Just Got It NOW!

Abulg1972 said:

I had to buy one. I couldn't pass it up after seeing your pictures. AND, I intend to shoot it.

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It's your money and obviously you're free to do with your rifle as you wish, but I'd strongly advise against shooting it. You can buy a shooter for half that price. Every scratch you put on a rifle that nice literally costs you money in terms of the rifle's value. That said, you'll sure get some attention at the range with one of those beauties.

Alphabrew said:

It's your money and obviously you're free to do with your rifle as you wish, but I'd strongly advise against shooting it. You can buy a shooter for half that price. Every scratch you put on a rifle that nice literally costs you money in terms of the rifle's value. That said, you'll sure get some attention at the range with one of those beauties.

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Alphabrew said:

It's your money and obviously you're free to do with your rifle as you wish, but I'd strongly advise against shooting it. You can buy a shooter for half that price. Every scratch you put on a rifle that nice literally costs you money in terms of the rifle's value. That said, you'll sure get some attention at the range with one of those beauties.

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Yep, my money, my gun. We all collect for different reasons. I collect so I can shoot neat old guns. I don't intend to sell it. But, if I do, the fact that I put a few rounds through it every year isn't going to materially affect price. I don't go to the range very often, and I have many other rifles I like to shoot when I do. Except for my hunting rifles, I probably shoot each rifle about 3 or 4 times per year, max. If Simpsons can sell semi-beaters for $795, I will never lose money on this rifle.

I like to shoot neat old guns too, I just don't want to pay double for one in pristine condition only to scratch it up.

Has anyone gotten the special select ones? Are they worth the $300? 80% finish is ok but wary of the pitting possibility. Id love to get an unissued one but I dont want it to just sit in the safe. Id rather shoot it once in a while an not worry about losing $$$

why2kmax said:

Has anyone gotten the special select ones? Are they worth the $300? I cant seem to find a description of the condition. Am I missing it? Id love to get an unissued one but I dont want it to just sit in the safe. Id rather shoot it once in a while an not worry about losing $$$

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The description is in their terms of sale, which say:

"SPECIAL SELECT: 80% of original finish. Some dings & dents on wood, Clean Bore: pitting."

Personally, I would not buy one of those and would instead look to one at Simpsons. He has many in that price range that have very good bores with no pitting. Plus, you can hand pick your rifle at Simpsons.

Alphabrew said:

I like to shoot neat old guns too, I just don't want to pay double for one in pristine condition only to scratch it up.

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Everyone is different and has different cares/concerns/interests. My brother will only buy rare and pristine firearms. He has no interest in mismatched, dinged, scuffed stuff. He'll spend $4,500 at a CMP auction on a 1903a3 because it was made by Abraham Lincoln. That's not me. I try to balance collecting cool, nice stuff with having fun things to shoot. I don't mind a mismatched bolt on an otherwise nice rifle. I bought two all-matching Argentine 1909s - one almost unissued and one that was in very nice condition but had some marks, etc. I kept the latter one because it had a numbers matching muzzle cover (the other had no cover), and sold him the other one. He thought I was trying to pull one over on him because he couldn't believe I didn't want the one in better condition.

If I was paying $1,500 or $2,000 for the rifle or it was previously owned by Bob Marley, then I would feel differently, but I'm not going to get all OCD on a $600 rifle. Like I said, I will probably only shoot it a few times a year. I take excellent care of everything I own. Accidents happen, but I'm pretty thoughtful/careful. More than likely, I'll treat this like I do my 1944 100% Sako M39. I took it to the range when I got it just to see how it shoots, and it's never since seen the outside of my safe and probably won't because I've got other M39s to shoot.

I don't think this is paying double. Most of the K-31s I see in the $300 price range are ones that don't interest me due to condition. It's all personal, but I'd much rather spend/save that money on something that I find more interesting/worthy.

Abulg1972 said:

The description is in their terms of sale, which say:

"SPECIAL SELECT: 80% of original finish. Some dings & dents on wood, Clean Bore: pitting."

