What to look for in a Surplus Firearm

So, once you have decided that surplus firearms are what you are interested in (because you will, right?) then you need to buy one. The one thing that you will learn about surplus and Curio and Relic is that they are labeled in any mid to major retail store as “used” guns…which is true to some extent. This being said, there are some basic things that need to be kept in mind when you are looking at C&R guns (whether for collecting, shooting, or both). There is no faster way to become disappointed or disheartened when buying firearms than to purchase one that is either overpriced, not in working order, rusted, pitted, a reproduction, or worst of all; dangerous. So, we will try and go through some of the basic things to look for in your surplus/C&R purchases, if not all firearm purchases, to avoid disappointment and maximize your experience.

1.      Educate. This could mean many things, but in this instance it means to educate yourself on what you want. The worst, or best depending on your finances, thing you can do is walk into a store with money and look. You will have a hard time deciding which firearm you will want to buy, knowing how much you should pay, and what the cartouches on each firearm actually mean. This is especially important if you are early on in your firearm hobby. You need to figure out what you are looking for in your surplus firearms. If you want a piece of World War I or II history than you should probably stay away from AK-47’s, AKM’s, AK-74’s, SKS’s, M16’s, etc. These are all great firearms but none of them were involved in the wars you are most interested in. If you want a Mosin Nagant, do you know what kind you would like? This will help you in more than one way as they vary in cost between types, nationalities, and models. Do not spend Sniper variant money on a plain Ishvesk Mosin 91/30. This goes for most other firearms as well, prices will vary depending on which countries they produced in, the years in which they were produced in (especially war years), the plants they were produced in, and the model. I do not typically advocate the use of Wikipedia, however, in this case go search the name of a few guns and read up on their history and which plants produced more of a weapon. Websites such as AIMsurplus and J&Gsales will give you insight into reasonable prices for weapons you are looking for, and if you like their prices then you can purchase and have it sent to a FFL dealer for the cost of a transfer fee. If you ever enter a store and see mismatched prices (I.E. Mauser K98 prices for a beat up Turkish Mauser) you can try and explain your stance and alter the price, just do not expect any results; this way if they do reduce the price you will be pleasantly surprised. Another consideration to keep in mind is caliber. You don’t want to purchase a gun that you cannot buy ammo for, if you want to shoot it, and you don’t want to buy a gun that you will be scared of. For example, I am the proud owner of a 1933 Tula Armory 1895 Nagant Revolver. It is a great gun, fun to shoot, and an important part of history. The catch? It is not the easiest ammo in the world to find. Lucky for me I grew up not far from Cabelas, who stocks 7.62 Nagant. Luckily for you we have websites like AIMsurplus and MidwayUSA that allow you to purchase weird calibers online and have them shipped to your door.
2. Serial Numbers. When looking for a surplus firearm, or even a new one, it is always important to keep the serial numbers in mind. The first thing to look for in relation to serial numbers on a firearm is to see if they all match. This should come standard with new and modern firearms, but are of much bigger importance in the world of surplus. If you can find a War years firearm with matching serial numbers, then you found a gun that has a lot of value in collecting. The matching serial numbers will tell you that the firearm is still composed of the same components as the day it left the factory and the day it was issued to military personal, if it ever was. This gets trickier with arsenal refinishing, which actually provides for a smooth transition to my next point: Electric penciling. Electric penciling is the enemy of many new-to-surplus collectors. You know to look for the matching serial numbers and you find them…they just aren’t the right ones. Once touched up in a arsenal or sent out by a group like Century, firearms will be marked with a new batch of serial numbers to match the distributor’s logs or less scrupulous reasons. No fear, it is not hard to know which serial numbers to look for. All that you, the collector, need to remember is to look for markings and numbers that are age appropriate. IF you see shiny, new, perfectly aligned, clear to read numbers….that is electric penciling. The old, faded, dark, and imperfect numbers that look like they were the work of a typewriter? Those would be the stamped numbers you are looking for.
