What piqued your interest about military surplus?

Ladies and gentlemen, I'd say the title pretty much says it all. What got you interested in military surplus? Over the past several days of perusing this forum, I've noticed several people that have what to me looks to be an exceptional amount of knowledge on one type of rifle or another, or bayonets, etc. So, the question begs to be answered. I know for sure, I have 3 milsurps, and thinking about it, they are all WWI weapons. Only one of them is original, however. I also have 2 that may be milsurp, or may not. Eventually, I will be picking your collective brains on those, too. I look forward to your input. Thank you in advance.

Oh, mods, if I have mistakenly put this in the wrong area, please feel free to move it.

I started with my Grandpa’s Carcano. He won it in 1932 at a shooting contest. It is a very rare (especially for the production year, 1931) prize rifle. 100% military and with crossed rifles over the bullseye, with dedication from the Ministry of War and his name engraved. Back from the “naja” (military duty in Italian slang), I noticed that shooting “wooden rifles” was more fun and more of my liking. So…

For me it was the trench art made by my Grandfather in WW1, Canadian 28th Infantry Division veteran.

Interest already peaked, a healthy dose of Warlord and Battle Action comics in the 1970's sealed my fate and led to a deeper interest in both World Wars and the start of my Militaria collection in my teens.

That waned in my 20's and re-started in my 30's as I settled on collecting and shooting British and US Milsurp firearms. Now in my mid 50's and still enjoying it....

I always loved history and felt that Canada had been too self-effacing in teaching the facts surrounding Canada's contribution during both world wars and the Korean conflict. My dad, my uncles, and later both my brother and I all served in the military. I fell in love with the history of milsurp arms and wondered at the stories they could tell. Add to that, in my youth surplus ammo and firearms were cheap as dirt compared to today and I used to do a lot of shooting.

I grew up surrounded by veterans and military "stuff." My father served in the Navy in WWII. He qualified at Sharpshooter level on the M1, shot at the top of his class, carried his company's guidon, and took the salute of General George Patton when the general visited the facility. My father was the kind of guy who was interested in... well, pretty much everything. I grew up with Churchill's The Second World War series in the bookshelf as well as many other related titles. We had Milsurp rifles around the house and my father taught his sons to shoot and respect them. I wanted to serve in the military but the timing wasn't right: the post-Vietnam draw-down was happening and even the recruiters were advising everyone to step back. I served in an Air Force auxiliary, got to fly courtesy of the Military Airlift Command, and caught a love of all things olive drab. Churchill said, "Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result." One of my humorous stories is that while wearing the country's uniform I had the distinct honor of being spit at... and missed. It was the era.

So there it is, poor stuff at best.

Bob

For me it was Saving Private Ryan. I was 11 year old in 1998 and already showing interest in history. My grandpa, who was a WWII veteran of the 35th Infantry Division took me to see the movie three times that summer. The first time he wept through the Normandy invasion scene, but he appreciated the movie as much as I did, and was happy to answer the thousands of questions I had. That was also the summer he introduced to me to firearms, and the US National Matches at Camp Perry, which my family has a nearly century long competition track record at. It was a pivotal summer in determining who I was to become.

It's difficult to pinpoint any particular event; it was more a mixture of multiple influences during my childhood.
We all had toy soldier's and Action Man; war films and Dad's Army; plus we learnt about WW2 from various sources; my Mum was a teenager, but told us of the squadrons of bomber's flying over on the way to Germany, rationing and life in general.
In my teen's I got to know some veterans who came to my Dad's garage; Arthur who was with the 8th Army Desert Rats, and Lawrence who hated the Jap's due to being a POW on the Burmha railway.
My Father would tell me that the Lee Enfield rifle was the best in the world; and that the Bren was his absolute favourite at the range. He was in the Irish Army in the 50's. He taught us to shoot with an air rifle in the garden.

However it took until my mid 40's to actually start collecting memorabilia and some firearms. My only regret is that my Father became ill with Altzheimers before I started and never has the opportunity to shoot the Enfields with him.

Having always been interested in history I picked up and Arisaka and a SMLE some years ago and dived into researching them via the internet. The rest is history. I really enjoy picking up a new piece and coming here to soak up knowledge form those wiser than I.

WWII got me by the short-hairs, it was the last real war that was fought under the premise of actually winning by unconditional surrender. Certainly no offense to those who were involved (or worse!), but everything since then has been more or less a "dance" by the political ruling class for purposes foreign to me.

