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War Trophies: Bring Back Guns Gaining in Value

The deadliest and most violent war in human history led to the production of millions and millions of guns.

Guns like the much revered M1 Garand and M1911 ended up as surplus weapons, distributed through the Civilian Marksmanship program or, like the Garand and M1 Carbine, were sold out of barrels at the local sporting goods and gun stores for hunting.

But some guns ended up as trophies in the homes of the soldiers, sailors, and airmen who fought in the war after being carried home in a duffle bag or foot locker — “the bring back gun.”

Surrender-Nambu-on-background-3This Nambu Type 14 pistol was surrendered by a Japanese general at Ie Shima in World War 2. It is available as Lot 2471 in the June 22-24 Sporting and Collector Auction.

War Souvenirs

Napoleon promoted taking war trophies. Today, Ukrainian farmers tow away Russian tanks. The Hague Convention of 1907 put limitations on war trophies including municipal property, religious articles, arts and science related articles, and state property. World War II British Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery discouraged the practice but that didn’t stop his men from doing it.

War trophies could be a patch, a coat, a helmet, a dagger, or, alas, more grisly stuff. Firearms are the focus here — the exotic weapon of a foreign military taken off a soldier, found in a factory, or simply rooting around. Not all of these bring back guns are created equal.

While many were non-descript LugerNambu, or Walther pistols or rifles like the Gewehr 41, Karabiner 98k, or Type 38, some rose above. They were special — or infamous — guns due to a historical connection.

Beretta-on-background-2This Beretta 1934 pistol has World War 2 bring back documentation. It is part of Lot 413 in the June 22-24 Sporting and Collector Auction.

WW2 war Trophies

Several Japanese World War 2 era pistols are available in the June 22-24 Sporting and Collectors Auction but one rises above them. More than 400,000 Nambu Type 14 pistols were made for World War 2. A Type 14 surrendered by a general at Ie Shima, off the coast of Okinawa, accompanied by bring back paperwork is expected to draw more interest than the other Japanese pistols in the auction.

In RIAC’s May Premier Auction a pair of engraved presentation Walther PPs that had personal engraving done at the request of GIs at the firearms factory that included soldiers’ names and the 90th Infantry Division’s “Tough Ombre” logo. One was one serial number away from a similar Walther PP given to Gen. George Patton. They sold for $41,125 and $47,000 respectively.

Compare those to Walther pistols connected to Nazi leaders that sold well into the six figures. A Walther PPK carried by Herman Goering at the time of his surrender sold for $230,000 at a Premier Auction in September 2018, but was topped by a chrome-plated and engraved Walther PP attributed to SS Chief Heinrich Himmler that sold for $356,500 at RIAC’s May 2019 Premier Auction.

While many soldiers were simply looking for a memento of their service in the war, be it a pistol, a rifle, a patch, or helmet, some discovered souvenirs with significant history attached to them that can launch a bring back gun into a rarefied class of weapon.

Himmler-pistol-on-backgroundThis chrome-plated Walther PP pistol attributed to SS Chief Heinrich Himmler sold for $356,500 in Rock Island Auction Company’s 2018 Premier Auction.

Cold War Trophies

By the end of the Korean War, the U.S. military frowned on war trophies to avoid looking like looters. In recent conflicts the goal is to appear as liberators and not conquerors. Certain items were still allowed but required the approval of a superior officer and a completed DD Form 603-1 to present at customs.

The military also prohibited returning weapons to the United States that were prohibited under the National Firearms Act of 1934. These included items like full-auto machine guns and silencers. That didn’t stop AK-47s and SKS rifles from getting into the United States as contraband during the Vietnam War. However, a person caught with this contraband could face criminal charges. One lot in the upcoming Sporting and Collector Auction includes Chinese semi-automatic rifles brought back from Vietnam.

Chinese-trioThese three Chinese military rifles were brought back from Vietnam. Lot 364 includes a M21 Type 56 semi-automatic rifle (top), Type 56 semi-automatic rifle, and a Type 53 carbine.

Prohibited weapons were only part of the concern of war trophies. Items that a soldier might see as a trophy, like a claymore mine or grenade are dangerous to ship, as this U.S. Army fact sheet from January 1968 lays out the dangers of war trophies. One scenario puts soldiers headed home on a Boeing 707 troop flight, and one turns to the soldier sitting next to him and says he’s got an RPG round in his bag as a souvenir.

