Do you Remember?

I remember walking into a Woolworth's and they were selling army surplus. They had Garands and Enfields Cant remember the price but it cpu;dnt have been much
I [icked up 0 of them.

Rose's Discount stores here sold SKS carbines, Mosin-Nagant rifles and some others I can't remember. The SKS were 119.00.
This was in 88-90 era. I did not get any of them.

Dong's Gunshop in Tulsa had an oil drum full of SKS for like $80 each at one time
The old Evans drug in Enid had pallets of shotgun shells in the aisles

Monkey Wards in Orange Co. Ca, displayed Win 94's in Oak barrels. By the door, no less. 1970's.

I never saw them, but I do remember hearing about M1 carbines in a barrel at a hardware store in South Carolina in the very early 80's.

In the 80's, we bought new, fresh-off-the-boat SKS's for $45 each. AK's were $65 each, or 3/$190. That was before the idiot in Stockdale, Ca shot up the elementary school, and the entire country heard of AK rifles. We bought the ammo for them in small blue paper boxes of 25 rounds- 50 cents a box! We wasted a lot of ammo on Sunday afternoon shoots.

Enfields, Schmidt-Rubins, Carcanos, 7mm Mausers and 03-A3s could be had at Woolworths for 20 bucks apiece. K-Mart sold them for awhile as well. I remember distinctly in 1963 after the assassination the Carcanos were pulled off the shelf.

Also back then surplus ammo (corrosive though) could be had at $1 for a 20 round box. For 20 bucks I bought a Lee whackamole, a pound of powder, a sleeve of primers and a box of 20 cases. Seemed a better option than rusting the barrel.

same here , Woolworths at the Richmond Mall , all types ,kinds of military rifles in the barrels at the end of the counter $49.95 each....I got my 1911s for $17.50 each back in 1963 and I did not keep ANY of them used the hell out of them and still doubled my money.......my neighbors Dad had duffle bags packed with 45 acp ammo up in the attic, he was a major in the army ....oh well those WERE the days..........

LOL, when I was very young my dad took me to Kliens Sporting Goods in Chicago. They had wiskey barrels full of German 98K rifles. The iron sight models were $19.95 and the scoped ones were $24.95. I told my dad we need one and he said "no those are old military junk." Well the scoped 98Ks were actually German sniper rifles that now go for around $10K. I wish we had bought the whole damn barrel full! Like the old saying goes: "If wishes were horses we would all ride to town."

The surplus rifles were of no interest to me then or now. But I did buy one of thse Colt New Service revolvers, an ex-Royal Canadian Mounted Police model that was originally .455 but reamed to .45 Colt. Also went through a few Colt M1917s. But even back then, $50 was a small fortune to me and it was awhile before I could afford a brand new Ruger Blackhawk at $87.50!

Bob Wright

I remember in the early '60s a place called Joe the Motorist's Friend selling huge piles of Springfields, Enfields, Manlicher-Carcanos, Mausers, and a few M1 carbines at very reasonable prices. New saw an M1 Garand there, though.

My first centerfire rifle was a sporterized 98 Mauser in 30-06 from K-Mart in Lex, Ky. for $49.95. My brother & 2 buds helped me with the cash until next payday.
About 1974or 5.

At that time I'd seen a lot of 1911's for 30 or 40 bucks but thought them too big. Wound up with a Walther,,, more James Bondish I guess.

gunzo said:

My first centerfire rifle was a sporterized 98 Mauser in 30-06 from K-Mart in Lex, Ky. for $49.95. My brother & 2 buds helped me with the cash until next payday.
About 1974or 5.

At that time I'd seen a lot of 1911's for 30 or 40 bucks but thought them too big. Wound up with a Walther,,, more James Bondish I guess.

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More James Bond than John Wayne I guess

When I was 16 or 17 Woolworths in downtown Ithaca NY had a wooden barrel at the end of the counter in the sporting goods dept. filled with surplus rifles. Many different manufacturers. Didn't know a lot about guns at the time but 3 or 4 or us would go in pull them out of the barrel and point them at the ceiling to see how thay fit. NO locks on the triggers and NO ONE got shot. Store personal didn't say anything as thay walked by. I took my school lunch money and bought 22 ammo for our weekly outing to the local dunp to shoot rats. Those were the good old days. No cell ph's, video games or computers.

The Woolworths in Jackson, TN had the best pimento cheese sandwiches that I ever ate at their sprawling lunch counter. They had a peanut machine that would lower the green shelled peanuts into hot oil on a big tray then when finished cooking them would raise them back out of the oil. Stood there and watched this amazing machine many times in the 50's. Do not remember any firearms except Gene Autry and Roy Rodgers pistols of which my Mother bought for me and my brother. Gibsons had 30-30 Winchesters for 80 dollars. Need a Time Machine.

When I first got my FFL (1991) I checked the box that allowed the wholesalers access to my information, I was inundated with flyers from wholesalers, importers and dealers from around the country...

I bought an unfired surplus type 56 SKS for $79, 1200 rounds of Norinco steel core was $120 delivered....
I bought a S&W model 65, 357 for just $225, a trade in from one of the state patrols back east
I bought a Longbranch Enfield No.4 Mk1* for $59
I then bought another SKS this one a paratrooper model for $89

Of course, back then I didn't make as much money nor did I have the gun budget I do now.

AZ10X said:

When I was very young my dad took me to Kliens Sporting Goods in Chicago. They had wiskey barrels full of German 98K rifles. The iron sight models were $19.95 and the scoped ones were $24.95.

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Klien's Sporting Goods in Chicago is the store from which Lee Harvey Oswald ordered the rifle he allegedly used to assassinate President Kennedy on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas.

The rifle he ordered from their ad in The American Rifleman magazine was a Carcano model 91 TS carbine. But Klein's could no longer get that rifle from their supplier and substituted the similar Carcano M91/38 in 6.5 mm, which was manufactured in that caliber for only one year, 1940. The Warren Commission, who investigated the assassination, referred to the rifle as a Mannlicher-Carcano. Mannlicher for the style of the magazine and ammunition clip, plus Carcano for the cartridge.

The price of the rifle with the scope by mail order was $19.95, plus $1.50 for shipping. Oswald used the alias, A. Hidell, and had the rifle sent to his PO Box, which was registered to his real name. He picked up the rifle at the post office on March 25, 1963.

No disrespect here, but all of that information is alleged, we don't know if Oswald actually shot Kennedy, we also don't know if Oswald ordered the rifle.
Why order a rifle mail order, with a paper trail, why not just go to another town, pay cash and use a fake name?

In the mid '60's my Dad picked up an Enfield .303 carbine at a local hardware store for $15. It was still wrapped and in cosmoline and had never been fired. He gave that gun to me and I owned in for several years before deciding I didn't need it around and sold it for $30. At the time it was not easy finding ammo for this gun and that, in part was why I sold it.

After my dad retired from Ma Bell in 1985, he took a part-time job at Woolworths working the gun counter in the sporting good department. I was already living out of state by then, but I have one picture of me visiting him there on a trip back home:



One time they got in a big load of surplus Swedish Mausers and my dad stacked up several sale coupons, promos, and his employee discount (and maybe a wink and a nod from the manager) and cherry picked the four nicest ones and bought them for $25 each. He sporterized one, and after he passed, I sold two of them on eBay (back when that was OK) for around $350 each. I kept the best number-matching original gun and the one he modified.