Price of firearms then and now?

Attachment 210283
Found a old tatty receipt in garage and wondered if I could if $26.00 was a good price for a fully wooded 303 in 1969. $10.00 deposit seems nothing now but was a good chunk of an apprentices wages. Although guns and ammunition seem cheap today I think we do not appreciate how much is available and talk of shortages as if they are a new thing. Everybody stocked up and if in stock snapped it up like everyday was Christmas.If CAC made it importers could not import the equivalent foreign product with out paying a healthy tariff

Bought my first Sako (still got it) just before the change to decimal currency. Paid £59/17/6. Sorry for those that don't understand what this currency was :-)
Took a lot of saving to buy that as my apprentice wage was £10 per week. So, the rifle was 6x my wage.

Soon after I put a Pecar 4x81 on tick at £26. That scope never got on the rifle as I couldn't get 26mm rings. Exchanged it for a Weaver 4x and quite a bit of money returned.

Don't have the receipt, long gone, but do have the police rego papers somewhere.

About 5 years later I bought a new Tikka LSA55 22/250 for IIRC around 150 bucks.

Oh, forgot to mention. A year or so before my Sako, whilst I was a rifle club member, I was able to purchase from the Army at Linton a No 4 303 for £5. I think it was a special deal to rifle club members to promote civilian marksmanship. That army culture disappeared not too many years later.

My No 4 was virtually brand new and the only wear was some stock damage from supposedly square bashing. I foolishly sold it to a mate for $10. He promptly chopped it up for sporting use.

I got my no 4 long branch from sportsways in downtown Auckland in 1976 for $17.50 they had bins full to choose from. A cylinder of CACs finest mk vii only cost a few cents a round from memory.
Carried the rifle and ammo to the bus station and caught the bus back to pukekohe without incident.

I think my Finnwolf cost me $239, paid cash so got a free sling with it!
This was 1973-74.
Quite a chunk of cash back then.

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Originally Posted by Marty Henry

I got my no 4 long branch from sportsways in downtown Auckland in 1976 for $17.50 they had bins full to choose from. A cylinder of CACs finest mk vii only cost a few cents a round from memory.
Carried the rifle and ammo to the bus station and caught the bus back to pukekohe without incident.

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Rifle club of the day CAC '58 (supposedly the best) cost us 17/6 for a 75 round box. When I joined I was always in awe of the amount of ammo the club held.

Yeah, can't do the bus thingee anymore along with a zillion other things. One of our members was navy reserve and used to travel by train (the navy paid) to the trentham shoot each year. I presume though his rifle was in a gun bag but only the protect the rifle not to prevent offence to other travellers.
Likewise we had 2 members who came to the range on motor bikes with their rifles shoulder slung and not in bags. No one batted an eylid.

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/ne...S18880112.2.64
Remington's were cheap once... And it looks like their QA/QC issues have also been around a while! :wtfsmilie:

Greetings All,
My first new rifle, a M700 ADL, in .308 cost $243.00 in the late 1970's. We had purchased a new car in 1974 which cost $3,900.00. Today an equivalent rifle can be had for around $1,000 but the car would be $35,000.00. There were few calibre options in the late 1970,s compared to today when there are masses. And scopes, most today would not put a 1970's scope on their .22 these days.
GPM.

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Originally Posted by grandpamac

Greetings All,
My first new rifle, a M700 ADL, in .308 cost $243.00 in the late 1970's. We had purchased a new car in 1974 which cost $3,900.00. Today an equivalent rifle can be had for around $1,000 but the car would be $35,000.00. There were few calibre options in the late 1970,s compared to today when there are masses. And scopes, most today would not put a 1970's scope on their .22 these days.
GPM.

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A $3900 in 74 is $52000 in todays dollars, and $243 is $3200.

In 1978 I sold a fairly flashy pony that I'd bred and broken in (all with Dads help) for I think the unprecedented sum of $600. As soon as I went back to boarding school I promptly matched off to Smith and Rainsfords (I think, or were they in Invercargill?) and purchased a brand new Tikka LSA-55 in 308 for $349. Took it back to school on the bus, the house masters used to hold the rifles for the several of us who went hunting!

