1903a4 / Luger Vietnam bringbacks

Here are are a pair of weapons brought back from Vietnam. There was also a Vietnamese SKS that was with this group but the original owner kept that one for sentimental reasons. The SKS and Luger were taken from a VC officer that no longer had any use for them. The Luger was re-blued because there was basically no bluing left on it when it came back. The 03a4 is a pretty early rifle with a 1/43 barrel date. These two came from my wifes Dad and have pretty good stories behind them. Saw a similiar thread on another forum and thought maybe we could get a good bringback thread going! Anybody else have any (Vietnam / WW1 / WW2) bringbacks or captures?

Here is a link to some more pictures


Vietnam Bringbacks pictures by xarmor - Photobucket

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...9_edited-1.jpg

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...8_edited-1.jpg

very , very cool, first A4 iv seen with bringback documentation..and a capture no less.
iv had a 1917 with capture papers, but it wasnt in that good of shape.
id say the scope was added later down the line.

Chuck,
The 03a4 was not actually a capture, it was assigned to my Father in laws MI unit. The military would not ship back any US weapons, this was the only way he could get it back. The scope was added. Rifle had the 1" rings but no scope. Father in law could not remember what the last scope he had on it was, only remembered that they had used some Weavers and Redfields. He has a few pictures of it when it was in Vietnam and it looked like a K460B Weaver, no telling for sure!

yup, iv seen a few A4,s with K4,s n them, RIA has one on display, as does the USMC museum.
the one inch rings are made by Lyman gunsight company, still pretty cool.

I have an old SKS I brought back. It hasn't been shot or cleaned since 1971.

It's not as decrepit as it sounds, but some fool switched weapons in the arms locker on me back in '71 and I had a Luger that 'turned ' into an SKS....go figure. So I brought back the rifle.
You'd think GI's would be more honest:dunno:!

Nice looking pair. If you ever have the time, I'm sure everyone here is like me and would love to hear the stories that go with those firearms and your father inlaw...

I've got a few VN bring backs. 3 of them I brought back - chicom SKS, ruskie Makerov and Browning Hi Power.
I also have an early chicom AK, NVA SKS, chicom Tokerov and 2 K98k Mausers. Have paperwork on all but one of the K98ks, which I got from the vets widow. It was the only gun in the house.
Here is a couple of photos of a VN War display that I do for military conventions, air shows, gun shows, usv. Also my living room wall.
Sarge

Not sure how my 1917 wound up in a barn in northeast Penn. The owner of the property was cleaning up and had thrown it into the steel scrap pile. He said i would not be safe to shoot so he was going to destroy it. twenty five dollars and a little white lie about a wall hanger it was mine, it has a win barrel 2/18 and shoots very well. I cannot read the sn. so I am not sure of much else.

This is the only one I have photos off close at hand. I no longer have it, but it's an 1894 Glisenti Bodeo brought back from Italy by a Canadian.

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...P5120348-1.jpg

I've also have a few vet bringback P38's, A vietnam vet bringback TT33, and a few assorted long guns. Most have since been moved on to the next owners as I tend to prefer allied weaponry.

We had a fellow come in to the office to ask if I could identify a gun his uncle brought back from WWII.

You guessed it. MP40 in almost new condition, no magazine. It is in the Sheriff's hands, keeping it for the county museum to display as needed.

It joins a Russian AK47, a Sten Mk. II, a MP34 and a M1 Thompson in the county collection. None transferable, all working and well kept.

WilliamT- I wonder if that guy who brought in the MP40 could have had his uncle's deactivated war trophy? Probably not, since you did not mention it was deactivated. BUT, if it was a deactivated war trophy and the Form 6 Treasury Department paperwork was found, it could transfered as a dewat then reactivated to a machinegun. Following NFA and BATFE rules, of course.

I guess my point is: be on the look-out for DEWATs w/ papers, they are valuable and need to be saved.

