Thursday, March 06, 2008

Tales of the Gun Show.

A couple of gun shows ago there was a guy wandering the floor towing around what looked from a distance like a Gew.88 "Commission Rifle" that was missing its barrel jacket. Getting closer, I could tell from the godawful wood that it had spent some time in China. I asked to look at it, and discovered that it was in fact a Chinese Type 88 "Hanyang" rifle; a crude Chinese copy of the Steyr copy of the German original. The wood was pretty beat up and it was missing a bottom metal screw, the buttplate, and a stock fitting out by the nosecap. The exterior was surprisingly un-rusted with no real pits and a smooth brown patina, while the action was caked with a sludgelike mix of old WD-40 varnish and dust.

I asked him what he wanted for it, more out of curiosity than anything else, and he said something about how he'd wanted $100, but these guys were telling him it wasn't worth that, so he'd take $75. I thanked him for his time and walked on.

I stopped at a table run by some crufflers I knew and asked them if they'd seen the abomination. They had. They asked if I'd looked down the bore. "No, why?" I replied

"Because the last person to stick a bore brush down it pulled what was left of the rifling out in a cloud of orange dust," they laughed.

It turned out they'd offered him $35 or $40 for it, which it was probably worth in spare parts, and he'd left in something of a huff. I smiled at the story and continued my stroll.

A couple of hours later, I ran into him again, still dragging the gun-shaped tomato stake with him. "No luck?" I inquired, sympathetically.

"Nah," he said, dejectedly, "They all say it's worthless 'cept maybe for spare parts."

I need this thing like I need a hole in my head... but I am such a sucker for a poor, neglected military rifle.

I rummaged through my pocket... A twenty, a five, and four ones.

"Will you take $29 for it?" He would and did.

The rifle, amazingly enough, headspaces fine, although I doubt I'll ever work up the nerve to shoot it. The bore is so awful it'll probably keyhole at seven yards anyway. But I didn't have a Hanyang 88, and now I do. It can keep my Chiang Kai Shek rifle (for which I had paid the princely sum of $55 back in '02) company in the safe.

I hear the tales of guys who bought rifles for $15 and $20 back in the day, but back then an Andrew Jackson was real money; nowadays twenty-nine bucks will barely buy a fancy lunch.

Who else has a cheap milsurp story?

22 comments:

  1. Wow! I have the exact same story...except mine was a 1945 M1 Garand that was rebuilt by a competent armorer, Brand new Criterion barrel, new black walnut stock, reparked receiver and cost $917. But, apart from that, it's just like what you got.

    ;-)

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  2. Gun shop in Upstate PA. I'm browsing the Mil-Surp stock.... (quite good actually...) when I notice a guy at the counter trying to sell some long guns. He wasn't having any luck....
    I heard the words... 'Wall Hanger' and 'Smooth bore'.... being used on a cut down Krag.

    Once their non deal was done, I asked the counter man if he minded me talking to the guy here in the store... he had no problem.

    I bought that old smoothbore cut down Krag for $25. It was ROUGH. I thought maybe a good wall hanger at worst... but it turned out be a Bannerman repo of a phillipines constabulary rifle, with a carbine peep rear sight and an 03 front sight. Broke up for parts, I made over $400 and still have the barreled receiver.

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  3. Just out of intrest Tam have you got yourself a Crufflers cert wish we had something like that over here very useful.

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  4. I bought a Carcano cavalry carbine that looked like it had been stored in a leaky treehouse for 20 years for $5. at a garage sale back in the 80's. The story I got was that they thought it was a 'frontier cadet rifle', like the cork-ball capguns they sell at tourist traps and battlefield souvenir stands. I cleaned it up and traded it to a gunsmith friend of mine in a parts swap.

    I saw a guy buy a 'gun in a bag' once. Paid $20., sight unseen, for a collection of parts for 'some kind of shotgun' in a burlap bag. Sight unseen was a condition of the price. Turned out to be a Winchester Model 12 in rough but rebuildable condition.

    Regards,
    Rabbit.

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  5. In the '60s there was a gun store in Houston that advertised Enfield spike bayonets for $1.00 each as tent pegs, and if you bought a set of 4 they would give you an Enfield to pound them into the ground with.

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  6. Hmm, not quite in the same category of cheapness, but I managed to get a bunch of near Museum grade Enfields for $80 a piece, Including a coupla No1 Mk2's.

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  7. "a couple of gunshows ago..."

    frickin' reruns? damn, tam...

    i know a cat's got your tongue today, but indy's full of potential...i was web-checking the gun stores there, and this old boy at don's guns and galleries is a hoot! He's also a target of our "friends" at gunguys.com.

    cruise by there and check out the highest volume ffl in the state, seems he could use some help...even if there's not a gig there at least there's a post or two...and if he's the promoter he seems to be he's not going to miss the chance to have the famous and formidable tamara holding court in his store a day or two a week!

    jtc

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  8. So... buying that old rifle was like pitying a shivering, whimpering mutt of a dog?

