Charlie, You've hit the proverbial nail square on the head. The fact is this. Import marks have been a part of U.S. firearms law since 1968. When I first went hunting a nice M1 Rifle in the late 1970's as a teenager, There weren't many to be had anywhere and when I finally did get one, it was a shot out Winchester for $550. Thanks to the import ban on military surplus being lifted in the 1980's, many good quality surplus rifles of foreign and U.S.iconorigins were allowed back into the country. It dropped prices and gave us lots of weapons to buy, sell and trade up to this day. In the case of Britishicon and Commonwealth weapons, the ones retained for war reserve service were surplused meaning some of the finest firearms we'd ever seen on the market. The guys that poo poo rifles with import marks when it comes to those are silly because most of the ones surplused prior to 1968 were done for a reason. That reason meaning they were out of specification and didn't pass military specification testing for some reason or another. There were lots of nice M1's and carbines that came in during the 1980's too along with the run of the mill rebuilds. The Russianicon capture Mausers are just another piece of history in their own right for any 98 Mauser collector. Then there are the Russian and Finn Mosins, Swede Mausers and on and on. I think as the supplies dry up, (and they are), the import mark phobia will become less and less important. In the meantime if you get a deal on an excellent rifle because it's got that horrible "import mark", snatch that thing up, shoot and enjoy it. They ain't making them anymore! ATB.