1970-71 SIR price for 98k

[kjohn]

I was reading my 1970-71 SIR catalogue today. German 98k rifles were $36.50. Some of us probably thought that was a way too much for "some oddball World War Two German army rifle!", especially when you could buy nice old bubba'd Lee Enfields for 17.95, or whatever. And, at least the Lee Enfields weren't "some oddball metric calibre that you can't get anymore". As dumb as I was back then, I did manage to buy two CZ 8x57 Mausers that were made up partly of new German receivers and some Czech parts. These turned out to be fairly scarce nowadays. But, as dumb as I was back then, I bubba'd one. I still have the other one. It has an odd mid-sized stamped trigger guard, not a real big "winter" one, but bigger than a regular. These have whatever was on the receiver ring ground off and the CZ stuff stamped along the side.

I can only look at that catalogue for so long, and the feeling of utter failure creeps over me. Why didn't I buy more guns back then? I did buy quite a few from SIR - but.......

 

[Claven2]

$36.50 in 1971 is about $190 in today's dollars.

 

[Swiend]

I was 3 yrs old in '71, not enough money in my piggy bank

 

[manbearpig]

 

[Bigbill]

Recently, when I was cleaning out family effects after a relative passed away, I found a rent check from 1970, for a three bedroom townhouse. The rent was $85.00per month.

If you look at it that way, $36.00 was a fortune.

BB

 

[Coyote Ugly]

A bottle of Coke and a Chocolate Bar was about 25 Cents.

 

[david doyle]

There are as many if not more good deals available today. go buy a yugo tok and a crate of ammo, a CZ 858 and crate of ammo.............. a swede mauser.........

 

[Grizzlypeg]

I remember back then, there were certain surplus rifles with familiar cartridges like 8mm and 30-06, 303 that sold for that kind of price, and then there were the eastern european cartridges like 7.62x54R and some others that sold for about half that. Makes sense, it was based on demand and familiarity. The swedish mausers were typically cheaper than the Lee Enfields. 303 ammo was plentiful, 6.5x55 hunting ammo was outrageously expensive until Dominion came out with that loading.