Me Too

Read the "7 Military Surplus Guns Every American Should Own" and Tam's follow-up.

I actually have some of those!  I used to own the Garand and 1903.

The shine on the Garand and 1903 faded as I grokked them in their fullness.  Familiarity didn't breed contempt so much as eradicate romance.

They are illustrative of one of the problems with mil-surp.  The prices.  Sure, when a new batch of guns hits the market from the armories, the prices are cheap; but a decade or two of bubba will apply attrition, as will people not taking proper care of a cheapo rifle and pretty soon the $5 a barrel full becomes $700 each.

My $70 SMLE isn't worth $70 anymore; and it didn't depreciate.

We're seeing this on the still cheap Mosin 91/30 too.  It's been and gone for the Mosin 38 carbine.  Finns are climbing while you watch, so hurry to get #4 on the list!

SKS's used to be a lot cheaper as well.

The days of cheap milsurp is fast passing us by.  Since the days when 7.62 NATO was brand new, all the new infantry rifles have been select fire.  There once was a day when those surplus guns could be broken into a parts kit and then reconstructed into a semi-automatic clone, a day now gone.  Now the legal climate will have those guns completely destroyed or the parts be impossible to import.

Unless someone stumbles across a find like the one in Nepal, everything that can be brought to our shores is here.

Which is so very sad.  Especially since I've read about a couple of collectors in Italy who, because of their different laws, have genuine surplus, US issued, M16A1's... from Vietnam.

For the most part I agree with both Tam and Matt.

I'd add that everyone should get a Star B or Super B and a S&W M&P variation of some sort (especially a Victory model).