Buy the rifle not the story!!!!!

[Colonel Enfield]

I thought this deserved a fairly comprehensive reply as well so split it from my earlier reply re: Commercial Thorough Refurbishment of rifles; I hope nobody minds.

So I think I do understand collecting. And the tendency to hoard. Serious collectors have made major contributions to our knowledge in the form of books and forum contributions. But I could show you a collection in a castle that contains multiple copies of the same types - and it is all suffering from rust, as the owner appears to be unable to care for it all. That really is disappointing. As to use of the word "hoarders", I stick by that. Acquiring multiple copies of the same type is hoarding, but the hoarders want to dignify their activity as collecting, and in this way are downgrading serious collecting.

So what is serious collecting? It would be interesting to hear a few viewpoints on that!

When I think of "Serious Collectors", I think of the guys who have collections rivalling some established arms museums, including examples of multiple types of rare and very expensive guns. They know exactly what the guns are, how they fit into their overall collection theme, they know the history of their guns and they care for them and look after them. Being a "Serious Collector" is not a bad thing, even if it involves far more discretionary spending money than most of us are ever likely to see this side of a Lotto win or Ocean's 11-style casino heist.

I think a useful rule of thumb separating a collector from a hoarder is the willingness of someone to pass on the gun if it doesn't fit their "theme" - and also whether they're buying an item to stop someone else getting it.

If offered a 1942 Lithgow SMLE Mk III* in decent condition, a collector - who may already have a WWII Lithgow SMLE Mk III* - might very well pass on it if it doesn't enhance their collection; but that's a decision for each collector to make based on their collecting interests, themes, and a host of other factors too numerous to get into in this post without making your eyes glaze over in boredom*. The particularly community-minded collector may even call other people that he knows to alert them of the rifle they have passed on, should it be of interest to them.

I would suggest that a hoarder, however, will treat old rifles like Pokemon and buy it because "they've gotta catch 'em all" - or worse, because if they don't buy it, someone else might** and it's a short step from that to the impurifaction of our precious bodily essences by Communism.

The problem, though, is that people with huge and expensive collections have worked hard to get where they are and I don't think they should be denigrated for their hard work and acumen.

But, as has been noted, there's a point where so much potential collecting stock ends up becoming unavailable to the average enthusiast. In the case of military surplus rifles, this has flow-on effects because it stops younger people getting involved in the hobby - especially as shooters - because even an entry-level gun costs large sums of money which they don't have or don't see the value in spending.

A few years ago it was still possible to get a garden-variety Lithgow WWII SMLE Mk III* in decent, shootable condition for about AUD$350. Not dirt cheap, but not unfeasible or aspirational, either. Now they're going for ever-increasing sums of money and I've seen them selling for around AUD$750 if they've got a decent bore, which is frankly silly. A young person who's bought an old army rifle for AUD$250 is likely to be driven to learn more about it, discover its history, maybe get another one... and we have another member of the Imperial Society of Learned, Relaxed and Very Impartial Military Rifle Enthusiasts.

Nowadays, a younger person is only going to drop AUD$750 (and I sure as hell didn't have a lazy AUD$750 lying about to buy rifles when I was 21, which wasn't all that long ago) on an old military rifle if they're already certain they're interested in them - such as from shooting a friend or relative's rifle.

I don't really know what the solution is, though. Each collection is different and there are many cromulent reasons to have dozens of seemingly identical rifles; I'd loathe to create a situation where anyone who surpasses an undefined by magic number of "identical" guns (their identicality similarly ill-defined) suddenly becomes a hoarder who must be shunned.

*Is he still talking? Yes, Other Barry, he certainly is...
*Dramatic Chord