Notwithstanding the difficulty inherent to licensing a myriad of firearms, South Africa is blessed with a relatively large number of collectors passionate about collecting and protecting a wide range of firearms for future generations. In my experience, most hard-core collectors follow a specific theme or themes, which may include Sako or Ruger rifles, fine examples of handmade British guns and rifles, or even the weapons of World War I and II opponents. The playing field here is vast, and depending on the individual collector’s taste, the firearms being collected may literally cover all the available genres.
FACTORY-MADE, AND WHAT TO MAKE OF IT
Since this magazine deals with hunting, and guns and rifles made for hunting, I will keep the focus of this article on this area of collecting. One of the most important distinctions is between factory-made firearms versus one-off, handmade firearms. I’ve already mentioned Sako and Ruger as two themes for collectors, but for others, the rifles made by Winchester (especially those of an earlier vintage), Mauser, Brno, Mannlicher and a host of other manufacturers have an attraction of their own as well. To each his own.
An often-misunderstood aspect of collecting factory-made firearms is that is of paramount importance. Let
