Bane of most milsurp collectors

[Liam]

Up for auction at Manion's. Put out by the NRA,no less.

http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u...68/Bubba-1.jpg

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[Mizzouboy]

I bought a pile of rifle parts at an estate sale. Two barrelled actions plus stocks. It was a disassembled 1903 Springfield, in a dusty cardboard box, intermingled with a bunch of parts from a SMLE. Didn't know for sure what I had, but in the box was an original 1957 reprint from American Rifleman on "How to Sporterize a Springfield". After getting home and digging around a bit in the box, once the dirt was gone, I found I had a beautiful, complete '03A4, scant stock (minus the scope), plus a gaggle of rusty SMLE parts. Thank goodness the previous owner never followed through with the instructions in the book!

[Dale in Louisiana]

You guys need to remember that back when this was published many of the rifles we know and lust after as collectors of military arms were as common as mud in the eyes of many, and a Mauser or Springfield was the only path to a real hunting rifle that many a frugal shooter could find.

I know what it was like to walk into a sporting goods store and see racks full ol surplus rifles for ten bucks each, and because they were so cheap it was difficult to feel bad about doing a bit of a "bubba" job to get a handy 7mm deer rifle out of a Chilean-crested Mauser.

We're not the only ones that look back and sigh. Think of some of those classic cars or my personal worst, that 1946 Aeronca Chief that sold for $1200, if it was still flying today, would be worth $20,000 or so...

[Sunray]

"...Bane of most milsurp collectors..." Now, yeah, but not when that was published. Nobody thought the millions of surplus rifles would ever be worth anything. Lee-Enfields were sold by the pound at one time, up here. So were Springfields.