The fact sheet states: “A Fairy Tale? Not on your life! That’s a scene which has been repeated for real more than once. Customs and postal officials have actually found, among other dangerous items, C4 plastic explosives, claymore mines with arming mechanisms, TNT, rifle grenades, flares, fireworks, and M72 rockets complete with launchers! These things and countless others have been in baggage or mail being flown to the U.S. aboard returning planes carrying 165 happy — and unsuspecting — soldiers home from a year of dodging VC bullets.”

A 1968 amnesty allowed veterans to register NFA items they brought back.

In 1991, the United States rules for engagement during Desert Storm stated “The taking of war trophies (is) prohibited.” During the later Iraq and Afghanistan wars, souvenirs had to go in front of a reviewing officer. Among firearms sold by Rock Island Auction from the Iraq war included a CIA-seized Ruger M77 bolt action Mannlicher rifle of Saddam Hussein and gold-plated pistols attributed to Saddam Hussein and Uday Hussein.

Udday-pistol-on-backgroundThis gold-plated Tariq pistol was among weapons seized from the home of Uday Hussein, son of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. It sold for $23,000 in RIAC’s June 2020, Premier Auction.

In 2005, a Minnesota National Guardsman was charged with shipping home two AK-47s from Iraq. In 2006, A U.S. Marine was also charged for possessing an illegal AK.

Permissible firearms are still allowed but require proper paperwork, including a receipt showing the date, place, and source of purchase, and the importer’s identity. War trophy firearms that are permitted can’t be mailed or shipped but must be personally transported to the United States.

Saddam-Ruger-on-backgroundThis Ruger bolt action rifle is seen in news footage of Saddam Hussein firing it in the air in celebration. It realized a price of $48,875 in RIAC’s September 2013 Premier Auction.

Martini-Henry Rifles

Gone are the days of the Luger, Walther, or Nambu bring back gun, but that doesn’t mean they no longer exist. It just means they are of a different type. In Rock Island Auction Company’s June Sporting and Collector Auction, numerous lots include bring back guns. Some are World War 2 trophies while a number are antique British rifles acquired in Afghanistan with bring back papers from Bagram Air Force Base.

They aren’t AKs or heavily engraved Walther pistols coming back from Afghanistan, but instead are single-shot Martini-Henry rifles and muzzle loading Enfield rifles. The 19th century guns date back to when the British Empire ruled the region. Most are considered in fair condition and came through Bagram Air Base in 2016.

Martini-Henry-on-background-2Antique British rifles are the bring back guns of Afghanistan. There are several lots in the June 22-24 Sporting and Collector Auction that include Martini-Henry and Enfield rifles that passed through Bagram Air Base on the way back to the United States.

War trophies are as old as war itself, but as war has changed so has the attitude and ability to take home souvenirs of combat. Fighting isn’t close in like it once was in the jungles of Vietnam or the hedgerows of Europe and countries don’t want to be seen as conquerors that can take whatever they please. Collecting militaria will always exist, but what will be collectible won’t likely be a gun taken from a factory assembly line in Germany, the pistol of a world leader, or the helmet of a fallen foe, making the war souvenirs of World War II and military actions on into the 21st century even more scarce and valuable. Check out the bring back guns in the June 22-24 Sporting and Collector Auction.

Sources

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NRA Gun of the Week: Ruger Mini Thirty

Sturm, Ruger & Co.’s Mini Thirty enters the books as self-loading rifle, unique and capable, with a piston-driven action reminiscent of J.C. Grand’s famed designs. Though brought to life in the early the late 1980s, Ruger’s Mini Thirty came as an evolutionary step for its parent company and Mini-14 line of investment-cast semi-autos in 5.56×45 mm NATO.

 

Right side ruger carbine wood metal stainless steel text on image noting: "Ruger Mini Thirty Model 5804"

 

 

Minis quickly earned their reputation from not just enthusiasts and home defenders, law-enforcement and government-owned armories stock variants of the Ruger Mini-14, some capable of automatic operation. But it’s the .30-cal. Mini Thirty that caught the attention of hunters, it being a lightweight big-game legal hunting rifle with quick-change magazines. In addition to manual, straight-pull mode and adjustable sights, the Mini Thirty offers hunters with a do-all rifle system that is ready for optics straight from the box.

