strange ways to get a gun!

Some of these stories of what happened to the guns make me sad....

Yup, and its our own fault too.

An acquaintance of mine purchased a used vintage travel trailer and used it for a guest room at his place for many years. About ten years into his ownership a guests wife caught her skirt on a piece of the interior paneling that was slightly lifted. It popped it loose and when they looked behind it there were 4 rifles inside the cavity. None were great, but none were bad either. The original seller was long since gone. A good friend (BIL of the current owner of the trailer) ended up with one of them, a well used Marlin.

I have a SMLE, a No1 MKIII BSA built Enfield from 1917 that belonged to a friend who died many years ago. It was to go to his nephew or one of his nieces whichever wanted it. It sat in my safe for 7 years before the family decided no one was interested and it is still there to this day. It also came with a 500 round case of ammo.

The best one for me was probably the oddest story.
An elderly female friend called me one day and asked me how to tell if a shotgun was loaded! I told her "Do Not Touch It, I'll Be Right There". She responded that she was driving to a shipping center to send it to her SIL so I told her I would meet her there. It was an old single shot and luckily was empty. When I asked her where it came from (she and her late husband were not gun owners) she said it was in her late fathers cabin and her SIL thought he might like it to try bird hunting. Then she mentioned she had another "old rifle" of her fathers and I may be interested. She knows I hunt, and over the years I have helped her a lot on home repair and maintenance issues. I said I definitely would like to see it.
About a month alter she called and asked if I could replace a light switch for her and if my wife came over we could have a glass of wine with her. So I fixed her switch, we had a glass of wine, and she asked if I wanted to see the old rifle. I responded appropriately and she brought it out. As it took it out of the old case I thought A5...then I saw more than the end of the receiver and thought, "holy crap". It was a very nice model 81 Remington. I asked the story on it and she said it was her dad's deer gun in his cabin in northern MI and she got it when they cleaned the place out. She said no one in the family wanted it so if I did I could have it for helping her out.
It is a prize to me!!

I was given a type 96 revolver by a man who won it in a drawing in korea in 1945. He drew it out of a large pile of equipment left behind by the Japanese. His service is a fascinating story.

it came with a bunch of his ww2 service stuff that his sons did not want and had refused dibs for. Things like his service ribbons, snapshots, his last set of fatigues (well-worn, but laundered), etc.

i was amazed his sons didn’t want any of it. I’m glad to be the caretaker today.

Jack was an old family friend that passed away some years ago. Several years before he passed, his brother died and Jack asked me to help him clean out the garage.
In the course of cleaning/sorting duties he handed me a wood box with rope handles and marked as mortar shells with the instructions to "toss anything you don't want into the trash can here and take whaterver you want home with you". After a few minutes of sorting through several boxes of .22LR ammo, a brick of Montgomery Wards red and black .22 LR and a second brick of Sears & Roebuck white and gold .22 LR, I found a 9mm Broomhandle Mauser in the bottom of the box.
I showed it to Jack and he asked me to take it home, clean it up and sell it and keep half the money. I did as he asked but I did not want Jack's money. Jack passed away at age 94. A veteran that stormed Omaha Beach in the first wave and wounded by a mortar shell on D-Day +6, he fought in Europe until Germany surrendered.
One of the finest men I have ever had the pleasure to know.

Yes, those old war trophies are still popping up out there.

My late father-in-law was with the Quartermasters, but had volunteered to leave boring England, and be attached to the 101st. Airborne.
John D. (from Abilene TX) was in each campaign, even got stuck, shelled in Bastogne.

As a 1st Lt he was able to be among the first "guests" in Hermann Goering's house in Bavaria, liberating several handguns. There was no available info/provenance on them.

He told us that when he was back in the US, if he owed somebody a favor, he gave them one of the handguns "borrowed" from Goering.

When I was in high school my friend's older brother was in the army. He brought home a big box full of hand grenades once. That could have been a few years in prison.

