John- can you tell us about the challenges in acquiring and importing milsurps?

Travelling around the world looking for firearms and trying to save them from getting smelted down and turned into some cheap souvenir for tourists, sounds nice, sure 98 percent disappointment and huge bureaucratic nightmares, but that 2% of pure delight in finding stuff, saving it from the smelter, and selling it to people who actually appreciate the firearm, would make it all worth it for me.
(yes this is a major simplification, due to not having any idea how these things are done)

Reminds me of the show where the collector sent a team to find him some ww2 aircraft he needed for his collection. so they busted their arses looking for the wrecks in order to see if they could be brought home.... sad though, its probably easier to bring a plane wreck into the country than it is to bring a shipment of collectable firearms... oh canada.
 
TOOTALL;

Yes that was a good deal, the Danish Governemnt was paid $35.each for them

In fact they received some Canadian surplus aircraft in the deal, enough said.
John
 
STRAY03;

Yes I have to admit that it is sometimes quite rewarding knowing that some nice pieces of history won't go to the big junk heap in the sky....

On the other hand sometimes it get a little "touchy" when one is in an area of warring parties....

Sometimes in can be unreal, I can recall many times during the war in the Balkans having dinner withing sound of the artillery and mortars....So close yet so far....

I can recall when the UN and NATO mandated us to clean up some areas once the cease fire was in place, we were receiving several 18 wheelers per day of weapons and munitions fresh from the front, hell some of the weapons were still loaded....

John
 
We have a law about this in Canada (maybe it is Quebec only), but no weapons owned by the government can be sold or even given to anyone.

They can transfer weapons between various government organisation, but cannot get them out in any way.

In the past when the SQ sold their shotguns, we were able to buy them. No more of this. All weapons go to the smelter. And when they do a shipment, there's a huge lot of cardboard boxes going out.
 
johnone said:
STRAY03;


On the other hand sometimes it get a little "touchy" when one is in an area of warring parties....
Sometimes in can be unreal, I can recall many times during the war in the Balkans having dinner withing sound of the artillery and mortars....So close yet so far....


John
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Sounds pretty interesting, a job where the worst thing that can happen isn't just getting canned. Keeps you on your toes. And the travelling isn't the typical fannypacker lets see the touristy part of town kind. You get to see the country for how it is, not hidden behind the BS happiness veil you see in the ads.

Like when I went to cuba, on the bus to Havana the tour guide is guiding everyones attention to the "happy" things along the way, while I was noticing the military firing range, or the training the military was doing with the paragliders. (still don't understand why they were training their soldiers to use them... "hey whats that noise? oh dear it's a guy with a parachute and a fan on his back... quick lets give up before he lands!")

Can't handle that kind of travel (AKA Disney travel), did I visit cuba, yes, did I actually see the real cuba no, just what they want me to see.
 
johnone said:
TOOTALL;

Yes that was a good deal, the Danish Governemnt was paid $35.each for them....
Click to expand...

hmm... and lever arms sold them for $150.

As a % return on investment, that doesn't sound too bad... but John's given us an insight into the work (and risk) that goes on 'behind the scenes'.
 
nntw said:
hmm... and lever arms sold them for $150.

As a % return on investment, that doesn't sound too bad... but John's given us an insight into the work (and risk) that goes on 'behind the scenes'.
Click to expand...

But what were the costs to actually get them to Canada. No way the end cost for each rifle was 35 bucks.
 
lone-wolf said:
Imagine if Lever Arms threw those rifles into storage for 15yrs before selling them.
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I dunno- as an investment, it's probably not that good a rate of return.

Let's say they're so good that you could get $1500 for one of them now (I know, I know, we hear #s of $1000-1250, but let's say they're pristine), that means they went up in value 10 times.... but annually, that's about a 16-17% return on their money. Don't know if it's that good a return for a business.

Then again, wish MY investments went up 17% every year!
 
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johnone said:
NNTW;
"I guess it means that some stuff is still out there? And with all respect to the SKS's you're able to find, am thinking more in terms of Lee Enfields, Garands, M1 Carbines, 1903s, Mausers, etc."

Oh yes, there is stuff out there, tracking it down is one thing, trying to purchase it is something quite different....All of the above are out there, but many countries come under the influence of the USA for one reason or another and agree to destroy obsolete weaponry in exchange for American aid.... Such was the case in Greece....
You must also consider the fact that the EU is pressuring both the old and new members to destroy all their obsolete weapons of war rather than sell them off....
Add to the equation the the officials that want to look good on the world stage by making a very public display of destroying all their evil weapons of war....

"Take the 1903s as an example."
By the time we found out about the 1903s the orders had been given to destroy them with BARs, 1917 Water cooled MGs, 1919a4s, .50BMGs, Mp-38s, Mp-40s, Thompsons, Berettas, etc, etc....
You must understand that it is much easier for a functionary to simply order goods destroyed rather than go through the long and complicated process of selling them, with one stroke of the pen the problem is solved....

We have seen the same scenario repeated time and time again all over the world....

On the other hand we are always looking, searching, etc.... If its out there we will try and find it....

John
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The US CMP managed to bring back a lot of M1 Garands and M1903 Springfields from Greece and has been selling them to eligible US shooters for several years.
 
John, the guys are right. I'd like to know what you think of:
- where we've been;
- what we've seen and;
- where it seems to be we're going.

I've been listening to ex-governor of Minnesota Jesse Ventura on youtube. He has some very interesting things to say about trends. I'm sure you have an interesting perspective as well.
 
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