Don't fucking remind me about how PMM's have increased massively in price.
It's always been rare in the US AFAIK, and most of it is worthless trash. A lot of the concern around the JFK assassination was that the rifles never worked and the ammo was crap. Even the hand-picked loads the feds gave their expert witness couldn't hit a target with the Carcano found at the scene. And that was back when the surplus was practically brand new.
Oswalds Carcano was in perfect operating condition and the ammunition was Winchester-western made for the US Govt Military aid programs. how oswald got the ammo is a mystery. IIRC all experts that tested the rifle got good accuracy but only some could fire as rapidly as oswald but this was likely because Oswald practiced with the rifle for hours and knew how to work the bolt fast.
One of the big issues with Carcanos (at least as far as I can remember) is that they used a weird sized bullet, it wasn't actually 6.5, it was some weird size that nobody made. Combined with the length of the bullet and the gain twist it took a while to make loads that actually worked right in the things, combined with the generally poor reputation of Italians in geneeral made it so that people never gave the Carcano the chance until people realized that the rifle itself is actually pretty good. But that took almost until the 2010s.
all the cheap arisakas at this point are the shittiest of the shit or training rifle pipe bombs.
And the ammo isn't the easiest to get either. Maybe calling it "the next nugget" isn't right, maybe "the next bubble" or "the next big grab" might be more accurate.
That is until Ian rewrites his dad's book and then all his fanboys will buy every non-bubba'd Arisaka on gunbroker.
Yeah that is something that I can't wait for personally, especially all the guys who are gonna buy bubba'd Arisakas for six bills and then spend another six bills returning them to their as-issued state.
I can't wait to see spergs arguing over whether or not to restore the defaced imperial chrysanthemum. Because you can just bet someone will want to restore it.
Should we do a group buy on chrysanthemum punches? We could be like that asshole in the 70s that made some fake SS rune punches and stamped every WWII gun he could get his hands on.
I can't wait to see a nagant with a chrysanthemum mark on gunbroker.
"Captured 1911"
NOT MAUSER K98 MOSIN NAGANT G43 ENFIELD GARAND SPRINGFIELD
Well there's that argument about guntubers influencing the market again.
I don't think that it's necessarily their "fault" when that kinda shit happens, but I think that pleading total ignorance on the matter is at least slightly disingenuous. Sure it is ultimately the individual's responsibility to decide whether or not to make the purchase and buying something because the internet man said it was good is kinda dumb, but on the other hand the internet man has a dedicated audience of hundreds of thousands who greatly respect his opinions and who have an interest in weird niche things that he covers. If the internet man says that these are hidden gems then you can be assured that the flood gates are now open.
