I remember the ads in the back of the gun magazines back in the 60s where you could buy a German Luger or military surplus 1911 for 25-35 bucks.
I think "Extra Fine" condition cost you a couple extra bucks.

Okay, pursuant to this esrlier post of mine, here’s the ad mentioned above.


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Now there's a .410 I would buy!

And always ended some of the ads on the best Foxes with "WHAT A FOX''!

You could clearly hear this through the pages of the ad. These were the days when an imagination was vivid and well developed. Memories...

This is a great thread. I haven't read why it went from Shotgun News to The Gun List mentioned yet. Aaron, Shotgun News was a large format, like 12" x 16" newspaper style reader. And so was The Gun List. Shotgun News was totally random as to the ads; no organization at all. There were ads for guns shows and gun stores mixed in amongst all of the classified ads for guns. When you got the periodical it was a test in the accuracy of speed reading, you couldn't just turn to the "P"s for Parker. And then came a technological leap. This new classified gun newspaper, The Gun List, came out was organized alphabetically. What an innovation! Well, a lot of people immediately jumped to this new fangled "organized" classified paper so you could immediately find those Parkers and Winchesters. And Shotgun News just started to fade to the background and eventually went away. In those days knowledge was power and the "old" guys that had been trading guns all their lives had all the knowledge. You had to gain their confidence to start getting those grains of knowledge because there were very few books that had any useful information. Most of the books that really expanded the collecting interests were penned the the late 80s and 90s. Folklore and campfire stories was the source of great information in those days and you can imagine there was some BS floating around out there as well. Not intentional, but there was little basis of fact. The good old days indeed. :)

As a sidebar to address label in the picture of the Hunting & Fishing magazine cover I posted, Carroll Varney, 357 State St., Augusta, ME - I wonder if this is the same Varney family that started Varney's Sporting Clays just 10 miles to the south in Richmond, ME...?

The "New Hampshire Boys" and I have shot at Varney's a time or two.





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I remember in 1985 when I first got my FFL and Shotgun News was THE source. Guys would want to buy gun X, Y or Z for the cost listed in SN. They were not happy when I told them that was wholesale and if they wanted that price they had to get their own FFL.

I also remember as a kid going into Eagle Arms in Breinigsville, PA and seeing all the surplus rifles on the racks, hanging on peg boards or stuffed muzzle up in oak barrels. I vividly remember Italian Carcanos for $25 and beautiful Swedish Mausers with full-length tiger striped stocks for $30!! Eagle Arms is still at the same location but those prices are LONG GONE!!

While he was best known for the Parkers that passed through his shop, here is a great Fox ad from 1989 --

Attachment 103880

Unfortunately, I only got one out of this ad.

Two DE 20s in that ad and an XE!! Wonder where those are today?

Gun shows were a primary source of nice guns for me, before the internet. There seemed to be a show almost every weekend between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh.
Gunlist was great in the beginning. The last few years I used Gunlist it seemed like I was always a day or two to late for the "bargains". I finally figured out that guys were getting them in overnight mail. By then the net was taking over.