doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Ammo, range and gun prices then and now?

Today it costs me $7.00 per game and $6.00 for a box of shells ($13.00).

Today you can get a respectable trap gun for $1300 (e.g. a nice used BT-99)

So today the cost of shooting 100 games is the same as a respectable trap gun.

What was the relative price 50 or 75 years ago?

$2.00 to $3.00. New Model 12 Skeet or Trap gun $250.

In my area the larger clubs are $3.75 to $4 for a round of skeet or trap and the small trap club, two fields, just 5 miles from the house, is $2.75 for members and $3.50 for non-members.

I'm on my way

100 rounds and the plane ticket will be paid off

50 years ago, at the San Gabriel Valley Gun Club, in CA, we paid $1.00 or $1.25 for a round of trap or skeet. A Browning Superposed cost $295(new). A Remington 1100 was $150, I think. At my current club, Purgatory Clay Sports, in Hurricane, Utah, we pay $4.00 for trap or skeet(members). Public pays $6.00. You know what guns cost, now.

$7.00 today = .45 in 1935

$6.00 today = .39 in 1935

$1300.00 today = $84.04 in 1935

Shooting, compared with other activities people waste money on, is fairly inexpensive.

Even at the inflated rates quoted here one can have a 100 target day for less than the cost of chasing a little white ball, beating hell out yourself on some motorized vehicle, or even trying to amortize something that floats.

The best part is spending time with like minded people. It costs what it costs, but the day with friends is priceless.

Pretty much what Jim said. A round of 25 was $1.00-1.25. I bought an Ithaca 4E Knick for about $650 out the door in '65, and a Browning Lightning Trap was $410 a year later. The new Winchester Mark V target loads of about that time (polyetheline wrapper) were $3.50-3.60 and that price was unchanged from the previous unwrapped, fiber-wadded shells they replaced.

Nowadays I can pay anywhere from $3-9 per round of 25 (trap & skeet), depending on private or public, and what the range owner thinks his targets are worth, but most of the ranges will charge about $5. Sporting clays are $15-20/50, with most courses working toward the lower end.

Personally, I think its a lot more affordable today. I can reload for the exact same dollars it cost to buy new shells 55 years ago and targets have similarly come down in price. The really big payoff is I don't have to put cash on the table for a new gun!

In Arizona during the tourist season, which is roughly from Oct to the following March, the more exclusive golf courses get around $150 per round here. You can shoot a lot of Trap or Skeet for that price.
Jim