Gun Porn

[Deathroll]

Can't believe there hasn't been a thread started about this already. Let's start with this.....what guns do you want/plan on acquiring next?

My first choice would be a waffenamt marked Kongsberg. They were only waffenamt stamped in 1945 and I believe only about 200 of them got a stamp. I recently saw one sell at auction for about $8500 and then there's this for me to lust after

Rare, Excellent Kongsberg M1914 - Waffen Marked

This is a terrific Kongsberg Colt model 1914, manufactured in 1945 and issued to the Nazi Army. The finish rates at 97+% with hardly any notable finish loss, just a little on the bottom of mainspring housing and minor high edge wear. Colt licensed out production of the 1911 to Kongsberg...

legacy-collectibles.com

Sadly at $10,500 I'd have to save up my monthly allowance for guns for a long time to be able to buy it.

My second choice would be a good condition Browning High Power that is waffenamt stamped and with the tangent site. Something like this

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/1098407388

or this https://www.gunbroker.com/item/1098407438

Those tend to run $4500-$5000 so I'll be saving up for a while to get one.

and that's to say nothing of some of the really super rare guns I want that I would have to jump on if I saw because you never know when you'll see another. There are several in that category:

Beretta 418 - Nazi occupation one...ie 1943 in the correct serial range
Mauser C-96 Kriegsmarine (basically a unicorn they are so rare)
Akah Contract Star CO
Akah Contract Star S
Nazi Occupation Baby Browning
Nazi Occupation Unique Model 10

Several of the above I've just accepted that I will never find.

What is on your wish list?

 

[Copejunkie]

I am a rifle guy, I like winchester's the most, particularly anything pre 64. I would like to have a model 70 in every caliber that they were chambered in. Standard factory calibers could be a somewhat reasonably attainable goal to achieve, but there were also many custom ordered calibers that were chambered by Winchester at the customer's request. I doubt it would be possible to own them all. Im assuming that there were only one of some calibers ever chambered.
For what ever reason I have never owned a 25-06, they are numerous in my area and it's a fine caliber. I am on the hunt for one that is acceptable, either in a remington 700 or a win 70. I know where there is one that I want but it's talking the owner out of it.

 

[Deathroll]

I am a rifle guy, I like winchester's the most, particularly anything pre 64. I would like to have a model 70 in every caliber that they were chambered in. Standard factory calibers could be a somewhat reasonably attainable goal to achieve, but there were also many custom ordered calibers that were chambered by Winchester at the customer's request. I doubt it would be possible to own them all. Im assuming that there were only one of some calibers ever chambered.
For what ever reason I have never owned a 25-06, they are numerous in my area and it's a fine caliber. I am on the hunt for one that is acceptable, either in a remington 700 or a win 70. I know where there is one that I want but it's talking the owner out of it.

Once I've got all the pistols I want (about 30 more on my wish list) I will switch to rifles full time. Until then, there are two rifles still on my wish list. I want a Remington 700 with the police sniper heavy barrel chambered in 300 Win Mag. And I want a Cetme C chambered in 7.62X51 NATO standard (ie .308)

Firstly, I just have a thing for Spanish Steel. Secondly, I think its cool that instead of being a gas piston design like the AR-15/M-16/M-4 and most other modern battle rifles, it is instead a German designed delayed roller blowback system like the Sturmgewehr 44 and the HK-91. Franco had good relations with the Nazis since they helped him beat the Commies in the Spanish Civil War. So after WWII was over, he brought in a bunch of German gun designers who had designed the STG-44 (ie the world's first assault rifle) and put them to work designing a modern battle rifle for Spain. The Cetme C remained Spain's battle rifle until the 70s when due to their NATO membership, they replaced it with the CETME L which is chambered in 5.56mm NATO. Finally....I LOVE the combo of it having wood furniture yet being a modern post WWII battle rifle. I want to add a Franklin Armory Binary Trigger to it. I have a binary trigger in my AR-15 pistol and that's a blast! You can really spray lead with those.

 

[Tenn"cock]

I know where there is one that I want but it's talking the owner out of it.

Where there is a will there is a way.

 

[Hard2Bluff]

Where there is a will there is a way.

 

[Copejunkie]

View attachment 20250607_171100.mp4
Model 70 .243 made in 56, came out of winchesters custom shop. The video dosen't do the Bird's-eye maple stock justice

 

[Deathroll]

View attachment 36454
Model 70 .243 made in 56, came out of winchesters custom shop. The video dosen't do the Bird's-eye maple stock justice

Is that in 243 Roberts? If you ever listen to Gun Talk, Tom Gresham swears by that round.

