Cool Gun Stuff/Militaria you had when young.

[George P]

When we played Army as kids, most of had WWII GI helmets and some demilled bolt action military rifles. I still have a US M3, made by Imperial which is housed in a US M8 B.M.CO scabbard; that resides in a night stand drawer as a back up to a back up to a back up of my HD guns.

 

[Brutuskend]

Edit Hehe too the spoiled kid post.

 

[theotherwaldo]

I had so much old military junk that it was pathetic, not that much of it stuck to me.

For example, a surplus store down on the Portland, Oregon waterfront caught fire and was a total loss.
When they posted a demolition notice for the place, I and most of the kids in my neighborhood raided what was left and hauled off dozens of boltless rifles, billy clubs, machetes, .50 caliber dummy rounds and whatever interested us.
We were probably quite a sight: pedaling en mass through the night, draped in armaments, munitions and military paraphernalia... .

It was all gone within a year except for a machete with a slightly melted handle.
It got cached along the Rogue River Trail and subsequently disappeared.

 

[Brutuskend]

Bummer, and hello from Eugene!

 

[burrhead]

My dad flew B17's in WWII and I played in his flight jacket. My mom threw it away sometime in the late 50s.

 

[bannockburn]

My Dad was wounded and then captured by the Germans during WWII. Whatever German guns and various paraphernalia he had on him at the time got quickly tossed by him as far away as he could throw it! So there was no wartime memorabilia for us! Of course there was an Army/Navy store in town that we frequented as often as we could while my Dad had a couple of Army jackets that we wore till they wore out!

Years later, in the early to mid 70's I started buying surplus gear from an outfit called Sherwood Distributors out in California. Basically I was putting together every AR15/M16 accessory that I could lay my hands on. I had magazines (20 and 30 rounders), mag pouches, cleaning kits, web gear, even a bayonet! And this was all quite a few years before I was old enough and had the money to buy a Colt AR15 Sporter! My brother and I use to buy British, postwar German, and Austrian uniforms and web gear as well. Still have the AR15 too!

 

[LiveLife]

How many of you had cool gun stuff or millitaria stuff when you were a kid and lost, traded or for some other reason no longer have it and kick yourself now cuz it's worth so much $$$$

I somehow got a US Army ballistic vest in my early 20s that we tested with various calibers and stopped everything we shot at (Didn't even break through the first layer and all the bullets fell to the bottom of vest).

Unlike modern Kevlar vests, it was heavy but still pliable. When a coworker friend I fished with experienced drive by shooting and feared for his life (I really think the gang bangers got the wrong house UNLESS he was dealing drugs that I didn't know about and that possibility was there), I gave him the vest at his expressed gratitude.

 

[Koroner]

Mom’s “deer rifle” when I was growing up was one of those 6.5 Carcano carbines (like Oswald’s) that Dad had actually pulled from a barrel full of them at an Army/Navy surplus store. As I recall, Dad paid $8.00 for it. A few years later, after the JFK assassination, I was real proud when I would show that gun off to my high school buddies.

Supply and demand is why they were so cheap. The market was flooded with milsup Carcanos and many had never been fired and only dropped once.

 

[CapnMac]

Grew up with the stuff.
Some stuck, some didn't.
40-odd years of picking up things can look like this:

There's .45acp and .30carbine and 5.56 boxes.
Pistol is AO and is 2019 production. Two of the magazines are 1982 production, the rest is all 1943

A 1943 LBE for either 03A3 or Garand. (Enameled steel canteen is 1942) Bayonet scabbard is an USN Mk I

This one needs another 1968 dated nylon canteen pouch

I've got lots of "war belts"
OD Garand; a WWII Carbine belt; a 1951 Carbine belt; a 1950 BAR belt; then all my LBE from 1985 to 1998.

 

[Brutuskend]

I still have my nam era flack jacket.
As well as vereus web gear, canteens, 1968 dated machette, and mummy bag.

 

[250-3000]

I still have a couple of WW1 dated canteen and a mess kit from mom's great uncle who used them in the CCC.

 

[dh1633pm]

We used Garand stocks as toy guns. Lots of old aircraft avionics stuff.

 

[Sistema1927]

In High School we had M14's in ROTC. Most of those of us who were "Army brats" also had M14 mags at home, loaded with GI ball ammo. The line of reasoning in those days was if a "Red Dawn" event happened we would be able to defend our community. Yes, I know, it seems a bit silly now, but teenage brains aren't fully developed.

