I collect simply because I enjoy it, there are many facets of collecting other than just having something to look at. For me, that is the least favorable part of it. I have some safe queens but to be honest they are sort of my reference rifles telling me how something left the factory. It’s kind of like having a new car and not being able to drive it. Cool I guess but not much good otherwise. However, my real thill is the hunt closely followed by the subsequent detective work.
Nothing is better, nothing, than getting a BFPU rifle and carefully dissecting every color of sand, grit, blood, replaced parts, incorrect parts, and the myriad of flaws it has and resurrecting the path it took before coming into my hands. It’s logic and the clues on the rifle that will give us the probable battle zones it was in, why, when, and how the components were damaged, lost, worn out, replaced, or whatever.
Me and Vlado have spent hours discussing the refurb and subsequent patina of a single rifle, trying to figure out if came from Congo or Sierra Leone. The rust, refurb process, parts and arms sales to these countries match the year of the rifle and the incorrect replacement parts also suggest they were replaced later when a different country started supplying arms a decade or so later. It’s like a game of CLUE but with real bodies attached. Morbid, maybe, but history is a cruel mistress.
These rifles have a story, and that story is begging to be told.