 

[Deathroll]

I forgot to include a few more of my older guns. I LOVE the early semiautomatics because the designs are so different. They hadn't figured everything out in the beginning so you get a bunch of really funky designs that you often see recycled in sci fi because they look so cool. (eg. Han Solo's blaster is a Mauser C-96 Broomhandle, on the Mandalorian I saw a Bergmann #3 model 1896 etc).

Frommer 1910

Schwarzlose model 1908 this may not look all that special but it is one of only 3 blow forward designs ever made. When I bought this one it was missing half of the sear which seemingly had broken years ago. Needless to say there are no parts diagrams or specs let alone spare parts for these 100+ year old pistols. I found a good part fabricator and they were able to tell what the sear was supposed to look like, how big it was supposed to be etc from the half of it that remained and fabricate a new one. That put this one back in firing condition.

Campo Giro model 1913
The first of what would develop into a long series of tubular slide pistols up to the 1980s for Astra in Spain.

One of my favorites....what is known as a "Chinese Mystery Pistol". Back in the 19 teens and 20s before China was industrialized it was in what is known as the "Warlord Era". Different warlords controls various chunks of China and were constantly fighting with each other. As a result, the Chinese market had a voracious appetite for pistols. They imported literal boatloads of guns from Europe. Then as now, the Chinese were known for just blatantly copying anything that worked or was useful. They didn't have any gun designs of their own. These "Chinese Mystery Pistols" came in several different varieties. Some were made in some guy's garage. Some were made in fairly modern factories with machine tools and everything. The Chinese - the overwhelming majority of whom did not speak English - would not only copy the guns, they would also copy the stamps, the proof marks, the names and everything else on the pistols. Often hilariously, they would put things on the pistols that made no sense...they were just intended to look authentically Western in order to convince other Chinese warlords of their quality so they'd buy them. Whether from US Servicemen sent to China before and during World War II bringing them back or from Servicemen in Vietnam collecting them from the VC and later importers, plenty of these made their way to the largest arms market in the world - America.

This is chambered in 7.63 Mauser just like the Mauser C-96 which was a very popular pistol in China. The "RN" inside of a diamond trademark means absolutely nothing. No gun maker had such a trademark. The grips are plexiglass probably from a window of a downed aircraft (this was not uncommon to do). Like all my guns this is in firing condition and I have taken it to the range and fired it.

One final favorite is the Jo Lo Ar pistol made by Star in Spain. This is a series of one cavalry pistols with a Palanca (lever) made in the 1920s. They were intended to be able to be cocked and fired with one hand by a cavalryman who would have the horse's reins in the other hand. They did sell a bunch of these to the mounted police in Peru and a couple other places. Most of these found their way to the US in the 1960s. As is often the case with the .380 version, it was missing its Palanca when I bought it.

So once again, I found a part fabricator to make a new one that worked and which looked like the original. I don't have to have parts fabricated for many of my guns but there are a few old ones that are so rare, I'll gladly jump at the chance to get one even if it is missing a part and then I'll find somebody who can make it right. Its a PITA, but you often get a better deal financially doing it that way rather than buying one that's not missing any parts.

Here it is with its big brother chambered in 9mm Largo which I also have.

 

[Copejunkie]

Is that in 243 Roberts? If you ever listen to Gun Talk, Tom Gresham swears by that round.

Do you mean 257 Roberts? No, this one is in 243 Winchester.

 

[Preacherman]

I don’t have any fancy or collector guns. What I do have is several scoped rifles in several calibers sighted in at 250 yards and a 1/4 mile of 360 degree view from every corner of my house. Pistols I have are too numerous to count…..all in caliber ranges from .22 through .45. I’m ready for any zombie apocalypse, government takeover, or foreign enemy that dares to stroll on my property. Ammo I have stored is insane I can assure you. I also have all my own reloading equipment.

 

[Deathroll]

I don’t have any fancy or collector guns. What I do have is several scoped rifles in several calibers sighted in at 250 yards and a 1/4 mile of 360 degree view from every corner of my house. Pistols I have are too numerous to count…..all in caliber ranges from .22 through .45. I’m ready for any zombie apocalypse, government takeover, or foreign enemy that dares to stroll on my property. Ammo I have stored is insane I can assure you. I also have all my own reloading equipment.