 

[Brutuskend]

I group I was in, in boot camp was among the very last that carried m14s. I liked them WAY more then the 16s, though they were lighter. Those 14s really let you know you had some power going down range, and did they ever kick. Once you got them doped you really reach out and touch someone!
The 16s they gave us later on were CRAP
wrong ammo, no chromed recivers. Only time I ever fired one on rock and roll, I got off 3 rounds before the inevitable jam.

 

[mokin]

I had ( still do) a 03A3 bayonet dated 1917. Sometime later, I came across an Afrika Korps pith helmet. My mom swears the pith helmet is still around... somewhere....

 

[Brutuskend]

Cool!

 

[D.B. Cooper]

Three things stand out in my childhood memory, and I have no photos of any of them:

1.) My uncle, what had been at Da Nang in 65, gave me a pair of genuine ARVN tiger stripe pants. They even fit me! Wore them for paintball in my high school years. No idea what happened to them.

2.) My neighbor, who was like a surrogate dad to me in those adolescent years when every teen boy's dad is a moron, had served in Vietnam aboard a diesel sub gave me an inflatable life preserver, but it didn't work because it used a non standard size CO2 cartridge (in other words, not the 12 gram Crosman bb gun cartridge) and we could never find the right one. No idea what happened to it.

3.) Same neighbor had an entire officer's mess kitchen kit in a trunk. Service for 8. I used some of the pieces on Boy Scout campouts, but I distinctly recall all of that going to the scrap metal dismantlers as dirty aluminum for 8¢ per pound.

Good memories.

 

[hps1]

You had a self propelled howitzer as a kid??????? ........

Well, the question was "when young" .

Was not a kid, but, way back when, was not that far from it. Sorry, can't sport an M110A2, but it did have tracks (at least half) and it did carry a gun, albeit a rather small one by comparison.



Regards,
hps

 

[entropy]

Don't get me started......One of my Dad's best friend's was in the MN NG, and had tons of kit, he gave me quite a lot. I remember buying a neighbor's helmet liner at their garage sale, he'd be an LT in the Marines in VN. And I wore it all playing Army as a kid, the belt, LBE, and holster with a plastic toy Beretta Brigadier in it. (I had to hide it from my Dad, I was not allowed to have toy guns or BB guns as a kid-"Guns are tools!" ) My keen interest in Military History helped me be victorious in in those 'battles', I memorized Roger's Rangers rules back then......

 

[Steel Horse Rider]

The best stuff I had didn't really have much monetary value but I wish I still had them. When we were in our teens my brothers and I wore our Father's WWII era Navy Pea coat in the winter when we were doing chores as we grew into it (our Dad quit school and got into the Navy when he was 16 so he wasn't real big) and a 1960's era Army field jacket that I picked up from a real Army Surplus store when I got out of High School. I have no idea where either is now.

 

[792mauser]

A 1918 ammunition belt that I used to carry my ammunition while hunting when I was young. (Still have it somewhere, I saw it around Christmas time)

A k98 bayonet i used as a regular knife for eons until i realized what it was. (Also somewhere in the house)

A couple of pistol belts and 2 belt holsters that we used and modified to carry the 22 mk1 ruger and a dilapidated 1911 shoulder holster for some reason.

And a whole mess of USGI shovels, picks and Mattox and blankets. No clue where most of those went. Only have 2 entrenching tools and a pick left.

 

[.38 Special]

I have the underpants Hitler was wearing during the invasion of Poland. Got them at a California gun show, way back. They're probably still in my garage somewhere, if anyone is interested in bidding.

 

[Tommygunn]

I have the underpants Hitler was wearing during the invasion of Poland. Got them at a California gun show, way back. They're probably still in my garage somewhere, if anyone is interested in bidding.

Yeah....I'll trade you those ...."slightly used underpants" of Hitler's for a bridge in Brooklyn ....

 

[.455_Hunter]

Being a teenager in the immediate aftermath of the Cold War collapse in a town with an excellent militray surplus store, I was a frequent user of items like East German field jackets and pocket knives.

 

[Howland937]

My grandpa on my dad's side served in the USMC during the Korean War. Was previously in the Nat'l Guard and when the hostilities began, his gaurd unit was sent to Texas but he was discharged due to poor hearing. Was subsequently drafted into the Corp and told his hearing was good enough for them. (His old Gaurd unit never left the states).
I have his Dress Blues, minus cover.

Since my 10 year old has become interested in collecting old currency, I've added a few WWII era items to his collection. Hawaii & N Africa notes, $1 "short snorter" (had no clue what it meant when I first saw one) some coins, and a local ration book with stamps, and some pay vouchers in fractional amounts.