1903a4 / Luger Vietnam bringbacks

[Louis1332]

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.

[tgus]

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]

[Sarge]

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

[tgus]

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

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.

[tgus]

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.

[badash5946]

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.

[purple]

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.

[TerryS]

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.

[Edward Tinker]

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

[frankie]

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.