Proliferation means less value. How is that ?

[boltaction]

"Everyone has 5" and these will never be worth much? Hmmm.

I am not old enough to have been around when one could buy surplus Lee Enfields and Mausers for $25, but that time did exist. There were similar discussions in the magazines of the time about the 'endless' supplies of these rifles, and how best to sporterize them, etc. When I started collecting in the '80's, the Swedish Mausers were coming out and could be had for $35-45, and there were seemingly endless supplies of them. The bayonets were available by the pile. Then the Ishapore Lee Enfields and Lithgow Lee Enfields came on the market and there were tons of them too. Now not so much; when was the last time a Swedish Mauser in good original shape went for under $100? Market value is partially dictated by interest and there has always been an interest in LEe Enfields, Mausers (the cachet of the enemy rifle), and of course anything American whether it's any damn good or not seems to command a massive premium. Hollywood plays its role as well, as has been seen by Saving Private Ryan, Enemy at the Gates (lousy movie, good guns), etc. However, supply also dictates price and value.

It is true that AT THE MOMENT there are seemingly endless supplies of Mosin Nagants and SKS's on the market, but that will change. No one is making more, and it is hard to say how many warehouses are left to still be broached, and whether or not international trade relations, politics and UN regulations will guarantee they come in anyway. There is certainly a lot of negativity in the collecting and shooting world about Russian guns and their "inferiority", and that doesn't help. There is the long held view that most of the Russian soldiers in WWII were uneducated and ill trained, which indeed they were, and that therefore their weapons must somehow be bad too, which they weren't. One thing one can say about Russian weapons is that they may not be pretty or nicely finished, but they work, and work and work and work. I think Lee-Enfields, French MAS rifles, Russian MN rifles and SKS's are pretty much the epitome of what a service rifle should be--simple, easy to use, tough, and reliable. Russian stuff has the added advantage of being very simple to manufacture, which is a bonus.

I have a large collection of Rosses and Enfields, and really like them. I have also amassed a good stash of Russian stuff. I think it is pretty cool, and it is certainly sobering to hold a 1942 dated MN and know that given the shortages the Russians were facing at that time, that rifle absolutely has to have 'been there'. The ones with German and Finnish stamps on them were definitely "there". That is more than can be said for a lot of the Franken-Garands currently commanding such ridiculous prices. Goodness only knows where they served, or if.

IMO, the Russian SKS and MN rifles are the last of the milsurps we will EVER see on the market. All the WWI stuff has been found and released or destroyed. What's on the market is what there is. Same for the stored WWII stuff. International and domestic (in Canada at least) regulations certainly guarantee we will never be allowed to get our hands on anything newer than the 1960's, and even a lot of that is banned or restricted now. The current Russian stuff may never command the prices of a Smellie or a Garand or a Mauser, but the pieces will appreciate. There will be attrition--loss due to fires, seizures, floods, etc, and the hand of Bubba. I see that already--a recent auction had two MN rifles, still in full wood, but both drilled on the side for some sort of aftermarket scopes. I've seen similar at shows, with people talking about how it doesn't matter because there are endless supplies of MN still out there.......I think of the Swedish Mausers of the 1980's and chuckle to myself.

In ten years, we are going to be looking back on 2015-2016 and reminiscing about when we could buy Russian snipers for $600 and case lots of SKS's for $179 each, with their kits........

Ed