I just found this thread and figured I would post a picture of my Vietnam Bring Backs. The AKs are amnesty pieces everything else is papered.
[IMGW]http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p57/tgus/Bring%20Backs/828.jpg[/IMGW]

Looks like you are trying to corner the market on SKSs. Are they all chicom or ???
What is the story on the 2 Browning Hi-Powers?
Sarge

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sarge13

Looks like you are trying to corner the market on SKSs. Are they all chicom or ???
What is the story on the 2 Browning Hi-Powers?
Sarge

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The SKSs are Chicom and one Russian. I do have too many of those....

The High-Powers both happen to be 1961 production brought back in 70-71. One is matching and has an in country made belt holster. The other has a non matching slide and an in country made shoulder holster. I checked with Browning and they had no record of either being imported to the US. They must have gotten to Vietnam via another country?

The Toks are Chicom, Russian and Hungarian.

Since this thread got moved to the 1903 forum I will add some pictures of my Vietnam bring back 1903 that I just picked up.
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...002Large-1.jpg

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...017Large-1.jpg

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...020Large-1.jpg

There's some really nice pieces in this thread. I'm new here but have collected Vietnam bringbacks for about 20 years and am fortunate enough to have started collecting back when no one gave a squat about Vietnam items.

One person mentioned that the only way to get a US piece back was to declare it captured. Another way was to import the weapon to the US and fill out the importation documents. I have a couple of rifles that this was the way they came back. Most guys just declared it a capture piece and did it that way tho, and I have a 1903A4 Z series sniper that I think fits this bill.

There is a great book on bringbacks, "Veteran Bring Backs" by Edward B Tinker, that has great photos and accompanying stories of bringbacks from all periods. Try it - I'm sure that you will be really impressed. I was.

When I was a kid on the prairies in the 1950s just about everyone in my father's generation was a vet and most of them,having grown up with guns and then using them in the Army,had brought back something. There was some pretty exotic stuff to look at and even shoot-ammo permitting.

Lugers and P38s were very common. There were STENs,a Thompson,an M3 Greasegun,a couple of Broomhandle Mausers, and even an MP44. One of the guys had a stone mint Inglis Browning that I later learned had been cooked in a wood stove. I sometimes wonder what happened to all this stuff. I suppose a lot of it got buried or dumped in a sloughbottom when the owners lost interest or moved on.

I was fortunate to inherit 2 S&W Pre-victory revolvers and a P38 which my late uncle brought back from Europe. One of the S&Ws was his own personal weapon which he carried from Normandy through to VE Day while serving as a tank fitter. My grandfather's hired man was a US Army WW1 vet and had brought back a M1903 Springfield which my father used to hunt deer with. I wish my Dad had hung on to it.

Some time ago while working on the phones in a sherriff sub-station, I saw an MP-38/40. It had been shined up, but had fine pits all over it. The story was it was a bringback that had been buried in concrete. They were going to keep it there. Hate to think of the local law with an automatic weapon.

Hello all;

I know this is a slightly older posting, but I am researching for my 2nd book (first book mentioned above; thanks whomever that was) and I am looking for new stories.

1st book was a paperbound, 132 pages, story attributed to the author (unless they wanted to remain annoynmous). If anyone in this thread is interested, I'd love to get hi-res pictures and any story of how aquired. Does not have to be fancy, can be "traded for it while in Vietnam" at so and so base? But more information the better, just be aware that I like to keep each item (does not have to be guns) or grouping to 2 or 3 pages (last book was approx 7x9 inches I think?)

Anyway, great stories here, if interested, please email me at ed_tinker@hotmail.com

Edward Tinker

I was stationed at Cam Rahn Bay with the engineers in late 1965. I watched a man break down an M1 that the Special Forces had given him, and he simply boxed it up and mailed it back. You could get away with much more in the early days. We got our first couple months pay in US dollars, and I never owned any jungle boots or jungle fatigues.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by WilliamT

We had a fellow come in to the office to ask if I could identify a gun his uncle brought back from WWII.

You guessed it. MP40 in almost new condition, no magazine. It is in the Sheriff's hands, keeping it for the county museum to display as needed.

It joins a Russian AK47, a Sten Mk. II, a MP34 and a M1 Thompson in the county collection. None transferable, all working and well kept.

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What was that guy thinking? I'll never understand people.