@ Have you heard the legends of the Bearded Guinea Pig Man who stole that Walker from the auction house? Some say he's still on the run for this very day...
So a guy that over-pronounces Arabic words meets a guy that over-pronounces French words meets a guy that gets super excited about a roll pin or minor sight variance. I can dig it...
Bullshit. Even if I could find .577/450 Martini-Henry ammunition and the gun was in shooting condition how would that help me enjoy fondling it while watching Zulu?
All my guns are shooters. My best find was about 4 years ago. Came across a Japanese type 99 with a almost intact mum (just 2 chisel marks) for $300.00. Now if I could only find and afford ammo for it lol. P
14:10 - Tip #5 - 100% agreed. I ADORE Saturday Night Specials, especially ones in .22 LR. I've never paid over $175 for one, but they are the most fun guns I have.
I fully expected the book/gun aspect being as different between them as it is. Watching their videos, you can tell Othais is far more interested in the history of the guns, and Ian is far more into the technical and mechanical aspects of firearms.
Great video. Thanks a lot. I got hooked on everything the Czechs ever produced. They're often quite inexpensive, extremely well made and thought-through, and have a vast amount of stories to tell. I'm at the "I'm over just watching videos and now trying to get my first books on the matter" phase. But they're either too expensive for me just now, or written all in Czech. So I spend a lot of time with Google Translate lately, trying to piece together all the information I can get.
4:26 "The reality is that each thing, every item that I have added to my collection has a consistent, unifying, attribute; it's the thing that started my collection and continues to motivate it through today. It's the thing that binds the parts into a whole and that thing, is FUN" - Dan Larson
As a collector of 50+ years with a large collection of books on my subjects, I have to say I have learned much from the videos by Ian, Othias and Mark Novak that I HAVEN'T been able to pick up from my books; so I can certainly say SOME videos ie those by KNOWLEDGEABLE people are well worth watching. Thanks and keep up the good work guys,!
My favorite find is my 1917 peddle scheme Enfield. Arsenal replaced the magazine in 38' and it was sent to Austria to outfit their Gendarmerie post-war, so it also has an Austian eagle stamped on the reciever.
@9:15 man odd that Othais specifically mentions $300 cause that's what I spent to get my FN Browning 1910 which is usually a $6~700 gun. Gotta love pawn shop finds.
Some of my most favorite rifles, my Mle 1886, SMLE, and two different Finnish Mosin Nagants, were all under $100. My K98k is BNZ all numbers matching, and it was $105. Granted prices have gone up since the 90s, but there are still good deals out there if you know what you’re looking for. Go into collecting with knowledge, and don’t buy the first thing you stumble across just because it’s an old gun.
It’s actually kinda remarkable to see what I consider the trifecta of RU-vidrs that caused me to go off the deep end on C&R Mil-Surps; between Ian’s easy to digest videos, plus his dads book on Arisakas, Mile’s Mil-Surp Run & Gun videos, and Othia’s in depth videos on WWI arms, it’s like they finally decided to come together and unilaterally tell me unconsciously “We’re the reason your disposable income never leaves a gun shop”.
I once bought a Mauser HSC pistol advertised as an “East German police pistol”. I didn’t know what it was at the time, but I knew that it wasn’t a police pistol. I bought it, and later found out that it was a post WWII, French made pistol. I’m glad I gambled with it because it’s a beautiful pistol, with a unique story.
Best find I've had was a No4 mk2 Long Branch Enfield for 350. It was dirty and crudy, but after cleaning it, it was beautiful. All matching, clean bore, no real pitting, shoots like a dream.
Cole Mair if your close to Southern California look up carol Watson orange coast auctions. Got some cool stuff for auction and for sale for reasonable prices.
The books tell you about the guns. The guns are what let YOU tell the stories. Nothing is cooler than picking something out of your collection, handing it to your buddy and being able to riff for 20 minutes about that piece and the history it represents. Videos also don't give you serial number history, production counts, production variants, which agencies utilized them, etc, etc. As far as safety, my habit is, even after I have verified that it is sound (headspace gauges are useful, especially if you have 20 guns using a specific caliber), to not hold it up right in front of me for that first shot. If crap is gonna blow out of it, I don't want it coming straight back at my eye. I've too have been burned at auction because I was looking for a rarer piece and didn't realize what the demand was when I finally saw one come up after looking for it for about six months and ended up paying 50% more than I should have because I got into competition with two other buyers.
