What guns should I buy as investments?

Any Bushwacker!.. my bad!

Saiga-12s seem like a safe bet.

I've got some suggestions...
Stick with established name brands that most people will recognize, whether through hollywood or what-not. Take for example in the handgun category:
Beretta 92FS/M9
Glock 17/22
Colt 1911
and as far as rifles go you can be a little more diversifying, since some of these models will be very familiar to gun enthusiasts, but they just never made the jump to get one:
M1A, PTR-91, SIG 556, PS90, Mini-14, and any brand AR15 or AK47.
Mags will be plentiful and many already are stocking up; same case for ammo.

Definatly grap some AKs and some ARs. Thats whats hot right now. As well as tons of hi cap mags for both and ammo is always good. I think those two guns will be worth the most later. during the first AWB the cost of an ar went from 900 to about 3000 over night!

If you can find a Colt 01911 WWI repro, in Carbonia Blue, that's still new in box, for a decent price, those will likely go up in value. They only made 4000 of them. Same with the M1911A1 WWII repros, they only made 2800 of those. I have one of each, but I shoot them, they're great shooters.

Guns for investments? I'd not recommend it.

But if you did want to buy guns that had some capacity to increase in value, how about older classic revolvers like Colt Pythons that are NIB?

I'd say magazines would be your best bet. It's also a lot easier to part with 20 of your 40 magazines than it is to part with a gun.

I think, if I remember correctly, Glock mags > 10 rounds were going for over $100 during the AWB, not taking inflation into account. Both AK and AR mags can be had for $10 a pop and could possibly be sold for 5-10x that price if our rights go down the toilet.

How about a machine gun?

I think you have to look at a couple of factors when considering investments, guns or otherwise. In this case there are a couple of issues that may influence the ability to sell your "investments."

Should another AWB be passed, the value of guns on that list will likely increase. However, it also may be more difficult to sell them because of limitations imposed by any such legislation. Consider what happened in Hawaii: "Assault pistols" were outlawed in 1992 (IIRC) but with a grandfather clause. So, you could keep them if you possessed them prior to 1992, but that same grandfather clause stated there was no ability to sell them or transfer them after that date.

So, depending on the wording of any legislation, you could find yourself with either a great investment, or a lot of cool guns you can't sell or give away.

That being said, I just picked up another one of those evil rifles and so did my girlfriend....

It'd be hard to say what might yield a return, but anything used it's a safe bet that it won't ever decrease in value if the condition is maintained. Inflation will, in time, affect the price of any gun-but playing catch-up with inflation isn't the goal of investing.

Ammunition, however, is only going to get more expensive. Just think the profit you could have made if you'd bought $20,000 worth of .223 10 years ago at $100/case and sold it now for $350/case. That would have been a 13% APY. No firearm is gonna accrue like that.

I'm looking for the best return on my investment, something the stock maket is having trouble with at the moment. (I'm not knocking the market, I do have a lot tied up there and believe it'll bounce back; It always does, it's just having another hiccup.)

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I think you got the best idea right here.Forget buying more guns and buy more stocks at these low prices.
Guns,as much as I love them ,will never out perform good stocks in the long haul.
Now if you feel compelled to buy a gun ,the AR-15 would be my route.

This thread is not really gun related, it is investment related. Some of us care more about liberty and the 2nd amendment than trying to manipulate the gun market to make a buck .

Go buy stock in gun companies that get government contracts. There, I answered the question of the thread.

People who only care about money are the reason we got a bunch of import bans in 1968 and also part of the motivation for the 1986 ban

Any, old pre-lock Smith & Wesson revolvers look good too me~!

McCain-Palin On Nov. 4th~!

Buy what's appealing to you. That's how my mom approaches her art purchases, and it's unbelievable how much her art is worth. With this approach, even if you never decide to sell and realize your gain, then you still have guns that you personally cherish. I'll bet that all the guys with the million dollar collections buy guns that strike a chord with them personally. Make it fun. There are tons of other better ways to make money if that's all you want.

