I was running some old prices through a really neat inflation caluculator that can be found on the web to see whether shooting was more economical for us baby boomers "back then" or today. Here's some of what I found on some items I purchased years ago and had a record of the prices.

Leupold Vari-X II 3-9 -- 1965 cost $68.00 = $366 now (cheaper now!)

Sako Finnbear standard -- 1965 cost $139 = $748 now (about the same, but maybe a little cheaper then)

box of jacketed bullets -- about $5 in 1970 = $21.87 now (maybe cheaper then)

box of field load shotshells -- about $2.95 in 1966 = $15.44 today (much cheaper now!)

a gallon of gasoline -- about 30c in 1968 = $1.46 now (I paid 97c this morning)

I think you'll find that the relative cost of shooting has stayed pretty steady, with some things higher and some things lower today. Of course, when I was a teenager, I didn't have the five bucks in my pocket for a box of Hornadys, and today it's no big deal to hand the clerk a mastercard to pay for a whole bag of components, but that's a function of age and not economics.

If you want to try this with other prices you remember, just go to the following web site and plug in the price and the year (it only goes up to year 2000, so is a couple of percentage points short of Feb. 2002):

www.interest.com/hugh/calc/cpi.cgi

When you factor in inflation and wages then and now for the most part a person has to work less to buy the same or more in 73 I was making 1.85 and hr so that would be about 3 hours for a box of bullets. Less then a hr now.

I have equated it like this: A Colt Peacemaker cost about $30.00 in 1890. A cowboy made about $30.00 a month.
Today the cowhands in this area make around $1200.00 a month, and a new Colt is roughly the same price. Hows that for comparison?

Good luck and good shooting

My wife's step-mother died last month. He father passed away a long time ago. I never met the man, but he was an avid hunter and reloader. Going through some things that were stored away turned up a list of equipment that he bought for reloading, including a press, dies and the usual equipment. The list was made in the 40s. The prices for his press and dies were the same as I find in my Midway catalog. Using that list, adding inflation, the price of relading seemt to have come down. The only thing that might throw off the calculation was the war and rationing.