My WWII US small arms collection.

Thanks for the kind words Gaines!

 

In an attic?.....good grief, I have been in a lot of attics and have never found anything even close to that. Any story about how it got there?

 

I found quite a few of my guns in attics or barns! I live on the southern shoulder of the former "Bulge" battlefield. After the war the countryside and the villages were littered with discarded small arms and equipment. So after the combats many people picked up stuff and kept it at home. So still today many people have stuff lying around and when they get older they want to get rid of the stuff, some of them don't call the police but ask collectors to "free" them of the weapons.

 

An elderly gentleman living in a neighboring village called me today and ask if I could spare him a moment. So I went to see him at his house shortly before lunch break, he asks me in, takes me into his living room and there he has four guns lying on the coffee table! The gentleman is going to live in an assisted living project .As his children don't want to keep the guns, and he doesn't want them neither to be destroyed by the government, nor does he want to sell them off to a stranger, he thought I should have them!


An Underwood M1 Carbine, the barrel is dated 11-44.

 

The two Garands.





First one is a Winchester, finally!! Unfortunately the stock is a Springfield one. But what the heck! Production date is early January 1942.













There is an Poppet-valve gas cylinder lock screw installed, to allow a grenade launcher to be mounted. In the stock there was an early type single-slot gas cylinder gas screw, together with an early zinc oiler and a combination tool with shell extractor.

 

The second Garand is a Springfield Armory, production date is early December 1942. What is neat is the first name and first later of his family name that is scratched into the handguard. The gentleman is still searching for the field jacket that came from the same soldier, also with the initials in it. Unfortunately he seems to have misplaced it, I sure hope he will find it back! He got this one from a cousin who lived in Belgium, somewhere near Bastogne.

 

Allow me to ask a question about a rifle earlier in the thread. The BAR. I noticed that the receiver has taken on a purplish hue. I've seen that on other WWII rifles on occasion, particularly Garands. Does anyone know what causes that? I don't think they came from the factory that way, and I've seen it on very well cared for original rifles, so it's not something caused by a refinishing job. Does anyone know what causes that purple hue to form? I've done a little bluing and parkerizing myself and never seen that on anything I've done. I've assumed (just a guess) that maybe with receivers (never seen it on barrels or small parts) done in batches of hundreds that some quality of the metal in receivers causes that - perhaps among the last batch to go through the bluing or parkerizing salts. Temperature is also key, so maybe at the start of the day, the first batch may go in before the temp is high enough...?

I don't know though, those are just guesses. Does anyone know? I'm sure they were a proper blue/black in the era, but take on that hue over time. It surely doesn't seem to affect the value, if anything people are drawn to those and they seem to get sold first.

 

The 1903, mint condition, production date is early 1942.

 

I know what you talking about! If you go to post no. 47, on page 2 of this thread, you can see the same effect on some parts of my M2 Ma Deuce! I am sure that I read about it and it's cause, but right now I couldn't remember about it for my life! I will get back to you if my memory comes back, must be old age! ;-)

 

I'd love to know. Some years ago a batch of a dozen or so Garands came from the same source to a gun store I managed, and two of them had that purple hue. Those were the first two sold. One in particular was in exceptionally fine shape and I wish I had bought it for myself.

 

The purplish or "plum" tint comes from molybdenum, which is sometimes added to steel to improve its hardenability. Bluing is an oxidizing process which actually creates a thin layer of tertiary iron oxide (Fe3 O4) which is black, but appears blue when oiled. If moly is present in the steel it will oxidize along with the iron. The resulting molybdenum (IV) oxide is brownish-violet in appearance giving the steel that purplish hue you noticed. Sometimes you see guns that have "plum" receivers and blue barrels, as different material specs were used for the different parts.

 

Thank you! The ones I've seen have all been the receiver, with normal blue on the rest of the parts. Skipper's BAR has that pattern, but the M2 earlier in the thread has some of the external parts taking on the hue.

 

An M-1943 jacket. I am putting this in here because it came together with the M1 Garand that has "Joe D.". scratched into the stock, it seems as both items belonged to the same soldier. On the tag in the M-1943 there are two inscriptions one "J.K.D." and one "J.D." Both come out of the same house in Courtil, Belgium, just across the border from Luxembourg, inbetween Bastogne and St. Vith.

 

I got a few more signal pistols / flare guns.

 

Mark V Signal Pistol of the USN, made by Sedgley Inc.

 

Cool items , those flare pistols are quite original and different from the ones I had seen before

 

I got five different types a few days back. But it's very hard to find information on WWII US Army flare guns.

 

A Mk. IV made by S.F. Sedgley Inc.

 

Were those flare guns able to fire explosive rounds?

 

No they were only able to shoot flares, illuminating and signal rounds.