Russ

Thanks for the replies so far. So far, I am not a collector. The only milsurp I personally have bought so far was a P14. Researching that is what brought me here. The rest are inherited for my dad. Unfortunately, his Parkinson's and Post Polio have caught up to him the point that being able to ask questions are difficult for him more often than not. I look forward to hearing more.

Back in the day a Woolworths 5&10 below a Sears in Milwaukee had barrels of surplus rifles. I wanted one to hang on my wall as a kid, but was too young to purchase one. I selected two M95 Mannlichers from the Woolworth's barrel of old junk surplus rifles back in 1962. I wanted the longest rifle I could pick out to hang on the wall of my room. Dad got them for me. They were $10 each.
4 different M95 long rifles - Surplus Rifle Forum - www.surplusrifleforum.org
Then when the hippies blew up the science building at Madison, Wi during Viet Nam, I said screw art history and I enlisted in the Marines. An M14 is a fine machine...Been collecting & shooting since the 1970s. Loved rifles, toy lead soldiers, and the corps. Now I got a collection, but am too old to see for competition CMP shooting, and no money to buy any more firearms at todays prices. It's like being back in grade school -no cash for goodies. I found my first gun in the city dump at five, a pellet rifle I fixed. Then dad got me a .410 to shoot at ten.
It seems as an archaeologist always traveling, I had time to stop at gun stores around the midwest and buy lots of fine surplus rifles no one wanted in the 1980s-1990s, Then the second golden age of surplus started with the fall of the iron curtain and rifles were cheep at $49-99. Just about every farm supply, hardware, and gun store had racks full of surplus firearms. I always loved my new issue of Surplus Firearms magazine.... The good old days, see a total set of issues & contents here on SRF: Surplus Firearms magazine, 1987-2012 - Surplus Rifle Forum - www.surplusrifleforum.org

Being an Army brat, I had a living connection to all things military. My dad would give me all kinds of military gear, pup tents, helmet liners, pistol belts, packs, etc. etc. etc. He was a lifelong soldier (jumped in Normandy with 506th with his 2 brothers). My mother's family was British and my three uncles served in the Royal Navy, 11th Hussars and Army Transportation during the war. My Grandad served in the East Yorks during the Great War and "Dads Army" during the next war. So I grew up with war stories from family and my dad's friends. I lived in Europe most of my young life and didn't return to the states until I was 16. I visited many battlefields (including Normandy), castles and the Imperial War Museum, so I was pretty much hooked at a young age. My first visit to an Army surplus store was when I back in the States and I was like a kid in a candy store, or drugs to an addict. I already owned several German helmets (from family) and a Canadian MkII.
After joining the Army I continued my collecting, mostly new gear, so by the time I retired 21 years later I had several sets of gear( and still have). While I had several M1 helmets from my time in the service I didn't find out the all M1s were NOT the same until I was retired. Then my collecting began in earnest. Now I am into gear, guns, bayonets, uniforms, helmets, insignia and whatever else strikes my fancy.

BEAR
Attachment 119850

War movies! Born 1950 and grew up during a time (1950s and 1960s) when many of our favorite old military films were showing in theatres. Hell to Eternity, The Train, Porkchop Hill, The Longest Day, The Guns of Navarone, Where Eagles Dare...well, you know the rest.

I had only ever fired a Red Ryder before Parris Island. My love of all things marksmanship started there. My first milsurp was a CMP Garand - took me a while to get to a place where I could afford to indulge my love of shooting outside of the Marine Corps setting. My wife's grandfather was an army vet who survived D-Day. He past away without seeing his great-grand kids. We talk about him with the kids every year on the D-Day anniversary. A couple years back, we watched a documentary on the anniversary, and my 10 year old son made me pause it and asked "Dad...Is that the rifle?" I said yes it is. He says "...Can I hold it?" We were both hooked. He clutched that rifle at port arms for 2hrs of documentary. I love working on, restoring, and tuning them just as much as shooting. Every time the kids hold one they are awed by the thought of decades or a century+ of service history. The rifles are a conduit for remembering what really happened - not just the big picture history book, but at an individual level. They remind us of what really matters in the world and what sacrifices it takes to secure it.

A love of all things mechanical coupled with an interest in history led pretty naturally into firearms.
Seeing these mechanisms work is like taking a peek into the kind of the designer. Add to that a rich and varied history…what’s not to love?

As I became more financially able, I started gathering US military arms.
These days the list of what interests me is much too long. Right now, it’s early semi-autos of all kinds.

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Originally Posted by BEAR

Now I am into gear, guns, bayonets, uniforms, helmets, insignia and whatever else strikes my fancy.

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And $10 foam heads. I gave up on the foam heads to many $ that would be better spent on the items you list above.

