Old Magazines

[Chuck Jones]

I recently bought a stack of old magazine from about 1957 to 1968. They included ARCHERY,

[acadian archer]

interesting to see how hunting attitudes/techniques have changed/not changed??

[rp65]

I pick up old ones at garage sales and bring them up to the cabin when I have older guys with me like my dad. He really enjoys them. The last one I got was from 1940's during WWII, it's very cool.

[Chuck Jones]

Don't know what happened to the first post..tried to edit.

I recently bought a stack of old magazines from about 1957 to 1968. They included ARCHERY, BOW AND ARROW, and ARCHERY WORLD. I've been shooting bows since the 50's, but I didn't remember a lot of the stuff I saw in these magazines. Bob Swinehart was featured in many articles, and ads in the 60's. Howard Hill was shown presenting archery awards in some of the ARCHERY mags. There were ads for Howard hill, Bear, Damon Howatt, Herters, Indan, American Archery, Groves, steiners, Wing, Ben Pearson,Cravotta Bros, Grimes, Browning, Colt, Hoyt, United States Archery, and many more I've never heard of.

In the late 50's, you could buy 100 barred feathers for $2.50. A hundred premiun cedar shafts were $7.75 Bows ranged from less than $30.00 to a hundred or so for a top of the line or custom.

One ad for a quiver, showed a recurve strung backwards! Articles described hunters taking spine shots, neck shots, butt shots, and many shots over 50 yards, as well as world record animals taken by multiple shots over 125 yards!
All the bow quivers in the pictres, except the Bear quivers, had exposed broadheads. Many of the arrows shown had barbs.

Really interesting reading.

[Anaconda12]

It would be interesting to see how the prices would compare to the econmomy back then.  I bet the general household income then was well under 10,000 a year, momma never used to work and the double income is only a thing of the past 10 or so years it seems.  I bet the read was interesting.

[Ia Hawkeye]

I've got alot of old "Bow & Arrow mags, first few years of "Bowhunter"," Archery world", etc . Sold all my old "Archery" Mags.Times sure have changed !!!!!!!!!

[Jason R. Wesbrock]

I bought a similar box a few years ago. It was mostly Archery from 1947 through the mid-60's. In addition to all the great articles, I really like seeing the ads. It's amazing how many things we have now that people think are new are really old.

[jonsimoneau]

Chuck that is cool.  I'd love to come across a find like that!

[Ceb]

"I've been shooting bows since the 50's,"

Chuck, you don't look that old!

It is interesting to go back and look at some of the old magazines and books. I recently went though some of the books and Archery Digests I have, some differences for sure. I sure enjoyed reading all that again, brought me back to the feelings I had when I first started to bowhunt.

[Biggie Hoffman]

I have an August 1909 Outdoor Life!
Cover price $.15
Ads inside; a 7 passenger oldsmobile. $3,000
Weiss A-1 field glasses $10

[1kwikstik]

My wifes sister gave her a stack of old magazines, mostly womens magazines. But there was one she handed me- a Bowhunter magazine from 1976. That's about the time I started in archery, it brought back a lot of memories, especially the old ads.

[George D. Stout]

$10,000?    Try about $5000.00....maybe.  The minimum wage was less than a buck an hour.  Relative to what we make nowadays, prices are pretty reasonable.  

When I graduated H.S. in 1964, a new Chevy Impala was $3600.00....a new VW Beetle, $1200.00.
Cigarettes about twenty five cents and gass was 18.9 cents per gallon.   Now,  a teacher made about $4000.00 per year, and the President of the US got $100,000 per year, the VP  $75,000.

We are pretty well off today, but we only see the cheap prices of the old days, not the cheap wages.

By the way....I have a bunch of old magazines.  I love them.  There is an distinct innocence to them...not so many experts spouting off about G-2's and G-3's, etc.