military collectibles

[porsche]

excluding the esoteric, rare, or expensive collectibles, which pre -1959, post- 1900 military rifles are fun to collect because they are available, available in variation, at reasonbale cost, of good quality and likely will hold or increase in value?

 

[Cosmoline]

All of them.

 

[TexasRifleman]

Cosmo is right. There are so many.

I just got this M39 Finnish Sako.
Thanks to Cosmoline by the way for pointing me to a good source.

The wood will clean up a little more I think but I am very happy.

And this is in 54R so you can still afford to shoot them

 

[james_bond]

Mosin Nagants!!!

 

[Hoppy590]

low priced

Mosin Nagants
Mausers
Enfields
K31's
the occasional MAS or Jap rifle.

more pricey
M1 Carbines

pricey
M1
M1903
SVT's
G43's


and theres more... but im too tired to think

 

[Vaarok]

All of them.

 

[jacobhh]

For quality, condition, variation and price I like the South American Mausers.

 

[m38shooter]

--available, reasonable cost, good quality:

Any Mosin Nagant. It shouldn't be long before the Mosin Club gets here, so I'll let them do the explaining on this one.


--available in variation, good quality, likely will hold or increase in value:

The SKS is nice for investment reasons. When my father bought his about 14 years ago they were around $75 for a decent quality one. I just bought one in what I refer to as "reasonable" quality (goes bang, hits what you point at, but finish being total crap) Yugo for about $200.



These are the ones that really stand out to me because they're the ones I have the most experience handling. Take it for what it's worth.

 

[Firepower!]

NOT all of them!

I say NOT all of them because one must draw a line somwhere and chose the ones which are truly unique and have history behind them. You dont need to collect every single model or rifle made.

Plus the OP has asked us for our opionion. Just replying with all of them and some magazine photo of junked rifles wont answer his query, in fact it is an insult to this thread and OP's question.

Here is my list of five (you may or may not agree with it):
1. 303 Mark V by Lee-Enfield (British Classic)
2. Mauser 98K (German Classic)
3. Sturmgewehr 44 (Father of modern select fire)
4. Mosin-Nagant (but if you strech your dates then Dragunov SVD) (Russian classics)
5. M1 Garand (American Classic)

Regrads

 

[Chipperman]

3. Sturmgewehr 44 (Father of modern select fire)

That one is challenging to get in the States. Maybe PK has more of them floating around for less money.

 

[TexasRifleman]

That one is challenging to get in the States

Not to mention the OP said "reasonable cost".

Here in the US a "reasonable" price for an STG44 is going to be $35,000 or so if you can find one at all.

 

[O.S.O.K.]

Mosin Nagants

are the most reasonably priced and most widely available and have quite a few variations available right now.

And the biggest plus is that you can still get good quality surplus ammo at reasonable prices.

Can't say that about any other milsurp right now unless it chambers .22LR.

 

[Firepower!]

Chipperman and TexasRifleman:
That is so strange. STG44 is probably one of the cheapest weapons around. Not readily available because the original factory made bullets are hard to come by, and the rifle is pretty heavy.

What do you think about the list, assuming money and availability not in consideration?

 

[TexasRifleman]

That is so strange. STG44 is probably one of the cheapest weapons around.

Very few were legally registered here in the states, making it an extremely valuable collectors item here under our laws.

We can't register any new machineguns after May of 1986 so the ones that were on the books before that date can be sold but that's all.

There were not very many of them in the country when the ban went into place in 1986.

You're right, it is an excellent rifle for a collection but it's on the very high end of things here.

I'd add maybe an SVT-40 to the list.

 

[kfranz]

I say NOT all of them because one must draw a line somwhere and chose the ones which are truly unique and have history behind them. You dont need to collect every single model or rifle made.

Plus the OP has asked us for our opionion. Just replying with all of them and some magazine photo of junked rifles wont answer his query, in fact it is an insult to this thread and OP's question.

Where in his original post did porsche mention anything about need. I doubt very much that Vaarok's picture is of junked rifles or from a magazine. My collection looks very much like that, although I lack the Rashids and have several FALs. Your list is nice, but does not address the original criteria as pointed out by TR.

Any (and yes, all) of the milsurps readily available in the US market will hold their value reasonably well. Any/all have enough variation to appeal to a collector.

 

[Cosmoline]

Vaarok, that's the wrong g-d rec room!!

But you're in trouble if there's a big quake.