Thread: Price of firearms then and now?

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.