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The other thing I wanted to revisit is a Arsenal SAM7 SF..forged and milled Bulgarian...I had one of the Limited ed of 300 produced right after the Ban expired in 04. Traded it off as a partial payment for an SR25. I missed that one..

Back in 13 Arsenal reintroduced the SAM 7SF.. basically stopping production in early 18 where you could buy them for 1375.00 plus freight and receiving on GB...not discontinuing it but they had other military contract fish to fry..the American market is an afterthought for the Bulgarians ..so by the time I started looking for one last fall they had already been sold out..

So I started looking on the secondary auction market, where they infrequently show up. I also called Arsenal from time to time chatting with the receptionist about when they might start to receive them again. I talked to KVAR here in LV who is the Distributor for Arsenal in the USA, putting my name down on the lis to contact. Then beginning in 9/19 7 of them showed up at auctions in various parts of the country. Invariably they were selling for between 1400 to 1600..I balked because MSRP was 1449.00. And then about December the SAM 7R..fixed stock model became available for 1369.00 through KVAR.

During one of my conversations the Receptionist at Arsenal mentioned that Arsenal was having difficulty importing the SAM's...and that they were out of stock on the SAM 7R's...Whoops now it became imperative that I get a hold of one..before the word got out that they have become unobtainable... So one popped up at auction in Ohio in mid January where I strategized my bidding to come out on top..I knew what they were selling for at auction so I got there first...out the door delivered, tax and receiving fee $1505.00. As it turned out the one I got was NIB unfired.. At the time on GB they were going for 1800 to 2000.... In February KVAR was getting 2250.00 a pop on GB...

Today a SAM 7R...went for 1550.00 wt buyers prem then add in shipping..to a gun dealer at auction...I think Collectors Arms in Houston?

So as it turns out my timing and pricing was fortuitous.

BTW the Bulgarian forged and milled is the Cadillac of the AK world...they originally contacted with the Soviets to mfg the Milled receiver because the stamped receivers were not perfected yet...The first imported Chinese Poly Tech milled receivers are well thought of bringing in the 2500 range as a collector. Then the SAIGA's from Russia double stamped and pinned trunions which thanks to sanctions you can not get anymore are desirable. The Molot Vepr in 308 or 7.62 X 54R is nice.. last price 1799...Then there is the latest Zastava from Serbia..which is a lot of bang for the buck...for 799...they also are offering a M91 designated marksman rifle aka sniper in 7.62 X 54R for 3129.00...closest thing to a Russian Dragunov which have been hitting the 20K mark regularly at auction as of late...friend of mine who knew his stuff...didn't like the Dragunov because he said the scopes shoot loose...

Ian used to coach the US Olympic team...