Milsurp After Hours

On another board I post on the topic of safe queens arises from time to time. Most of my
milsurps are safe queens, I buy for the history, the shooting is fun but just holding a milsurp in my hands-and owning it-is fun enough. In some cases-my M95 Steyrs and my Lebel
and M1907/15 ammunition is hard to come by, in others, a mixture of laziness, lack of a
proper range, and the fact that I often satisfy my shooting urges with a .22LR has resulted in most of my milsurps being collectibles and not active shooters. I can hold my M1886 Lebel and see myself marching along with Les Pantalons Rouge to liberate Les Enfants
Perdus from Les Boches, I can hold one of my SMLEs and imagine what it was like to go
"Over the Top" on July 1, 1916. I can hold my M1896 Krag or M1888 Springfield and I am at the foot of San Juan Hill on July 1, 1898. With one of my M-1 Garands or No. 4 Mk1s I am
a paratooper slowly descending into Normandy.
The late Professor Charles Stratton inscribed one of his books I bought from him that "Preserving Enfields is preserving history". Until Time Travel is discovered holding a
milsurp in my hands is often as close as I can get.

I'm with you riptidenj. I've got an Arisaka, a Carcano, and a Vetterli I've never fired because of the ammo thing. I also have several Nagants and a couple of Enfields I've never fired because they are duplicates to others.

Like you, what draws me to this hobby is the overwhelming sense of history I get when I just pick one of them up. And when I've learned a few things and note the marks...the SA ... the English Contract mark...the altered mum...the flaming bomb...etc...it just adds to the realization of a link to history.

I think it's fun to shoot milsurps. It's only important that you shoot the ones you want to shoot. It's not important if you don't shoot all that you own.

A little bit of fantasy is no bad thing. I can pick up an ML-E or a Metford and imagine myself on either side of some conflicts or I can handle one of my No1 rifles and imagine a young infantryman as he went through the various stages from recruit to trained rifleman and all the years that followed

All my guns have to bark at least once
No matter how rare they are, or how uncommon the ammo is, I like to make my own ammo for stange chamberiungs, make my Arisaka cases out of .308Win and will also laod 9,3x53r for my Winchester M95 huntingcarbine comming from Finland.
Wrestling the 7,5mm swedish/swiss Revolver ws real fun too!!!!!!

Some guns will follow me to the ragen more often, lke some of my long Mosins or a certain m/28-30(you can hear a call "Kollaa kestää!!!", when holding it)

.22lr is realy a lot of fun too, love my old target rifles and trainers, woudl never touch modern space guns!!!!!!

Chirs

None of mine are "SAFE QUEENS", they all get shot some more than others. My rare “Carabine Daudeteau Modele B” even gets fired
I also collect for history and such as well ... I can really go out and really imagine what it was like to be a French Poilu during WWI shooting these weapons ....

I don't really have any safe queens either, the closest is my No1 mk III enfield and I don't shoot it very often because my middled aged eyes can't handle the sights very well. Some guns I restrict to light loads but for the most part they all get shot.

I have several "Safe Queens" in my collection. I do not feel I should have to place my face next to a live round in a 200+ yr old musket! There are some very fine repops available for that. The same for the 51Navy, 60 Army and 3rd M Dragoon. The intrensic and historical value of these weapons are worth more than the "shooting "value.

Oneshooter
Livin in Texas

I'm one of those guys who can't stand having a gun about that doesn't get used,anything,and I mean anything I own gets taken out into the woods and put to use,I haven't been able to deer hunt for a long while on account of having to take care of a family member,but that's over and as soon as I get myself set up I'll probably grab some SP ammo and tag deers with my K31 7.5 and several other guns I have.

Everything gets used on woodchucks and yotes at one time or another,even the Suomi M31! (I'll post that in a sec)

Anything I can't shoot something with gets traded off.