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bulinm wrote:Bought a Winchester 94 from a Gibson's for $ 65 back in the early-mid 70s. Most of my guns back then came from Sears.

I have a Sears Roebuck company stamped 12ga bolt action shotgun my FIL bought from Sears many years ago.

My first gun was a bolt action, tubular fed, Sears .410.

I still have a single shot 20ga. that dad got me from Sears many years ago. My first deer rifle (bolt action .243) also came from Sears. This was mid 60's for both.

It would be nice if locations were given for the memories being mentioned. The family of a friend in 6th grade owned the Western Auto store in Luling, TX.. I'm not sure how long they owned it but many many years. In the late 60's they had a "gun department" with usually 2 or 3 dozen assorted guns as I recall it now.

One of my first firearms purchases was a Marlin Glenfield 60 I bought at Target, appropriately enough.
There is a Revelation .22 in my safe - a Western Auto store brand, made by Mossberg IIRC.
I remember walking through Penney's to get to their sporting goods department.
One of my father's last handguns came from TG&Y.
My '96 Swedish Mauser came by way of Woolworth's.

Otasco on one side of the tracks and Western Auto on the other. Price matching before it was the norm. The local farm stores usually had a gun counter too. I lusted over the Sears catalog showing a half dozen calibers available for almost every rifle listed. I'm not sure but I think either Montgomery Ward or JC Penny also had catalog gun sales.

I never bought a gun from any of those stores; I carried several tractor-trailer loads of ammo out of them. Gibson's had the best prices on 12 gauge shells and .22 LR. Ah, the days of $2.95 a box of blasting 12's or $5.95 a box of duck/goose loads. The bricks of .22 LR were regular price $5.00 on sale for $3.95. Those were the days!

XnTx wrote:Otasco on one side of the tracks and Western Auto on the other. Price matching before it was the norm. The local farm stores usually had a gun counter too. I lusted over the Sears catalog showing a half dozen calibers available for almost every rifle listed. I'm not sure but I think either Montgomery Ward or JC Penny also had catalog gun sales.

Most folks probably don't know about Otasco Oklahoma Tire and Supply Company. So many places that carried firearms and ammunition that are gone. I also worked at Foley's in the sporting goods department and they carried Browning besides the other major names; no handguns. I even bought .22 at our local convenience store Sellers Bros. Any one remember the 24 hour gas station (Texaco maybe) on Telephone Road in Houston that sold ammo and hunting licenses? Penney's had a house brand, Foremost as did most of the big box stores. ie Wards -Westernfield, Hawthorne, Sears -JC Higgins, Ranger, Ted Williams. Western Auto - Revelation. Many more I'm sure. There are still a few Otasco stores and I saw a Western Auto somewhere.

And ammo from Sears

You guys forgot the old Whites Auto. And yes a bought a pistol at Gibsons in Irving back in 1978.

SC1903A3 wrote:You guys forgot the old Whites Auto. And yes a bought a pistol at Gibsons in Irving back in 1978.

The Irving Gibson's is where I bought my reloading supplies from.

Back in the 1960's (pre 68), TG&Y had a Marlin 22 lever action rifle that I wanted really bad. It was $99.00. I was mowing yards at $3.00 -$3.50 a yard and saving my money. I would ride my bicycle up there every so often and look at the rifle (and drool over it). One day, I rode my bicycle up there to look at the rifle again (had $66.00 saved at that point) and noticed that they had 3 Ruger 10/22s on sale for $36.00 each. I remembered one of my friends telling me that those were pretty good rifles. I started thinking that I could buy one of those and have a lot of money left over for ammo. I rode home, got my money and went back and bought the rifle. When I got home, I called my friends and told them about the sale. They went and bought the other two 10/22s. I still have my 10/22. I can't tell you how many 10s of thousands of rounds have been through it and it has never jammed. Not the most accurate rifle but extremely reliable. I get it out and shoot is every now and then. It stays in the gun safe next to the Kimber and Anschutz bolt action 22s. Each has their on use and the bolt rifles are much more accurate but I have a lot of fond memories of shooting that 10/22 when I was a kid. Never did get a Marlin lever action 22. Maybe some day.

LTUME1978 wrote:Back in the 1960's (pre 68), TG&Y had a Marlin 22 lever action rifle that I wanted really bad. It was $99.00. I was mowing yards at $3.00 -$3.50 a yard and saving my money. I would ride my bicycle up there every so often and look at the rifle (and drool over it). One day, I rode my bicycle up there to look at the rifle again (had $66.00 saved at that point) and noticed that they had 3 Ruger 10/22s on sale for $36.00 each. I remembered one of my friends telling me that those were pretty good rifles. I started thinking that I could buy one of those and have a lot of money left over for ammo. I rode home, got my money and went back and bought the rifle. When I got home, I called my friends and told them about the sale. They went and bought the other two 10/22s. I still have my 10/22. I can't tell you how many 10s of thousands of rounds have been through it and it has never jammed. Not the most accurate rifle but extremely reliable. I get it out and shoot is every now and then. It stays in the gun safe next to the Kimber and Anschutz bolt action 22s. Each has their on use and the bolt rifles are much more accurate but I have a lot of fond memories of shooting that 10/22 when I was a kid. Never did get a Marlin lever action 22. Maybe some day.

If you by a Marlin 39 get a used pre-Remington model. We sold Marlin 39's for 66 bucks at Globe but I think the Rugers sold for more than $36. We sold more Marlin semi auto 22's ($39) than any other make. The Marlins had been around longer than the Rugers.

A few months ago, my step-dad gave me his 1965 "Western Field" .22 semi-auto rifle. It's a Mossberg 351C that was branded for and sold by Montgomery Wards. It's beginning to show signs of sitting in the back of his closet for the better part of 30 years bit it's still a reliable shooter. And yes...it still has the original scope (Western Field 3-9 x 20) & leather sling.

MoJo wrote:I never bought a gun from any of those stores; I carried several tractor-trailer loads of ammo out of them. Gibson's had the best prices on 12 gauge shells and .22 LR. Ah, the days of $2.95 a box of blasting 12's or $5.95 a box of duck/goose loads. The bricks of .22 LR were regular price $5.00 on sale for $3.95. Those were the days!

And we were buying these when we were kids as well. No restrictions at all.