doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Ammo Prices 1935

I just picked up a Western Cartridge Co. booklet from 1935. Makes me woder why our .410-bore and 28-gauge skeet loads are so damn expensive these days. In 1935 the list price for Xpert skeet loads in 12-, 16-, and 20-gauge was $32 per thousand. The 28-gauge 5/8 ounce loads were $34/M and the 3/4 ounce loads were $36/M. .410-bore skeet loads were $30/M.

The coolest shell I find listed in this booklet is the Super-X Pigeon Load -- PP26L -- 1 1/4 ounces of Lubaloy #7 or #7 1/2 shot in a 3-inch case for $72 per thousand.

I'll take 2 thousand of each.

Was that the delivered price?

Pete

Those were the "list prices" so the shells were probably less then half that to the jobber then some percent mark-up to the wholesaler, then another mark-up to the retailer, plus some freight along the way and they likely actually sold for less.

Just doing some rounded off math comes out about 80 cents a box or $8.00 per flat. About a 10 to 1 inflation multiplier to get to today's list prices!

Best,

Mike

That shows just how dirt cheap shells are today.

In 1935 the median weekly income in the USA was $31. That would have bought you 4 flats of shells.

Anyone here willing to pay a week's salary for 4 flats of shells?

Today's median weekly income is $925....the real multiplier should be 30:1. So, no whining until ammo prices hit $250 per flat.

That's about right for the inflation rate. Twenty cents per gallon back in the sixties when I was cruisin' the hangouts. We would sit at the drive-ins on a Saturday night and keep the engines running all night in the winter. $2.00 worth and you could drive all week. Funny how I can remember back that far with this Mad Cow........Denny Crane

It would sure be interesting to pattern some of those 3" flyer loads in a Becker bored Super, a regular HE or a model 21 Duck. I would also be most interested to know the specific consruct of those loads.

On the reasoning for today's pricing of 28 & .410's vs. yesterday's .. the day before yesterday, every gas station, general store, hardware store, farm store & bait shack had shotgun shells for sale. Yesterday still had every Seven Eleven handling shotgun shells through most of the 1960's. Today it is primarly a skeet thing; the days of the small gauge farm guns & the .410's of our youth are past. Look what a Stevens 311 in .410 is bringing! Are they being shot?

Today, the 28ga. & .410 provide the best reason & potential for quick ROI for reloading.

What more can be found out about those catalogued 3" flyer loads?

An ad from the March 1978 issue of The American Shotgunner - "Offical Publication of The American Association of Shotgunning"

(BTW, Bill's was a high-volume discounter.)



Plugging some of those numbers into an inflation calculator is pretty revealing.

Lead in 2006 dollars would have been $30.78 a bag.

In case lots, 12 ga. AA's would be $9.89 a box, and 28's would cost $10.82 a box today! The BIG TWO hadn't yet discovered that they could actually charge more for less, and AA .410's could be had for only $8.96 a box. :?

Even into the late 70’s premium factory .410’s were on par or slightly cheaper than premium 12’s and 20’s. Sometime in the 80’s the manufacturers realized that they could charge more (later MUCH more) for less, and we’d pay it just to get their precious little sub-gauge empties. Further proof that the retail price of shells isn’t determined as much by the cost of the components as it is by whatever the limited market will bear.

*Sigh* So much for the good 'ol days.

These ARE the good ol' days, Mark. Wait until you get into the future if you want to experience a real mess. Glad I won't be around much longer to see it. Mad Cow, you know.........Denny Crane.