Lets hear some stories. What got you into C&R?

[coinboy]

 

[Brychan]

All the folks here showing off the cool stuff they got.

 

[Doctor_M]

I Like Old Guns, and I cannot Lie...
You Crufflers just can't deny...

 

[Doco Overboard]

When me and some kid buddies witnessed what AP 303 would do to old dozer blades over to old Smokers lane.
That pine tree scent and burnt gunpowder just kept on stickin.

 

[303_enfield]

$20 Enfields and $120 1903A4's

 

[Threeband]

When I was about 4 years old I had bedsheets with pictures of Colt Single Action Armies and Winchester '73s all over them.

Then I was given a book called The How and Why Wonder Book of Guns, which detailed the entire history of guns from the earliest hand cannons through the most modern Single Action Armies and Winchesters. I was particularly fascinated by the wheellocks.

Still hoping for a good deal on surplus wheellocks, whenever the Holy Roman Empire clears out their warehouses.

The how and why wonder book of guns : Robbin, Irving : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

48p. 29cm

archive.org

 

[Fushigi Ojisan]

Cruffler.com

Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

 

[WatTyler]

Affordable guns. Well, once upon a time affordable.

 

[mawkie]

Sick and tired of getting delayed when running my NICS check every time. Assume it was because someone with the same name as me had a criminal record. Little did I know ...

 

[sxs]

From the time I started buying firearms, I had an interest in old hunting guns (especially sxs shotguns). Over time, my interest in old firearms expanded to certain older milsurps. I had a C&R a number of years back which I let expire due to going through a divorce. I re applied around 2014 and let that lapse after 6 years. When Maryland passed the new long gun law providing exemption for transfers between 2 03 FFLs, I reapplied again and still hold that license. While I certainly have some ARs and polymer striker type pistols, I still prefer wood stocks on my hunting Rifles and shotguns and I like some of the WW I and WW II firearms.

 

[KH195]

Finding a big pile of dusty and neglected antique/C&R guns in my grandparents basement when I was about 12. My grandfather pulled them all out to show them to me and there was just something about the history and the smell/feel of old metal and wood that got me hooked.

Purchased my first C&R a year later at 13 (Japanese Type 38 carbine and bayonet) from an antique shop for $100. This was in the mid ‘90s and apparently still a time when they had no issue with a 13 yr old walking out with a rifle!

 

[Neutron]

A friend of mine carried a P64 and told me he bought it for under $200 and had it shipped directly to his house. He also had a Mosin Nagant which at the time were under $100 and ammo was cheap. That convinced me to get a C&R license. I've since let it expire because the prices have gone up and I'm not seeing anything else that I want.

 

[Trepang]

History

I have always been interested in WWII history.
Owning, handling and shooting these pieces of history is just fascinating to me.

Trying to imagine where they might have been, who might have carried them and what kind of things they might have done is just so interesting.

That interest also spills over to depression-era gangsters...thus the Model 1903 Hammerless and the Remington Model 8's.

 

[Bob A]

The late, lamented Novus Collectus from this site.

Thank you, sir, and rest in peace.

 

[coinboy]

The late, lamented Novus Collectus from this site.

Thank you, sir, and rest in peace.

Wait,

What happend to Novus?

 

[Bob A]

Wait,

What happend to Novus?

He left the site over a disagreement, and I believe he passed away sometime in the last year or so.

Edit: He passed in 2018

https://www.mdshooters.com/threads/novus-collectus-has-passed.225715/

 

[Cruacious]

I got into C&R because the first real rifle I bought was a Mosin Nagant because it, and its ammo, were so dirt cheap. After messing around with it I became rather fascinated with these old war horses and started buying up different rifles trying to find the one that fit me best. Eventually, I realized I like them all for their unique quirks and I was simply an addict from there on forward.

 

[teratos]

Mawkie hates my wallet.

 

[LuckyShot]

Guns were just a tool used to get food in my house.

Parents divorced and sometime in the mid 00's my dad bought an m44 and 9130 for a whopping $120. Told me i was gonna stay home from school to sign for it, i was the first to open them. The love for history was already there thanks to the history channel so the C&R bug bit me hard.

2008 was a bad year for gun owners...obama plus VT shooting meant CBS, NBC at the nations gun show talking "loopholes"
I bought a 1925/53 M.O. Marked 91/30 out of the crate with cosmo for 90$ cash and it all started from there.

I've never asked my dad what possessed him to buy old military guns when he just owned basic hunting rifles/shotguns

 

[somd_mustangs]

Finding a big pile of dusty and neglected antique/C&R guns in my grandparents basement when I was about 12. My grandfather pulled them all out to show them to me and there was just something about the history and the smell/feel of old metal and wood that got me hooked.

Purchased my first C&R a year later at 13 (Japanese Type 38 carbine and bayonet) from an antique shop for $100. This was in the mid ‘90s and apparently still a time when they had no issue with a 13 yr old walking out with a rifle!

Similar story for me, Grandad had an early Parker Bros. "Lifter" double barrel hanging in his den (it was his grandfather's) and I discovered he also had a Colt Pocket Hammerless (.380) in the box and a Remington Model 10 tucked away in the closet. He'd used the Remington for hunting and carried the Colt as a "Neighborhood Warden" during WW2. I convinced him to let me clean the 380 and the shotgun and took both completely apart since they were all jammed up with congealed oil and grease. It took considerable effort to get them back together again But that started the fascination with both the history and the mechanics old firearms. Fast forward some years and he gave me the two shotguns and my brother got the Colt... he got the better end of that one.

First that really set the hook was finding a rare Colt 1905 Military in the local shop, cut for the shoulder stock. Hard to believe that was a little over 10 years ago. Researching that gun brought me here to the MDS Curio & Relics forum and the unbelievable notion that I could actually get stuff sent to my house with a $30 investment in an FFL-03 I'd never heard of such a thing!
The 1905: poorly refinished, later replacement slide with lots of pitting. But it stoked the fire so to speak. It "lettered" to an Army colonel that may have been involved with the military trials and been an NRA official. Colt called it "Loan Account," but it was basically lending the gun out (maybe permanently) to garner professional feedback. That gave Colt a leg up when the 1907 trials came along. That, and JMB had actually designed the .45 ACP cartridge (and the 1905 Military around it) for Colt...