Cops refuse historical vandalism.

From the UK Daily Mail, "January 2st 2018". Woman handed in a StGw-44 and the cops declined to buy it off her but had her sell it off properly to avoid its destruction.

"A World War II assault rifle that belonged to an SS officer was handed in to a gun buy-back organised by police in Connecticut.

The rare find, which is worth up to $40,000, would have been sent home by an American soldier who had taken it from a prisoner of war or a German he had killed.

Officer Lewis Crabtree, of the Hartford Police Dept, said: 'The chance to see a piece of history - this - is absolutely unbelievable.'"


Officers stunned when woman drops off $40,000 WWII German rifle to be destroyed in police buy-back program | Daily Mail Online

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bet if that happened here ol Cahill would have it destroyed

Awesome how many of those are still sitting around undiscovered???
Would definitely get you attention at service rifle events.

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Originally Posted by 300CALMAN

Awesome how many of those are still sitting around undiscovered???
Would definitely get you attention at service rifle events.

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Yes, I'm looking to locate one of the Waffen SS licensed civilian semi-auto version with 7-round mags, issued to wives of SS personnel for home defense. From memory they had the Waffenamt designation of Scheiss Träger ST-44.

Here is an original ST-44, to save wood they did not do a proper civilian thumbhole stock but screwed on a strip of steel to confirm to SS civilspezifikation:

Attachment 80524

They occasionally pop up at Antique arms auctions mostly in e cat configuration if I recall correctly. SAI had one on the wall last time I was in auckland.

Bet if it happened HERE it would find its way into a nice collection, undetected.
On that point do you think it’s ok for a person checking firearm storage to ask the older gentleman if he was going to sell any of his collection, he may know some one keen? And with a deceased returned soldiers war souvenir pistol, it ok for a “person” wink wink nod nod, to offer to buy, then demand it be handed in when told a friend was buying it for his C collection? I here it quite a lot!

There is a company in the US that is manufacturing them from scratch

Obviously that MP44 was federally registered to her late husband otherwise there is absolutely no way she could have sold it legally.

maca...I know of something dodgy along those lines that went down a year or twenty back...but owner got last laugh as he put gas torch through the lot before he handed them over...

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Originally Posted by Maca49

Bet if it happened HERE it would find its way into a nice collection, undetected.
On that point do you think it’s ok for a person checking firearm storage to ask the older gentleman if he was going to sell any of his collection, he may know some one keen? And with a deceased returned soldiers war souvenir pistol, it ok for a “person” wink wink nod nod, to offer to buy, then demand it be handed in when told a friend was buying it for his C collection? I here it quite a lot!

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That's low.

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Originally Posted by 300CALMAN

That's low.

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@300CALMAN

To be specific, that's corrupt power.

Thats an old article the UK paper has only just picked up, I think I read the US article about 6 months ago. (I dunno about the $40,000 figure - I think they plucked that out of the air)

I heard recently on the internet* of a shipping container in Syria that was found when opened to have 5,000 of these STG44s in them, in varying states, from parts only to new. Apparently they had been used by the East German police or Yugoslavia and then sold as surplus in the 60's to Syria. Then sat in the container unused for years.

Here is something about the same thing:

"" In August 2012, the Syrian Al-Tawhid Brigade posted a video clip on their YouTube channel showing a cache of StG 44[41] in their possession, which they claim to have captured amongst 5,000 StG 44 rifles and various ammunition from a weapons depot in the city of Aleppo. Photos later surfaced of the rebels using them in combat.""


*Yes, it was a youtube video. Looked quite kosher. (The rebels handling them were referring to them as "old AK47's".)

"Old AK47s". Sounds oddly correct. These will not be taken home by many servicemen as collectable trophies as Russia has quite strict firearms laws. Assad might raise some money after the war by selling them off. They'll need every penny.

Brad Pitt uses one as a tank weapon on the movie Fury,bloody good watch too.

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Originally Posted by The bomb

Brad Pitt uses one as a tank weapon on the movie Fury,bloody good watch too.

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@The bomb

Yep, really showed tracers lighting up on the battlefield - like Star Wars at times! Heard Fury got some criticism for that, but they actually tried to make the battle scenes appear more realistic.

I think Brad Pitt played well, but the battle scenes were unconvincing to me, particularly the one at the end. The Germans were charging and dying like the Indians used to do in old westerns. Elsewhere Americans were walking upright across fields unharmed shooting at German in trenches who had machine guns. Still. It's just a play.