State of the current milsurp market?

[glocke12]

Back in the 90's I was heavily into mil-surp firearms, and it seemed like every time you turned around something else was available. Swedish Mausers, Persian Mausers, Yugo Mausers, French MAS rifles, Enfields, (I still have some mummy wrapped no 4 mk II enfields laying around)...

I havent been able to keep up with what is available now..How is the current market compared to what was like back in the 90's?

[PA Rifleman]

The selection's a bit different, the selection's a tad smaller and thoroughly flooded with Mosins. What you'll notice is the market's a lot more homogeneous now than before. The major variation is a few dollars up or down in price, one seller might have post-war Walther P1s and another might have Polish P-64 pistols & Nagant revolvers.

Most of the Enfields & Swedes I've seen were imported 5 years ago and back, nothing recently.

I'm getting the impression all of the import guns we now see are coming from a small handful of overseas clearing houses, or possibly just one.

Information resources:

• http://www.georgestragand.com/gunstockmarket/ - has a lot of promise - I encourage people to use this if you're interested in speculative purchases.
• http://gun-deals.com/ammo - great for finding guns & ammo deals

Sources (partial selection)

• http://www.aimsurplus.com
• http://classicarms.us/
• http://centerfiresystems.com

[bortle]

I think the golden years are over. Lot's of cold war era 91/30's pretty cheap. Prices on every thing else is up. Persians are $269 with NO blueing, Swede's in "fair condition" $250. Cracked stock K31 for $269. Glad I bought my stuff when I did. Wish I would of bought more.

[PA Rifleman]

I think the golden years are over. Lot's of cold war era 91/30's pretty cheap. ...

Don't lose sight of the woods through the trees. All those cold war weapons are cheap because the market's flooded with them. It was a similar deal right after W.W.II and all those pristine K98s, P-08s, P-38s and even M1 carbines. Cheap & everywhere, then they dried up.

Then collectors took interest.

Then the prices took off.

We're tired of the 91/30s because we see them everyday. And we experienced the Cold War. It won't be that way forever. Then, we (or our kids) will be pining for the days of $100 Mosins.

[glocke12]

I picked My persian up (with matching bayonet) from Samco, I think for under $300.00...Ive got a few mausers, thats probably the nicest one.

As far as mosins go, Ive got two. A finnish and a russion. The russian Mosin is pretty well beat up (but it definitely saw action which is cool), I don't think the nicer ones were coming in yet when I picked this one up.

Whats the best place to get a nice mosin yet?

[bortle]

Don't lose sight of the woods through the trees. All those cold war weapons are cheap because the market's flooded with them. It was a similar deal right after W.W.II and all those pristine K98s, P-08s, P-38s and even M1 carbines. Cheap & everywhere, then they dried up.

Then collectors took interest.

Then the prices took off.

We're tired of the 91/30s because we see them everyday. And we experienced the Cold War. It won't be that way forever. Then, we (or our kids) will be pining for the days of $100 Mosins.

You're right. I remember seeing crates of M44's for sale at the gun shows. They're all gone now. Someday those stacks of 91/30's will be gone too. Now I see bunches of Nagant pistols pretty cheap. In a while they'll be gone too.

[RandomTask]

I think the golden years are over. .... Prices on every thing else is up. ...Glad I bought my stuff when I did. Wish I would of bought more.

Same here. M1 carbines and Garands are insanely-priced these days. 20 years ago, you could barely give away an M1 carbine.