$7.99 at Hobby Lobby......but who's counting?

The Old Man's study. On it's shelves were his B-17 gunner's leather flight helmet, goggles, and oxygen mask (on one of those styrofoam heads). Rows of books on military history and a box of flak fragments also lived there. On the wall, a rack with a CMP M1 carbine, and two 1903 Springfields. In the closet, his issue 1911A1 that just happened to fall into his duffel bag when he was packing up to leave Britain. Didn't take much more.

1992, $179.99 M-1 Carbines, and $279.99 M-1 Garands at the local sporting goods store. You could even pick your favorite manufacturer.

Started with my dad WWII vet 4 years o/seas LAC Engine Fitter, brother 20 years RAAF Flt/Sgt, Brother in/law VN Vet and myself doing a 2 year stint in the cadets ('72-'73) where we were introduced to and fired the No 1 MkIII SMLE and the Bren.
Along with our 3" mortar (Never allowed live ammo, only set up, how to sight, range calculations and so on) A small demo at the school oval with initiator cartridges only was a laugh.
It was in the cadets I received my Crossed Rifles as a 2nd year Corporal we having to shoot the Regular Army course of fire with our SMLE and obtain 75/100 total over 3 ranges, 300-200-100yds, 4 shooting positions with 20 rounds I was the only one to achieve the required hits at our school.
Twice went to join up in the regular service once in the Army and next in the RAAF got to the point of signing the dotted line thought better of it as I was riding fast bikes and faster chicks at that time in my life, highly recommend fast bikes not that the other was not enjoyable though!

Spent time on the land as a farmhand dairy then wheat/sheep my opinion of the wooly jumbucks is they are either highly intelligent or plain stupid I'll go with the second option, gave that up poor pay and went into construction for 41 years (1980-2021). Now retired.
So I started at primary school my favourite battleship was the Warspite and its morphed into a wide selection of military things, rifles Lithgows MkIII's, No.4's then mainly books on AIF WWI and WWII.

Attachment 119890Always been a military history and movie buff but didn’t get my first milsurp rifle until a good friend gave me a bag-o-garand parts and a bbl in the ‘70s. Bought the missing parts and had a Marine armourer put it together in Jacksonvlle, NC. Next rifles were Krags, then ‘03s, trench guns and now a 1917. Have a bunch of 1911s and martial .45 revolvers [Smith, Colt and Webley] and all the accoutrements that go with them. I shoot cas matches with my lever action muskets and BAMM with the boltguns. And of course you’ve got to have uniforms and hats. We shot a BAMM last weekend [used a No1Mk3 and a ‘03 and 2 Smith .45 1918 revolvers] and will have a Wild Bunch this month, 1911s, M12 trench and a ‘94 Marlin. Nothing piqued my interest as I’ve always had it, just a gradual accumulation of stuff as interests evolved and changed. Fun stuff.

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Originally Posted by BEAR

$7.99 at Hobby Lobby......but who's counting?

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That is the best price I have found. I have made some stands from hobby lobby plaques,dowels & wooden balls. About the same as the $8 head minus labor, They look a little better though. Nice grouping BTW.

P.S. What piqued your interest about military surplus?
Great idea for a post!
Interesting to read the replies.

I've been a military history nut since the 1st grade and I started taking every war book in the school library home. That was basically my thing for the first 25 years, books. I've accumulated a massive library that takes up several rooms of my house. Not really sure what caused a jump from books to the actual things talked about in the books but when I made it I made it pretty hard which is how I've always been. I'm a collectaholic and have many collections which were a passion for anywhere from months to years. I collected hard until I couldn't afford it anymore. Military stuff has lasted about 30 years now with the last 20 being pretty aggressive. Part of the appeal is there is always another direction to go when one is topped off. First thing I actually bought was a rifle, SMLE MKIII* followed shortly after by a Swedish Mauser and a few months later with an Australian cadet rifle. Then our first child arrived and all that came to an end for about 10 years. Then I went with bayonets as they were much cheaper than rifles. 10 more years and the kids are grown or at least one of them is and I went back to rifles with bayonets being items of opportunity. Gradually bayonets and rifles both reached the realm of I bought all those I can afford so I moved on to pistols, canteens, helmets, mess kits and gear. Now I pick up almost anything of interest but keep a special eye out for WWI US cavalry items. I still get the occasional rifle or bayonet when I come across one I can afford, pistols are slowing down to a couple a year, just running out of canteens and mess kits, helmets suddenly became very costly so they've slowed. My solution seems to have been to move to military toys. It's a constant battle. In summary. I still buy it all, I rarely get rid of anything and I do not have that large of a house and my kids didn't take their stuff with them when they moved out. I struggle. I am a "one of" collector. I try to get one example of an item. One Garand, one Luger, one British WWII canteen, etc. I don't specifically collect variants. The only real exceptions to this are when I have multiple rifles, usually of different types, that take the same bayonet. Then I will have multiple bayonets and I will try to have different variants. Variants would allow me to continue affordable purchases but then I would really run out of room faster. I put on displays every once and a while and one is all I really need for that. That being said, I currently have 20 milsurp pistols and 108 milsurp rifles. several hundred bayonets, couple dozen canteens, same with mess kits, and several large boxes of various military gear ranging from horse halters, tents, rucksacks, blankets, medals, uniforms and a counter top filled with munitions, grenades, mortars, shells, and bombs, all inert of course. And with some searching, most of it can be viewed somewhere on this website.

