Surplus defense guns are profit builders - demand for used and surplus firearms - Industry Overview

Shooting Industry, Oct, 1998 by Massab Ayoob

One of SI's goals is to help dealers increase their gun sales, including used and surplus firearms. The nature of the retail surplus firearm market has changed, but the profit potential from economical, proven firearms is still there. When I was a puppy, the surplus market was primarily a source of cheap hunting guns. Today, surplus guns have an increasingly interested market: self-defense.

Makarov pistols are plentiful, well made for the most part, rugged, and above all, cheap. They'll sell to your customer who thought a main-line defensive auto pistol was too expensive. Generic (small, medium, large) nylon holsters are a natural corollary sale. Have the hot self-defense hollow-points from CCI and Cor-Bon in stock, and you'll sell a combo to more than one customer who otherwise would have left your shop without reaching for his wallet.

It has been estimated that the number of Americans who own an SKS rifle is now in seven figures. Damn few were bought for deer hunting. The SKS was a staple weapon among store owners during the Los Angeles riots. It makes a lot of sense for rural home defense. Ram-Line's excellent aftermarket stocks, and softnose commercial American 7.62x39 ammo, are natural corollary sales items.

Few commercial M-1 carbines are as well made as the wartime surplus ones that are still in circulation. Considered anemic by some with GI ball ammo, it has the ballistics of a .357 Maximum when loaded with a 110-grain expanding bullet at 1,990 fps, delivering a .44 Magnum-like energy level of 967 foot-pounds. Remington makes a softpoint and Winchester a hollowpoint in that caliber. Jim Cirillo said that of all the NYPD Stakeout Squad weapons, including the short-barrel 12-gauge shotgun with rifled slugs, nothing delivered faster one-shot stops than their .30 carbines.

This handy little gun makes a friend of everyone who handles it. The M-1 carbine is particularly suitable for smaller statured persons. An effective home-defense arm, it doubles as a fun plinker.

If you gave most gun dealers a word association test and said "surplus," they'd probably answer, "military." It's a conditioned response. But don't overlook opportunities in police surplus, better known as "police trade-ins."

Today's cops take better care of their handguns than they used to. There was a time when buying a traded-in cop gun was like buying a traded-in cop car; you figured the thing would have been either worn out or rusted from neglect by the time you got it. Today's police departments trade up their weapons more frequently, and the current custom and practice is to have factory-trained armorers among the department's personnel to maintain and service the guns. There are perhaps three main categories of trade-in police firearms.

Service revolvers have ebbed since the massive changeover of the American police service to the autoloader over the last 10 to 15 years, but just because the tide is not still flowing doesn't mean the market isn't still flooded. You can get these guns in excellent shape, dirt cheap, from distributors who are glutted with them after taking them in trade for a department-load of "automatics." The double-action revolver that can fire the .38 Special cartridge is the near-universal recommendation of the experts for a citizen's "first gun" when he chooses to arm for self defense.

Consider running a special deal where you teach a class (or hire a police instructor to teach one) for basic defensive users of the revolver. Gun, leather, ammo, speedloaders (often also available cheap as traded equipment), ear and eye protection, and the training are part of one package fee. "Learn from the cops the system that kept them alive for most of this century" could be your theme. A lot of those students will come back to you later when they want to upgrade to auto pistols.

Service autoloaders are already being traded in, in a massive wave. A great many departments jumped on the autoloader bandwagon when the high-capacity "wondernines" were the thing to have, and have upgraded to heavier caliber weapons like the .45, the .357 SIG, and particularly the .40 S&W. They may not be bargains, because there is a finite supply of these guns and their grandfathered high-capacity magazines, but X number of your customers want a home-defense or carry gun that shoots a lot of times before reloading.

Service shotguns are starting to come on the market as police departments trade in their traditional slide-action 12-gauge "riot guns" for modern autoloading Benelli Super-90s, Remington Police 11-87s, and Mossberg's outstanding new Jungle Guns. Even more police pumps are being swapped for carbines and rifles.

Be warned, however, these guns won't always be in as good of shape as the traded police handguns. Certainly, some will be cherry, having waited in the armory for a disaster that never happened, because the chief in question didn't believe in putting heavy firepower on patrol. However, there will be a lot that are in badly neglected condition - rusted and pitted - because they've dwelt for lo these many years in the non-temperature controlled environment of patrol cars. In winter, they're racked on the dash or secured to the front seat near the blasting heater when patrol is underway, and freezing when the cruiser is in the parking lot. In summer, they're just as close to the air conditioner, then abandoned in sweltering heat. Condensation develops and takes its course.