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Helmet Group Purchase
Guy I got the Bubba Spanish Mauser also had helmets at his house so I went to ID them for him.
At the time I was of the opinion he had two Iraq helmets, a US clone helmet, possibly French, of relatively modern production, not WWII or Korea, possibly as early as Vietnam but most likely post Vietnam, possibly a German M42 shell, and initially a Spanish M40 clone but did correct that to not sure after noting the bracket was on the back not the front. Thought maybe Hungarian but didn't remember for sure if that was the one.
I gave him approximate values based on what they could be and he asked what they were worth to me. I told him I'll pay $20 for any helmet so he sold them to me for $100. He didn't want to tell me what he paid for them but did, nothing. He also assured me he didn't care if I sold them for $500 so he was good.
Getting them home, the two Irag helmets are Iraq but can't find any information on them, or very little anyway. The one guess I found was they were M80 helmets produced for the Iraq Army that had the Police tags put on them by Jordan to get around sanctions on Iraq's military. Sounds plausible. All other M80's I've seen were produced by South Korea. These are both complete with some minor issues with the liners.
The "German" helmet has been confirmed to be a wartime M42 shell, so far of unknown manufacture as I can't locate the ID. Lot number is present, 2400. I was advised to wipe it with Acetone which is my next step. It appears to be in decent shape other than the silver paint. Original green with sand mix seems to be under it.
The M1 helmet I believe is US post Vietnam Manufacture, liner I'm still not sure about but webbing is US post Vietnam. There is a heat number on the helmet. Liner only has a T-23 in the middle.
The final helmet is a Hungarian helmet. Who used it I don't know. It has the appearance of being repainted and the liner is unlike any I have found. Made of canvas, not leather. The chin strap is a nice heavy leather one and again, unlike others I can find. Options appear to be Hungary, Finland or made to look like a German one by bubba.
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo.../beviDKv-1.jpg
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The US helmet liners both look like the ones made just before everyone stopped using them. The head webbing should have slip in snaps that allow you to remove the head harness if needed. The straps for the outer that has them are definitely the last ditch straps. They weren't very good.
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The Iraq helmets are not Desert Storm bring backs, they would be from the Iraq war as these were not issued until after 1991. It does appear that the police nomenclature might be accurate due to the sanctions against Iraq after that time. Supposedly, they are pretty uncommon.
