kBob
Member
Florida Highway Patrol used to have Thompsons of various models in the trunks of many cars until 1976 or 77. They traded them one Thompson AND $100 each for semi auto AR15 rifles to Doug Powers, a NFA dealer in Perry Florida. He had a large closet with three racks on each of three walls full of the guns.....and I was working darned near minimum wage for Pony Express at the time and could only look and drool. I had a 15 to 20 minute wait for a second truck in Perry in the parking lot behind the store so I did a good bit of drooling that year......
Mr. Powers had one interesting Western Auto Store, likely 30-40 handguns under glass counters and as many rifles and shotguns on open racks free to handle on the floor. He had a select fire FN FAL with a welded on mount and US M85 scope supposedly once belonging to Mad Mike Hoare. More Ingram 6s than I have seen total anywhere else.
Around that time I did get to shoot a S&W 76 several different times. It was OK, but not that neat. I liked MP40 much better and I liked the STEN having a fixed stock better than that flat metal folder on the S&W 76, Most fun with the 76 was taping a Ray o vac to it after having seen the original Omega Man starring NRA Moses and shooting it in the dark.....way before lasers and gun lights were everywhere.
A buddy had a 1921/28 over stamp Thompson with JPD marking from Jacksonville, Florida. The 50 round drum really made that fun and it was where a lot of my reloading efforts went at the time.
My Barber shop has a rusted up pitiful looking Remington 8 on one wall I have been trying to talk them out of for ages. I know the gun is hopeless as far as rehab ( might even have seen a fire)....I just think it would look better over my reloading table than the forever mirrors at the barber shop.
Like many have said likely the most common LEO rifle at least in the South east for the first 2/3s of the 1900's had to be the Winchester 94 in good old .30-30
-kBob
Mr. Powers had one interesting Western Auto Store, likely 30-40 handguns under glass counters and as many rifles and shotguns on open racks free to handle on the floor. He had a select fire FN FAL with a welded on mount and US M85 scope supposedly once belonging to Mad Mike Hoare. More Ingram 6s than I have seen total anywhere else.
Around that time I did get to shoot a S&W 76 several different times. It was OK, but not that neat. I liked MP40 much better and I liked the STEN having a fixed stock better than that flat metal folder on the S&W 76, Most fun with the 76 was taping a Ray o vac to it after having seen the original Omega Man starring NRA Moses and shooting it in the dark.....way before lasers and gun lights were everywhere.
A buddy had a 1921/28 over stamp Thompson with JPD marking from Jacksonville, Florida. The 50 round drum really made that fun and it was where a lot of my reloading efforts went at the time.
My Barber shop has a rusted up pitiful looking Remington 8 on one wall I have been trying to talk them out of for ages. I know the gun is hopeless as far as rehab ( might even have seen a fire)....I just think it would look better over my reloading table than the forever mirrors at the barber shop.
Like many have said likely the most common LEO rifle at least in the South east for the first 2/3s of the 1900's had to be the Winchester 94 in good old .30-30
-kBob
