Dancing Giant Inn - Firearms & Marksmanship

ANTIQUE FIREARMS

In the United States, modern and antique firearms are legally defined by the Gun Control Act of A.D. 1968. Firearms made before A.D. 1899 are considered antiques and are generally not regulated by the federal government. Anything of more recent production is considered modern and is subject to federal licensing requirements for manufacturing and distribution. However, there is also a third category comprised of curios (unusual firearms or those of special interest) and relics (firearms more than 50 years old). The regulations governing curios and relics are slightly less limiting than those covering strictly modern firearms, making them especially popular among licensed collectors.

The market for curio-and-relic (C&R) firearms is dominated by military surplus. As qualifying military weapons become “obsolete,” they may be sold in large batches to commercial distributors, often for a small fraction of their real value. Currently, this makes many military-surplus firearms very affordable to collectors, hunters, and target shooters of even the most modest means.

I hold a Federal Firearms License as a collector of curios and relics. I have no particular goal in mind for my “collection,” but I enjoy bringing these “obsolete” guns back into working condition. In this, my aim is for functional refurbishment and repair rather than exacting restoration or preservation.