How did you start your collection?

[Junk Yard Dog]

40 years? You got into it late Bill.

You forget I actively raced cars till the late 90's and raised a family and sent 2 to college so there wasn't much money or time left for guns. Bill

Milsurps could be had for ten bucks in the 70's, some of them, you couldn't even manage one little milsurp? People used to give me Berthiers, Lebels, Carcano's, Arisakas and type 53's for free just to be rid of them. I wish they still did that shit, my steak wouldn't have to come in a tube then. I loved guys who raced cars in the 90's, everyone seemed to be doing it back then, and none of them could drive worth a shit. Wrecked every other week, and then I would sell them another truckload of parts. Buick Gransport, Malibu's and Montys, a dodge or two, regals and one guy with a Hurst Olds. I sold four Malibu 78-81 bodys to one guy in half a year, and it's not like I was selling them cheap. Guy keeping his shitbox on the road so he can keep putting meat on the table I take pity on, give him a break. Racers wrecking cars for fun I shoved the cost right up their asses. That Buick GS from the 80's is a big money car now, but I was never a big fan of Buicks V6, they always had issues when I had one.

I raced open wheel formula cars at places like Pocono, Lime Rock, Thompson, Road America, Marlboro, New Hampshire, and all over the USA. Everything was super expensive and sponsorship was few and far between. I drove 100+ miles Tuesday and Thursday to the engine builders house in northern NJ and worked till 11 PM and then drove home to maybe work 16 hours in a chemical plant anyone of the other days of the week. That was how I paid for my engines. Tires came as I worked overtime and sometimes we went out on threads to get laps in one way or the other. We camped in the trailer and my daughter was 4 weeks old when we brought her to the track in July with the temps running 100+ that weekend. I packed lunch everyday I went to work to save money and did anything else I could to scrounge money to race. My street car was a beat up VW of various vintages with engines I cobbled together out of worn out Race parts. They only let me down one time when it blew up on the NJ Turnpike at1 AM in the morning. I physically pushed it 2 miles to the turnpike exit paid the toll and pushed it to an industrial park parking lot and called a buddy for a ride to his house. That was Wednesday and Thursday I had a new cobbled up engine in it and drove north the engine builders for my shift on the engine builders dyno building race engines. My wife worked her butt off at the track and home to keep me on the track racing. One time at Watkins Glen she singlehandedly changed two cars to rains from dry tires by hand in time to go out and finish the race. We never had decent street cars or time to work on them till the kids were in high school and with all the sports they played we had to get new stuff. All the parts I used were special made as light as legally possible. I rarely saw a junk yard and when I did it was for the street cars to keep them running. Between hours in the engine shop and over time when it was possible to work I didn't shoot anything for well over 10 or 15 years. I still kept an interest and read a lot about stuff but that was about it.. So no $10 went to any Milsurps for many years! Bill

They never came to us for engine stuff, only body sheet metal. My buddy Chris is into that sort of racing now, it's nearly cost him his life three times, or is it four, I lose track. I always built my own cars, but they weren't crap once I got done with them. I would still build them but I am older now and it gets difficult. I keep my stuff running, and one step ahead of the rust. I don't have to, I could get a nice new car if I wanted, but I like owning vintage tin I can work on myself , and I understand the workings of. Not like I need to travel far anyway, three seasons a year I could use my Model A. I am hunting down a truck for myself at the moment. Got it narrowed down to early 70's Ford highboy 4x4, or 70's Dodge powerwagon, no more GM square bodys, I am tired of picking up the parts that rust off it as I go along, had three of them.

[etprescottazusa91]

Hi all,

I'm considering downsizing my herd, in bulk. Did anyone kick start a collection with a bunch at once, or was it one piece at a time?

Thank you kindly,
Aaron

Anyone can buy their way into a collection and still not be much of a collector. Yet a person can own and appreciate a single example of something and still have a "collection" and be a "collector" Most collections are built up one piece at a time when starting out younger, often beginning collectors seem to value quantity over quality, I know I did sometimes. Later on, passing on the rest while finding the best becomes much easier and in the end more rewarding. If you post something and get drooling smiles on reply's, you did okay.

