I don't get the focus on milsurps, there are plenty of non military firearms that are now over 50 yrs old that are available and that list keeps increasing every year; we just passed into the 50 year mark for the first year of Ruger Security Six revolvers, which are good revolvers that are no longer made!
If the purpose was to buy $100 bolt rifles cuz they were cheap, you're missing out on pricier, but still C&R eligible firearms.
Personally, if I had a C&R, I'd be hunting for H&R revolvers and pre GCA .25 automatics.
What keeps me from getting the 03 is stuff like Everytown posting the addresses of FFL's recently; all you are is one FOIA request and having your name and address released on an app or plug in that marks all C&R homes on google maps.
The other is the increasing number of those who aren't accepting the license, when gun dealers aren't accepting them, what good is the C&R?
You don't get the focus, but there are a great many that do. For those that went through the effort, no matter how small to get a C&R the purpose was not a $100 rifle left in a trench for 100 years.
I hate, as in HATE with every fiber of my existence the phrase "I could explain it but you wouldn't understand. It suggests that you can't understand anything and I can't explain anything. I know the second it true but it is not going to stop me anyway.
For me, and a great deal of other collectors the draw is the history. You can hold an old rifle, look at it and just think where has this old girl been. What has she done, and what has she seen. My trapdoor, was it looking at indians or spanish.....both? Or did it sit in a rack in New Jersey its entire life, there is value to those as well. I have a few rack queens and just the feel of those "almost new" versions against what is normally seen in the wild is amazing. Every "that is junk" can be removed by looking at one fresh example. The "spongy" MN bolt is just not there on my fresh one, the slop in the Carcano bolt is just not there on my fresh one.
I do also enjoy "sporting" arms of a bygone era, but those need to be unique. A pre 64 70.....well that is nice and all, but it is a bolt action and that just does nothing to me. Now that Remington 8 that is something interesting, you learn by shooting these, and you have fun working up loads to make them shoot as well as possible.
I have rifles I will never fire, and that "look" like they have never been fired. The last one a Daisy 22. In all its pot metal and plastic glory it is just fantastic, but also it is about as cheap as a rifle can be. Really a pretty poor gun by standards you measure guns by, but it is just the most fantastic 22 I own, and I will never shoot it.
And most people will never get that as well.