Bought my first rifle, a new Gevarm A7 on Decimal Changeover day for $50. Next came a .303 in '68, but I don't recall the price. Followed by a BRNO ZKK601 .243 in '69 for $179, Pecar scope for it was dearer than the rifle itself and had to ordered from Germany to get the maltese cross reticle that I wanted. Then around mid 70's bought a BRNO 8x57 still wraped in paper and full of grease for $49.

I still have them all except the .303

I didn't buy anything new until about 1990 . Paid around $500 for a S/H Tikka .222 with a Weaver scope.
My brother had a New Australia Mountaineer model .222 and probably paid over $700 in 88/89 from a local sports store. A new Howa now can be found as low as $600 from a larger retailers but with a synthetic stock.

yeah the transport thing is a bit of a no-no now.
Back in the day people with firearms were viewed as either in employment like a culler of doing a wholesome leisure activity like hunting.
No one was scared of something happening like now.
Back on subject, got my 243 winchester lightweight back in 1990 for either 899 or 999 dollars (with redfield rings and bases) from Pegleys in Hokitika, It was the going rate for them whichever one it was.
Traded in my Remington 742 Woodsmaster 243 for the Loopy M8 4x. something like 350 or 400 nicker for that
A guy I grew up with (not a mate really) got the featherweight 270 for the same price. Would've preferred the featherweight. Heaps nicer stock

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Originally Posted by zimmer

Rifle club of the day CAC '58 (supposedly the best) cost us 17/6 for a 75 round box. When I joined I was always in awe of the amount of ammo the club held.

Yeah, can't do the bus thingee anymore along with a zillion other things. One of our members was navy reserve and used to travel by train (the navy paid) to the trentham shoot each year. I presume though his rifle was in a gun bag but only the protect the rifle not to prevent offence to other travellers.
Likewise we had 2 members who came to the range on motor bikes with their rifles shoulder slung and not in bags. No one batted an eylid.

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Arthur's Pass Railway station waiting for the Railcar and no gun covers in sight about 1968
Attachment 210319Attachment 210320
Getting off Railcar at Halpens Creek to go hunting, gun carried in luggage rack but pack in guards van, Those days will never come again.
Attachment 210321

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Originally Posted by Tedz50

Arthur's Pass Railway station waiting for the Railcar and no gun covers in sight about 1968
Attachment 210319Attachment 210320
Getting off Railcar at Halpens Creek to go hunting, gun carried in luggage rack but pack in guards van, Those days will never come again.
Attachment 210321

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Had to kill time in Dunedin in ‘74 and had the Finnwolf with me so slung it over my shoulder and went window shopping - nobody batted an eyelid - not even when I then got on the bus for the trip home over an hour away.

For me my first centerfire was brand new Sako Finnbear 270 purchased from Tuckers Sports in Ashburton. Cost was $800 or 8 weeks wages for me.
Was the worst gun, Stock design was horrible and booted me into next week and it was heavy.
Replaced it with a Rem 700 mountain rifle in 1990 in 25/06 which was much better.

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Originally Posted by zimmer

Oh, forgot to mention. A year or so before my Sako, whilst I was a rifle club member, I was able to purchase from the Army at Linton a No 4 303 for £5. I think it was a special deal to rifle club members to promote civilian marksmanship. That army culture disappeared not too many years later.

My No 4 was virtually brand new and the only wear was some stock damage from supposedly square bashing. I foolishly sold it to a mate for $10. He promptly chopped it up for sporting use.

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please take your hand and slap some sense into yourself haha. painful to know a minter got chopped up

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Originally Posted by Tedz50

Arthur's Pass Railway station waiting for the Railcar and no gun covers in sight about 1968

Getting off Railcar at Halpens Creek to go hunting, gun carried in luggage rack but pack in guards van, Those days will never come again.

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Love the history of hard yards, one thing I try and install in my lads when I drag them miles round the hills. The journey is what creates memories not kill.

