Definintion of C&R firearm:
The C&R list is available hereAs set out in the regulations (27 CFR 178.11), curios or relics include firearms which are of special interest to collectors by reason of some quality other than is associated with firearms intended for sporting use or as offensive or defensive weapons. To be recognized as curios or relics, firearms must fall within one of the following categories:
1.) Firearms which were manufactured at least 50 years prior to the current date, but not including replicas thereof;
2.) Firearms which are certified by the curator of a municipal, State, or Federal museum which exhibits firearms to be curios or relics of museum interest; and
3.) Any other firearms which derive a substantial part of their monetary value from the fact that they are novel, rare, bizarre, or because of their association with some historical figure, period, or event. Proof of qualification of a particular firearm under this category may be established by evidence of present value and evidence that like firearms are not available except as collector's items, or that the value of like firearms available in ordinary commercial channels is substantially less.
The only drawbacks to this is that I have to maintain a 'bound book' with all of my C&R firearms listed in it and that once per year the ATF can come over and inspect my bound book and C&R gun collection.
The benefit to this is that I won't be paying inflated local dealer's prices for guns such as the Yugo SKS and other East bloc surplus firearms.
My first purchases will include a Yugo SKS and a Mosin-Nagant M1938 rifle.
After that, perhaps a Yugo M48 Mauser and a Manhurin PP or Walther P38.
My real problems will be paying off the credit cards and cleaning off all of the cosmoline from the guns.
W00T!