Personally, I would not buy one of those and would instead look to one at Simpsons. He has many in that price range that have very good bores with no pitting. Plus, you can hand pick your rifle at Simpsons.

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yeah, found it after I posted and corrected my post. not keen on the pitting

And, not to get too off topic here, but aren't the rules we set for ourselves funny? We'll shoot all day long a CMP M1 Garand that cost us $700, but we put a $300 MN 91-30 in the safe because it has a picture of the Czar on it. I just find it amusing.

Wow, those K31's are just......wow....added to my list.

Abulg1972 said:

And, not to get too off topic here, but aren't the rules we set for ourselves funny? We'll shoot all day long a CMP M1 Garand that cost us $700, but we put a $300 MN 91-30 in the safe because it has a picture of the Czar on it. I just find it amusing.

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I was thinking something similar with this purchase. $600 is considered a load to pay for a pristine K31, but in reality it is less than a service grade Garand from CMP. That, and a K31 is an amazing surplus rifle.

For me, I have some "beater" K31's that I will shoot. All were purchased from Simpsons, and this allows me to happily store the other ones. I go back to this, very few unissued K31's exist. Therefore, I will keep mine that way because of their relative rarity. Having a few "beaters" makes this a lot easier, admittedly.

Alphabrew said:

I like to shoot neat old guns too, I just don't want to pay double for one in pristine condition only to scratch it up.

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Has it ever occurred to you to STOP SCRATCHING THEM UP?

nobis1 said:

I was thinking something similar with this purchase. $600 is considered a load to pay for a pristine K31, but in reality it is less than a service grade Garand from CMP. That, and a K31 is an amazing surplus rifle.



For me, I have some "beater" K31's that I will shoot. All were purchased from Simpsons, and this allows me to happily store the other ones. I go back to this, very few unissued K31's exist. Therefore, I will keep mine that way because of their relative rarity. Having a few "beaters" makes this a lot easier, admittedly.

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We all must remember, though, that although Sarco sells them as "unissued", that may or may not be the case and, moreover, all of these rifles have had at least one round go through them, unissued or not. I totally understand people who choose to put these away and only bring them out at Thanksgiving, but I believe, in my heart of hearts, that, if I'm careful, take good care of this K-31, and don't shoot it that much, I will be +/- $25 from what a safe queen will bring if/when I sell it. In the last few weeks, I've watched sales of a few of the "unissued" Persian Mausers that Samco sold a few years ago. Some sellers represented that they had never fired their rifles, and some said that they'd put (e.g.) 20 rounds through them since purchase. All of them went for the same price at the end of the day.



I do, however, disagree with the statement that $600 is a ton of money to pay for a K-31. Yes, there are lots of K-31s available for $300 to $400, but, as I said above, they are, in my opinion, beaters. The really nice ones that are out there, of which there aren't many, are selling for $800 (Simpsons), and they aren't nearly as nice as the ones from Samco. Based on that and given their condition, I think that $600 is a great price for these rifles and I doubt we will see K-31s like this offered at this price. Given that fact alone, this is a buy for me in my mind regardless of whether the price is a few duckets higher than normal.

$300-$400 K31s are not beaters. If $600 + shipping was a good deal, Samco would have sold out on the first day. I don't know how many Simpson's is selling, but they may be on the Pat Burns plan if they are charging $800. These pristine K31s are extremely nice rifles, I'd love to have one, but in my opinion you'll never get your $600 + shipping back out of them (adjusted for inflation). Put one in the classifieds and see how long it sits.

Alphabrew said:

$300-$400 K31s are not beaters. If $600 + shipping was a good deal, Samco would have sold out on the first day. I don't know how many Simpson's is selling, but they may be on the Pat Burns plan if they are charging $800. These pristine K31s are extremely nice rifles, I'd love to have one, but in my opinion you'll never get your $600 + shipping back out of them (adjusted for inflation). Put one in the classifieds and see how long it sits.

