I miss the old Surplus/ C&R days.

[Springfield45]

Just like the title says I miss the old days of collecting old surplus C&R rifles and pistols for relatively low cost. Like my Yugo M48 I bought as a shooter grade rifle for $75, that had a perfect condition barrel. Or the "poor" condition Eddiestone M1917 I bought from CMP for $250 that only had a broken magazine spring. Or the $100 Mosins or the $200 Mausers. Now days everything has gotten so expensive. I am glad I got in on that last few years of the C&R collecting before it was over.

[beerman]

Few of us around in those days bought what we should have. Both in quantity and quality. Personally, I sold off many I should have kept.Yeah the $69 sks’s And $239 SVT 40s are ancient history.

[alpha_romeo_XV]

And miss the days of com bloc surplus ammo that was dirt cheap to feed them.

[Spaffo]

The problem with those days was that I didn't have $100 or $200 to spend on a gun. A lot more disposable income now.

[Ora Serrata]

Yeah I remember being at Big 5 when they had Enfields for $130. They were in pretty crappy condition so I passed. I’d happily pay that now for them in that condition.

[slamfire1]

Just like the title says I miss the old days of collecting old surplus C&R rifles and pistols for relatively low cost. Like my Yugo M48 I bought as a shooter grade rifle for $75, that had a perfect condition barrel. Or the "poor" condition Eddiestone M1917 I bought from CMP for $250 that only had a broken magazine spring. Or the $100 Mosins or the $200 Mausers. Now days everything has gotten so expensive. I am glad I got in on that last few years of the C&R collecting before it was over.

The tide came in, and I knew based on all the old Lee Enfields I saw in barrels at KMart, in the 1960's, when I had no money, that I knew it was a long time between high tides. So, if it was $100.00 and had a perfect barrel, I bought it. I would even pay $250 for a M1903!


































The tide came in, the tide went out. I probably will never live long enough for the tide to come back in.

[NOTABIKER]

Those days could still be today except for politics. the world is glutted with C&Rs.Thanks to love of all things United Nations and their policy of paying countries to destroy OLD guns. I guess they want them to only use modern AKs etc to kill each other.

[omega]

they dont make those old surplus rifles anymore, so not much chance on the golden age of surplus to ever return, what you see now is what you get.

[smle-man]

I here you brother! I started buying in the early 70s and again late 80s to early 90s. I won't even bother to list the rare stuff I bought for a pittance and sold for the same during that time period.

Those days are gone and will never return.

[wild_weasel]

I'm righter there with you. I have a lot of fun at the range with my Enfield No4Mk1, Finnish m39, Swedish M96/38, Czech CZ-52, and Enfield No2 Mk1 Revolver; all purchased for under $100 each! I went through several of each until I got an excellent shooting example of each.

[sealocan]

Okay folks let's put our heads together and think about some countries that might still have some old firearms in underground bunkers, that haven't been emptied out for our US dollars into our c&r for other firearms market yet.
I know there are countries out there that have not fallen from communism or that we won't currently deal with but in the far future... Who knows?


The first country that comes to the top of my head is Cuba.

Sure it's not politically going to happen anytime soon, until their government isn't communist (or our government fully is) but I have a feeling they have lots of various makes and models of small arms all greased up and buried in underground bunkers there.
( Of course if they're all full auto AK-47s that doesn't help us much. )

China of course has probably still has SKS is piled up way high but the political climate for them coming here anytime soon doesn't look so good either.

Somebody here has got to have a connections in some country, like Austria or maybe even Liechtenstein that's holding out on their good old firearms stuff.

We get them to find the goods over there then connect them with someone like Classic Arms or some other large US based firearms importer. It's that simple.



What country is your best guess that they're still holding out on some good old stuff that would be importable into the US ?

[Springfield45]

What country is your best guess that they're still holding out on some good old stuff that would be importable into the US ?

If we could get along with the Russians for a while I would love to see the 1895 Winchesters in 7.62x54R and the 44 Russian S&W's revolvers that must be crated up somewhere.

[capt14k]

Okay folks let's put our heads together and think about some countries that might still have some old firearms in underground bunkers, that haven't been emptied out for our US dollars into our c&r for other firearms market yet.

I know there are countries out there that have not fallen from communism or that we won't currently deal with but in the far future... Who knows?





The first country that comes to the top of my head is Cuba.



Sure it's not politically going to happen anytime soon, until their government isn't communist (or our government fully is) but I have a feeling they have lots of various makes and models of small arms all greased up and buried in underground bunkers there.

( Of course if they're all full auto AK-47s that doesn't help us much. )



China of course has probably still has SKS is piled up way high but the political climate for them coming here anytime soon doesn't look so good either.



Somebody here has got to have a connections in some country, like Austria or maybe even Liechtenstein that's holding out on their good old firearms stuff.



We get them to find the goods over there then connect them with someone like Classic Arms or some other large US based firearms importer. It's that simple.







What country is your best guess that they're still holding out on some good old stuff that would be importable into the US ?

There is plenty in Sweden and Switzerland and they are coming in now. Qadaffi in Lybia supposedly had multiple stashes. Bolivia never sold off Surplus in any quantity. Brazil had a lot of FN-49 but supposedly they were being destroyed. Indonesia has a good amount of FN-49 in storage. Maybe Mausers too? North Korea and Vietnam I am sure have a lot of SKS and AKs. Russia has warehouses full. Currently imports are coming from Ukrainian Warehouses. I'm sure some of the other former Soviet Union countries have their own warehouses as well. Lastly Estonia likely has a hidden stashes buried in woods by Civil Guard.


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[Eat Dirt]

Back when you could get a mosin from big 5 with a coupon for under $100

[bohoki]

i remember when all them sako mosin nagants came in all looking brand new

around that same time makarovs were everywhere i guess around 1998 or so