[locomotiveguy]

My collecting started in 1958 first with a Spanish Mosin for $12 that I dragged down the street to 7th grade in So Cal for show and tell Now a days a swat team would be called out and my collecting would have ended for ever, good riddance, then I bought a Rem rolling block 7mm for $14 and an Aussie Martiny Cadet that I had rechambered foe 32 win spl… the rest is history....

[Darryl]

Bill, maybe you knew the Romak's when in open wheel formula cars.

[steelbuttplate]

Flea markets used to the THE place to get guns. Every one of them had a gun section.

They still do in some parts of the world. Smiley's at Fletcher NC and West of Murphy NC on Weekends. Plenty guns. Plenty everything.

[ModelAUZI]

Saw a friend with one and asked about it. then I got on this forum and it was all over.

[Junk Yard Dog]

Saw a friend with one and asked about it. then I got on this forum and it was all over.

Don't think your sending us any bill's to cover the expense. I tried that with Rongo over the Turk Mauser's he made me buy because of all his posts and pictures of them, I still haven't gotten paid.

[Longcolt44]

You too Jim, I also get lured in to Rongos trap...5 times.

[kjohn]

My first "milsurp" was a Churchill Gunmakers No. 1 Mk3* sporter in the Fall of 1965, then soon after I bought a Czech refurb 98, then another of the same over Christmas, and, oh boy! I enjoy my pile and adding to it every bit as much as I ever did. I also buy firearms and related items for resale. I recently cleaned out an old friend of around 25 rifles and shotguns, plus 3 handguns and a major pile of books, ammo, reloading stuff. Of course, some of the stuff for "resale" doesn't get "resold".

[zeebill]

Bill, maybe you knew the Romak's when in open wheel formula cars.

I don't know that name but we are on different coasts so that may explain it. I only have a desire to get in the car again for one track and one turn and it is in Cali though. The Corkscrew at Laguna Seca. I laid eyes on it once and saw Dan Gurney circulate through it that day and I have never gotten that scene out of my mind since then. Maybe in my next life huh?

Jim everything I drove for the most part was fiberglass and tubular steel chassis and single purpose built for a road race track. I hit just about all the tracks up and down the east coast from Florida to Maine. Occasional dirt tracks when the car was presented but I knew very little of what I should have known on dirt. From Spud Speedway in Maine to Sebring in Florida. So many places that no longer exist I wonder where it all went. Places like Vineland Speedway in NJ Langhorne in PA, Reading Pa over the old military base, even old Alcyon Speedway in Pitman, NJ. I bummed rides and got to see many of the greats before anybody even heard of the Andretti Brothers at Nazereth, Wally Dahlenbach at Vineland in Dick Barneys Red Racercars(the old man not the son) and even old AJ before he was well known. Good God I feel old right now. At one time NJ had well over two dozen active race tracks running almost every night of the week both dirt and asphalt. Think there are only 2 or 3 left if that now. The tracks are also having hard times now as available spendable income is being used to pay the bills to keep the household running and family eating. Dam those were the glory Days for everything! Nobody can take those memories away till the day I leave this earth and I Thank God for that! Bill

[Junk Yard Dog]

I know of at least one track in NJ, don't know what it was called, but there is a flea market on it now. I know because a friend of mine dragged me down there a couple of years back. Being NJ there were no guns, but I did find some cool tools. The rest of the tracks are now covered by shopping malls ( themselves dying) or housing developments. Nope, know nothing about racing except how to sell parts to guys doing it. I have no idea what kind of racing they were doing, or what they did to their cars, sold them the parts they asked for and that's it. I heard about the unholy fortunes race cars eat, worse even than boats, I spent all that on guns and ammo, the rest I wasted.

[Darryl]

Bill, maybe you knew the Romak's when in open wheel formula cars.

I don't know that name but we are on different coasts so that may explain it. I only have a desire to get in the car again for one track and one turn and it is in Cali though. The Corkscrew at Laguna Seca. I laid eyes on it once and saw Dan Gurney circulate through it that day and I have never gotten that scene out of my mind since then. Maybe in my next life huh?

