Not counting ones I have. Here is what is left on my wish list for the next few years:
Roth-Sauer
Bergmann #3 model 1896
Glisenti model 1910
Papa Nambu
Rast Gasser
Steyr Hahn
Savage model 1907 (French military contract)
Beretta model 1915
Mauser C96 (war model with the imperial stamps)
Artillery Luger
Webley IV .455 revolver
Smith & Wesson Victory model .45 revolver
Remington Rand
Femaru w/waffenamt stamps so either a 41 or 43
Walther PPK w/waffenamt stamps
Astra 400 within the Nazi contract serial range
Browning hi power tangent site w/waffenamt stamps
Mab D w/waffenamt stamps
CZ-38 w/waffenamt stamps
Mauser 1914 w/ imperial army acceptance stamp
Mauser 1934 w/kriegsmarine stamp
SACM 1935 w/waffenamt stamps
After those, I’ll move on to rifles and will want an Arisaka7.7mm w/full mum, .303 Lee-Enfield, 7.92 Mauser w/waffenamt stamp, M1 Garand (wartime serial range).
It’ll take me a few years to buy all those. That looks like a lot but believe it or not, I already have a pretty large WWI and WWII collection in addition to several modern guns.
Military weapons never really caught my attention, I’d had all of those I wanted to see by the time I got out of the ARMY in 72. With that said I do have a couple of AR’s, one in 5.56 and the other in 7.62 both made by DPMS. My interest has always been hunting and I’ve collected many fine rifles and shotguns but the one that’s always been on my list was a want that started as a child. Reading Robert Ruarks African adventures and later other authors with Capstick considered one of the best. They planted a seed that has never grown. The legendary Holland and Holland 470 Nitro Express. As a child I dreamed of hunting Africa with the trusty H&H slung over the shoulder, hunting the biggest and meanest Africa has to offer.
My forearm short wish list would be:
1903 Springfield
Sound suppressed MP5
PSG-1
Burnside carbine
I’ll take a .45 cal Thompson submachine gun with 5 drum magazines and three spare barrels any day.
My wish list is very simple with only that on it!
We're comfortable with our 2nd Amendment solution and wife and I are both certified and get ample range practice annually.
My list is quite short:
An M1A because that’s the closest I’ll ever get to a M14 which was my service rifle.
A Brown Bess because I’m a black powder enthusiast.
All I want for Christmas is a BAR.
I have been fortunate enough to be able to fire Garands, M1 Carbines, 98Ks and a slew of handguns from WWII (alas, a few of the latter that were in my care slipped through my hands... never to return), but the "exotica" eluded me. In the last few years, I have been able to scratch the itch occasionally.
The M1A1 Thompson was one gun I particularly wanted to try, being that three different uncles used them- two carried the Thompson as their primary combat weapon and a third would grab one to herd German POWs or when he thought he might need to spray the bushes one-handed while clinging to a 6x6.
(The latter is part of a long story that cast its shadow for many years. When I was about five or six, I asked him if he had "shot" anyone in the war. He just deadpanned, "No, but I got shot AT a lot." )
The first M1A1 "Tommy Gun" I finally fired was pretty ratty, but it worked flawlessly and I could see someone liking it for close work in a tight spot.
Since then, I have also had the chance to fire a BAR, and concluded that a person would need to practice some to be a really good BAR man (one of my uncles qualified as an expert on the BAR... and subsequently did his best to never let anyone know about it). Ugly as sin and twice as heavy, it remains the most "entertaining" firearm I have ever shot.
If we’re wishing, here’s my list:
Model 500 Mossberg Police
M2 “Ma Duece” Heavy Machine Gun
Johnson Light Machine Gun and Rifle versions
BAR
Thompson
Barrett .50 Caliber Rifle
Of course, I’d need plenty of ammo and a means to store and transport it all. A Duece and a Half would do fine. Mount the “Ma Duece” on it.
pre-war model 70
colt python
S&W 500
H & H rifle
luger pistol
1911
Remington model 7
browning citori
Winchester 61/62
winchester 1886/92/94
Savage 99 in 300 sav.
winchester 9422
drilling in nitro express
6.5 swedish
etc. etc.
Any of my Dad's or grandfathers' guns that my relatives will part with.
