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Love these old military surplus ads


Buckshot Bob

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I like that the garands have all matching numbers.

 

Mine only has one number on it. Does that mean my 1911 also has all matching numbers? My 1903? My Thompson?

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2 minutes ago, Alpo said:

I like that the garands have all matching numbers.

 

Mine only has one number on it. Does that mean my 1911 also has all matching numbers? My 1903? My Thompson?

:lol:

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Seems like a million years ago.

Seems like yesterday.

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22 minutes ago, Alpo said:

I like that the garands have all matching numbers.

 

Mine only has one number on it. Does that mean my 1911 also has all matching numbers? My 1903? My Thompson?

 

The M1903 loaned to the Greeks during WWII had matching numbers. The Greeks etched the last 4 of the serial number onto the bolt handle. However when they were returned after the war, the bolts were removed and put into one crate while the rest of the rifle was put into another. When the CMP started selling them, the armorer grabbed a bolt and tried it. If the headspace passed it went out. if not they tried another bolt. So now if you find one with matching numbers odds of it not being a counterfit are a million to one.

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7 minutes ago, Sedalia Dave said:

 

The M1903 loaned to the Greeks during WWII had matching numbers. The Greeks etched the last 4 of the serial number onto the bolt handle. However when they were returned after the war, the bolts were removed and put into one crate while the rest of the rifle was put into another. When the CMP started selling them, the armorer grabbed a bolt and tried it. If the headspace passed it went out. if not they tried another bolt. So now if you find one with matching numbers odds of it not being a counterfit are a million to one.

Alpo was kidding because of the Garand Matching Numbers comment in the ad. You see that all the time. Especially from people who don't know a Garand from a bowling ball. :D

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Just now, Utah Bob #35998 said:

Alpo was kidding because of the Garand Matching Numbers comment in the ad. You see that all the time. Especially from people who don't know a Garand from a bowling ball. :D

 

I knew he was. A few years ago a good friend of mine and I went on a road trip. As part of the trip we stopped by a friend of his so that he could pick up an M1 he had bought. While there I got talked into buy a M1903. The rifle was still in cosmoline and the opened CMP barrier paper. As part of getting it back into the shooting condition I did a lot of research about why the floor plate was pinned shut and the 4 numbers etched into the bolt handle. Turns out those little oddities were unique to the rifles lent to the Greeks during WWII. Because I am now the proud owner of an actual combat veteran I have opted to forgo any modifications that would permanently alter its original configuration. 

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2 hours ago, Alpo said:

I like that the garands have all matching numbers.

 

Mine only has one number on it. Does that mean my 1911 also has all matching numbers? My 1903? My Thompson?

I don't see how a Garand could have "all matching numbers."  Except for the number on the receiver bridge (the serial number of the rifle), the numbers on parts are drawing numbers.

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1 hour ago, Trailrider #896 said:

I don't see how a Garand could have "all matching numbers."  Except for the number on the receiver bridge (the serial number of the rifle), the numbers on parts are drawing numbers.

As far as I understand matching manufacturer is about the holy grail along with everything being the correct time period. Some of the discussions on the CMP forums among the more knowledgeable people are interesting . I have a IHC and a H&R that when I come across a deal on the correct parts for a reasonable price I get them a little closer to “factory” . I have a Springfield and Winchester “that I hopefully will get “ from CMP on order . I’ve told myself I will stop at 1 example from each mfg . 
From some of the stories I’ve heard from vets that were issued the Garands when allot of them would clean there guns they might have one guy cleaning trigger groups another gas systems and another bbl’d actions . So I don’t think CMP is totally responsible for all the mixmasters out there . One story that seems to be consistently told is the GI’s we’re told not to swap bolts on their guns . Which would make sense 

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What is sad though is that when I first started buying guns in the mid 80s a 1903a4 was 799 .  I couldn't afford it even on a sergeant pay.  That same gun goes for.a few thousand now.  