After the previous Obama ammo shortage, I swore I would start building my stockpile. I built it up to 10,000 rounds in several different calibers figuring that would be enough. Then came the Biden ammo shortage and now I think I need to increase my stockpile to 25,000 rounds. I've just started building up to that.

 

[Preacherman]

After the previous Obama ammo shortage, I swore I would start building my stockpile. I built it up to 10,000 rounds in several different calibers figuring that would be enough. Then came the Biden ammo shortage and now I think I need to increase my stockpile to 25,000 rounds. I've just started building up to that.

You’ll need 8 times that just for the jack booted thugs from the IRS.

 

[Deathroll]

WWI mouse guns
This is a fun sub genre for collectors. When WWI started, almost all countries which had thought of pistols as an afterthought suddenly discovered they were far more useful and far more needed than originally thought. All of them such as Germany which had the Luger P08 stepped up production of them just as quickly as they could. It was nowhere near enough. So they looked around to see what else was available (preferably in the same caliber as their main official sidearm). Some, such as the Hapsburg Empire discovered the Steyr Hahn which had been commercially very successful and had sold well to other countries but had never been adopted by their home country. Others like Germany immediately noticed the runner up in their competition for the Army's official sidearm, the Mauser C-96. These too had been commercially very successful (Winston Churchill gunned down 3 Dervishes charging at him with spears in the Battle of Omdurman with his Mauser C-96). Mauser had a large number of them and production lines already making them so this was immediately adopted. It was still nowhere near enough.

So now all the European powers were forced to go to the commercial markets and hoover up all the pocket pistols (there had been a thriving market) to feed their voracious appetite for pistols. Pocket pistols aka Mouse Guns were almost all either of the 7.65mm (ie .32 acp) caliber or the 6.35mm (ie .25 acp) variety. These are considered wimpy by modern standards but in an age before antibiotics, a lot of them became known as a "shoot them on Monday and kill them on Friday" guns. Whatever the shortcomings of mouse guns, they beat the hell out of knives or throwing rocks.

France
France was devoting all their industrial capacity to making rifles, machine guns, artillery, ammo etc. They didn't have any left over to produce pistols at scale so they went out and bought them on the international market. First they had a contract for the Savage 1907 from the US

The only change the French insisted on was the addition of a lanyard ring so the pistol could be worn on a lanyard for quick/easy access. With its 10 shot double stack magazine (the world's first) the Savage had a higher magazine capacity than almost any other pistol and the fact that it had a detachable magazine as well made this design well ahead of its time. In addition to that, its art deco design is cool.

Fortunately for France they were located right next to Spain which had a thriving arms industry. They took the opportunity to sign a contract with Star for their Star 1914 model.

This was a solid well built pistol with a 9 round capacity in its detachable magazine.

The French military was happy with both of the above pistols but they were deemed too expensive to sign bigger contracts. They needed something that would be decent, rugged, cheap and which they could get in absolutely massive numbers. They decided to settle on the Ruby which was a Browning model 1903 knock off. (Spain didn't respect foreign patents for guns so they made cheap knockoffs in large volume in those days. The French had hoped to pit various Spanish manufacturers against one another but the Spanish got wise to that and all got together to set one price. France agreed and signed a contract to take as many as the Spanish could produce. This particular pistol is an Astra though they look the same for every manufacturer. The one hitch was that the magazines between various manufacturers were not interchangeable. ie Astra mags would only work in Astras, Star mags would only work in Stars, etc etc. This caused significant problems for the French but they had to accept what they could get.

Italy
Italy's main sidearm was the Glisenti model 1910 but the mousegun they adopted for widespread use was Beretta model 1915 which was a solid well built little pistol.

 

[Deathroll]

The Hapsburg Empire
The main sidearms of the Hapsburg Empire at the start of the war were the Roth Steyr model 1907, and the Steyr model 1912 (Steyr Hahn) for the Austrians and the Frommer Stop in 9mm Short (ie 380) for the Hungarians. The main mouse guns then adopted were the Frommer Stop in 7.65 which had sold well commercially

The Steyr 1908

even the 6.35mm Steyr model 1909

They even pressed a few odd Mannlicher 1905s into service.

 

[Deathroll]

Germany
Germany had a thriving arms industry before the war (as it still does today) so when the German Reichswehr found there were not enough Lugers and Mauser C-96s to meet their needs there were a wide variety of mouse guns available to try to help fill the gap.