Any of my wife's grandfather's guns that her uncles or cousins will part with.
A pre-64 model 70 Winchester in a .308 Norma magnum.
A Husqvarna model 1600 in a .358 Norma magnum.
A .40 caliber in a CZ 75B.
A .41 magnum in a Ruger Blackhawk and a Henry carbine also in the .41 magnum.
A 9.3x62 in a Mauser (any model).
A .264 Winchester magnum.
A .243 Winchester in a Mossberg 800.
A Weatherby - any caliber.
3-4 vintage pump .22s rifles (any manufacturer)
Any other gun that strikes my fancy at the moment.
A Wolfgang Haga Pennsylvania Long Rifle.
metallicman had better hire a more-experienced technical editor before posting anything further, on this topic (though to judge by some earlier posts of his, he may be immune to embarrassment, and facts.)
FG-42 used box magazines only, never belts. It did fire from a closed bolt on semi, and from an open bolt on full auto. The latter is common on air-cooled full-auto arms, to facilitate cooling, and to keep the ammunition out of contact with a hot barrel.
The first photo purported to be an MP-40 shows an arm missing its folding stock, but the stock is present (folded) in the second image. There have been some latter-day semi-only replicas made without stocks, so they can be “pistols” in compliance with US regulations. Despite what one sees in films and on TV, the gun was rarely fired with its stock folded; as an open-bolt submachine gun, its accuracy was never great, and users needed every advantage they could get. While we’re addressing film/TV use, it must be stressed that movie guns seem to fire at almost twice the rate of a real MP-40, or perhaps it’s mere sound effects. The actual gun fired only about 450 rds/minute: “chug-chug” more than “rat-a-tat.”
Small numbers of replica MP-40s were turned out before May 1986: modern-made receiver and original parts kits. Trade jargon for these: “tube guns.”
The MP-44 is indeed astonishingly weighty, and disappointingly unhandy to boot. Recoil is terrible: difficult to believe about such a tiny round fired from such a big gun. There have been recent production runs of ammunition, catering to the collector community.
If one goes by the kinetic energy of the cartridge it fires, FN’s P90 does not come up to the bar as either a submachine gun or an assault rifle. Energy at the muzzle is less than a 22 WMR. The gun’s magazine is innovative, holding 50 rounds but mounted atop the receiver to enhance portability. Unique design of follower and feed lips cause the round to rotate 90 degrees from its position in the magazine, to ready-to-chamber position. Reloading the tiny cartridge is an unbelievably fussy endeavor. What prompted the author to describe its velocity as “high” is a mystery: about 2700 ft/sec from the P90, 2100 ft/sec from the handgun. To compare, 7.62mm NATO is a nominal 2740 ft/sec, 5.56mm NATO about3100 ft/sec. Rifle rounds pushing a bullet faster than 3000 ft/sec have been available on the commercial sporting market for a century.
I just love those old illustrations from Men’s magazines. Always promising more than they delivered,but the art work was excellent.
RE: true-crime-style color illustration from metallicman’s original blog post
Is it just me, or are other forum members wondering just what the relevance is, of the Prezio (?) painting to an retrospective that doesn’t mention either P08s or Thompsons?
Just a few technical discrepancies:
- the dying Nazi villain has just let go of a very special P08, a mirror-image one: safety, takedown lever, and takedown latch plate are all on the right side. I’ve not seen every P08 ever made, but I have yet to see one where these features are anyplace but on the left side of the pistol.
- the US GI with the five-o’clock shadow blazing away with his Thompson doesn’t appear to be carrying any spare magazines. He does, however, appear to be wearing the standard web pouch belt which could in each compartment hold a pair of M1903 chargers or a single M1 Garand clip.
- there is no string of empty cases popping out of the Thompson gun’s ejection port. Pretty unlikely, given the gun’s cyclic rate of some 700 rds/min. And considering the position and angle of the ejection port, that stream of empties ought to be bouncing off the room’s door and flying all over, in front of the GI, into his pockets, down his shirt, whatever.
Perhaps it doesn’t matter. Combat is pretty chaotic, and any soldier might be toting any given personal weapon at any moment, depending on what’s available among battlefield pickups. Even the weapons of the enemy.