Sedgley glove gun from WWII

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MuffinMaster

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What is required to buy and own one of these?

What are one of these worth?

I always thought this was a very cool gun. As far as a weapon is concerned I would rather have a big wrench though. I have never seen one for sale nor ever heard of one for sale. Is it a legal collectors gun?
 
It may be regulated as a handgun or it might be an AOW, but there's nothing that would prevent it being owned by a private collector.

Auctions appear to have brought $4,000 to $8,000.
 
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I have seen data that only 50 were made and others were 200 were made and a large amount were destroyed. There is info on prototypes but how can you tell one is a prototype.

Did they have a serial number stamp? What type of stamps do they have? Does the manufacture data/records still exist for research?

How could I check if this is still regulated under a C&R?

I guess how would you start to research a weapon like this? Where would you go?
 
ATF long ago removed the glove gun and almost all of those odd-balls from the purview of the NFA and put them into the Curio and Relic category. So legally, they are just C&R handguns under Federal law.

The glove gun had to be one of the sillier ideas to come out of WWII. A Navy SeaBee (from the letters "CB" for Construction Battalion) claimed that he had been attacked by a Japanese soldier while operating his bulldozer and didn't have time to get to his .45 pistol. So someone came up with the glove pistol that could be attached to the back of a work glove and fired just by driving the hand into the head or body of an attacker. Since the intended scenario involved a very specific situation, as well as considerable cooperation from the enemy, the whole idea was quashed before more than a few (52?) were made. There have been some counterfeits.

Jim
 
That's not the history I have ever heard, or read in 'Secondary Weapons of WWII' by Charles W. Pate.
Kind of the 'bible' of obscure weapons of WWII.

According to the book, the Sedgley glove was designed by the Naval Intelligence Office, and was meant to be used as a covert operations and assassination weapon by the OSS.

And that's why so few were made, and so few survive.

My father was a Seabee in the Philippines, and ran heavy equipment building runways and military bases right after the initial invasion, until the end of the war.

He said before he died, when he talked about it, that the Thompson SMG, & 97 Winchester shotgun were the preferred weapons to keep the straggler Japanese off their bull dozers & road graders.
Yes, my dad was a Tail Gunner on a SeaBee bull dozer, when he wasn't driving it.

I doubt he had ever heard of a Seabee using a Sedgley glove to fight off attacks the whole 3 years he was there.
And he would have laughed his butt off if somebody suggested it.

They ran 24/7 in a wife-beater T-shirt, shorts, issue brogan shoes, and maybe a Kabar or Cattaraugus 225Q knife like the one he brought home with him in 1945.
Plus the issue 03 Springfield bolt-action rifle they were all issued.

In all his old photo's I can't recall seeing anyone wearing leather gloves for anything.
Because they couldn't get any, even if they wanted or needed them.

To hear him tell it, they were lucky they got new clothes, shoes, and food most of the time.
They had to built their own salt water distillation stills to get fresh clean drinking water when they first got there.

They traded what they could get from the Navy & Marines for ammo they couldn't get for their 03 Springfield's, Thompson's, and shotguns.
And the photo's he took and brought home during the war suggest he wasn't lying.

His unit of SeaBee's were a rag-tag looking bunch of fairly old guys the whole war it seems!
Most of them enlisted with years of prior construction experience when the war started.

Because they were already too old for the Army or Marines, and they didn't want them!

rc
 
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My cousin was a bulldozer operator in Vietnam around 1968 building forward bases. He claimed that they "appropriated" .50 caliber machine guns to mount on the buldozer for use when the VC got too close.
 
A cousin was a SeaBee in the Pacific during WWII. He came back an ace at craps from all the shipboard crap games.

ETA: I don't know if it was shipboard crap games or land based games. That was an assumption on my part.
 
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He must have been a different SeaBee unit in the Pacific then my dad.

He got off a troop ship in the South Pacific in 1943.

And never set foot on a ship again (except to move to another island) until late 1945 when he came home on one.

rc
 
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I have only seem a few so far on-line. There looks likes there are a few models too. One with a short plunger and one with a longer plunger where the barrel opens to the side and up. It exposes the the MK-2 line and the "S" in a circle. It also has a "US" stamp with an anchor in the middle of "US". A navy stamp maybe. The other has something to the effect of "prototype" under the barrel.

The other where the barrel opens like a shotgun and tilts down. It is on a grey glove. This might be a movie prop
 
I found the following 2 entries in the C&R published list. A OSS glove gun and the Sedgley. I am guessing there are two different glove guns. Am I reading this correct that to own these guns you MUST be licenced with a C&R.

Section IV
SECTION IV: National Firearms Act Weapons
Classified As Curios Or Relics Under 18 U.S.C. Chapter 44

The Bureau has determined that the following NFA weapons are Curios or Relics as defined in 27 CFR 478.11 because
of their dates of manufacture. These NFA weapons, classified as Curios or Relics, are still subject to all the controls
under the NFA. However, licensed collectors may acquire, hold, or dispose of them as Curios or Relics subject to the
provisions of 18 U.S.C. Chapter 44 and 27 CFR Part 478. They are still "firearms" as defined in 18 U.S.C. Chapter 44
and 26 U.S.C. Chapter 53.

