In Search of Milsurps...

[WarrZone]

Lots of Garand's and O3A3's at shows. Possibly the most common milsurps at shows these days. Guys that have them usually have half a dozen to a dozen each. Prices are higher than most others but I've seen reasonably priced ones at shows. If you qualify for CMP purchases, Garands are available there at times.

Forgive me for my ignorance, but what is CMP and how do I qualify?

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[Vincent]

Occasionally I find some in Pawn shops. The ones in the not so nice parts of town have reasonable prices.

[HOOKED ON HISTORY]

Occasionally I find some in Pawn shops. The ones in the not so nice parts of town have reasonable prices.

I stumbled on to that trick while out of state on a fishing trip. A very nice SMLE was the result.

[Aragorn243]

Civilian marksmanship program. You'll have to go to the site to see if you qualify. There are quite a few different ways. Being a veteran and a member of a gun club or a firearms instructor or some combination are some of them.

[HOOKED ON HISTORY]

Civilian Marksmanship Program |
Not sure if the Garands have dried up or they are just trying to catch up on orders. Very little avaliable now. CMP should have 1911s avaliable at some point. Sign up now before the rush starts.
Very fine folks at the CMP. One requirement can be met by joining the Garand Collectors Association. The $25 membership is worth the cost if only for the GCA Journal published several times each year.

[WarrZone]

Hey guys,

I've been scouring some local gun shops and I've come across a couple of rifles I was hoping to get some opinions on.

The first one is a K98. The barrel band is marked 1942. It also is marked "BNZ". Not really sure what this means, I've been looking around and can't seem to find much on it. Any thoughts? Just looking for advice on what to look for. It looked like all of the pieces had the same serial number, as I guess the Germans were a bit crazy about marking all the components of their rifles. They were asking $600, seems like a reasonable price to me but just wanted to ask about it before I pulled the trigger.

The second rifle was an Enfield No. 4 Mk 2. I don't know much about these rifles yet. They mentioned they think it was Irish Contract. I'm not really sure what the significance of that is but just some advice on what to look for would be greatly appreciated as well. They were asking the same price as the K98 but I'm still checking prices to see if that's reasonable.

Thanks!

[Aragorn243]

Really hard to estimate prices without seeing photos. An all matching K98 that has not been molested will go for over $1000 these days but every single number on every single part has to match including the stock. $600 is probably OK even if it isn't all matching so long as it is complete. Unless it's beat to crap, rusty, etc. K98's are getting harder to find and their prices have been going up. Russian Captures are probably going for $500 these days but I haven't even seen one of them for sale in a long while.

No4 MK2 a bit harder to estimate. Sounds like it could be one of those that is in near mint condition as that's how they tend to label the Irish Contract rifles. Hard to say if it is an Irish Contract. $600 for one of these definitely depends on the condition. It is post WWII if that matters.

[cipherk98]

Be careful with K98ks that are matching. If the bolt is not blued and there are modern import marks on the barrels that say "Mitchells" walk away unless you want a shooter, those were renumbered and put together. That would be a pretty good price for a truly all matching gun, but very few are. Typically if major parts like the bolt, receiver, and barrel match you are doing good and it would probably be worth $600 if the bore and crown are clean. Stock should match as well. All the other small parts matching, and that means everything, is icing on the cake and those guns can go as high as $2000.

CMP is just temporarily sold out to catch up on orders, my guess is December or possibly November they will open up again to a deluge of orders. Also, while not a C&R item, when you see surplus ammo for a gun you own or caliber you want get it. You never know when there will be more to come around and often times it's more expensive with each following batch. Then you have some calibers that are going the way of .303, where once the surplus is gone it's gone for good. I suspect the spam cans of Greek HXP .30-06 are at this point.

[burb1989]

Be very careful of k98s, especially at gun shops. They usually (9 times out of 10) know what they have and price them accordingly, most of the time way above market value. There are many humped together pieces out there that were made solely to make money. Mitchell's also has the MM stamp on their older imports so look for that as well. Also there are things like Russian captures that were force matched and an easy way to tell is if there is an X mark somewhere on the receiver along with a shellac finish on the stock and an electropenciled number on the bolt. As far as the BNZ marking is concerned that is the code for which factory made that rifle and is memory serves me a BNZ 42 is a very common maker and year for a k98.
As for the enfield the "Irish Contract" is mainly just a selling ploy. There were some that were issued to the Irish but unless its serial number falls in that range and the seller can prove it then it is just another No4 Mk2. Without solid proof and assuming it's in decent shape (not rusted out, wood refinished, etc.) in my area it would be a $350-$400 gun at best. Only with the right proof would that rifle be anywhere near what that seller is asking.

[WarrZone]

Thanks everyone that is a lot of helpful information.

I remember that the K98's serial numbers looked odd to me that I couldn't quite put my finger on, but the comment about the electro pencil made me realize that this is what someone must have used to put the serial numbers on. They looked kind of scratchy and weren't stamped like I was expecting and have seen on other milsurps. I'll have to go take a look again today and use some of these tips to better help identify it.

For the enfield, the stock was in quite nice shape, a lot nicer then most that I have seen online and the few others that I have seen in person in the past few days. I recently watched a video where a guy picked up a nearly un-issued enfield for $500 so the $600 asking price is way too high as this rifle while in nice condition, was definitely not in un-issued condition.