Does anyone have a historical firearm collection ? - General

I've been thinking for years that it'd be really cool to start up a collection of historical firearms when I get my own home and enough disposable income to afford it. France has fairly lax laws on pre-1900 historical firearms, both real and replicas, so it would be fairly easy to make a decent collection. I was wondering if anyone else here had their own historical collection and what sorts of curios compose it.

I want one but there's no way I can afford it. I think it should be pointed out though that pre-1900 firearms are usually really expensive. They only ones that aren't are things that were mass produced like Mosins.

My oldest gat is a 1912 Steyr K98. Fought in WWI then got stuck in storage and rebarreled in the 50s into 7.62x51 for German police in the 50s. IMA USA has a lot of decently priced pre-1900 firearms. Including a lot of dirt cheap Nepal manufactured gats

I collect antiques but I've been priced out of a lot of the ones I wanted since there's been an uptick in interest in them. My most historic gun is the C96 prototype and I don't know if I'd be able to top that even if I had the money to buy more guns right now. I have a double barrel shotgun that belonged to a local bank, a Dutch Mannlicher that changed hands from KNIL forces to the Japanese before being captured by an American, dumb mosin, Stasi assassination pistol, and some other stuff. Not really a coherent collection and not as historic as you mean. But that's what I've got.

I have a Mosin Nagant but everyone and their mothers has at least one in their family

My oldest is my model 1900 from around 1903ish I think. Sadly it went through a house fire in 06'but is mostly intact. My other is a Wards Western Field No.47 .22 from the 30's.

My oldest is a Turkish forestry carbine built on a 1916 dated receiver.

I used to have an Italian M1870/87/15 Vetterli made in 1888, it was one of the backup rifles used by the Italian forces in WW1 when they didn't have enough M91 Carcanos. They converted them to fire 6.5x52 Carcano but they did it really poorly and the rifles were meant to fire black powder, so they're pretty unsafe to fire. It wasn't in good condition either, so I traded it for a bunch of original 8mm Lebel ammunition on Berthier en bloc clips and four loaded 25 round Hotchkiss LMG stripper clips. I also used to have a Mauser M1888 Commission rifle but I sold that as well. Currently the oldest guns I have are a DWM Luger from around 1916 (mismatched though so there's no way to date all the parts), a mismatched C96 (mostly WW1-era parts but it has some post-war parts as well), a Dreyse M1907 pistol from around WW1 (it has Imperial German proof marks so it has to have been made pre-1918 iirc), a French Mle 1916 Berthier rifle made in 1917, a 1920 Lithgow Lee Enfield No I Mk III* and a French Mle 1892 Lebel revolver made in 1922. I'm mainly interested in WW1 era firearms but I also collect WW2 era firearms as well. I've got pictures of most of my collection over on the Milsurp thread.

I wish. I have a sporterized Kar 98 that I was told was from WW2, but I know believe is a Spanish or Argentinian copy. I also have an M1 Bayonet (missing a screw though) and Army compass (and pouch) from WW2 that belonged to my great grandfather. It's got AFH, US, 1942 stamped on the base of the blade, which isn't actually sharp at all.

Yeah, I've got what's apparently a sporterized Spanish Mauser as well. Thing's a piece of crap, gets like 20 MOA. Receiver's drilled and tapped for a scope mount and what appears to be a receiver sight though, plus I only payed $200 for it, so it's likely worth salvaging. Still contemplating converting it to .308 or 30-06. I've also got a Guatemalan vz.24 receiver that was built into a 30-06 sporter-rifle. Still have to test-fire it now that it's been fitted with a new stock after the one it came with split.

My Spanish Mauser, nothing matches and a good amount of the bluing is gone but she cycles well. https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/233944/616092b6-b951-4c2f-926c-fc1a923cc734/IMG_20180411_160747.jpg