Some stories I have heard about "found" weapons:
-A MG from WW2 was carried (pulled) in a red wagon by a local Boy Scout troop in Veteran's day parades in a small town long ago. The practice ended (also long ago) and the MG was stored in the attic of the local library, forgotten, and discovered decades later during renovations.
-2 suppressed M3 grease guns were found in the attic of an old home in New England
- A friend who was with USMC EOD at Camp Pendleton has been dispatched several times to homes in Ca to remove ordnance WW2 Veterans decided to bring back as souvenirs- including American and japanese grenades
- Weapons have been found stashed inside of ceiling tiles at various locations in the US in barracks that were being demolished
- An AK with iraqi marks was found in a swimming pool after a tornado in Fayetteville. NC (Ft Bragg area) that destroyed and took roofs off of several homes in the Cottonade neighborhood. In this case, the homeowner notified the police of the find- I personally know the officer who was sent to the address and removed the weapon with the homeowner's leaf net. He cleared it, inspected it, and determined its origin and FA capability. Not surprisingly, it was never reported as missing.

FL-NC said:

Some stories I have heard about "found" weapons:
-A MG from WW2 was carried (pulled) in a red wagon by a local Boy Scout troop in Veteran's day parades in a small town long ago. The practice ended (also long ago) and the MG was stored in the attic of the local library, forgotten, and discovered decades later during renovations.
-2 suppressed M3 grease guns were found in the attic of an old home in New England
- A friend who was with USMC EOD at Camp Pendleton has been dispatched several times to homes in Ca to remove ordnance WW2 Veterans decided to bring back as souvenirs- including American and japanese grenades
- Weapons have been found stashed inside of ceiling tiles at various locations in the US in barracks that were being demolished
- An AK with iraqi marks was found in a swimming pool after a tornado in Fayetteville. NC (Ft Bragg area) that destroyed and took roofs off of several homes in the Cottonade neighborhood. In this case, the homeowner notified the police of the find- I personally know the officer who was sent to the address and removed the weapon with the homeowner's leaf net. He cleared it, inspected it, and determined its origin and FA capability. Not surprisingly, it was never reported as missing.

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Your first recollection sounds surprisingly close to the actual true story of how the WW I German machine gun captured by the both reluctant and great-without-peer American Hero Sgt. Alvin York ultimately came to rest in the museum exhibit dedicated to his family near his Tennessee home. I remember when this was in the news...a "Happy Ending" to a pre-NFA weapon that no one ever thought to register (I'm told that MANY did not bother prior to '68 and later '86 and that the NFA was regarded in many circles as a remote Fed Gov tax scheme that had NO ONE to enforce it...so why bother? This, of course, has changed since the 1973 creation of the ATF). https://www.oakridger.com/article/20100202/NEWS/302029987

tark said:

This happened years ago before I started working at the Arsenal Museum, but it is a legendary story.

Late one afternoon, near closing time, and before 9-11 happened, It was very easy to get onto Arsenal Island. One simply drove past an empty guard shack. Someone did, with a gun wrapped in a blanket. They entered the museum and there was no one at the counter. This person called out for help and a voice answered from the back of the room " Be with you in a second. "

The man responded "You can have this." and he walked out, leaving the weapon lying on the counter, still wrapped up in the blanket. No one saw him or got a description of what he was driving. I don't know who was on duty that day, but whoever it was unwrapped the gun, gasped in horror and called the Arsenal Police.

The gun was a first pattern FG-42. The ATF was contacted and they had no record on the gun. It was determined that the receiver was cracked and the bolt rusted shut. The gun was junk, but still an unregistered machine gun. After some wrangling, it was decided that the gun was to be donated to the Museum.

The gun is the third from the top in the pic, below the two second pattern guns.

The guy was never caught.

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Tark: I LOVE the story; it has a hero smart and brave enough to know that he might end up in serious legal jeopardy if caught but in pursuit of a goal that is noble, true and worthy... and likely a matter of personal importance to him for reasons we can only guess at. And through actual physical & potential legal perils, he causes the very power that might otherwise prosecute and imprison him to champion the goal of his quest and to in fact *literally* enshrine the object of his passion as one of their own relics. I am reminded of the line from the boy in James Joyce's story "Araby" when I guess at what it might be like to just SHOW UP at RIA with such an item: "I imagined that I bore my chalice safely through a throng of foes". And indeed that one fellow did exactly that .
"I imagined that I bore my chalice safely through a throng of foes"---Dubliners,"Araby" by James Joyce

Those of us in the "4th Quarter" need to have a plan for everything of value that can be "Heirloomed" or legally liquidated. Passing of good friend has been an unpleasant wake up call. Its tougher than ever now that the country has been purposely derailed plus inanimate objects are worth more than the current dollar is.

