It is good to hear that military items are enjoying a good market. I have a WWII collection (German, American, Jap, British) that will rival any in this country. . .things you only see pictured in books. You are right about the long guns. So many stacked on top of each other, I don't usually even try to look at them.

Smiths and Colts cycle on the market as owners age out. Usually, 40 year old guns are very common. I have looked at so many Smiths from the 1970's and 1980's this past week, I can't even count them. The ones from the 1960's have been few and far between. The prices can be high on all of them if you shop at the wrong places. Georgia is a cheap place to buy if you stay out of Atlanta. Savannah is bare bones, so it's hard to find anything there.

With pre-war Smiths, you have to wait for the guns to cycle two or three times going through several generations of owners. Right now it appears that most of them have settled and found new homes. Smiths from the 1800's must have found their forever homes because I never see one out for sale any more. Back in the 1970's, I could have my pick of them.

Of course, you have to consider how many were made and how many survived from a time when the population of this Country was tiny.

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Dr. B