Milsurps by mail order. The good old days?

Hi all,
This is a very UK-centric post, for which I apologise. Back in 1976 my very first milsurp was a beautiful No4 Mk1/2 bored to .410. I loved it (and can still remember the serial number after over 40 years) but it really wasn't very practical for ratting and bunnies. For a number of reasons I had to sell it, an action I regret to this day. Here's the thing. I bought it via mail order from the magazine "Exchange and Mart". A dealer in there advertised all sorts of Milsurp rifles either smoothbored or in .410. My memory is really hazy but I'm sure I remember Arisakas and Mausers being available. I'd love to know more about who the dealers were, what was actually for sale and how much they cost. I've been trying without success to try to find a copy of that magazine from around 1975-1976 so I can wallow in nostalgia. Can anyone help with any information or, miracle of miracles, a scan of one of those adverts! Thanks in advance for any help.

JW, Have you tried EBAY? They have many old ads cut or copied from magazines. Salt Flat

Hi Salt Flat,
Weirdly, for a magazine that sold 350,000 a week (!) at its peak they don't come up very often - and the ones that do are usually from the 1980s-1990s. I can't even find any from this period (1975-1976) in newspaper archives. They were printed on the cheapest of cheap newsprint and many suffered a fate worse than death - torn into squares on a bit of string for use in the smallest room!

JW, Thats pretty funny. It took a minute for that last part to sink in. My folks used to talk about using the Sears Catalog. Salt Flat