 

gun silver metal stainless steel rifle action receiver black sight

 

 

Ruger’s Mini Thirty is a perennial design that has maintained its spot in the company catalog for decades. Today’s Mini Thirty options include plastic and polished-wood furniture with either blued or stainless-steel barrel configurations. The latter Model 5804 can be seen on the range in the video above.

 

man shooting rifle black shirt brown gun stock metal silver white walls

 

 

Sporting a cold hammer-forged barrel 18.50” in length and a matte-finished stainless steel receiver, our sample weighed in at around 7 lbs. Load down the magazine, install a well-fit sling and optic and expect to find a fully rigged hunting setup to be just over 8 lbs. The Mini Thirty comes with machined-in scope mounts, is drilled and tapped and supplied with a section of Picatinny rail from the factory. If that’s not enough from Ruger, a set of adjustable sights come fixed to the rifle with a wing-protected rear aperture. The front sight is a simple blade. Two five-round magazines and scope rings come with the rifle.

 

left side quartering view Ruger rifle carbine gun semi-automatic wood stainless steel

 

 

Ruger Mini Thirty Specifications
ManufacturerSturm, Ruger & Co.

Action Type: piston-operated, semi-automatic centerfire rifle
Chambering: 7.62×39 mm

Receiver: stainless steel

Barrel: 18.5” stainless steel
Finish: matte
Stock: wood
Sights: adjustable rear aperture, post front
Magazine: five-round detachable box

Length: 37.50”

Weight: 7 lbs.
MSRP: $1,279

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Well I am impressed! Grumpy

Killer Chick Lives To Fight Another Day

Pilot Saves A-10, Marvels At Damage

Never Yet Melted » Captain Kim Campbell

Her name is Capt. Kim Campbell (USAF), but you can call her “KC.” It stands for her call sign: Killer Chick. Friday, in combat over Iraq, she faced the moment every pilot dreads.

“I heard a loud bang and the jet rolled fairly violently to the left, and I knew immediately that I had been hit,” she said. “I think the first thing was just trying to regain control of the aircraft. [I] also thought that there was no way I wanted to eject over Baghdad.” Her plane had been strafed by anti-aircraft bullets. It was on fire, its hydraulic system knocked out.

“Bino,” her wing man and commander, flying his A-10 Warthog next to hers, wondered whether K.C. should eject. “She had the option [of bailing out] the whole time,” he said. “She figured the plane was flying well enough. She told me she could handle it. I got to take her word for it. She is a good pilot.”

 

A Combat First

K.C. knew she would have to land the plane without hydraulic assist, a maneuver A-10 pilots apparently don’t train for. “But I knew I was going to do it this time,” K.C. said. Although landing the A-10 manually without hydraulics requires great physical strength, K.C. managed to nurse the jet back to her base in Kuwait for a “perfect landing.”

“Besides the engineers who did the first tests at the beginning of the flight of the A-10, she is the only one who has ever landed in the manual reversion mode that didn’t destroy the airplane,” said Bino, whose real name is Lt. Col. Rick Turner, the commander of the 75th Squadron. The “Fighting Tigers” fly the Warthog.

 

Slow and Ugly

The Warthog, designed to knock out tanks from the sky, looks like a plane only a mother could love — and, of course, the pilots who fly it. “I’m willing to go to the battle with that,” Bino said. “I know that if I get hit it’s going to bring me home.”

He has faith even though the A-10 model was first produced in 1972 and has been flying since 1975. In other words, it may be old and slow, but, “I’m old and slow, too,” Bino said.

On today’s high-tech battlefield, the Warthog is about as low-tech as you can get: no fancy computers or guidance systems. The A-10 is flown the old-fashioned way. “We have to put the airplane in the right piece of sky, find that one point in the sky where we can release the bomb, and have it hit the ground where we want to,” Bino said.

 

Smart Pilots, Not Smart Bombs

The bombs they drop are not “smart” bombs. Instead, Bino said, they rely on “smart pilots” who not only have to fly this heavy hunk of metal by themselves, but also aim and fire its bombs and use the 30-mm gun in the plane’s nose. “When you shoot the gun the jet shakes,” Bino said. “You smell the gunpowder burning.”

Some of the pilots flying this deadly beast are not exactly who you might expect — including captains K.C., and Danielle Curley, otherwise known as Bash.