 

I find it hard to justify paying 6000 for a 1941 Johnson that not long ago I could have gotten for a lot less.  

 

 

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49 minutes ago, Sixgun Sheridan said:

$79.95 for a Garand seems like a great price, until you remember that you only made $3/hr back then.

 

In 1966 the Kresge store (later K-Mart) in Dallas sold Garands for $79.95.  Adjusted for inflation, that would be about $660 today.

 

That would still be a pretty good price in today's world.  I'd buy another one at that price!  ^_^

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1 hour ago, Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967 said:

 

In 1966 the Kresge store (later K-Mart) in Dallas sold Garands for $79.95.  Adjusted for inflation, that would be about $660 today.

 

That would still be a pretty good price in today's world.  I'd buy another one at that price!  ^_^

That will get you a field grade from the CMP . 
Allot of things are just as or more affordable today “for the time being” :) 

I just like the old ads because it reminds me of the old gun mag ads I liked so much as a kid.

always couldn’t wait for the new edition of Shotgun News it was always like the auto swapper for guns 

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When my second child was a baby in 2006 my wife drove to the cmp south store in Alabama in a torrential thunder storm with my 2 oldest and picked out a correct h and r for my Christmas present.   I read the other day that the last batch the south store had of the correct grade went for twice what she paid.  

 

I plan on giving it to one of the children who rode with her to get it someday.  

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7 hours ago, Utah Bob #35998 said:

Alpo was kidding because of the Garand Matching Numbers comment in the ad. You see that all the time. Especially from people who don't know a Garand from a bowling ball. :D

 

 

 ........ are bowling balls also chambered in 30.06 ???   :huh:

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Only American ones. British Aussie and Kiwi ones are chambered in 303.

 

That's why it would be a waste of time to bring your favorite bowling ball on the trip to the states. It wouldn't fit in the lane. You need to leave it home and use a rental.

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Howdy,

Remember those were silver dollars.

Check what one of those silver dollar coins goes for today.

Multiply by the price. Well worn silver dollar price at 28.

79.95 times 28 is 2,238.60.

Fair nuff?

Best

CR

 

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43 minutes ago, Chili Ron said:

Howdy,

Remember those were silver dollars.

Check what one of those silver dollar coins goes for today.

Multiply by the price. Well worn silver dollar price at 28.

79.95 times 28 is 2,238.60.

Fair nuff?

Best

CR

 

Uhh. No. :D

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The price for those was not outrageous back then even adjusting for wage, inflation etc. but the market then was much, much smaller. Not a lot of people were interested in “old army guns” . And there were literally millions of old army guns to be had. They wouldn’t have been able to sell many of they raised the price even 2 or 3 bucks.

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I would guess early 60s.

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4 minutes ago, Sedalia Dave said:

Oswald chose a Carcano because it was the leas expensive rifle listed on the page.

 

KleinsAd1963.jpg  available at the time. 

 

 

Wow they actually sold guns in Chicago 

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I talked my stepfather into buying one of these for my 15th birthday (1968). This is the ad but I don't remember if it was Hunters Lodge or Interarms. It was shipped by bus and we had to go to the local Greyhound station to pick it up. It took me a bit of time to figure out how to field strip it but I did. Being a kid with a new toy I wore a lot of bluing off of it, it was in pristine condition when I got it just as the ad states. The second pic is how it looks today.

IMG_20200716_0001.jpg

IMG_0752.JPG

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10 hours ago, Alpo said:

This is pre GCA 68. Very few people made $3 an hour back then. My mother was a registered nurse. She made two.

I started teaching a public school sixth grade class  when I got out of the Army in 1969. I made  $333.10 a month.  I had 39-42 kids in my class; no aides' playground, bus, and lunch duty every day; and supervised the arrival and departure of the buses.

 

I also made my own class schedules, tests, and handouts, and corrected all the work the students turned in.

 

At the end of that year I moved to Illinois and went to work in heavy industry for $748.00 and month and got a raise to $821.00 after my first four months' training.

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