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  9. You mean like back in 1992 when you could get SKS rifles for $59 and a three pack of them for $150?

    -SayUncle

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  10. Got-DANG you have a soft heart for old rifles. Wanna buy most of a Jap T44 that bulges case heads has a bubba-ed stock and a lot of missing parts?

    On the other hand, if Indianapolis ever has a gun-buy-back and gives 250, no questions asked....you are SET!

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  11. 50$ Swedish Mauser carbine from a buddy of mine's dad who was taking them and sporterizing them, took me a week to get all the cosmo off of it, near as I can tell it was new, made at the Husky plant in 1942.Not exactly mil-surp but close enough for me.

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  12. In 1991, I wanted an old centerfire. Wasn't sure what kind, but I knew that I wanted one. A friend of my dad's mentioned having an old 1903 Springfield that had been bubba-ized, which he would sell me for $90. I bought it sight unseen. Hey! A .30-06 for ninety bucks! Who couldn't go for that?

    It had a DARK bore, with pits like Daedalus. It had a bolt with a handle that had been cut off and welded back on, probably to provide relief for a scope. It was wearing a horrible sporter walnut stock with a high comb. It had no rear sights.

    I later put on Williams sights, and got a new bolt. I took down the wood on the stock, and after cracking the stock, epoxy'd it, bedded it, and painted it camouflage. I put sling swivels on it. I found that the rifle wouldn't give me much better than 4" groups at 100 yards, so I rebarreled it to .35 Whelen.

    I now have a rifle in my gun safe that I spent $350 on. But it's my $90 rifle. :)

    _ _

    Two years later, I bought a Norinco SKS NIB, in the cosmoline with sling, ammo carrier, and 80 rounds of 7.62X39 for $74. That became my live-in-the truck rifle, behind the seat under a leaky slider rear window. It sports some rust and scrapes from the jack it shared space with, but it's still a good rifle, that could be relied on to stop a fight. God, I miss those days of cheap import guns.

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  13. I just picked up a nice russian SKS for $200, looks like it hasn't more than a dozen round since it was rearsenaled. Last gun before this one was a M91/30. I'll have to get an AK-47 when the GOPA of '86 and the NFA of '34 get overturned, and I can buy an un-nutered one for $200.

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  14. Oh, I almost forgot...I bought a 95% Swedish Mauser (Oberndorf, 1899) for 75 back about 1987 or so. Out of all the Swedes I own, the most I have in any, including the M94, is $125.

    Regards,
    Rabbit.

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  15. i know a cat's got your tongue today, but indy's full of potential...i was web-checking the gun stores there, and this old boy at don's guns and galleries is a hoot!
    ...
    seems he could use some help...even if there's not a gig there at least there's a post or two

    What ... seriously? Do I need to recalibrate my sarcasm-o-tector?

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  16. I found a 1932 Mosin Nagant on the milsurp rack at the local gun store, LA county California. Bought it for 99 dollars. Bore came put green the first 6 times i cleaned it.

    I bought a book on M-Ns, and found it was actually a Finnish version. spliced stock. Wood is still banged up, but it shoots like a tack driver. Took a while to get the rust off the fittings.

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  17. When I lived in NY, I'd stop at every little junky antique store I passed, one never knows.

    Pulled into one place, they had an old rifle on the wall with a $35 tag on it. This was when decent SMLEs were about $75-100.

    It was missing the rear sight, but otherwise a moderate condition Murata.

    And a couple of years later I paid $75 for a "Lebel". A Berthier, actually- brand new, by Remington.

    Wish I hadn't passed on the 4 digit sporterized '03.

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  18. A friend had a Swedish Mauser he'd picked up for a song years before at a small town hardware store. It even had the bayonet to go with. I tried several times to buy it from him, offing as much as $250, IIRC, but he wasn't interested. Finally he said he'd take a .40 Hi Point carbine in trade for it. I happily bought one locally for $170 and swapped him for the M96. It's a beautiful old rifle and shoots great.

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  19. Got a Yugo SKS at an auction for $11.00 last summer. Numbers all matched, but had no trigger assembly. It took some looking, but I got the parts for around $70.00. I thought it was an O.K. deal.

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  20. Mauser '98 rechambered in the 1950's by Steyr to .308 for $100 same price as my other '98 still in 8mm. Good days, bought both through a kitchen table gun dealer. Closest my generation could come to oredering guns through the mail.

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  21. My brother picked up a 7.7 Jap. at a garage sale for $5, totally encased in rust. Buy the time I got done cleaning it there wasn't any finish left, but the bore had no pitting, the rifling was good, everything worked.

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  22. So y'all coming to Crown Point? if so I'll show.

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