Anyone else remember when you could go to Walmart or Kmart and pick up a nice 12ga for like $149 bucks? Leave with it same day. Kinda like the old days of picking up an old muscle car for 300 bucks. Nowadays everyone knows what they have. Times have changed so much. I have no point here.
Now I'm recalling digging through a crate of SKSes to pick one. $175 for an SKS, expensive! On the other hand these were some rare variant that took AK mags, might be worth it.
My first gun purchase was a Mossberg 500 pump 12ga.
I bought it, a box of shells, and a hard plastic case to put it in.
I bought it at Monkey Wards.
I paid $139 for everything.
What's more, I carried all three items away from the cash register and out the door.
Never showed an I.D. no background check, no hassles.
Yes, I remember them
Yep, good memories! Forgot about Ward's!
Bought my first M1 Garand at the CMP North Store in the fall of 2006. It was a field grade Springfield with a WWII serial number and barrel. I paid $425 for it. Racks were full of every manufacturer and rack to collector grade rifles. Also had 03s, 03a3s, carbines, and literally tons of Greek HXP ammo. Those were the days. Sadly I was a broke college kid at the time.
Challenger, I'm close to your age. When I was a preteen, Dad and I went into Brown's Sporting Goods inside U.P. mall and bought a single shot 410. I walked out of the mall carrying the box under my shoulder. I think it was about $60.