1969/70 I was the senior firearms salesman at Tisdalls in Ch-Ch and we were selling unissued Long Branch No4 .303's for $29.95, and I purchased a very tidy SMLE No1 Mk1 from Cromb & Merrits (over the road) for $7.50. I still have the Tisdalls catalogue I wrote at the time and could post some pages here if anyone is interested.

1975 I bought my Rem 700 BDL in .222 when I started with Forest Service for $220 still have it wont part with it

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Originally Posted by gundoc

1969/70 I was the senior firearms salesman at Tisdalls in Ch-Ch and we were selling unissued Long Branch No4 .303's for $29.95, and I purchased a very tidy SMLE No1 Mk1 from Cromb & Merrits (over the road) for $7.50. I still have the Tisdalls catalogue I wrote at the time and could post some pages here if anyone is interested.

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@gundoc Yes please. Another member posted old Tisdall catalogue pages some time back and they were of great interest.

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Originally Posted by Russian 22.

please take your hand and slap some sense into yourself haha. painful to know a minter got chopped up

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Yep, that's certainly the case now but back then they were so plentiful. I was pissed at the time because he wanted to take up target shooting and hounded me to sell it. My rifle although only a 2 groover was very accurate. Next time I saw it it was for sale in the local gunshop, all cut down.

One of my fullbore club members bid for and bought a sizable portion of the remaining army stock of No 4's. My eyes just about popped out of my head when I saw them. Cases (wooden) and cases of rifles. I forget how many to the case. Would be worth a fortune now if trickled into the market.

Pretty sure I remember in 1965, Harmony House, top of Queen St in Akl were selling "sporterized" 303's for 25 quid (pounds, for those unborn back then). My father picked up my Cooey single-shot .22 for a .fiver, for me. I was a farmhand then after bailing from school, so obviously I needed a gun. The values and principles of those times, sadly, are long gone

1965

Attachment 210418

1970

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Interesting the big difference in the prices for 308s.
BSA and parker hale always seemed to have at times quite a large difference for 308s. 243, 270 and 3006 would be dearer

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Originally Posted by csmiffy

Interesting the big difference in the prices for 308s.
BSA and parker hale always seemed to have at times quite a large difference for 308s. 243, 270 and 3006 would be dearer

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308s and 222s always cheaper than other calibers for some reason.
In Picton at the moment, 2nd hand bookshop has mid ‘70’s Outdoor Magazines, ( mostly in black& white!) and I spotted an ad in a ‘74 edition: Holland & Holland double in 303 British…$3,000!:o

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Originally Posted by keneff

I was a farmhand then after bailing from school, so obviously I needed a gun.

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:thumbs:

Bought a new Tikka M55 .308 in 1979 for $350. That got pinched, so in 1982 bought a new Sako A ll .308 from Tisdalls in CHCH for $960. Remember that well as it was a heap of money to me then. Still have it.

When I left school in Invercargill in 1966, 303 ammo could be bought at a second hand shop for 2/6 a hundred,in a round container (25c). I remember thinking that I should buy lots but had reason or gun to do so. Referring to stories of transporting guns,a year back an old pistol shooting mate,when we were discussing the days of travelling to Trentham for UIT championships, told me of boarding the ferry at Chch wearing an ex army greatcoat with a 357magnum revolver in one pocket and a S&W .22 semi auto in the other. Went into his cabin and climbed into bed still wearing the coat. Another guy in the cabin asked if he was going to take off his coat for the night. "Nope" Can't do that no more--no ferry.

After buying my first rifle, a new Voere .22LR for $44, the day I turned 16 in 1968, I carried it up to the local police station to have it registered, after previously being there earlier to get the permit to secure, and then walked up the main street of Tokoroa and home, about 5 kms, with the rifle over my shoulder with it's new sling and the magazine and bolt in it and a free packet of CAC .22LR ammo in my pocket. Nobody blinked an eye and several people made friendly comments. Nowadays, if you carried a rifle as far the letterbox in town some nosy neighbour would more than likely phone the police saying, "help, I've just seen someone with a gun" and we all know what would happen then.