Ex military firearms and their collector value today

Another issue is that I am quite tall so a decent walking stick length barrel would not be very light and without a shoulder stock portion actually aiming and firing is not so easy.

Having a firearm that folds or breaks up into pieces would be ideal as long as it cannot be fired until fully assembled or extended.

I also tend to like odd weapons so for instance a combination gun where there is a semi auto .22 rifle with a single shot shotgun barrel appeals to me too.

The Soviets developed a weapon for Cosmonauts to allow them to defend themselves after they land back on earth.

They could end up all sorts of places so they were equipped with a relatively short barrel combination gun... the weapon is called the TP-82 and it is a short triple barrel break open shotgun type weapon with two 32 gauge shotgun barrels and a single barrel below and between them in 5.45 x39mm calibre.

The 32 gauge barrels can fire standard buckshot but also flares, while the 5.45mm barrel uses standard ammo though the cosmonaut is equipped with soft nose hunting ammo for it.

Longer barrels and a folding stock and either 410 shotgun calibre or perhaps 12 gauge which is more easily available and 7.62 x 39mm for the third barrel would be rather interesting.

I like the idea of reduced loads... for .22lr you can get all sorts of type of ammo, from super high velocity 22 stinger loads with 36 grain bullets at enormous velocities to standard supersonic and standard subsonic, but you can also get reduced weight 30 grain subsonic rounds too that are very very quiet and powerful enough for small game like rats or mice or small birds without being a danger over large distances.

It is interesting that the Russian and Soviet calibres were optimised to all be the same actual calibre of about 7.7mm or .310 inch calibre.

The 7.62 x 54mm Russian rifle and MG calibre, the 7.62 x38mm Nagant revolver round, the 7.62x25 Tokarev pistol round, the 7.62x39mm AK/SKS calibre are all the same diameter so if you are hand loading you could use a choice of projectiles from a range of different case sizes... a 90 grain Tokarev pistol bullet with a full powder charge from a Mosin rifle, or even just a 122 grain AK projectile in a 54mm case would be rather interesting to experiment with.

The AK also has a 193 grain subsonic round which should fit the 54mm rifle case... I already have 158 grain and 122 grain AK bullets and 148 and 174 and 180 and 203 grain bullets for my Mosin rifles...

I remember in the 1980s there was a company that offered ammo in 7.62x51mm and 7.62 x39mm calibre with 50 grain bullets with a plastic sabot. Never got around to buying any and suspect they would be horribly inaccurate, but an interesting thing to experiment with.

I have a 5.6 x 39mm rifle which seems to use .224 calibre bullets which is interesting because there are a range of projectiles in that calibre that are long projectiles for low drag longer range shooting.

The 5.6 x 39mm is an unusual sporting round developed in the Soviet Union in the 1950s based on the then new 7.62x39mm rimless cartridge necked down to a small calibre high velocity bullet... it was used as the basis for the western 6mm PPC and the .22 PPC bench rest shooting rounds and also the Grendel round too.

Not popular in the west because it is basically similar to a 223 which is more readily available and cheaper... but being base on a fatter case it has the potential to hold more propellent and therefore handle heavier projectiles and higher velocities... in theory.

I think a walking stick gun is probably the sort of thing that sounds better than it actually is... if it is a titanium barrel or carbon fibre barrel then it might be light weight enough to be a good walking stick but I suspect the 3-4 thousand dollar price tag for such a barrel would make it less appealing.

Having two walking sticks that can be held together to support a rifle barrel makes sense especially when walking across difficult terrain, but light weight carbon fibre walking stick that don't have metal cores with precision bored rifled barrels are much cheaper and yet so practical... especially if they are designed to be supports for your tent when you stop for the night.

After you get a bit of experience in the bush you start to quickly work out what is useful and what is a waste of time... carrying around dead weight soon teaches you to do without some luxuries... though an emergency beacon is a new thing I have added to my list. Normally very expensive you can often hire them for a trip for $20-$30 and they basically summons a rescue helicopter directly to your location... if you slip and fall on the second day of a five day trip you might have to spend four or five days in the open before anyone even starts to look for you... four days in the cold with no water would probably kill you even if your injuries were not life threatening.

New Zealand is a long narrow country... you really can't get anywhere that is more than 60km from a coastline, though the bottom of the South Island is a bit rugged.

Most of the time I will either be going for a walk or a hunt... if it is hunting specific animals like deer or goat or pigs then I would probably take a bolt action rifle like my 1944 carbine with the suppressor, but if I was going walking or camping then a folding light weapon in 22 rimfire would be ideal... a low power weapon that does not destroy meat but is ideal for small game like rabbit or possum.

A TOZ-199 would be interesting and there is the American AR-7 which is a semi auto .22 which comes apart and can be pushed into its own stock and floats...



Though the barrel does look a bit short...

I will just keep my eye out for Russian multi calibre rifles I think...

That is ridiculous... most deactivated guns cost more than the original because they are normal guns, but have been modified so they can't fire which costs more money, so you end up with something that is more expensive than a real one but unable to be used as a gun.

I was seriously considering doing that with my L1A1... it was in excellent condition, but I ended up getting about 4K for it and its bits... and I got it in the mid 1990s for about $600, so I can't really complain too much.

Given the choice however I would rather the rules were the same as in the mid 1980s...

Many of the guns I had to give up had little historical value... my AK was Chinese, but before they started making them super cheap and super crap, and my M4 carbine was a Chinese knockoff too, but my SLR was a beauty.

Still, a friend of mine has his SLR story too... he bought a German FN FAL in semi auto only... they promised to buy them but then reneged on the deal and developed their own G3 when the Belgians refused to let the Germans produce the FN FAL in Germany. They had already bought a batch that had fixed cocking handles and fixed rear iron sights... made them rather rare.

My rifle was a NZ Army rifle I think or possibly Australian and had a folding cocking handle and fold down rear iron peep sights.

It was not light but was very long and had a good balance and the recoil was a nice push...

Yeah, I don't buy it when they say the Bren was too accurate... there is no such thing as too accurate... especially for an automatic weapon... if all the bullets are hitting the same man in a group then just don't hold it so steady... give it a horizontal or vertical wiggle when you fire it.

They were producing and testing all sorts of new types of ammo in the 1990s and one of the new rounds was an armour piercing incendiary round in 5.45 x 39mm and because it was armour piercing they were testing it at different ranges to check for accuracy and also penetration.

At 300m they fired three shots and in terms of accuracy the centres of the three shots were 18mm apart... that is 1.8cms... so long barrel guns with bipods can be very accurate, but you can change that easily enough.

If the Bren gun was too accurate the simple solution is to check the rifling spin rate and then choose a bullet weight that does not suit that spin rate and you will have the inaccuracy you desire... but critically when you want your accuracy back just load the correct weight bullets and start driving tacks again.

A lot of the myth and rumour regarding the SVD is around the different versions with different barrel twists for different types of ammo... with the right ammo it can be every bit as accurate as any western rifle in 7.62x51mm ammo like the M21 (modified M14)... but it was always intended as an infantry platoon support rifle to be used at the 500-800m range where their RPKs almost reach and their assault rifles have no chance... but then the assault rifles of the enemy are not much use either.