Milsurp After Hours

Remember when there were all sorts of milsurps coming in and people were really into buying and posting enthusiastically online at various milsurp sites about their latest find? It's calmed down to the point that not much new is being posted about because there isn't much of anything new in the way of milsurps coming in country and what is coming in isn't so cheap as to be impulsively bought with most peoples walking around money. It's not cheap to buy anything anymore. The diletante in the milsurp world has become nearly extinct.

Another thing that's taken a hit because of the state of affairs is messageboards themselves. Some boards have been injured by advertisements, popups and various forms of commercial greed, often not at the wishes of nominal board "owner". Too much clutter can't be good for attracting readers. But at the same time the internet has undergone some major user changes. Many people are into Facebook, and Twitter and other such things that are mostly about "look at me" than any objective subject. And talking about any subject with any objectivity goes against the grain of the format in these new internet forms anyway. However, old time messageboards were not free from the modern "look at me" member either. We all remember the guys that would set themselves up as experts and lecture to one and all... particularly someone they noticed as new to the milsurp "family". And that "family" thing used to be bandied about too.. until "family" members found a board they liked better in actual truth and then moved on to their next "family".

This post has no particular point. Just musing over the state of things. And I'm considering starting to go back through my collection and posting about one gun or the other again. Some I think would be fun to re-discover again.

Must admit Robert I don't "do" many forums now. When I'm not taking care of family commitments and duties a lot of my time is taken with a continual cycle of bullet casting and handloading, I am regularly shooting between 3 and 4 times a week and not much of it is .22 shooting..
My collecting days are over and now I just enjoy loading for and shooting everything I already own.
I'm afraid I just don't have too much time for the internet anymore.

Joe

It's summer time for me so boating takes lead over gun collecting, but before you know it it will be winter again.

Miller Tyme, you are one of the few shinning lights of the still collecting group. I don't blame you for giving it a rest and going boating. It is the boating time of year for sure. I'm with you on that.

Joe, I'm proud to see you so into shooting and reloading I've been backsliding pretty strong lately. I haven't been shooting in a couple of months and can't remember the last time I reloaded anything.

Well summertime is usually my motorcycling time too so I also need to try and fit in a couple of bike trips.

Jeezo, just as well I'm retired!

Joe

At the shows the milsurps have been pretty flat. It's mostly hunting rifles or AR15s.

-ArchFluffy

When is a milsurp not a milsurp.......1880, 1850, 1900???

Generally... what I'm talking about is covered by the C&R 50 years ago and before rule. However, the line quivers a bit on the most recent end because of the bureaucratic nonsense that makes the rules . Some weapons 50 plus years old are not C&R , "curio and relic" and some less than 50 are because of some feature like a full auto mode or the lack thereof. Some made in one country are and the same identical model made in another country isn't like a Makarov pistol for instance. Some made in one country in one caliber is C&R and the same gun made in the same country in another caliber isn't. And then you get into the antique stuff that are mostly black powder and made in the 19th Century and before and is acceptable as a relic without needing a listed certification and are accepted as grandfathered in milsurps.

It's like a foreign sport that makes no sense except to the people that invest time in it and accept that the rules are pretty arbitrary and made by people that confound logical thought.

Yes, the rules are funky. I guess that can happen in any country though.

Where I am it seems like the milsurps are picked over. I'm seeing the same ones come around over and over. There hasn't been a new infusion of whatever. I'm not even seeing the ammo tins and cases either. It used to be that milsurp ammo was stacked up all over the place.

But, the internet saves the day for me. Without it I wouldn't be able to find what I'm interested in.


-ArchFluffy

"Generally... what I'm talking about is covered by the C&R 50 years ago and before rule."

Is that a rolling 50 years, so this year guns made in 1965 are C&R, and next year guns made
1966 are C&R........and so on every year....???