cheap guns

CHEAP GUNS


In a transparent and pathetic attempt to arrest the avalanche of minion desertions ( my daily numbers having gone from about 1425 to 1385, even after Creekmore’s valiant and kindly mention of my drivel in an article which listed me as Best Coiffured Survivalist Writer Of All Time or something similar to that ) I’m throwing out ( or, throwing up ) another feeble article on firearms. Actually, a comment once again coming to the defense of the Mosin-Nagant bolt action prompted this more than anything else. I know that the gun you are comfortable and talented with, regardless of all other factors, even with, God have mercy on our eternal souls, amen, the AR-15, is the best survival gun without peer. That is a given. Outside of that statement, all other bleating and blathering debating the merits of firearms is strictly aimed at those considering which arm to purchase. If you love the Russian bolt, good on you brother. All the power to you. But if you are considering with gun to get, I simply wouldn’t recommend it unless you simply have no other course financially. Primarily because, as I’ll keep mentioning forever, the lack of a gas safety bleed. If you have no rifle, you will die. If you get this rifle, that lack of safety MIGHT kill you. It is a case of the lesser evil. I just don’t think we should be confusing inexpensive with anything else, such as a good design. Please keep in mind that this rifle was adapted with absolutely no regard for how it affected the troops using it. The Czar viewed his peasant soldiers poorly, the Soviet commissars just as badly. The bad design of the Mosin-Nagant was a product of this disregard, as surely as the mass wave assault tactic with every third man armed was. Again, if you love this rifle and are good with it, fine. My only advice is to beware when you are forced to improvise ammunition for it. That is when this safety issue might be more of a factor. But if you have any means at all to spend more money on your rifle, most everything else is an improvement. This rifle is the modern equivalent of the cheap Italian Carinco ( I’m sure I just badly misspelled that- forgive me, but my work office Internet has been down a week and I barely get enough online time for the basics such as posting this and checking mail ) that fired the magic bullet that supposedly killed JFK.

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While I hate any “survival writer” that recommends the most expensive firearms ( okay, I don’t necessarily hate Boston T Party or Rawles per se, as they both give oodles of other great advice. I just hate that aspect of their advice for the simple fact that modern Americans no longer have the financial means to follow this advice before the collapse happens ), that doesn’t mean the cheapest is conversely the best. For a short period of time, we were blessed otherwise. The Lee-Enfield was $100 retail. And the Mauser about the same or just slightly more. But as with all good things, such as when we could spend less than 10% of our income on food that tasted good and was wholesome, or at least still had nutrients of some kind, it can’t last forever. All good things come to an end. Affordable food. Affordable homes. Affordable guns. And, really, guns aren’t any worse than they were thirty or forty years ago. The golden heyday of affordability, mid nineties to mid 00’s or thereabouts, was an anomaly. That was when the market got flooded with the last of the cheap surplus petroleum and then when credit was still in full gusher. If you look at wages, guns are just as expensive, or as affordable depending on how you look at it, as they were at the beginning of the survivalist movement. The too-cheap-to-believe guns, the $99 SKS, the $49 Russian, the $80 Enfield or Mauser, they will never come back. They were a one-time surplus sell off ( well, the SKS would still be cheap if that mule member sucking Clinton hadn’t created an artificial shortage by cutting off Chinese sales ).

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If you look at wages, guns are pretty much the same price for continually manufactured items. Not the Union wages that disappeared. The “average” wage used to be much higher, especially back then. But just taking minimum wage, guns cost about the same. A months wages. Granted, I can only go to early eighties for personal experience, and the minimum wage is politically manipulated, but I think it is a better gauge than the price of gold or the official inflation index, both which far more artificial. Perhaps now you can only buy an HK clone rather than a German made rifle. But you get pretty much the same quality with just minor hiccups if you avoid the Spanish version. And it cost a months wages. If I recall correctly, mid-1980’s the HK was about $500. As was my take home pay for a monkey-spanker job ( so called for a job so devoid of needed skill that a someone sitting around “spanking his monkey” could be hired for it ). And of course I’m speaking of popular arms, not strange, limited production ones such as the Israeli Galil ( again, spelling? ) or a Swiss carbine. So, taking all your $800 to $1200 guns and putting them up against the Mausers or Enfields up there, by historical standards they are still affordable. Not 90’s affordable. But still a mere weeks wages rather than a months worth. Looked at that way, it seems silly to settle for the Russian bolt. If you don’t have to. Yes, it would be nice to still have “one days wage” guns left around. And great if we still had surplus ammo. But don’t confuse the low cost of Mosin-Nagant ammo with cheap surplus ammo. If reloads cost the same, there is no advantage in having the Russian throw-away ammo. In fact, it takes up much more room and can’t be moved as easily. That’s an advantage?

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All I’m saying is that the Russian rifle should only be for those that have no other choice. Don’t confuse quantity with quality. Admittedly, this dislike of mine is just a quirk. That doesn’t mean the rifle is total crap, just that I simply don’t care for it even at its current cheap price. I think the need to gunsmith scope mount it ( if you go with the pistol long relief scope that replaces the iron site to alleviate the tap and screw work, you are buying a low light optic more than a long distant optic ), doubling its cost, and the potential safety issue, make it less than optimal. The ammo cost is false economy. Just my two cents worth. An unpopular view, just as my “wheat is nearly all” diet recommendations. Try to spend a weeks wages instead of two days worth to protect yourself.

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