Holy crap stripper clips
- Thread starter 0357
- Start date
Most of the newer crates don't have them. Just check ebay what they are going for. I value them at $1 each but even if you buy a crate of 1,100 with clips or a crate of 1,500 without, both are $400 or more. Do the math. It is the same if you value them at $1 each. Yes, I have dumped them before, but not anymore and not giving them away for free. Go to Salvation army if you want free.
don't feel bad. When you were a kid you likely had at least once of the toys that collectors would pay 100%-5000+% for at some point in your childhood. I did not realize the value of a nintendo zapper from the original NES..... I did not appreciate the value of boxes and instructions and advertisement inserts..... I did not realized the value of my original Megatron and Optimus-Prime transformers...... etc....
even in adulthood we can do the same and only years later go whoops......
even in adulthood we can do the same and only years later go whoops......
StrelokM38
CGN Regular
Just made it easier to stow five rounds together without a big stem of extra metal sticking out and taking up room. paint the end that doesnt go into the guide and it's pretty quick and easy loading.
Stripper clips, are they useful- yes,
Did you lie, cheat or steal to get them - no.
Do you need at this time of your life- no
Can someone use them- yes
Sell the suckers!!
Your choice to be reasonable as to price as with any other item on the market.
They were, after all, part of something you purchased that just happened to stay around after managing to send a few rounds down range, nice to have something left apart from crappy steel cases.
Simple quick and easy test for almost all items you are pondering about lol!
Did you lie, cheat or steal to get them - no.
Do you need at this time of your life- no
Can someone use them- yes
Sell the suckers!!
Your choice to be reasonable as to price as with any other item on the market.
They were, after all, part of something you purchased that just happened to stay around after managing to send a few rounds down range, nice to have something left apart from crappy steel cases.
Simple quick and easy test for almost all items you are pondering about lol!
But I enjoyed every minutes of my childhood. I had friends who collected toys instead of playing with it and I don’t envy the life they had or their current life.
We did appreciate the value of things and used them as intended. Life is made to be lived and enjoyed, not looked at thru protective glass and never touched.
Your friends did it the wrong way. They only bought one of each toy and put it away. They should have bought two and played with one.
I started buying firearms when I was ten. Cheap 22s, mostly single shots but the odd repeater. First centerfire came along at 13, it was a gift from a neighbor. Nice old guy and I still have that rifle. It's a No1 MkIII dated 1912. Lots of honest wear, from many years of carrying through the bush, close to where I grew up. In truth, it was well worn before it came into my possession. Never was dependable to shoot a group smaller than 4 inches at a hundred yards. Mind you I didn't realize how near sighted I was and the iron sights didn't appear sharp.
Even later, after getting glasses the accuracy never improved. Not even handloads with proper diameter bullets made a difference. Cutting down the barrel and removal of the harmonic stabilizer in the forestock didn't help things either. Ways were tight. I haven't shot that rifle in close to 40 years, it's not worth much money wise, but it reeks of memories and nostalgia for me.
When I first started working for Mr Lever, he advised me to never just buy one of any type of surplus firearm that I purchased from him. He was always really good to work for, once I got used to his crustiness. He had a great heart and truly loved the business he was in as well as being a living encylopedia of history and historical artifacts. He also had incredible contacts all over the world.
I was the fellow checking out the stuff that came onto the docks. Making sure everything matched up to the waybills and that the customs papers were all in order.
The clean up was tediuos the paperwork was mostly just making sure the number of firearms was correct in a shipment and that they came from the original seller. Mr Lever handled the rest.
Being the clean up boy, one of my duties was to set aside the best specimens for the store above. The rest would go into crates, if available, or get separately boxed and offered to other stores or for shipment to the US.
This put me in a unique position to cherry pick every shipment I took care of. Mr Lever was good enough to let me choose a couple of the best when I set them aside.
The only time he wouldn't let me set aside certain rifles was if they were something really special or valuable. I wasn't allowed to cherry pick a shipment of double rifles, that came in from Nairobi. Of course, I understood why. Every one of them was worth more than I made working all summer.
Still, I had a lot of what are now to be considered valuable collector pieces. At the time not so much and a lot of people turned up their noses at them.