Bash said there’s nothing like flying the Warthog. “There’s a lot of times where you feel like the jet is just an extension of you,” she said. “You know, you feel like you’re strapping on the jet and taking off, and you’re one. She works with you. … It’s an awesome feeling. It’s awesome.”

 

As American troops engage in deadly battles on the ground, pilots like K.C. and Bash swoop down with their Warthogs and take out Iraqi tanks, bunkers and trenches. The commander said he worries every time his pilots take off. “You hate to associate it to a family but it’s like, you know, sending the kids off to school and hoping they’re going to do good today,” he said. “I worry about them.”

‘Thank God for the Hog’

K.C. did not know exactly how much she had to worry about until she got her Warthog home and realized it was practically a miracle. The empennage of her warplane, built in 1981, looked like a cheese grater, pockmarked with holes from Iraqi shrapnel. A large chunk was ripped from the wing. “I was pretty amazed and very thankful,” she said. “Just thank God for the hog. I couldn’t ask to be flying anything else” (file photo of KC’s A-10 damage, below).

 

The very next day K.C. went back in the air, flying missions over Iraq. “Our job is to help those guys on the ground,” she said. “And when they need it, we are going to be there, even if it means taking some risks.”

 

The rest of her squadron feels the same way. “I wouldn’t pass this up for the world,” Bash said. “I love the mission. I love the aircraft. I love to fly.”

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A Smith & Wesson S&W .32-20 Hand Ejector 1905 .32 WCF 6.5″ Barrel DA/SA Revolver

 

 

 

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Some Red Hot Gospel there!

Once Americans Lose the Right To Bear Arms, They Will Never Regain It by Roger Katz

Opinion

Will Noty Comply American Flag Militia Confiscation AdobeStock_Tomasz Zajda 110451903
AdobeStock_Tomasz Zajda

New York – -(AmmoLand.com)- The U.S. is the only truly free Constitutional Republic in existence. That is how the framers of the U.S. Constitution designed our Government.

Our Federal Government is the only one on Earth that exists solely to serve the interests of the American people. It has no other purpose. The Federal Government is answerable to and subordinate to the people. The American people are supreme sovereign over the Government. Once the people’s servants fail to recognize and acknowledge these aforesaid facts and then forsake the interests of the people, the Government has descended into Tyranny.

The American people have no lawful duty to suffer Tyranny.

The Nation was founded on one singular precept, set forth in the Declaration of Independence. It is that our people are a free people and are ever to remain so, and as sole sovereign over their Government and each to him or herself, masters of their own fate, and the final arbiters and deciders of the Nation’s destiny.

How Do Americans Exert Their Sovereignty Over A Government That Has Raised The Specter Of Tyranny?

That the American people are lord and master over the Government, this is to be understood as resting not only in the limited and demarcated powers of Government but, more fundamentally, in the unalienable, illimitable, eternal, and unalterable natural law rights bestowed on man, not by Government or by other men, but by the Divine Creator, and thereupon codified in the Nation’s Bill of Rights.

The Bill of Rights is an integral and essential part of the U.S. Constitution.

By voicing dissent against the encroachment of Tyranny, and through the firearms they bear to thwart its inception and to prevent its entrenchment, the American people have the means not only to stave off Tyranny but both the right and the duty to do so, else they merit the Tyranny they allow to exist by their active or passive failure to resist it.

None of this can be reasonably doubted. Yet, somehow, somewhere through the passing years, decades, and centuries, these paramount truisms became eroded, and, for many citizens, they became lost to memory.

The forces that crush entire populations and nations, utilizing, in recent years, advances in both psychological conditioning and communication technology, have induced veritable amnesia in the masses of all countries, dulling their mental acuity and deadening their will and spirit. This has done much to dampen the resolve of populations of much of the European Union as well as of the populations of the British Commonwealth of Nations.

And the same insidious weakness has now infected the American psyche, brought about by similar, incessant brainwashing programs, introduced into our Country by the same forces that have crushed western Europe and the British Commonwealth Nations. And they have thence directed their toxins against Americans, lessening their resolve, fostering self-doubt, confusion, and outright fear of the very Government that was created to serve them.

This Federal Government has betrayed the American people; misused the powers entrusted to it—has turned those powers upon the American people. It has unlawfully brought those powers to bear on its own masters. In so doing the Government has usurped authority that rests not in Government and never did—authority that rests solely in the American people, and always has.

