I am not a firearms guy. Or am I?

So I don’t consider myself a firearms guy. I was never raised around firearms, never did any shooting for sport or target, and I guess it just wasn’t my thing. But when I show people my collection, and they see the pistols and long guns, they think I am a gun nut. And when they realize all of those ammo cans are full to the tune of nearly six digits, they think I’m just a plain nut. So take a journey with me back to the beginning.

It was post-college and I’d been in Southern California for about a year working at a tire store as a manager. Of course, we did mechanical work too. Had no girlfriends no hobbies not much going on. Stayed in a house with several people in kind of a commune setup. All was good. One of my roommates had acquired a new 38 pistol and took me to the local indoor target range when he tried it out. Target shooting? Seemed cool. Why not? So I went down to the gun shop where he had purchased his to look around.

I have found there are two types of man and pa gun shops. Those that want to really educate you and help you make the right choice for your needs and your preferences. And those who are complete a-holes. They mock you for not being a firearms expert, and if you don’t like their favorite brand you are a total loser because everything else is trash and you are too stupid to see it. Unfortunately, this shop was the latter.

I walked into the gun shop and looked at their wares.  I saw a really cool Browning Hi-Power 22 caliber target pistol. It was more than I wanted to spend,  but I didn’t know what NOT to spend. As a single guy with disposable income so I said I’ll take it. They told me I should be buying a Ruger, it was much better and a little less in price.  They only sold Browning so they could be considered a dealer and people could use them for the FFL transfers. I said I would take it anyway.

First, they told me how horrible the 14-day waiting period would be. Then the additional fees to transfer it to me. When I gave them my ID, their heads exploded like in Indiana Jones. ‘We can’t take a Washington ID!!!’ they yelled at me.

During my five years in California, I never relinquished my Washington ID because I knew I would not ever be staying there. But I did have a valid California ID card which works as well for non-driving situations like this. I gave that to them and their heads exploded a second time. ‘What are you trying to pull??  You know we can’t take this either!!!!’  Whatever.  I walked out to go spend my $350.00 elsewhere. And those were 1990 dollars. Yeah, you guys work on commission? BIG mistake.

So I pulled into the local Big 5 Sporting Goods store. I asked to see the Marlin 22 long rifle on the rack for 99 bucks. Zipped it on the credit card, bought a brick at 22 long ammo, a couple of high-capacity magazines, and went home that night and put it all together (no waiting period on rifles at the time).  You can shoot 22 caliber at all indoor ranges in CA without a problem. I had a brand new hobby locked and loaded. Now time to go find out how tanning salons work. All of those long light tubes can’t be that bad when you are in your twenties.

Over the next 15 years or so, I pulled out the Marlin on camping trips and walks in the wood at my parent’s house to just plink cans and punch holes and some targets. Kind of like what a 12-year-old farm boy would do. It was probably just after I turned 40 that I happen to be looking at a Big 5 Sporting Goods ad. They had some cheap military surplus gun for 99 bucks that looked like it would be fun. Sound like a familiar story? The caliber was 7.62x54R. I thought it would be nice to have another plinking rifle for camping.  I did my conversion wrong and was thinking it was just a little over the size of a 22-round. Again, BIG mistake.

When I went down to the shop and actually held the gun, it was a surreal experience. I was holding a Russian Mosin Nagant M44, sticky and icky and ugly as sin.  It had been re-arsenaled in the early 50s and stored in boxes of 20 in Ukraine and felt like a tank in my hands. What more could be said? It was love at first sight.  And the caliper was actually much closer to a 308 or 30-06. A real bullet in a carbine is going to kick you like a blind angry donkey. In other words, a big boy toy.

Anyone who knows me understands when I get something new that I’m curious about I learn everything I can. I researched the history and the many variants of this rifle that was the Russian mainstay for many many years and wars. I drank it all in and it was refreshing.  Like a hands-on history lesson when holding a relic with some much to say if you only listen.

During that research, I came across people on various gun forums talking about a special firearms license for those people who collect. It was called an FFL 03 Curio and Relic license. It basically allows a person to buy firearms that are 50 years old or have been placed on the C&R list. There are a couple of interesting interpretations.

Take my Yugoslavian M59/66 SKS I bought in 2008. OK, the first model year was 1959. Over 50 years. There was a big upgrade in 1966. Hmmm… So I shouldn’t be able to buy this until…. 2016? But wait, they made the M59/66 up until 1990. You get it. Very possible to have a firearm under the fifty-year rule that is still eligible.

Next, take my Czech CZ82 Makarov law enforcement pistol. Yep, mine was made in 1982. Shouldn’t be eligible until 2032, although I bought mine in 2011. How did that happen? The curator of the West Point museum requested C&R status for the CZ82 because he felt it had “museum interest” as a curio and relic.  Shortly thereafter, in 2007, the BATFE approved and added it to the C&R list.

I’ve seen where there are even specific firearms listed by SERIAL NUMBER on the C&R list. So it kind of becomes an Easter Egg hunt for weird firearms. You never know what you will find.

So I filled out this application form, confirmed I’m not a felon, paid 35 bucks, and for the next three years I could have C&R-eligible firearms sent directly to my house from wholesalers or retailers. No background check no transfer fees no state sales tax. This opened up a whole new world.

Interestingly enough, this license does not make me technically a gun dealer. I am allowed to buy and sell firearms to continually better my personal collection.  I even have a bound book (like FFL01 and FFL02 dealers of modern firearms) where I keep track of what’s coming in and going out. However, there is no limit to the number of firearms I can buy or sell. It can be 2 a year or 200. I do not have to turn in my bound book to the ATFE, so in theory, those firearm transactions never existed. This can obviously be abused. But in my transactions I have found it commonly isn’t.  99.9% of C&R collectors are truly in it for the history and the love that these antique firearms have to offer.

I have also been a big military surplus guy for many years.  Just check out my MO93 Swiss Army Bike. The Sportsman’s Guide out of Minneapolis MN  has come through for me many a time. Once I got into these antique firearms, I found some of the ammo can be obsolete or rare, or not made commercially. But you could always get the odd stuff from SportsmansGuide.com and at a great price.

Especially if you join their Buyers Club at 25 bucks a year which gave you free shipping. It was kind of hard to turn down buying forty-pound 880-round crates 7.62x54R Russian surplus for 149 bucks with free shipping and no sales tax. Unfortunately, I did that many times. The value of that stuff is now doing better than my 401K for return on investment. And when you add the fact I have almost 20 calibers between pistol and long rifle, it kinda adds up.

But things have really changed in the last 8 maybe 10 years or so. All the European military surplus I have now has dried up. There are no more wholesalers because they can’t find the products that flooded the market when the USSR disbanded in the early 1990s. The retailers on both the Internet and in storefronts are asking (and getting) four to five times the $$ that I bought firearms and ammo for several years ago. The days of $0.12 per round surplus ammo have evaporated.  Some of the more common calibers like Mosin and Mauser are still popular and they are being produced new commercially (out of Russia of course), but you are paying at least $1.50 a pop.  And people do because it is so neat to shoot a piece of history.

So while the heyday of cheap military surplus rifles with great backstories and historical significance is pretty much gone for the foreseeable future, I’ve laid in enough period-correct ammo to feed my collection for at least the remainder of my generation. With a little luck, I’ll come across some people who would like to explore these beautiful firearms with me. And burn up some of that stockpile. All I ask is a couple of free beers while we complain about how much our shoulders hurt.

Many many more stories to come in this category.  Not for everyone, especially you Second Amendment haters who don’t believe in responsible people. But good tales nonetheless.