Sedgley, Glove Pistol .38 centerfire, S/N IRS-3580, single shot, marked MK2S, mfd. by Sedgley,
Philadelphia, for the U.S. Marines.

Section III
SECTION III: Weapons Removed From The NFA
As Collector's Items And Classified As Curios Or Relics Under The GCA

The Bureau has determined that by reason of the date of their manufacture, value, design and other
characteristics, the following firearms are primarily collector's items and are not likely to be used as weapons
and, therefore, are excluded from the provisions of the National Firearms Act.
Further, the Bureau has determined that such firearms are also Curios or Relics as defined in 27 CFR 478.11.
Thus, licensed collectors may acquire, hold, or dispose to them as Curios or Relics subject to the provisions of
18 U.S.C. Chapter 44 and 27 CFR Part 478. They are still "firearms" as defined in 18 U.S.C. Chapter 44.

OSS Glove Pistol, caliber .38 S&W or .38 special.
 
Quentin Tarantino and his ‘war movie’ Inglorious Basterds, has done more for the Sedgley Glove history & legend then the Sedgley glove ever did.

Nobody except some old gun nuts & students of obscure WWII arms had even heard of it until then.

Now, there are all kinds of new history & fakes cropping up on the internet!

rc
 
O.K.
I gotta ask why you want one so bad?

If to complete an extensive authentic high dollar WWII arms collection, I see the need.

If just because?
Not so much at all.

It would get you thrown in the slammer with Bubba The Butt Bandit if you carried it, or wore it outside your house, or used it in self defense inside your house.

And it would be way less then worthless for anything else but to wear, hopefully unloaded, while playing video games.

rc
 
I am not interested in this as a self defence weapon. If I needed a weapon for self defence I would not pick this for any reason. I prefer a baseball bat or maybe even a plastic fork.
This weapon is so bizzar for $8000 it is a steal. If you could ever find one that is real. Something like this designed in WWII not in the 1700's. Gezz can you image the look on that poor OSS agent that was handed this thing and asked to go out and assisnate someone for our country. If it was me I would of had a few choice words of what they could do with this GLOVE (hahaaha!!)

I have a few very old weapon of various types. I love them all. Spy stuff is very interesting and always cool even when it is stupid (hahahaha).

Yes I do want one. I would enjoy it for years!
 
One other thing to consider?

An $8,000, 70 year old leather glove isn't going to put up with much more playing around with it now.

rc
 
Seal it in a clear vacumn pack. Neatsfoot is really good stuff. I have a few thing that are leather and in excellent condition from WWII. The oldest leather I have goes back to the 1600's but it is not a weapon. It's a book. It gets special care.
 
rcmodel said:
That's not the history I have ever heard, or read in 'Secondary Weapons of WWII' by Charles W. Pate.
Kind of the 'bible' of obscure weapons of WWII.

According to the book, the Sedgley glove was designed by the Naval Intelligence Office, and was meant to be used as a covert operations and assassination weapon by the OSS.

And that's why so few were made, and so few survive.

My father was a Seabee in the Philippines, and ran heavy equipment building runways and military bases right after the initial invasion, until the end of the war.

He said before he died, when he talked about it, that the Thompson SMG, & 97 Winchester shotgun were the preferred weapons to keep the straggler Japanese off their bull dozers & road graders.
Yes, my dad was a Tail Gunner on a SeaBee bull dozer, when he wasn't driving it.

I doubt he had ever heard of a Seabee using a Sedgley glove to fight off attacks the whole 3 years he was there.
And he would have laughed his butt off if somebody suggested it.

They ran 24/7 in a wife-beater T-shirt, shorts, issue brogan shoes, and maybe a Kabar or Cattaraugus 225Q knife like the one he brought home with him in 1945.
Plus the issue 03 Springfield bolt-action rifle they were all issued.

In all his old photo's I can't recall seeing anyone wearing leather gloves for anything.
Because they couldn't get any, even if they wanted or needed them.

To hear him tell it, they were lucky they got new clothes, shoes, and food most of the time.
They had to built their own salt water distillation stills to get fresh clean drinking water when they first got there.

They traded what they could get from the Navy & Marines for ammo they couldn't get for their 03 Springfield's, Thompson's, and shotguns.
And the photo's he took and brought home during the war suggest he wasn't lying.

His unit of SeaBee's were a rag-tag looking bunch of fairly old guys the whole war it seems!
Most of them enlisted with years of prior construction experience when the war started.

Because they were already too old for the Army or Marines, and they didn't want them!

rc
Click to expand...
Here ya go: http://www.guns.com/2012/07/09/sedgley-oss-glove-gun/

Just a little alternate history. I make no claims as to its veracity. ;)
 
I have seen several stories. I am wondering how they were sourced.

I do not know why this weapon was approved and who really used it during WWII or after. This thing only makes sense for some very particular mission for the OSS and then given away to the USN. Speculation surrounds this weapon and to me is part of its lore. I guess if the real story is ever told about this weapon would it be an action packed war story staring John Wayne or a war spy comedy staring Bob Hope.
 
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