Always enjoyed history, when I was younger the Russian Revolution and subsequent rise of Communism interested me. When I was finally able to get a gun I decided I wanted a SKS (partially because it was a military firearm, partially because I had been told by some friends they were a lot of fun). My dad said for my first gun he would buy it as long as it wasn't one of those Commie pieces of crap, but I was insistent and paid for it myself. Fast forward a year after that he also had to have one because 'for a Communist rifle it is actually pretty good'. Since then my interest has only expanded.

Seeing older guys go off to war as I was growing up. Hearing their stories. Being taught at primary school level how to recognize limpet mines and other items in the terrorist arsenal. My grandfather running away from home at 15 to join the Navy and all his WWII experiences. Growing up in a country where firearms are part of our culture and shooting my first shot with a rifle when I was 6.
All of the above rolled into one.

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Originally Posted by Workaholic

What piqued your interest about military surplus?

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The K98k that Granddad kept on the gun shelf behind the front door of the old farm house (~400m NE of where I sit in my kitchen typing this).

"Uncle" Somebody brought it back from the ETO as a gift for him.

I found some proper 1944 German military ammo for it (the SAAMI stuff available was just sad ... and, yes, I know why; .318 vs .323) and the following summer (1968) he gave it to me. Dad & I got a Lee "Whack-a-Mole" Loader and started reloading for the thing ... and I was on my way. :)

I now have many milsurp firearms.

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Originally Posted by Youngblood

Dad & I got a Lee "Whack-a-Mole" Loader and started reloading for the thing ... and I was on my way. :)

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Still my favorite way to load for my milsurp bolt guns. :)

I was a history buff from a little guy. Started shooting at 5yo. Started DCM program at 10. Paid 57.50 for my first M1. Been buying an selling fixing an trading ever since. Don't know an dang thing about a black gun. But love anything with wood an steel. At least with a old firearm you stare at it long enough you can learn to take it apart an put it back together :rofl::rofl:

Isn't it fun mmppres when you put a thing together just to find a screw or such left over and its position in the whole mix is right in the centre of the item you just pulled apart and re-assembled.:mad:

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Originally Posted by CINDERS

Isn't it fun mmppres when you put a thing together just to find a screw or such left over and its position in the whole mix is right in the centre of the item you just pulled apart and re-assembled.

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The second best way to learn.
The first is learning from others mistakes.
I don't do that much.
I'm stuck on option two.

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Originally Posted by CINDERS

Isn't it fun mmppres when you put a thing together just to find a screw or such left over and its position in the whole mix is right in the centre of the item you just pulled apart and re-assembled.

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And it's even worse when you have no clue where the leftover came from or where it goes. That's another thing I appreciate about the old designs...every pin and screw is unique...no guesses required about where it goes.

In the 1950's my Dad, a WWII veteran of the US 29th Infantry Division, bought my older brother and me surplus US Army web gear, helmet liners, toy 1911A1s, and Matty Mattel Thompsons. From that day forward, I aspired to be a soldier. Later in high school, I joined the cadet corps and was issued an M1 Garand.

Fast forward 50 years through an Army career and several other careers to retirement, I purchased that specific Garand from the CMP. It does help to remember your serial number.

I have a whole box full of left over parts from stuff I worked on. Figured I would just wait till I took them apart the 2nd time to see were they went. :D:D:D

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Originally Posted by mmppres

I have a whole box full of left over parts from stuff I worked on. Figured I would just wait till I took them apart the 2nd time to see were they went. :D:D:D

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Reminds me of one or two car shops I've been in (briefly) Five gallon buckets full of the fastenings they couldn't remember where to put back!

A sure sign to take your vehicle somewhere else.