Ads such as these started a LOT of us into this hobby...... and a few folks who we don't talk about. Lee Harvey Oswald bought his Carcano from Klein's of Chicago, for example. I bought clips there because I saw his invoice in "Life" magazine and there were none in Canada. They lifted the Carcano from their ad right fast, believe me!
My own start in this hobby was from one of the Ye Olde Hunter ads. I fell in love with the fancy triggerguard of the "VV Sniping Rifle" and saved up my $9.98 in nickels and dimes, added the extra $1.99 because I lived in Canada.... and sent away for it. It arrived at the CPR station, delivered by a steam train, $1.30 freight collect. My rifle turned out to be a much-battered AOI Vetterli-Vitali 1870/87/915 made at Torre Annunziata in 1883.... with a bent barrel. Fortunately, a family friend was Ernie Symons, who was just about the finest machinist who EVER lived. Ernie put the VV onto lathe centres and straightened her out and I still have the rifle. I am still looking for a spaghetti bush so I can compare it to the grain on my stock.
Read some of the DESCRIPTIONS carefully. There is a lot of bum information in some of them. Remember, there was no Internet at that time and VERY few books. I really don't even remember if Fred Datig had published his FIRST Luger book, much less the vastly-improved second edition, and that was the ONLY Luger book there was. The well-read gun hobbyist's personal library consisted of a Lyman or Ideal loading book, a stack of old "Field and Stream" magazines, a Bannerman catalogue and perhaps a Gun Digest or two, even if they were shockingly expensive. The absolute gun NUT had a copy of Hatcher's Notebook, SECOND edition: third was still in the future.
A waitress made 50 cents an hour plus tips, a waiter made 55 cents an hour but nobody tipped waiters. A Baker's Helper made 70 cents an hour and it was nearly ALL handwork, very hot, very physical, 112-pound bags of flour and how many Parker House Rolls can you make in half an hour, one at a time, and there's 400 loaves ready to come out NOW! The Manager at the Bank of Commerce got $320 a month and was expected to maintain a lofty social position (for the credit of the Bank, of course) on that. In the oil patch, my father made 600 a month as Area Manager for one of the two biggest oil-well wireline outfits, doing R/A work, logging and shooting, backoffs, setting plugs, packers ..... and working 80 hours a week, every week. You could make $1.75 an hour working with Sid and Art Rockall on a service rig, unless Sid got drunk and pulled the Crown block down to the drilling floor again. There was big money on the big rigs, Comonwealth paying $2.75 an hour but that was wet, heavy work, no power tongs, manual slips, 30 below, running casing 1800 feet to the hour in 30-foot joints, spinning-in each joint with a chain off the cathead and then catheading it tight with a pair of 48s and a single suspended tong.
Yes, guns were cheaper but most guys owned ONE and it was a $45 Winchester 94 or a $110 Winchester 70. The guy with the old Army rifle was either a veteran or to poor to buy himself a decent gun... and sometimes both. Veterans, then as now, were not appreciated properly. A few guys were still trying to pot-hunt with Grandpa's old rifle, the one he got out of the catalogue back in 1910 or 1920.... and there were no shells for most of those. You could still get.43 Mauser, so that was about the ONLY old-time cartridge generally available although the hardware store COULD get .577 Snider and .577/.450MH for you, should you want such a thing. Have to come from England, though.
So those mysterious Mausers were sold off and butchered by the score, the VVs and Werndls were hung on walls until forgotten, the .43s became useless in 1968 when IVI destroyed all existing stocks of the ammunition and then de-listed the round. I doubt that very many Garands ever were sold in Canada: that was DOUBLE the price of a 94! Canadians knew nothing about Johnsons and the thing looked weird anyway: are you SURE you want something like that? And it's a .30-'06, which is overkill for anything in this country: everybody knows that. SEVEN millimeter? Looked about okay, so tried one in Grandpa's Ross and the damn CASING blew out: too dangerous! And just EVERYBODY knows that 6.5s are dangerous: you ever hear about those Eaton's 6.5s? Well, I can tell you that the things are a death-trap, pure and simple and........
And so it went.
And most of those are gone, now. The VERY few remainders are the foundations of this hobby we now enjoy.
Yes, quite a few of them ARE cheaper now in terms of the hours you work.
But I'm still waiting for BUFFDOG to source some more unfired Lewises, with equipment, at $60 a pop because, you see, I HAVE the money now!
Hope this puts things into a bit of perspective.
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