3. Stocks. Not only do stocks provide much of the aesthetic appeal to a firearm, but they also are crucial part in the proper firing of a gun (who knew right?). The most important thing to look for in the stock of a firearm is cracks. You want to make sure that there are not any significant cracks developing in the stock of a firearm that you intend on purchasing to avoid the chance that in the future after it dries out some and takes the recoil of firing rounds that it wont just split and break. This is not as important if you are not so much into the collecting side and are more of a shooter. If you happen to buy a gun with a stock that breaks you can either buy an aftermarket synthetic stock to put on, or look for a spare stock at a gun show. I am going to use the other part of this space to talk about the cosmetics of a stock. If you are looking to buy a war era and combat used firearm, do not expect to find a perfect stock. It is more than acceptable to find a gun with dings and dents in the stock, you need to remember that you are looking at guns that can be 50-100 years old. If you want to find a clean and perfect stock, they are out there (covered in cosmoline) but they probably will not have the history of their somewhat more dinged up brethren. One last thing on the riveting subject of stocks, make sure that the color and finish of the stock match the country of origin. This will ensure that you bought a complete original firearm, not one that someone bubba’d.
4. Rusting/Pitting.  Rusting and pitting should arguably be the largest concerns of anyone looking to purchase a surplus firearm. The prolonged use of corrosive ammunition with minimal cleaning will cause pitting in the bore, barrel, gas system, etc. This diminishes the value of the firearm as well as the accuracy of the firearm. If you look at a gun and see any pitting on the outside of the barrel, action, bolt, etc, then my advice is to not even bother looking at the gun. Rusting can be a similarly large problem in old firearms. If you find a surplus firearm that is not completely drenched in comsoline then take a long hard look at the bolt, barrel, trigger, and everything; just make sure that there is not rust in the gun. While some minor rust can be polished off with real light steel wool, and even at times gun oil wipes, it is not a good sign to how the rifle was taken care of.
5. Rifling/Bore. Once again with any used firearm, you just want to make sure you are getting what you are paying for. The easiest way to check the rifling and bore of a gun is to go ahead and remove the bolt, assuming you are looking at bolt action, hold up the muzzle to a light and look down the barrel. If you are at a store where the rifle has a zip-tie on the bolt or trigger-lock just ask someone who works there if you can take a look, if they know much about used guns there will not be any issue. You want to see a strong rifling pattern, which I find easier to see when there is light in the barrel, that does not have any apparent wear spots or pitting. If the rifling is good it will allow you to shoot far more accurately and at greater distances…otherwise, Congrats! You bought a musket…basically.
6. Accessories. If you are purchasing your rifle and it was distributed by a company like AIMsurplus or Century, make sure you get the accessories that are supposed to come with your rifle. I only mention this because I have had an employee at Cabela’s explain to me that my rifle was sold as is, since I handpicked it off the rack. After getting his manager involved, I got my matching bayonet, stripper clip pouches, cleaning supplies, oil can and sling. If at all possible, try and make sure that when you purchase a gun you get accessories with it. Authentic bayonets are becoming harder to find for a lot of guns from the World War I and II weapons, so if you can get one with the cost of the firearm it will save you a decent amount of money. Also, to build of the last point, part of what you are paying for when you purchase from Cabelas are the accessories. In addition to this, the magazine/stripper clip pouches actually can come in quite handy to organize and transport ammo for your firearms.
7. Ammunition. Cause when you buy a gun you are going to want to shoot it, right? You can buy rounds for most surplus firearms in bulk as surplus rounds, but there is a catch. If you are not the most vigilant of gun cleaners do not even think about purchasing these cheaper rounds to fire out of your gun. Most surplus ammunition is corrosively primed, which means that you will need to clean your gun every time you shoot it (with some form of solvent and quite well) to prevent the ammo for corroding your barrel, bolt, etc.  There are cheap alternatives to shooting surplus ammo. Look for brands like WPA (Wolf), Herters, Brown Bear, Monarch, prvi partizan (PPU), and the like. These are non-corrosive, and largely steel-jacketed, ammunition that are being produced in former Comm-bloc countries. Going this route will allow you to buy cheap ammo that won’t be corrosive and is likely being made in the same factories that were making ammo for the guns when the USSR was still standing. (Quick Pricings: 7.62×39–$4.49-5.99 (WPA/Herters/TulAmmo/Monarch at Cabelas and Academy), .30-06–$14.99 (Monarch at Academy), 7.62x54R–$11.99 (TulAmmo at Academy), .303Brit–$16-17.99 (PPU at Cabelas), 5.56–$6.99 to $8.99 (American Eagle and Winchester at Cabelas) 8mm Mauser–$16.99-17.99(PPU at Cabelas)).

So I may not have touched on every possible thing to look into when you are buying a firearm, but I think this should serve as a pretty good primer to anyone who is looking into purchasing a surplus firearm. If anyone who reads this has any questions, go ahead and leave a comment and we’ll see if I can’t give you some sort of an answer to help you out. Remember, cosmoline can be a guns best friend as it protects the gun from rust as it is being stored and is often a good sign that the gun was lightly used or at least has been stored in an effective manner.

My Nagant Revolver