I think that as the population becomes more and more urban centered there will be fewer and fewer shooting sports enthusiasts, so tens of thousands of classic firearms will hit the market when current owners retire/downsize/pass and their children are more interested in cash than in old guns. Back in the late 1980's I bought a lot of rifles from a dealer in Plastow, NH, who bought most of his inventory from older people from northern MA who were downsizing before heading toward retiriement in one of our southern states.
I like to look at rifles with blued CM metal and walnut stocks, but mostly hunt with rifles that have laminated or synthetic stocks installed.
Jeff,
That's already happening, not just because of older hunters/shooters retiring or passing away, but due to other countries passing harsher gun-control laws. This isn't as universal as some Americans think, but it's happening enough that many classic guns are being exported to the U.S., which of course adds to the supply.
Out of curiosity, I just took stock of my own collection, and found that 67% are classics, ranging from the oldest (a first-year .50-70 Springfield conversion) to one of this year's additions, a Ruger No. 1B .270 Winchester that was incredibly custom-stocked in spectacular walnut--though there's no indication who.
The 33% that at synthetic-stocked range from a relative few that I use for some kinds of hunting, to "cheap" (but accurate) rifles purchased because of their chambering, so I could do handloading articles. Once I've done as many of those articles as my markets will allow, then they're sent on down the road. A good example was the most recent sell-off was a Ruger American Predator in 6mm Creedmoor. Probably 3/4 of my synthetic-stocked rifles are "temps."
