A story from the 1990's

I was partners in a shop With Powers (Pidkins) Dunaway. We amassed a large amount of m91 Finn rifles. We had over 150 of them. When noone else knew much about M39's, we bought 75 of them from Century in mint condition. We requested 500,000 serial number range on the order and they sent it. 75 Sky Rifles in mint condition for $85 shipped. We bought the 150 M91's for $11,97 shipped each. We found that the M91 rifles were stored in order of their manufacturer. We ordered 30 M91 Finns and they were all relined rifles. A real find. We also had 75 to 100 Swede M96 rifles in the shop at most times. Once we went to a gunshow and sold $15,000 worth of goods. The local Roses was having a sale. We bought everything of interest that they had. They put the rifles on our 01FFL and we had a MS tax number so we did not have to pay taxes on the rifles we bought. The bill was $12,000+-. When the clerk wanted to know how we were going to pay for it Pidkins took an old sock out of his jacket pocket, pulled ou the cash and peeled it off for the clerk. The clerk about had a fit. Those were the good old days. We bought M39's, M27, M28, M28/30's, M91 Finns, SVT40's , Swede 96 and 38 rifles, British No I, #4, 1914 rifles and AG42B's They also had several G 98 rifles with the Lange rear sights.

Wish I had that to do right now at the prices we paid then.

Doug

Good read. Thanks and Merry Christmas Doug!

I have some photos of Great Southern Arms' supply of Swedes & MN rifles; I'll have to scan them & send them to the list. Der Junge and I used to hang out there just to be in the presence of so much C&R "history" !
And if any of you run into "den Jungen", ask him about the Enfield...

Yep -- I remember the old garbage cans full of K98 at Roses -- IIIRC, $30 each -- and I did not have $30 to pay for a gun ....

Those were the days!!

BUT - we are in those days again with the Russian surplus -- when they are gone, they will be gone ...

I believe that the only thing comparable to the 80s and 90s as far as surplus rifles are concerned, are the Soviet MN rifles. Even though most have been "re-arsenaled", ie refinished, [which means the outside is pretty but the bores may be total crap] this is the end of the C&R rifle era. There just aren't any more military-issued bolt rifles left in the arsenal of any nation. If it is in your area of collecting / shooting interest, purchase one of the MN rifles now, whether it be the Russian or the Finn captures from SOG, 'cause the price will definitely not go down from where it is now. If you doubt this, check what Swedish Mausers, MN rifles, even SKS rifles went for in the 1990s.

Scharfschütze wrote:I believe that the only thing comparable to the 80s and 90s as far as surplus rifles are concerned, are the Soviet MN rifles. Even though most have been "re-arsenaled", ie refinished, [which means the outside is pretty but the bores may be total crap] this is the end of the C&R rifle era. There just aren't any more military-issued bolt rifles left in the arsenal of any nation. If it is in your area of collecting / shooting interest, purchase one of the MN rifles now, whether it be the Russian or the Finn captures from SOG, 'cause the price will definitely not go down from where it is now. If you doubt this, check what Swedish Mausers, MN rifles, even SKS rifles went for in the 1990s.

I am a C&R guy myself. Very happy with the ffl03 privileges. I have been wondering about the next batch of c&r surplus rifles to be considered relics...after reading this post + my already lingering suspicion, I sighed in disappointment.

Do you really think the "well is running dry" on the surplus inventories? Are there any surplus rifles (I guess past 1962 thru 1970) that I should expect to look forward to? Does anyone know if any or what nations manufactured bolt-actions into the 1960's? Are there any other "SKS-type" carbines to look forward to that I have not discovered?

Is there any hope for a new, solid batch of C&R's waiting for the 50yr mark to hit? I usually figure: (1) what wars were going on at that time, (2) what were the arms of choice in these wars, as well as (3) who was producing arms in bulk? I usually reference this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_1945%E2%80%931989#1960.E2.80.931969 I really hope this isn't the end of the C&R rifle era

.....going to create a thread to discuss this topic. Really curious as to what the c&r elders have to say about this. All logic says that we're moving into the select fire era and out of the c&r eligible mil-surp era...bummer. Hopefully someone will have good news....

Guess I need to buy an SKS before it's too late!

There would be a lot of Chinese SKS rifles but Norinco tried to import a shipload of full auto AK-47 rifles into California in the late '90's. They lost their import capabilities.

I remember the $50 SKS rifles and the $50 1200 rd cases of .762x39 ammo. Right out of the gunshows.

I would have liked to have been able to go into the mountian cave in Kuopio, Finland. They stored their surplus MN rifles there. My friend Risto Alanko was a Colonel in the SA and he was able to go into the mountian one trip and whatever he carried out was $10 eack. He struggled ot with 8 MN Sniper rifles. One of which had only 12 examples made. The illustrations in my Finn book, of the sniper rifles, are from his photos.

Doug

Many years ago we were able to buy Lee Enfields for around $ 80 and the only cheap guns you´re getting now are the MN for $ 100 and the Carcanos for $50. And some years ago we were allowed to purchase older Lots of military ammo were you could buy 1000rds of 9mm ammo for onl$140. Those days are long gone. If you want a good Swede, you have to pay up to $900!

Wow- $900?? What would an "SA" marked Swede used by the Finns in the Winter War cost in Germany now, Ulrich?
I have one- I think I might have to do a photo post on my Swedish rifles...

Phillip, i´m sure that you have to pay more than $1300 for a more or less acceptable one and much more for a real deal. Pics are always great!

captain-03 wrote:Yep -- I remember the old garbage cans full of K98 at Roses -- ...

I remember the Roses' rifles. I remember the samples in their printed material always looked much better than the stock in the store, but still wished I had had the insight and money to have bought-up some of those rifles!