Surplus heaven

Guns Magazine, May, 2005 by Richard L. Benjamin

I just read the March 2005 issue and enjoyed it very much. I am a returning subscriber and your magazine just gets better with age. Mr. Holt Bodinson wrote a fine article in "'Surplus Locker" entitled "Shopping For Milsurps.'" I agree with everything he said until the last paragraph and question his saying, "'... This is the greatest era for collecting surplus arms that we've ever experienced." Mr. Bodinson obviously did not live through the surplus arms bonanza of the mid-1950s through the 1960s. I have saved the American Rifleman magazines from those days and still get the vapors looking at the ads from Ye Old Hunter, Winfield Arms, Century Arms and others. Where are the Johnson M1941 auto rifles for $59.95, MI Garands for $69.95, US M1917 Enfield rifles for $29.95, 1903 Springfields for $34.95, broomhandle Mauser pistols for $24.95, M1911A1s for $39.95, Lugers for $40, P-38s for $35, British Enfield rifles for $19.95 and mint and matching Kar98k Mausers for $29.95? That was the greatest era for collecting. There are a lot of surplus rifles around today that are arsenal reworks with serial numbers put on with electric pencils and lots of mismatched parts. Where are the vintage military handguns today? The really great surplus arms, like genuine silver coins, disappeared from view after the 1960s.

Richard L. Benjamin

Schnecksville, Penn.

Holt was there. He just didn't have any money back then.--Editor.