C&R License: is it worth it?

No special license is required to collect old firearms. Even old NFA items can be bought individually (especially those made/registered prior to May 1986).

This is a pretty good rundown of what a C&R does and does not do for you:
www.classicfirearms.com/news/general/what-is-a-cr-license/

IMO, more trouble than it's worth.

I think I’m going to follow Tera’s advice. I’m not gonna be buying that much. Maybe a Type 26 and rifle to go with the type 3 sword I own. The following story made me want to complete the late war set www.thearmorylife.com/japanese-type-26-revolver/

All the extra book keeping would make me nervous. Better that be the dealer’s problem.

The book keeping isn't that bad if you have a system and are used to/trained in it. I used to work in firearms operations and was responsible for the Bound Book of a location of a national chain FFL. We had proprietary software, but I believe the ATF even has a free application out there for smaller FFLs/Licensees to use. Just make sure to check every field in your A&D Record against the actual steel. NEVER assume.

A "never assume" I recall were Springfield 1911s. Springfield USA isn't the same as the original government Armory, but it's still a US company. The XD line and Helian are known Croatian imports, but surely a good 'ole 1911 is made in the US, right? Well, most are...

But there was a specific model I had to slap some guys on the wrists about. There was the Springfield 1911A1, which looked like a faithful reproduction of a WWII GI piece. What's more American? So, for the manufacturer info our guys would put Springfield's info, and Importer "none". Except, if you looked under the dust cover you'd find cheap etchings of the manufacturer's info... in Brazil. That made Springfield the Importer, so that's two fields they'd get wrong just by not checking the steel correctly.

Honestly, the ATF is more than happy to work with you to keep your A/D record or Bound Book in good order. Our local branch came buy one day, gave a presentation, even brought donuts. There are approved remediation steps for correcting mistakes, you just need to know what those are and do them correctly. Forms only got ugly when someone "corrected" something wrong and the "correction" needed correction. Those got confusing and hard to interpret.

So, again, you can totally do it. Maintaining a complete and accurate Bound Book used to be my job, and some days we'd get over 200 guns in. Every. Single. One. got steel checked when entered on the Bound Book. You get the hang of it.

Being out of the industry now, though, my personal opinion is I'd rather that liability be on some other FFL. Firearms law can shift in the wind. When I worked Ops, you might get slapped or ultimately demoted/terminated by Corporate for too many or too serious an error but the ATF held the entity whose name was on the FFL accountable, not some clerk. I'd rather not be that entity, so that's just my 2 cents.

There are plenty of people out there with C&R's, though, and I've transferred to them when working Ops, so as long as you do your homework it's do-able if you're interested.

Helpful FAQ from the horse's mouth:
www.atf.gov/qa-category/collectors

EDIT: I won't touch on Politics, but since you mention Canada, I strongly suggest getting familiar with their CURRENT Firearms regulations if you ever plan on living/visiting. Those have changed, full stop.

That doesn't hurt. You can always apply for a C&R at a later date while still collecting the same models individually. It's not like a commercial license you have to have before doing business. In fact, using a C&R to buy/sell for business purposes (profit) is on the no-no list of use-cases.

The only difference is cost of FFL transfers, really. If you find a local store and get to know the owner they may even give you a break on those. Some places charge one fee for pistol, another for rifle. Maybe you could negotiate always paying the lower rate as I can tell you from personal experience there is zero difference in complexity when doing the A&D process on the Bound Book from the FFL's perspective.

That’s actually a good point. A lot of the best deals on old swords are on swords shows that are out of state. Never tried that with firearms because the complexity of out of state buying. That and being able to order ammo easier might mean I bite.

Also this is what kept me busy last couple of days. I kinda like how compact it feels to other old service weapons/revolvers. My hands are not on the bigger side so it really is smaller than it looks. The colt single action army a friend had felt much bigger and the particular colt this replaced was enormous compared to it. Kinda feels like a missing link between modern and archaic. Fun fact: my RJT gunto is a whole generation it’s junior in age if not design.

I know this is somewhat blasphemous given the C&R focus of the thread, but I can't see an 1895 Nagant without playing devil's advocate...

adcofirearms.com/shop/gunsmithing/thread-barrel-nagant-revolver/

Numrich gun parts used to be my go-to forolder or exotic models. Most of my stuff is more modern now, but you know I had to buy an 1895 Nagant just because.

www.gunpartscorp.com/gun-manufacturer/mosin-nagant/1895-nagant-revolver

one of the motivators to get the Type 03 FFL was a trip to TX and seeing the case full of $99 Nagant revolvers and not being able to buy one. When I got home, I found out the Cabela's in IL didn't stock them.

I wasn't looking to buy a whole crate of them, but I would have bought the pair (Officer's DA and NCO SA) if they were available.