Them were the days (1971)

O

olmontanaboy

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Holy smoke!
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In 1971, I could buy a hamburger for $.50 and a Coke for a dime also. Trouble was, I was earning $1.60/hour part time after school.

It really illustrates how much money has inflated over the last 40 years.
 
Wow! A Bess for $159. :eek:

However, paperbacks were about fifty cents and nowadays are about $8 each. So, $159 would buy you 318 paperbacks or $2,544 in today's dollars. Yep, the gun is much cheaper back then. :D

Switching to candybars which were a nickel, they are about seventy-five cents today. So, $159 breaks into 3,180 candy bars or $2,385. It's still cheaper to buy the Bess back then.
 
Switching to candybars which were a nickel, they are about seventy-five cents today. So, $159 breaks into 3,180 candy bars or $2,385.
Click to expand...

Candy bars were bigger back then too.:D
 
Somewhere around that time I went into Tamiami Gun Shop on SW 8th St. I had been doing union ironwork for about 2 years and that was the first time in my young life I made more than $100.00 per week. I was looking for my first handgun and leaning towards a Colt series 70 M 1911 at $135.00 full retail and brand new. I ended up going for a S&W M-19 blue with a 4" bbl at $120.00, also brand new and at full retail. A gallon of gas was anywhere from $0.18 to $.030 depending on the day and a pack of non filter Camels or a tin of Copenhagen snuff was $.030. :p A union ironworker made $6.05 per hour journeyman's scale and that was walking in high cotton.
 
Yeah, back in 1971 I was a member of the North South Skirmish Assoication and I bought a .58 zouave two band musket for $89 and that same Lyman Remmington .44 for $89 both brand new, picked em up at the Nationals in Winchester Va. Us black powder shooters do have a much better selection available today and reasonable prices for sure, but I don't give a hoot I'd go back in a heart-beat.:D
 
Ah yes, here I am in 1971 and I have 159 bucks burning a hole in my pocket, what to buy? A Brown Bess musket?, or a TI-2500 four function hand held calculator with a bright LED display, destined to make slide rules obsolete?:confused:
 
olmontanaboy - WOW! Thanks for posting these advertisements! I quick like got my checkbook out, addressed the envelopes and my orders are in the mail as I type this!!!! Boy . .. . the postman will be busy a carrying all them boxes of guns from his truck to my door! I was so impressed with the Brown Bess that I ordered a half dozen of 'em! :D

Seriously . . . . great ads and thanks for posting them. I remember them well. Unfortunately, in 1971 I was working two jobs to pay my way through college and about to be married to boot! Oh how I wish I had some of the guns your ads show! Thanks a lot for posting 'em and bringing up old memories! :)
 
I bought a kentucky flintlock in 70 or 71 for 99 bucks. Think it was CVA. Worst mistake I ever made. I was 12 in 69 and bought a new Rigarmi 58 Remington along with a mold, a pound of powder and a tin of caps for 60 bucks.
 
The Good Old Days

:D The Good Old Days!!!! You betcha.... Great ads... I read some where about two guys writing about how they bought Walker Replicas in Ohio for $60. back in 1968.


I remember getting paid $50. every two weeks back in 1969 courtesy of the USAF. A carton of cigarettes was $2.50. Would I have spent $60.00 for a BP Revolver?:rolleyes:
 
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I found a box of around 1970's vintage Remington .22 shorts in the gun case of a bolt action .22 rifle my wife inherited.
The 79¢ price sticker was still on the box.
 
A new-in-the-pouch (didn't come in a box) Browning Hi-Power was just around $100 when I bought one in 1970 or 1971. But a box of 50 9mm cartridges was $5, which made it relatively expensive. I didn't do much shooting with a 9mm. And besides, my weekly earnings weren't anywhere near $100.
 
First rifle I bought.....

....was a Russian Mosin Nagant 7.62 from WWII. I gave 14.95 to Swear and Sendback (Sears and Roebuck) and an extra coupla bucks for a box of steel jackets. It was shipped right to my house which was legal at that time. (about 1963). A friend of my Dad's gave me a 7.7 and a 6.5 Arisaka. The 6.5 was still full military. The 7.7 had a sporterization commenced but not finished.

The first time I shot it, the cartridge case expanded and jammed in the breach. I had to drive it out with a cleaning rod. My uncle told me I could shoot .308 rounds in it but I just shot up the milsurp ammo and gave the rifle away.
 
Times have changed

Yes times have changed. I still have today two pistols that I bought new, in the 60's for $29.95 each. They still shoot well. Also in 1972 I was making $5.00 an hour, had a wife and kid. I was driving a 1970 truck that I had bought new. We bought a house. My wife was not working, just me and we were able to buy a house. It was hard to make the payments, but we did. In 2005 we sold that house for $600,000.00. How is that for a savings account??? I bought several guns during that time. I think I should have pasted on the guns and bought a second house.

Willis
 
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