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If someone is buying one of these to sell it next week, then I hear you. I don't care whether it's worth $600 right now because I don't intend to sell mine. If my kids don't get $600 out of it when I kick the bucket, that's their problem. Here's the deal - I have an older friend who has been collecting a long time. He has some really neat rifles, including some pristine B barrel and Sk.Y M39s, pristine Mausers, Jungle Carbines, South American Mausers, etc., that he bought several years ago when no one was talking about them. Whenever I'm looking at something he has, he likes to rub it in my face that he got his for pennies compared to today's prices. His B barrel doesn't have a mark on it and is the deepest shade of plum you'll ever see. He paid $175 for it 7 years ago. When I told him about the K-31s, he told me that he has a similar one with a trooper tag that he bought 8 years ago for $279. The point is, people who buy these K-31s will be my friend - in 10 years, we'll be sitting around telling a friend who's interested in a K-31 at $999 that "can you believe 10 years ago I got an unissued one from Samco for $600?" It will happen. Maybe not next year, maybe not in 5 years, but it will happen. They aren't making these surplus rifles anymore. I'll bet the people who paid $500 for an unissued Persian 98/29 three years ago are glad they did.

Personally, I think that these rifles didn't fly off the shelves because $600 is a good chunk of change. My observation is that people will spend $200 on a surplus firearm - any surplus firearm - all day long, but when you start talking about $500, $600, etc., people start to think longer and harder (unless, of course, it's an M1 Garand - people who make minimum wage will buy 3 Service Grade M1 Garands all day long without a second thought). There are many firearms that people go crazy over but don't interest me at all. A good example is the Mosin-Nagant 91/30. I would never spend what lots of people pay for a Mosin. I'd much rather put that money toward something that speaks to me. They're neat; they have a great history; there are a lot of cool variations; but they don't interest me that much. I know I'm in the minority here, but you get my point.

As for my comment about $350 beaters, maybe that wasn't fair. My point was that if you look at the many (hundreds?) of K-31s that Simpsons is selling in the $325-$350 price range, only one (1) has an excellent bore and almost all of them have stocks that have had the crap kicked out of them. Same goes for the ones that Classic is selling for $299 - the stocks are beat to hell. Simpsons has two at $795 and two at $895. They are nice, but they have their warts. Give me any firearm, of any make or model, and I would much rather spend $600 on a pristine example than $350 on something like the K-31s at Simpsons or Classic. To me, that $250 difference isn't material when I'm thinking about selecting a rifle for my collection. If we were comparing a $1,000 rifle and a $2,000 rifle, then that might be a different story.

I wish I had seen the walnuts before they sold out As a hobby woodworker, I really love walnut. They didn't take a pic of the whole top of the receiver so I had assumed they had the big import mark (and were trying to hide it.) Won't buy one w/ that ugly thing on it.

After 26 days, my Samco Global grade Excellent K31 finally came! I went with the Beech stock.

I am very happy with it. The buttstock and buttplate are a bit dinged up, as expected. The rest has very little wear and of course it's in excellent mechanical condition with an excellent bore.

This is my first. I will be reloading for it, even going to work up cast loads for it.

Sorry for the crappy cell phone picture. I work nights so I only had about 20 minutes to unbox this, fondle, photograph, and put away before leaving for work.

26 days? is that about how long between when you order and it hitting your card/shipping?

toolness1 said:

After 26 days, my Samco Global grade Excellent K31 finally came! I went with the Beech stock.

I am very happy with it. The buttstock and buttplate are a bit dinged up, as expected. The rest has very little wear and of course it's in excellent mechanical condition with an excellent bore.

This is my first. I will be reloading for it, even going to work up cast loads for it.

Sorry for the crappy cell phone picture. I work nights so I only had about 20 minutes to unbox this, fondle, photograph, and put away before leaving for work.

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That was a $300 one? Nice buy! God damn, I'd been on one of those like stink on Frosh.

This is arriving on Thursday. I'm a sucker for a pretty lever gun.

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=427807442