Groups/forums have been super helpful from me. I mostly collect Swiss guns but my best deal was a Japanese arisaka for under 300 in 2019 now the dust cover is in terrible shape and the rest of the gun has a little surface rust on it but overall it is a good shooter.
It’s used to be easy to find good deals as long as you also had money and knew what you were looking for. But now, it is very difficult to find anything drastically undervalued.
I managed to find a pristine all matching Loewe Gehewr 1888 at a local pawn shop. Some guy had gotten rid of it cause he thought it was a broken hunting rifle cause it had the extractor jammed up with cosmoline and wouldn't chamber or extract. Paid $150 for it as the owner was under the impression it was broken, got it fixed up and now it is one of my best condition rifles.
I just acquired my first collectable (and shootable) firearm this week. An original M1917 Enfield, made by Remington in July 1918. .30-06, holds six rounds... these guys did videos on it. No need to explain anymore.
I want an InRangeTV q&a with yall three and the same topic of buying, selling, collecting milsurps. Just talk about how valuable and rare my sporterized mosin is.
Collect what you like and find interesting!! And not because it’s going to go up in value. Because if it doesn’t you still have something you will enjoy. Best regards
I really agree with Ian's last point and want to add onto it: It's not always collectors setting the price and your average buyer doesn't know what anything is. Keeping with the Finnish Mosins, to the lei man it's just a Mosin. Because it's "just a Mosin" they expect to pay "just a Mosin" price for it. I've talked with guys at gun shows who've carried around Sky M39s that wouldn't sell because that $600 price tag utterly killed their ability to sell to the lei man, especially when lei man sees a wartime M91/30 down the way for $200-ish.
I was always interested in collecting French, Italian, and Spanish firearms. Up until the past few years, I was able to get a lot of Italian and French firearms for very little money and many were excellent shooters or collectors pieces if desired. But, when Battlefield 1 came out, everyone had an interest all of a sudden in the things I had been looking at and many prices got vastly inflated to a point that to me... they werent going to be worth the money people were asking. I dont really collect for something to be a show piece or wall hanger. I got stuff I was interested in, but planned to shoot. Some stuff was rather obscure and ammo or parts were scarce and that extra added cost of inflation was just too much and couldnt invest in some items as a result. However, most of the Spanish made guns were untouched as they were just universally unloved it seemed. Outside of things like the Astra 900 C96 clone or the CETME rifles and a few extremely rare variants of some weapons they had remained generally the same. This has changed some now as the surplus market is drying up but also as Ian said.. when there's only one of something or very few of them out there and more than one person is interested, the prices go up and often out of reach for myself. When I first started getting into guns the main thing I kick myself for not getting was I remember seeing a Webley Fosberry revolver at a gun show. Guy had no idea what it was and thought somebody had done some custom job to the Webley revolver. He was asking $350 for it at the time which was standard for most Webley revolvers. I didnt have much of an interest in them at the time but was curious about that one and looked into it... Well needless to say somebody there knew what it was and made off with it before I did. But generally the worst deals I've ever made I did to myself. I bought something rare and obscure knowing it was rare or obscure and finding parts or ammo is almost impossible so I never got to shoot it or shot it very very little before parting with it.
Can confirm you shouuld be careful what you're buying. I got a P14 from a pawnshop when I was early in my knowledge and unfortunately did not realize it was a reactivated DP rifle. No explosions but I would be lying if I said I noticed it before shooting the rifle. Luckily its solid and has proven to be an excellent shooter but it very well could have ended up as a pipebomb.
Spartan96 I bought a m1917 eddystone and didn't notice it's been restocked with a Remington and the cocking piece is a Winchester. Nothing like what you had but it bugs the he'll outta me.
The 1917 Enfield were designed to interchanged parts with the different manufacturers.such as winchester,Remington and eddystone.that is what you call interchangeably with the different manufacturers.
Tip #6..DO NOT buy anything that takes 32 French Long OR if you HAVE any of that ammo you can expect a "visit" from the Gun Jesus squad...lol..GOOD VIDEO BTW
Books are great, unless the area that you decided to focus on has only 1 book written on it, that one book only partially covers the field you're collecting, it's out of print, and it's impossible to find. :(
One thing I've realized is you can make lots of money off of cheap guns. There are a million different types of Mosins and people don't take the time to research most of them
When I bought My Mk4 No1 Enfield , after fully stripping it cleaning it , inspecting t , I still held it at full arms length away from Me with safety glasses on , You never know what you have missed Or what someone has done before you
I've got all the Finn Mosins and its a shame they're not as valuable as they should be. Only $200 more for the most part if that than a nothing special 91/30
