Trade Ex., a well-known niche firearms retailer in eastern Canada, has finally followed through on the founder's long-standing plans to wind the business down. Great North Gun Co., Frontier Firearms and Intersurplus are stepping into the void left in the market, but if you want the type of gun that Trade Ex. sold, you'd better move fast, as future re-supply is uncertain.
Originally based in Quebec, Trade-Ex. focused on two separate, but related product lines.
For many years, it was a go-to place for military surplus rifles, and the ammunition to feed them (either mil-sup ammo, or commercially-produced ammo in the same calibres). Back when the Mosin Nagant, SKS and SVT-40 were commonly available on the surplus market, Trade-Ex. sold them all at excellent pricing. As well, it was a go-to spot for flare pistols and other assorted militaria. It was one of the last great military surplus stores in eastern Canada that still sold firearms, harking back to the glory days of mail-order catalogs filled with the remnants of Com Bloc arsenals (who here remembers King Sol's Army-Navy?).
Trade-Ex. also sold a lot of civilian sporting rifles and shotguns. Some of it was low-end commercial stuff (Turkish shotguns, etc.), but a lot of it was quality-made used equipment at excellent pricing. Trade-Ex. was the go-to source for Swedish Mauser-pattern bolt-actions(often converted from military-issue rifles in 6.5x55), along with other well-built but low-glamour names like Parker-Hale.
On the scattergun front, Trade-Ex. also carried a wide range of used sporting shotguns. It was especially known for its inventory of Brno, Baikal, Simson-Suhl, FEG and other sturdy double-barrels made in eastern Europe under Soviet control. Often, you could find interesting stuff from Husqvarna, Miroku or some other more capitalist-minded brand, too—companies that American buyers never band-wagoned into, but offering excellent value.
It was one of the best places in Canada to find a combination gun at a sensible price, or even expensive stuff like double rifles or elephant guns, if you had a need for that sort of thing.
Trade-Ex.'s secret was an import pipeline from Europe, particularly Scandinavia, where regulations restricting gun collection size meant sportsmen were keen to unload their older firearms at low prices, and those savings were passed onto Canadian buyers. Now only did Trade-Ex. itself have a well-known web retail presence, it also provided high-quality firearms on to other Canadian retailers, allowing them to offer well-made European-built firearms at affordable pricing.
A few years back, Trade-Ex.'s owner/operator Anthony Tornyi moved the business from the Montreal area to Hawkesbury, Ontario, as a reaction to Quebec's insistent on a provincial firearms registry. Around that time, the word went out: Anthony wanted to slow down his business and retire. In the years since, the website has carried less product (the decline in available surplus no doubt contributed to that as well). And now, when you head to Trade-Ex.'s website, you're re-directed to Frontier Firearms.
That's because Frontier, along with Quebec-based Intersurplus, Great North Gun Co. and Calgary's Things Military have bought up Trade-Ex.'s stock. Frontier focused on the mil-surp products, and Intersurplus focused on the sporting rifles and shotguns. Both companies had previous business relationships with Trade-Ex., so it makes sense to see them carry those products on—for now.
Take note that if you want one of these affordable Euro guns, Intersurplus is currently going through the latest shipment of firearms from Trade-Ex. and uploading them to its own website. Once that's done, you can buy 'em, but there's no guarantee of any more coming in. Intersurplus told us they might be coordinating on another firearms import from Europe, presumably once again bringing in more of the same Baikal/Mauser/Brno/etc. formula as before, but there are certainly no guarantees of such a load coming in, especially in today's political climate. That means, this summer could be your last chance to buy some of the truly unique stuff that Trade-Ex. had in the warehouse.
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