Military Surplus arms at gun shows!

[Adam Helmer]

Today I went to a local gun show as a compensated consultant advising a very serious (and wealthy) military arms collector. He has a mint condition Gatling Gun in his den adjacent to the bar, that is how serious he is. Well, today was a bust-no real "finds."

I have seen a continuous condition at all the gun shows this century: Most of the guns are filthy and the stocks of the rifles do not have a penny's worth of linseed oil thereon and the leather slings "crack" with the first touch! Today was no exception. There were Swiss M1911 rifles and carbines, Mauser 24/47 rifles, M98s and Kar98ks, Jap 7.7s, Swedish M96 rifles, M38 short rifles and Finnish M91/30 rifles and ALL Bores were DIRTY! I did ask each vendor: "Why did you not scrub and oil these bores?" None gave a sensible reply.

My twin brother once said to me: "Brother, we should once before we die exhibit our gun collections at a gun show to show the world what well-maintained historic military surplus arms and accoutrements look like."

ALL the military surplus arms I examined today were about NRA GOOD condition. My brother was correct: In 2016, the world needs to see military surplus arms garnered by kids working for 75 cents to $1.50 an hour (in the 1950s and 1960s) cutting grass, hauling hay and whatnot to earn enough money to save fine military arms from the "sporterizing butchers."

I was reluctant to handle many of the arms today because they truly looked like "Battlefield Pickups." I saw mostly $50-$90 arms for parts which was far below the ticket prices asked. Next Saturday I will again be compensated to evaluate arms for my employer at Morris. I think all the "Mint" arms now reside in private collections. Gun show arms are, maybe, Good+.

Adam