Buy the rifle not the story!!!!!

[Frederick303]

The sad fact is that surplus rifles were only cheap when they were surplus. Now, except for the last mother load of Indian Enfields (~900,000) there are no large stocks to be sold cheap. Only way to get one is to have a fellow sell you his, and so prices are going up to reflect that. Prices are not excessive if we look at what new arms retail for , heck you can still get a used complete Enfield in the eastern part of the United States for between 300 and 400 dollars, when a new commercial barrel is a 350 dollar item.

As for hoarders, well they will be the source of decent rifles that can be fired in 50 years. I suppose while it might be sad for fellows that want to play around with them today for a cheap price, they young men in the year 2065 that want to buy a shootable 1915 BSA or a New 1955 Fazakerley will be glad there were some hoarders in the last 100 years that bought but did not shoot these rifles. in any case as the years go by all these neat rifles were be fired less and less anyway, just the way it is. All things made by men go from being tools to relics. if you had a like new condition Colt 1860 revolver today you would not shoot it, if Enfield Rifles still can garner interest in 50 years there will likely be an Italian company making some sort of reproduction that you can shoot.

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[Colonel Enfield]

The sad fact is that surplus rifles were only cheap when they were surplus. Now, except for the last mother load of Indian Enfields (~900,000) there are no large stocks to be sold cheap. Only way to get one is to have a fellow sell you his, and so prices are going up to reflect that. Prices are not excessive if we look at what new arms retail for, heck you can still get a used complete Enfield in the eastern part of the United States for between 300 and 400 dollars, when a new commercial barrel is a 350 dollar item.

I'm not a huge fan of the "Well, a new one is expensive and so therefore an old one should also be slightly less expensive" as a justification for high prices on things like ex-military rifles, which were produced in the millions and of which millions are still in existence and on the commercial market. Sure, a new hunting rifle might be $1200, but that doesn't follow that it means a rifle that's 50+ years old should be $800 because "it's still cheaper than buying a new rifle".

As for hoarders, well they will be the source of decent rifles that can be fired in 50 years. I suppose while it might be sad for fellows that want to play around with them today for a cheap price, they young men in the year 2065 that want to buy a shootable 1915 BSA or a New 1955 Fazakerley will be glad there were some hoarders in the last 100 years that bought but did not shoot these rifles.

Will there be many of young people interested in .303s by then, though? I mean, in 2065 a WWI-vintage Lee-Enfield will be the same age that a Snider-Enfield is today and the market for those is not brisk - they're about (and they're not really cheap), but basically if you want one (in this part of the world at least) you're probably going to have an easier time finding an original Snider-Enfield than you will a WWI-era SMLE with its volley sights and magazine cut-off still present.

If you had a like new condition Colt 1860 revolver today you would not shoot it, if Enfield Rifles still can garner interest in 50 years there will likely be an Italian company making some sort of reproduction that you can shoot.

That's a valid and worthwhile observation and one I agree with. I also suspect we might even start seeing Lee-Enfields in whatever the readily available cartridges in 2065 are - probably .308 still, but it wouldn't surpise me if someone started offering repros in .223 or perhaps even some cartridge that hasn't been invented yet, on the theory that I highly doubt .303 British ammunition will be in mass commercial production 50 years from now.