Through their many agents, the forces that crush people and nations have gained ascendancy in Government here and have bent much of the private sector to their will. In the process, they have gained substantial control over the thoughts and conduct of a broad swath of Americans.

Many Americans have become compliant, empty vessels, unable to escape from the incessant drone of hypnotic messaging, emanating throughout the Country. The messaging has infected all communication resources: smartphones, airwaves, and reading material—insinuating itself firmly into the minds of Americans, seeping poison into one’s reasoning faculties and into the darkest recesses of one’s emotions, where rests one’s fears and feelings of hopelessness.

Wherever they may be, the American public has become an oft unwilling, captive audience to the constant dissemination of noxious propaganda.

Yet many Americans have resisted indoctrination. Through inner strength of will, they are either immune to or have become inured to this indoctrination. They have effectively walled off the horrific effects of mass psychological indoctrination that have plagued so many others.

Something For Americans To Ponder When They Go To The Polls In November

As the Midterm elections loom, the Obstructors and Destructors of our Nation have shown no disinclination of easing up on their agenda to corral and control the thoughts and conduct of the American people. On the contrary, they are “doubling down” their efforts.

They intend to bring to fruition a global neo-feudalist State. To accomplish that feat requires them to maintain, as a necessary condition, firm control of Congress and the Executive Branch of Government.

How did we Americans get to this place where our foes have taken over control of our government, of our press, of social media, and of wealthy, powerful corporate and financial conglomerates?

The slow ossification of the thinking processes of Americans and the slow erosion of Americans’ natural law rights and liberties took time—commencing one hundred years ago—perhaps earlier. But it has rapidly moved ahead only since the turn of the 21st Century, made possible through major advances in communication and the consolidation and control over much of the Federal Government and our Nation’s myriad institutions.

In their discourse, the Destroyers of our Nation and their toadies endlessly go on about “Democracy,” but rarely do they mention the words, ‘freedom,’ ‘constitution’ and ‘republic.’ And they never mention the phrase ‘Free Constitutional Republic” in one breath.

That phrase—‘Free Constitutional Republic’—is an apt descriptor of our form of Government, and our Free Constitutional Republic has served us well since its founding. Because of it, we have become, in the space of fewer than two hundred years, the most powerful, successful, and wealthiest Nation on Earth—the envy of all other nations, where previous generations came legally to live the “American dream.”

But the forces that crush people and nations are many, and they are powerful, wealthy, and ruthless. They are jealous of both the power of our Country, the resilience of its people, the strength of our natural law rights, and our belief in the Divine Creator—ultimate sovereign over people and government. These forces intend to rend us from these beliefs and crush us.

These wreckers of our Nation intend to plunder our Nation’s mineral resources and, in the interim, make those resources unavailable to the American people. Have you seen the price of gas? And as they have taken control over the Federal Government’s military, police, intelligence, and judicial apparatuses, they have turned those engines of Government against the American people, as Americans are now beginning to learn.

And what these wreckers of our Nation find either unsuitable to or antithetical to their needs, wants, and objectives, they have marked them as Detritus and have consigned those items—both tangible and intangible—to the Trash Heap.

And we all know what those items are:

  • The Nation’s Constitution;
  • The Idea and Fact of the Sovereignty of the American People over Government
  • The Nation’s Natural Law Rights, Codified in the Nation’s Bill of Rights;
  • The Dismantling of the Nation’s Institutions, History, Heritage, and Culture;
  • The Destruction of the Nation’s Emblems and Symbols, and Arts and Artifacts;
  • The Erasing of the Nation’s Ethos, Ethics, and Christian Morality;
  • The Erosion of the Importance of the Family in American Society;
  • Transitioning Americans away from Reliance on Self to Dependency on Government;
  • Promoting the Precepts of Collectivism; Denigrating the Precepts of Individualism;
  • Infusing Americans with a Conformist Mindset;
  • Acclimating Americans to Conditions of Poverty and Minimal Expectations; and
  • Dissolution of Concepts such as ‘Nation-State,’ ‘Citizen,’ and ‘Patriotism.’

Our Republic is hanging on by a thread. Strength of Will and Dint of Arms is what we have left. May we hold fast to both in these trying, dangerous times!


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