Anyone here collect WW2 knives and guns?

[alf]

I picked up a WW2 Colt on a trade last year and now find myself buying WW2 pistols and knives on a monthly basis at the local Arms Collector (Gun) Show...

Anyone else into this stuff?

alf

[BlueSkyJaunte]

Give tabs a whistle...

[tabs]

WW2 weapons offer a wide scope for collecting...

US Military of any vintage is HIGHLY sought after
German/Nazi weapons are Highly collected
British Military is widely collected and still is very reasonable
Japanese Military is collected and has been very cheap but prices are rising dramtically (from nothin to something).
Russian and Italian....who basically cares...

Things to beware of....German WW2 Mauser 98 Sniper rifles...there are now more German Sniper rifles in existance then existed in WW2. And prices are from 7K to 12K....a good alterntive is a Swedish Mauser Sniper Rifle of WW2 vintage. One distributer of Surplus arms has them for $1295.

Another is that recently imported WW2 surplus has Importers Marks on them.....many German Mauser 98K's were captured by the Russians, refinished and stored. Tese guns are generally not highly sought after unless it has a rarity factor.

what your looking for are WW2 Veteran Bring backs or were imported before 1968...Lugers, Mausers, Walthers etc. They will have NO IMPORTERS MARKS ON THEM. These weapons will command the $$$$, and your looking for anything connected to the Nazi Party or SS.

RULE #1...ANYTHING REFINISHED IS KAPUTT....RULE #2 with German stuff everything has to be matching numbers down to the firing pin. RULE #3...With German Regelia beware of FAKES.

with American WW2 Military your basically looking at ....M1 Garands, M1 Carbines, Springfield 1903 Bolt Actions, Colt and subsiderary Mfg's of 1911's....Finding an ORGINAL WW2 Garand is tough as most were rebuilt (a good example will be in the $1500 to $2000 range) and beware of recent imports that can be had on the cheap...under $500. Sniper Garands well they are around $3000 to $3500 now... Also Beware of rewelded Receivers with Garands. Does that give U some idea of the complexity of collecting US military...

To be sure there are a number of other weapons used by the US military in smaller numbers...Colt 1903 32 autos marked US Property for example. They were largely issued to General Officers, the OSS and military personnel needing a light weapon for personal defence. A good example is now $1295.

RULE #4..SPEND THE MONEY AND BUY THE REFERENCE BOOKS..for a few hundred $$$ you can evaluate the orginality of what your looking at which can either save or make you MAJOR $$$$$$.

For example I recently have picked up on American and English percussion rifles of the 19th century....I bought a book on the subject and read through it....as a result when I was talking to an auctioneer in Missouri, he mentioned the makers name on one of the rifles he had in his upcoming auction and it rang a bell. I knew it was a very desirable rifle....I was the only bidder at $500 today I got a pleminary auction estimate for guns made by this maker, from one of the large antique gun auctioneers in Amercia, it's in the excellent condition early 911S range of value.

So DO YOUR HOMEWWORK

[deathpunk dan]

I've got a garand courtesy of the DCM program. Nearly broke my thumb first time I tried to load it. My great uncle - who was intimately familiar with the M1 in korea - told me it was very common in basic training for that to happen.