit and the small balance of components he had for my 7mm. I was the great deal that week. I still load on that press today and I think of the old guy, still, everything I use it. If he was alive and knew how much it cost me to reload for that rifle , he would roll over in his grave.

Hey, I need a new roof too.......

 

[C-130 Dude]

Lol! Not "old", just more experienced!

More seasoned!

 

[C-130 Dude]

You could also buy a house for $5,000 to $10,000 so it's all relevant. The only problem is the wages haven't kept pace with inflation.

And it never will.

 

[C-130 Dude]

I was making $19.00 an hour in 1990

Was it legal?

 

[338 dude]

There was a true value hardware in Russellville, Alabama. It was one of the best gun stores around great selection of items, some for reloading, and an even better selection of rifles, shotguns and such. However, they got out of the gun business. I don't know possibly eight years ago.

When I was a kid, my favorite store was western auto. You could get anything from clothes to guns anything you ever needed whatever happened to them.

 

[Mike Matteson]

Don't forget the difference in hunting tag prices! My dad said he could go down to Ray bros sporting goods and buy a hunting license for $3, a deer tag for $2, and a box of 30-30 for $5....for $10 he was hunting!

About right. Only the lic was $1.00 and the 2 tags was $2.00. Fed duck was more. It was $3.00. From Sears I got a 7.65 Mauser for $29.00 and 100 round for less than $8.00. Right out of the CatLog. No ID just send the money. I was 11 at the time. They sent it to me by mail.
That back in the days of: Men were made of Steel, and Ships were made of Wood

 

[C-130 Dude]

About right. Only the lic was $1.00 and the 2 tags was $2.00. Fed duck was more. It was $3.00. From Sears I got a 7.65 Mauser for $29.00 and 100 round for less than $8.00. Right out of the CatLog. No ID just send the money. I was 11 at the time. They sent it to me by mail.
That back in the days of: Men were made of Steel, and Ships were made of Wood

Could you imagine an eleven year walk into a gun store today and tell the clerk, "I would like to buy that 7.65 on the wall there please". I don't know what would happen quicker, the cops coming, the employees passing out from laughter, or the kid throwing a temper tantrum! I'd love to be a fly on the wall there.

 

[Buckys]

So how many had a whoops early in reloading that set you straight from that point forward? Just asking for a friend.,,,,

I'm not terribly experienced yet and have had plenty. The one that sticks out was COAL when trying different bullets ... different ogive designs ended with one experiment touching the lands with a low-medium powder charge from the reloading manual for that bullet in that cartridge ended with a heavy bolt lift.

Fortunately, I decided to not shoot that gun again until I figured out what happened and shortly thereafter started measuring everything with the hornady lnl oal gauge with modified cases and calculating my own COAL to keep them 30-80 thous off the lands.

 

[flintlock hunter]

Way back when I bought EVERYTHING I needed to reload my own for$50 from a guy I taught Hunter Safety alongside......press, scale, powder measure, dies, trimmer etc...... and all that for the 22/250 Rem 700 I only paid $105 for brand new!

 

[del2les]

About right. Only the lic was $1.00 and the 2 tags was $2.00. Fed duck was more. It was $3.00. From Sears I got a 7.65 Mauser for $29.00 and 100 round for less than $8.00. Right out of the CatLog. No ID just send the money. I was 11 at the time. They sent it to me by mail.
That back in the days of: Men were made of Steel, and Ships were made of Wood

Sounds about right. I bought my first ever 30-30 from Sears, the Ted Williams model 100, and at the age of 15, I went to the local, small Sears ordering and delivery outlet, pointed to the one I wanted in their catalog, paid my money, and waited about a week for it to arrive. After working all summer and saving enough money, I was one very happy kid and could not wait till that year's deer season.

 

[Sealesniper]

My first rifle was a 700 in 308 I traded for with my dad (gave him a model 12). He gave me the checks for the gun, rings and scope. Gun was $67, fold away rings were $9 and the redfield scope was $28. I have not altered the gun other than adjusting the trigger and have made shots to 400 yards on deer with no issue.

 

[Muddyboots]

My favorite LGS back when was a Mobil gas station!!! Had guns and reloading equip too. I have not seen that since then!