Correct me if Im wrong, but cant a sitting president simply halt importation of certain goods if he wants to? As in, "those pesky cheap AK rifles from Romania are popular with the gangsters, so we better cut off that supply line" type thinking? Say importation of something simple and cheap like a Saiga or WASR was no longer. Even those lowly weapons would increase in value. Bush I (I think it was) did this, ending importation of any 'non sporting' firearms. There goes the Galil. FNC. HK91. FAMAS. Steyr AUG. etc etc. Sure some of those guns were exotic then too, but I'll be willing to bet that a $950 dollar Galil rifle wouldnt cost $3500 if there was still a semi-steady supply of them. Who knows if another "AWB" is coming or not. But keep in mind that there are other more subtle ways that our gun rights can be eroded, and on that same note, guns that you might think would not ever be worth much could surprise you one day.

if you want investments, buy gold or stocks. leave the firearms for those of us who will use them for thier intended purpose!

(quote) "So what should I get? AK47s? AR15s? Glocks? Revolvers? Maybe I shouldn't get all that many guns and just get cases of hi-capacity clips? Perhaps I should just get cases upon cases of ammo? What would you recommend?"

I'll say,"all of the above". First, revelvers are good for your purpose because they're simple and reliable,and don't require mags, all if which is good if you're selling to someone that isn't a big firearm afficianado, which I belive, would be much of your market. Most serious shooters know what may be coming, and are already stocking up, they're not likely to be the ones to fork over big bucks later for something they can get cheap now.See what I mean ?
Also, AK's AR's and Glocks are very popular and well known, so will be great for re-sale later. Trying to unload a Steyr AUG or something else exotic and less common may be harder than moving a good 'ol AR15. Not to mention, Glocks and used S&W revolvers can be had relatively cheap, trying to scarf up Colt Pythons,FN FALS, or Steyr AUGs will cost you plenty, and for SHTF purposes, will serve your market no better.
Another plus for the AK's,AR's and Glocks is the availability of magazines.Every gunstore and pawn shop has them lying around. Not the case with Steyr,SIG and HK mags.
As for those giving you the "you're a parasite" routine, that's just nonsense. Guns are a comodity just like anything else. If you see a reduction in availability and increase in value on the horizon,then you can't be faulted for preparing and capitalizing on idiots that don't. It's called free enterprise.

I agree with moooose102

Buy Gold.

If you really want to invest in firearms look at machineguns. Even under many of the bans that have happened in the past, or have been proposed going forward, machineguns have been excluded since they are under NFA.
Any of the so callled "assault weapon bans" could pass without any kind of grandfathering clause, or a clause that would not allow transfer of ownership. Then you'd be stuck with a closet full of lowers.

It's not likely NFA will be repealed unfortunately so there's little change of an NFA weapon going to zero value.

Even then firearms are not particularly good investments.

Also, as you mentioned, ammo. My personal belief for several years has been that they will come after ammo harder than the guns themselves either through more restrictive laws or increased taxes.

Back to the OP....

For investment purposes, your best bets are antiques and near-antiques. In the first place, they can't make more antiques. In the second place, antiques are not likely to be targeted by legislation. And in the third place, you have the Civil War sesquicentennial coming up in three years, the World War 1 centennial coming up in nine years, and the 250th of the American Revolution coming up in 17 years.

Buy now, very low, and sell high.

I asked this same question over at APS, and got bupkus. I agree with a previous poster. Commonly available guns with name-recognition. S&W revolvers, 1911s, Beretta/Glock/Sig pistols. Rifles might be a bit dodgier. Magazines are a good bet, as well, for the reasons mentioned.

M1 Garand, M1 Carbine. Both are becoming harder to get in the good serial numbers and original condition. Over all they are getting more and more expensive. I bet if you bought a good one from CMP or somewhere, you could sell it for double in 5-10 years.

Every time I buy a gun, I say to myself it is for an investment. Seldom does it work out well in that respect.

However, if you are willing to do the homework and be patient, you can make money on certain guns that go up in value. But you have to become an expert or you will be taken to the cleaners. Here are the categories for you to consider.

Anything in Class-3 (full Auto)
Certain Colt revolvers NIB - like Pythons, Diamondbacks, etc.
WWI & WW2 1911's that are all original and not rebuilt.
Colt 1st Generation SAA that are all original
Certain pre-war S&W revolvers

Many others that I have not included above.