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  • Finnish & Russian Mosin-Nagant Rifles: A Buyer’s Guide

    Journal · Collector’s Guide Finnish & Russian Mosin-Nagant rifles buyer’s guide The Mosin-Nagant is a Russian bolt-action family adopted in 1891 and chambered for the rimmed 7.62×54R cartridge. The useful buyer question is almost always the same: who built or rebuilt this example? Finnish rebuild vs Soviet mass production changes what you should expect from…

  • West German SIG P226: A Buyer’s Guide

    Journal · Collector’s Guide West German SIG P226 Buyer’s Guide The P226 went toe-to-toe with the Beretta M9 in the U.S. Army’s 1984 XM9 trials and walked away with a reputation it never lost. The early ones — rolled “Made in W. Germany” before reunification — are the pistols collectors hunt now. Here’s how to…

  • Where North Texas Collectors Buy Surplus & Collectible Firearms: A DFW Guide

    Journal · Collector’s Guide Where North Texas Collectors Buy Surplus Firearms The Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex is full of gun counters, but collectors looking for genuine WWII and Cold War surplus firearms know the field narrows fast. This guide is for North Texas collectors who want the real thing. Most shops are built around new production:…

  • Buying Your First Milsurp Rifle: A Collector’s Guide from a Plano Gun Shop

    Journal · Beginner’s Guide Buying Your First Milsurp Rifle Military surplus rifles — “milsurp” — are one of the most rewarding ways to start collecting firearms. They’re history you can hold, often at a fraction of the price of a modern collectible. Here’s what a Plano gun shop that lives and breathes this stuff wants…

  • Curio & Relic firearms: what collectors should know

    What Curio & Relic (C&R) status means, the 50-year rule, the 03 collector license, and how C&R eligibility works at OSA.

  • Arisaka Mum Markings: What an Intact or Ground Chrysanthemum Means

    If you are looking at a Japanese Arisaka rifle, one marking matters more than almost any other to collectors: the chrysanthemum, or “mum.” Whether it is intact, partially visible, or ground off tells a story about the rifle’s history and has a real effect on its value. Here is what the mum means and how…

  • How FFL transfers work at Old Steel Arsenal

    What an FFL transfer is, when you need one, the step-by-step process, what to bring, and how fees work.

  • How we grade firearm condition at Old Steel Arsenal

    How Old Steel Arsenal grades and photographs firearm condition – mechanical function, bore, finish, originality, matching numbers, and markings.

  • How firearm consignment works at Old Steel Arsenal

    How firearm consignment works at Old Steel Arsenal – what it means, why sellers choose it, and when it is the right way to sell your firearm.

  • Common SKS Variants: Soviet, Chinese Type 56 & Yugo M59/66

    The SKS is one of the most recognizable Cold War rifles in the world. Designed in the Soviet Union and adopted in 1949, it was produced by the millions across the Eastern Bloc and beyond, which means “an SKS” can be any of several quite different rifles. Here is how to tell the main variants…