When I was in Sweden one time in the 80's visiting my wife's family, a neighbor had an open topped Volvo C-303 "jeep" parked that I was admiring.

The owner, a young man maybe late teens, asked me if I had an interest in military objects, replied I did. He took me into his house and under his bed was a MP-40 German WWII sub machine gun. In Sweden it must have been highly illegal to possess.

I was surprised at how heavy it was, and remembered in all the movies they were always carried on an over the shoulder sling.

You have to wonder how many guns were picked up off battlefields in Europe after WWI and II and are still in civilian hands.

By the way, the Volvo C-303 is a very cool vehicle, sorry I never bought one and brought it back.

Tommygunn said:

And

* A 1928 Thompson submachine gun. In obviously used condition. Apparently in good working order. A pouch containing 3 30 round magazines.

I looked at my friend and said; "buddy, you need a good lawyer."

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Tommy - I almost hate to say this but I would have found a way to clean and make sure that gun was fully functional, then greased it up good and stashed it away for the day it will be needed. That day is likely to come sooner than any of us would like and we need to be ready for it.

JTHunter said:

Tommy - I almost hate to say this but I would have found a way to clean and make sure that gun was fully functional, then greased it up good and stashed it away for the day it will be needed. That day is likely to come sooner than any of us would like and we need to be ready for it.

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I agree completely. No one knew it was there. Not like some government types are going to randomly show up because they tracked it down. Pure nonsense. He didn't need a lawyer, he needed a good hidey hole...

Ignition Override said:

As a 1st Lt he was able to be among the first "guests" in Hermann Goering's house in Bavaria, liberating several handguns. There was no available info/provenance on them.
.

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Later arrivals at Goering's place had to be content with some of his custom made cigars.

1970, A friend (WW II infantry) of my Dad (WW II Navy). Hey Bud, in my duffel in the attic I’ve got a Luger I want to get rid of it, do you want it? My Dad who hated pistols, asked me “do you want it?” I said YES. Turns out it was a Vis Radom trophy pistol, pristine with Nazi stamps. Great shooter, on impulse I traded it for a ‘03-A3, 4 boxes of LC ball and $50. Still wish I had it.

When I was stationed in Buamholder Germany (Jan 92 - Dec 94) we found an old sealed bunker one time. Once we got into it, we found a crate full of like new SS daggers. Needless to say we didn't get to keep any since anything with a swastika is highly illegal in Germany. And yes I still get bumped out about having to destroy all those crates full of unissued FEG Hi Power clones while in Iraq.

20 years ago I went to a dove shoot at a friends farm. We went all over the county looking for birds but that day there just weren’t any to be found. One old farmer who loved to tell stories of running liquor as a teenager got bored and went to the barn. Came back with a sten, a uzi, and an mp40. I don’t know how much ammo was burned that day, or how much liquid fire got drank. A betting man would say that his grandkids could go to the barn and come back with fun things if they chose to do so. If not the grandkids, his neighbors kids. Never underestimate what can be tucked away in the rafters and walls of the most unremarkable backwoods barns, especially where moonshine stills are know to have been.

About 1980 or so, my dad, along with the pastor and a few others of the Swan Lake Church, between Kalispell and Big Fork Montana were renovating and adding to the structure. When the preacher pryed a board off the wall of clean, trying to save dry true dimensional lumber from a mill 100 year back, and paper was found wadded up as a sort of insulation. They pulled that out and found it was the wrapping of not 1 but 15 M-1917 Enfeild rifles stored in the wall.
Plenty of ammo was correctly stored with the greasy rifles, as I was told.

They never said what they did with them or if they found more ammo, but Im pretty sure they are in the new walls of the church.
When I asked my dad, his remark was that "God and Guns reside in the same house.".......