They are close friends of mine. Bud Romak used to race all over us and in Europe. He had one of the real original Ford GT 40. Steve his son started in that one also but Bud told me he rubbed the wall too much. Steve went on and in his first year racing Formula Atlantic (which he still has) he was Rookie of the year. That is one step down from Formula one. He tore them up. I think after that (a few years) he drove Formula one for only a couple races as a replacement driver. I remember once a drive broke his arm and they rushed Steve into the car for a race. They didn't really care how he did, they just wanted it on the track for the sponsors. I remember him coming home with his head down low. I remember him telling us how badly that Danaica Gal kicked his ass. I think it was about her third or fourth year in Formula.

Myself, I stayed away from things going that fast on a hard surface. I raced outboard hydros from 17 to 22 years old. My (to be wife) fiance said that was enough. We are still married after 40 plus years and I still wonder if I made the right choice.......about racing!

[zeebill]

Jim more than likely that track turned flea market was old Englishtown raceway in central NJ. Lets see Bridgport dirt track is still running as is New Egypt Speedway. I actually announced at New Egypt when it was an asphalt track. It was Nascar way back then and we had the likes of the Bodine Brothers and Richie Evens and many other greats running there. NJ Motorsport Park is a road racing track still active in south jersey too.


Dolk the Romaks more than likely ran SCCA road racing series it was regional with a yearly national runoff at Road Atlanta years ago which crowned champions from all over the country. Formula Atlantic was a US only class that was blindingly fast with very small fields for all the years I watched them. Guys like Steve Durst, Brian Redman, and a fast south African ran in a series close to the Atlantics called the Formula Continental Series and put on pro races around the US again with very small fields. My God that was many years ago! Still have some pictures from a race at Pocono's old road race setup that hasn't been run in maybe 30 years now. Couple of the Unsers ran well in those races, danged if I can remember which ones. Ran a car sponsored by Jorganson that was a very pretty blue color.


Kind of fun trying to remember stuff about my life way back then. I made choices too between wives and racing. Single men race longer and collect more guns I know that for a fact! Rofl Regrets? Yeah I might have done things different at times but it is what it is. Bill

[Darryl]

He started here in some small race in built cars

romakcar.JPG

Ended up with this (Formula Atlantic)

Steve Romak 1.jpg

Did two Formula 1 races Then retired (Money reasons)

[zeebill]

Yeah the top car is a sports racer and I think I see an SCCA sticker on the side of it. I am way too big to fit in most of those because they are what they call tub built seats and making more room in them requires way too much chassis and body cutting. There was a couple of Brothers that came from California or at least the west coast but they were the Wittington Brothers if I remember right. Multi millionaires who owned Atlanta track at one time and things like a P51 Mustang and other WW2 aircraft too. So I know it wasn't them. Probably saw or knew of them as my entire life at that time was racing and the family. Oh well I like to think I grew up a little since then but I sometimes wonder about that too. Bill

[BryanJ]

First Milsurp purchased at yard sale in 1982 and bought, sold, traded many over the years. Being a history nut, it's just cool as hell to own a rifle that was a large part of that history.

[tailgunner67]

I have bought milsurp off and on since I turned 18 in the 80's. I was never serious about it, I just bought stuff I found interesting. I was raising kids for many years and I would buy maybe one gun a year if even that. A couple of years ago I found some milsurp groups to join and my collection started to grow, but without a direction. Last January I had a couple of Finns and I decided that I wanted to focus on gaining a nice Finn collection. For the last year I have sold, traded, and purchased my way to a wide ranging Finn Mosin collection of captures and Finn made rifles. I do not feel I am done collecting but I am done for now. I want to sit back and enjoy where I am at.

[RoyBean]

I bought one for my Son when we were having a couple of ar's built and keep a eye out as they came into the gun shop. A hex receiver caught my eye so bought it along with a number matching gun. Bought a Bubba for cheap. It had been cut down and had a sports stock with scope. It put out more flame than a 155 canon firing. then from there...…..