Why Didn't You Buy Those C&R's?

[Mosin77]

I'd love to keep stacking milsurp guns but it's already stupid expensive to feed my vz24 mauser, mosin, and cz52 pistol. At a glance the chepeast 8mm mauser is $600+ a case and 80 years old. No thanks. 7.62x54r is even more expensive but at least it's newly manufactured. For that kind of money I have better guns to use.

So true. It’s fun when ammo is cheap, but when ammo gets pricey… do I really need to shoot .30 Tokarev, or can I get more or less the same experience shooting a 9mm? Is my CZ52 that special?

 

[vintovka]

I did and strangely they all turned into some nice real estate. I will admit i should have collected real estate alone.

 

[vintovka]

I'd love to keep stacking milsurp guns but it's already stupid expensive to feed my vz24 mauser, mosin, and cz52 pistol. At a glance the chepeast 8mm mauser is $600+ a case and 80 years old. No thanks. 7.62x54r is even more expensive but at least it's newly manufactured. For that kind of money I have better guns to use.

If your haven't already i recommend stocking up on ANY Russian ammo you can as prices might soar. The 300 rd spam can Bulgarian have performed well for me but the silver tip stuff is flat match grade in my 91/30 sniper. I do wish i had bought a full pallet of Polish Tok ammo. Stuff shoots like a rifle out of T33 and was only a couple pennys a round delivered.

 

[armoredman]

I've seen this come up on numerous Forums: "I could have bought a crate of 10 Chinese or Russian SKS's for $60 each" "I saw Walther P-38's for $150 each." "CZ 82's with two magazines, holster and cleaning rod for $180.00 shipped." Usually goes on and on with just about every Military Surplus Firearm available. The Golden Age of C&R lasted for years, so a temporary lack of funds can't be the reason. I never really get an answer to this question. A C&R License cost's $30.00 and it's good for three years. It's also a snap to get. M-1 Garand's, Enfield's, and Mauser's to your door. I posed this question and the only true answer I got was "The Wife wouldn't let me."

I HAD several C&R firearms, had a C&R FFL for a while, but a wife with medical issues and a special needs child meant that most of them went away. I let the FFL lapse when it became obvious I would never get to keep anything I bought.

 

[Jack Ryan]

I could have FILLED a Walmart parking lot with '65-'66 mustangs under $600 a piece... back when I made $3 an hour.

 

[Jimbo80]

I still can't get over how many people passed on the $200 Beretta 81s when they were all over the place. It took the Covid scare to move them. Glad I got 2.

 

[Ignition Override]

Because I wasn't into guns until 2007.

How did those prices in 1990 or so compare with the lower salaries, value then of the US dollar?

 

[BlueHeelerFl]

When I first got into shooting I lived in NYC. I had the NYC rifle and shotgun permit, and the process for adding a new firearm wasn't all that complicated back then, but it was still a but of a process.

As much as I regret never buying any of those old mil surps I had to sell most of my guns in the mid 2000's so I would hace lost most of not all of them

 

[chicharrones]

I still can't get over how many people passed on the $200 Beretta 81s when they were all over the place. It took the Covid scare to move them. Glad I got 2.

Okay, I admit I got one of those and it isn't a worn out high mileage gun. That's the first and last surplus gun I bought in quite some time. It was definitely worth it for someone already into .32 ACP.

 

[chicharrones]

Because I wasn't into guns until 2007.

How did those prices in 1990 or so compare with the lower salaries, value then of the US dollar?

That's so hard to figure in 2020 and moving forward into the future. The inflation calculators on the net simply aren't keeping up with real life. Supply and Demand, etc.

Having said that, my new in box Norinco SKS with all the accessories was $120 including tax* in 1992 and I was probably bringing home $8 per hour after income taxes were taken out. So, I'd have to work 15 hours to buy that SKS.

Using a more and more irrelevant inflation calculator, that $120 would now be $236.57 and that $8 would now be $15.77. Of course, I was in my 20s back then and I was still working my way up my particular blue collar career path.

*Yes I learned much, much later that they were cheaper at gun shows.