If possible, I always bought two, sometimes a whole crate. FTRed K98s in the wrap, matching numbers, with cleaning kits, bayonets, in crates marked whith black waffenampts with swastikas painted over and new factory/refurb/storage facility logos stenciled over it all. The whole crate $100 out the door. For me, that was two weeks wages at the time and my father had a fit. Sadly, I sporterized every rifle in that crate and sold the bayos separately. I tripled my original cash outlay in less than a week. I thought the supply would never end. It did of course but it took close to 30 years for the majority of it to run out.
I see the same thing happening with 91 and 91/30 Mosins and decent SKSs. Same thing happened to all marks of Lee Enfields, Garands, Carcanos (which you couldn't give away at one time) and the list goes on and on.
Not everything is collectible, just because it's old or uncommon. Research and lots of due diligence has to be done or you can easily be saddled with lots of valueless junk.
- Location
- Steel Town
Hindsight is indeed 20/20. I wonder what those doubles looked like; you have me intrigued.
Another excellent contribution, sir.
Another excellent contribution, sir.
LordEvilPepper
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Under a rusty barge in BC
when i started opening creates that did not come on stripper clips I kept what i had.... I have about 50, I don't cut them in half anymore lol...
depends how well its pinned, mine will only hold 5 like its supposed to with the pin, but a 6th comes out of the stripper clip and sits on top of the feeding mechanism then once the clip is removed it falls on the ground. still only 5 in the rifle, left on the clip, 1 on the ground.
They were all British made, as that's what Mr lever specified when he bought them from the seller in Africa.
Most were quite plain but had exquisite checkering on the fore ends and grips. Wood in those was always very dense, dark Walnut.
Some of them had ivory/gold/sterling silver inlays and sight outlines.
The ribs were usually stippled or barred.
Then there were the one offs, ordered specificly from a factory with available modifications printed in their catalogues.
There was a lovely Jeffrey, 450-400 X3 1/4 Nitro Express with ivory Rhinocerous inlays on the cheek rest that were polished to a yellow lustrous hue.
It had a silver inlay on the bottom of the fore end with the factory smith's initials and the special load that both barrels would shoot to point of aim at 50 yards.
The wood was the best grade of Walnut available at the time of the build and breaking open the box lock action was butter smooth and positive. The latching lever was finely checkered on the end. Tang safety and double triggers that broke consistently clean at just under 4 pounds.
23 inch, round heavy barrels.
That rifle must have weighed close to 15 pounds.
Excellent bores.
We speculated it may have been gifted to a Professional Hunter by a wealthy client, after a successful hunt.
All I can remember about that shipment was that it was odd, which of course wasn't odd for Lever.
This shipment came into the warehouse in 1967, Kenya gained indepence in 1963.
I wasn't aware of the new government confiscating firearms but when a lot of EX PAT Europeans left the country, they were only allowed to take what they could personally carry and only a small amount of money.
Everything else became government property.
Mr Lever bought these rifles through a broker in Nairobi. Some of his deals were borderline legal but most of them made it through British Customs, then Canadian Customs.
At the time, firearms coming out or Europe/Africa/South America etc had to go through the British system first, before being shipped to Canadian destinations.
That's the approximate gist of it.
I test fired both barrels of the 450-400 and it hurt like hell. It would have been a wall hanger, even if I had been able to raise the cash.
I am under the impression, that Mr Lever kept that rifle for his personal collection, of which I only saw what was in one room of the house he was in at the time. 24x32 with ten foot ceilings, display cases and racks so close, you could just get through without brushin up against anything. This room was all rifles. I assume there were rooms for other types of firearms etc. He could easily have set up an extraorindary museum with just his Maritime collection.
brendanlfk
Regular
I am still on the hunt for a few decent priced stripper clips. Seems most stores don't have them in stock and I don't have the room to buy the 1100 rounds of surplus 7.62 on stripper clips. Anyone know a decent spot to find a few (5-10) for a reasonable price?
- Location
- Steel Town
Your memory is much better than mine! I wonder what ever happened to Mr. Lever's enormous collection??
You have pretty incredible stories to tell.
I have been on the hunt for a 1946/47 FN model 1930 (Venezuelan "short rifle") for the past 10 years after stupidly selling the mint specimen I purchased from "John's Vault". I bet a few perfect specimens passed through Lever Arms.
