A couple months after Grenada (I was in my teens at the time) somebody found an AK-47 in a pond about 20 miles from my home in PA. Local and state police (and maybe the ATF) started investigating and tracked it down. Apparently one of the young Rangers who had jumped into Grenada had smuggled it back as a war trophy, then got nervous when he realized it might be a problem and ditched it.
During WWII, my father shipped captured weapons back to the states. The GI’s had to crate them and the US military shipped them home. Dad was an Armorer.
After the war a crooked gunsmith in MD was bilking GI’s of those weapons they were to have “sporterized”. They simply stole and sold the best of the stuff.
Dad took train back to MD and testified in the trial. The defense lawyers were trying to discredit him as a witness because he was not an expert. They fixed that by having him declared an expert, because he was an armorer. Between the postal service and the NRA they put those vermin out of business.
Dad had sent them a German sniper’s rifle. All he got back was the stock. Government gave him a new K98 action and barrel. I inherited it from dad. With the right ammo, the Mauser K98 is a fine weapon. Very fine construction. I had a hard time finding brass for it. Was finally able to get enough. Have it loaded in 150 gr and 198 grain SP bullets.
Most people who complain about poor performance of the 8MM Mauser have issues with wrong diameter bullets. (not all K98’s are alike)
. Local and state police (and maybe the ATF) started investigating and tracked it down.
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Like to know how they did that!