Mauser 1914 - Mauser was a well established and trusted name for rifles as well as pistols.

Beholla

Peiper Bayard model 1908 - Belgium too had a thriving arms industry. Since the German occupied Belgium from the early part of WWI, they put those Belgian arms factories right back to work making pistols for them. One such was the Peiper Bayard.

Dreyse model 1907

Jaeger These are fairly tough to find and tend to be on the pricey side. What's rare about this pistol is its almost all stamped parts. It was intended to be quick to produce and cheaper since the parts did not require machining but being the first such design, it was difficult and time consuming to assemble. Only 13,000 were made for the Reichswehr ie the Imperial German Army.

the Crown M is the imperial acceptance mark.

Langenhan

 

[Deathroll]

German continued

Sauer & Sohn model 1913 - Sauer & Sohn's first pistol in what would become a long line of pistols. This company still exists and one of their spinoffs is a joint venture with a Swiss company you might have heard of....Sig Sauer.

Walther Model 4 - at this time Walther was a smaller new company. They made a few pocket pistols before this but the German Army settled on the Model 4 which Walther then produced in substantial numbers. This military contract springboarded Walther to become a mega successful gun company which they still are today.

German colonial troops in their colony in SudWest Afrika (todays Namibia) were equipped with Roth Sauer model 1905s. (mine is a commercial model and is missing a couple parts so this is an internet pic instead of one from my collection)

Schwarzlose 1908 - though like the Mannlicher 1905 there were no official contracts with the military for these, there had been a long tradition of officers being responsible for purchasing their own sidearms before the war.....so they were free to buy whatever they wanted. Also during the war, Officers who were not issued a sidearm due to shortages, were free to go buy their own. This resulted in the unsold stocks of every arms manufacturer being completely cleaned out including the Schwarzlose 1908.

 

[Bamaklingon]

I ain't admitting to nuffin

 

[Bamaklingon]

Yup

 

[hansbalistreri]

Wow, those are some serious collector’s items you’re after! That Waffenamt marked Kongsberg is insane – $10,500 is definitely a ‘save up for a loooong time’ kind of purchase. And a Browning High Power with the tangent sight? Classic. You’ve got some seriously refined taste!
As for me, my wish list is a little more… attainable, haha. I’ve been wanting to get my hands on a good condition Smith & Wesson Model 19 for a while now. Something about that classic .357 Magnum revolver just screams quality and reliability. I’m also kind of lusting after a Benelli M4 tactical shotgun – not exactly rare, but definitely a bucket-list gun.
But those Berettas, Mausers, and Nazi Occupation Brownings you mentioned? That’s next-level collecting. I can only imagine how rare and difficult they are to find. Good luck on your hunt! Hopefully, you’ll stumble across one of those unicorns someday. It’s always exciting to hear about other people’s collecting goals!

 

[Deathroll]

Wow, those are some serious collector’s items you’re after! That Waffenamt marked Kongsberg is insane – $10,500 is definitely a ‘save up for a loooong time’ kind of purchase. And a Browning High Power with the tangent sight? Classic. You’ve got some seriously refined taste!
As for me, my wish list is a little more… attainable, haha. I’ve been wanting to get my hands on a good condition Smith & Wesson Model 19 for a while now. Something about that classic .357 Magnum revolver just screams quality and reliability. I’m also kind of lusting after a Benelli M4 tactical shotgun – not exactly rare, but definitely a bucket-list gun.
But those Berettas, Mausers, and Nazi Occupation Brownings you mentioned? That’s next-level collecting. I can only imagine how rare and difficult they are to find. Good luck on your hunt! Hopefully, you’ll stumble across one of those unicorns someday. It’s always exciting to hear about other people’s collecting goals!

I've been collecting for over 15 years. I give myself a monthly allowance for guns - its the only way I can control my spending. I've been steadily collecting about 5 or 6 per year though not really expensive ones like those of course. I'd have to save up that allowance for a good while to be able to shell out that much for one. I splurged two and a half years ago and got about 9 months ahead of my budget. By buying only the cheaper ones and/or only buying when I saw one that was a super good deal or one that I knew I'd probably never see again, I slowed down my spending enough that at the end of this month, I'll finally be all caught up.

Now to not buy anything for a while so I can build up the cash for some of the more expensive ones......