Question about military surplus rifles.

TikkaG

TikkaG

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How do gun dealers and individuals apart import bulk quantities of surplus rifles/ammo? Is there a specific way can anyone offer advice or tips??
 
Dealers that import rifles and or ammo, literally travel the world looking for products. They also buy BULK BULK, IE HUNDREDS of rifles and MILLIONS of rounds of ammo at a time.

They also have the appropriate import certificates and or permits, as well as the MONEY to pay for the products, pay for the work needed to get them exported, pay for the shipping, pay for the BS at Canada Customs, and then Pay for them to be shipped to store.

Long Story short, Unless you have a six digit income, you probably won't be able to afford importing Bulk anything.
 
It had always been something that I have been interested in (importing firearms) I would like to one day own my own range and shop. I think saskatchewan has a high demand for a shop that offers more restricted firearms. Its always good to have more shops offering surplus weapons they are always hot sellers. Especially at gun shows
 
If you want to understand the arms importing and buying world, read: "Merchants of Death" , "The Arms trade" Arms for Spain" and anything you can find on Sam Cummings... Sam was one interesting gentleman. Also the SIDEM story is interesting and they are still in business in Belgium and the UK, but nothing like they were years ago when you could move arms without government involvement. There are still huge cache's of arms around the world but you just cannot move them to market.
 
Frederick Forsyth wrote a fair bit regarding the shadier side of the arms trade in "The Dogs of War". IGNORE the movie: stupid shoot-'em-up. The BOOK is an intelligently-written piece of work by a guy who spent a lot of years as a very good war corresponent.

Enjoy!
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TikkaG said:
It had always been something that I have been interested in (importing firearms) I would like to one day own my own range and shop. I think saskatchewan has a high demand for a shop that offers more restricted firearms. Its always good to have more shops offering surplus weapons they are always hot sellers. Especially at gun shows
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Don't let anything deter you, there will be an increased demand for restricted all over Canada as the sport continues to grow. But military surplus is non-restricted btw :) Unless you mean rare or uncommon in place of restricted, referring to them as hot sellers at gun shows

Also if you want to run a shop, you want to be a reseller / dealer of firearms, not the importer / distributor / wholesaler. As a small shop you won't have the capital to purchase thousands of rifles at once and millions of rounds of ammunition like the above posted noted. You the guy that will buy 5-25 pieces at a time and sell them through your channels. Then replenish with another 5-25 and continue on that way.

Basically when you look at the current firearms market in Canada, there are a few very big importers/distributors....Marstar being the largest, they probably supply 80-95% of the surplus firearms to the Canadian Market, as they have the resources from many years in the business to send folks around the world shopping for these items and have the capital behind them. Most of modern stuff especially American products (glock, ruger, etc) most stores import there own small quantity stuff directly from the factory as its much easier then coordinating the import of stockpiled surplus.

So thats kind of where you want to start. You buy/import direct for the common brands and modern stuff, then you create a dealer/reseller relationship with a larger distributor like Marstar to move the surplus stuff around your area. When you big enough, you can start importing small amounts of surplus if you can seek it out
 
wheaty said:
If you want to understand the arms importing and buying world, read: "Merchants of Death" , "The Arms trade" Arms for Spain" and anything you can find on Sam Cummings... Sam was one interesting gentleman. Also the SIDEM story is interesting and they are still in business in Belgium and the UK, but nothing like they were years ago when you could move arms without government involvement. There are still huge cache's of arms around the world but you just cannot move them to market.
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Aren't the types of Milsurps that are still legal in Canada, simply considered old useless junk to the "merchants of death"? If revolutionaries in Africa or wherever can get used combloc AK's for under $100, who wants a shipment of old bolt-action Mausers and Mosins?

Edited to add: I'm still hoping that some Canadian milsurp dealers will send their scouts to Ethiopia and Thailand to find out what happened to all those Czech ZH29's. :)
 
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TikkaG said:
It had always been something that I have been interested in (importing firearms) I would like to one day own my own range and shop. I think saskatchewan has a high demand for a shop that offers more restricted firearms. Its always good to have more shops offering surplus weapons they are always hot sellers. Especially at gun shows
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My advice, is if your serous, start with a small shop and maintain good ties with the importers/distributors like Wolverine Supply and Marstar. This will insure you have a good solid supply of products at dealer pricing. What you don't want to do is have zero distributor relations and have to buy everything at retail price (Their is a local shop around here that I am sure they do this, everything is $200 plus then normal)

After a few years you may be able to start importing on the small scale. Things like offering import services is probably a good start.
 
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