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Thought you guy's would like this. A few weeks back I was going from Indiana PA to Bedford PA and thought I would stop at an old shop I use to go to many years ago, Springfield Sporters Penn run PA, I called their number the message said they where open but when I got there no one was home, grass had over grown the walks. this place is on a farm in a out of the way place, but I had to take a pic of the wall made from what looks like 98 mauser barrel's.Attachment 240807
Wow. Years ago someone told me the same shop had used rifle barrels for rebar in their floor.
Bannermans island in new york harbor has rifle barrels used as rebar in the concrete in most of the buildings . things were alot cheaper in the 20s and 30s
Salvage dealers paid 9 cents a pound for battle field pick up WW1 weapons. The going price for high quality steel scrap at the time.
That is just amazing, thanks for sharing that.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jjed
The water impoundment dam for the lake at Ft. Ritchie, Maryland, has tens of thousands of Krag barrels in it in place of rebar. Built as a WPA project in the early 30's.
I still have a couple of their catalogues in book shelf, also had breakdown drawings like gun parts had. I used to buy from them as a young fellow, some of the pictures had rifles on stacked pallets in rows. I think I am old enough now I can officially use the term the good ol' days!
Storeroom at Solar aerodrome in the town of Stavanger, Norway; holding some of the estimated 30,000 rifles taken from German forces in Norway after their surrender.
https://i.imgur.com/d5sN0xn.jpg
Fascinating photo,looks like each stack contains 200 rifles, I wonder if they were eventually sold off or destroyed?
Considering the metal shortages after a war, I am surprised they didn't just send all those off to be recycled. The barrels, etc have a lot of high quality steel in them. But then they may have decided to hang onto the guns for a while, just in case they needed them themselves.
That is pretty neat about the fence or wall made with barrels. It is rather unique too. They probably need to watch out for the metal thieves though. I bet some of the thieves drive by wondering how they could make off with that wall.
the fence around the squire in Chambersburg pa. has cannon barrels for fence posts.
I was in France in the 80's and found a picket fence around a large house made out of Maxim MG08 barrels.
Ulysis Grants home in Misouri has a fence constructed of Springfield barrels. LOTS of them
And some poor guy gets flamed because he wants to turn a 98 into a sporter.
Austin Monk told me during WW2, they used barrels for reinforcing rods in foundations. Being a Sharps man, it bothered him many were Sharps barrels.
So that's where my Krag barrel is.....Quote:
Originally Posted by gnoahhh
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During the siege of Ladysmith in the Boer war the Brits found a muzzle loading canon being used as a gate post. They dug it up mounted it on a carriage and put it in action. The garrison commander was Baden-Powell who later founded the Boy Scouts.
pacomdiver - I have a 34-70 barrel that was use as re-rod in cement on Bannerman's Island. A friend of mine visited the island a number o years ago - she of the comet was in tough shape and the barrels were exposed - he picked one up for me as well as one for himself. "Old iron" in those days!
Back in the day my buddy and I would go to springfield sporters on a saturday morning and look through what they had, and sometimes pick up a new to us rifle and then go to the ammo shelf buy surplus ammo, they had boxes of 8mm world war 2 surplus sold in 50 round boxes that looked like a 12 ga shotgun box for 3 to 4 dollars and about the same price for 303 British surplus with soft point boolits most of them had cracked necks from replacing the boolits but they shot fine. they used to have rifles stacked on the 2nd floor just like in the pic from 17nut. I still have some of the 8mm pre war rounds, the boolits look like they are chrome plated. I shot one through a piece of scrap railroad track my uncle had, looked like someone had drilled a 3/8 hole all the way through the web between the base and the top.
I understand that a well known Australian gun dealer used hundreds of Martini Cadet rifles as re bar in his driveway. As a young lad I could walk into any gun store and see barrels of Martini Cadets just sitting there, how times have changed. Regards Stephen
Some of the old industrial buildings at Rock Island Arsenal, IL have handrails on the stairs made from smelted down Confederate muskets. Rock Island was used as a prison camp during the Civil War, and many a southern boy died from illnesses caused by the brutal winters there.
Before the U.S. got into WWII, there were calls to "Send Arms To England" during the Blitz. Many Americans sent hunting long guns, handguns, binoculars, etc. to the Brits.
My Uncle Marty (deceased in 1996), a 3rd Army Master Sargeant and gun collector came home to PA through England in September 1945. In London he watched many American pre-1941 DONATED firearms being put into the fresh concrete walls of buildings in the London rebuild!! He asked a Bobby what was going on and was advised that the guns "were going to a better purpose." How very BRITISH gun-controlled Police response to my Uncle! He was stunned.
The Brits could have returned the fine arms to the American Citizens because they KEEP VERY good gun control Records, but it was cheaper than rebar to "sanatize" the Yankee guns, AND KEEP them out of honest citizen hands. "Tut-Tut."
Adam
and how about the ones at SPRINGFIELD ARMORY, MASSACHUSETTS. that is quite a fence!. any one seen it?.
Something about the folly of beating swords into plowshares comes to mind, but what are you going to do with three million single shot rifle-muskets in a smokeless repeater world, or five million bolt guns in an autoloading world? Even I'd admit there's no room for them in the closet at some point.:veryconfu
Post WWI, the Fokker D-VII biplane was one (maybe the only) piece of military equipment that the Allies specified by name to be handed over. I remember a photo of a row of them waiting to be torched. Engines had been cut out of them to power whatever it was you needed a quality engine to power.
They later smartened up and realized it was more profitable to sell lendlease weapons they had received gratis back to the US taxpayers who had paid for them. Good for their balance of payments, and good that the weapons in question didn't end up in a wall.Quote:
Originally Posted by Adam Helmer
I understand that at war's end the German artillery on the Channel Islands was self-rightously sealed in tunnels and dumped off cliffs...and laboriously recovered when the price of scrap steel went up.
Springfield Sporters stock was sold at auction by the pallet a few years ago, after changes in the family structure removed the motivation for keeping it open.
Springfield Sporters used to have bayonets by the pallet. Are they still in business ?
I don't want to steer this thread off course but after world war II alot of companies that were making military hardware were left with huge inventories of unused military surplus parts.
Many of these companies found ingenious ideas for repurposing some of those components; like using them for rebar or some other common sense usage.
Many years ago I was doing some work on a customer's old pickup truck and I found an old fishing rod behind the seat when I took the seat out. It was clearly an antique looking fishing rod so I hung onto it for him with the intent of giving it back to him when he came to pick up his truck. I showed it to him and he looked at it with wonderment for a while and then said, "Here, you keep it. I don't have any use for it."
It sat in my storage room for a long while till I happened onto a photo of a similar antique fishing rod on the internet. It's called a Hurd Super Caster. Apparently one of the companies that was making components for WWII tanks after the war was left with left over tank parts. They started manufacturing fishing rods. Their fishing reel parts of their fishing rods were made of aluminum. The rod part of their fishing rods were made from repurposed tank antennas.
Circle back around to the photo of the fence made of rifle barrels. I think all of this was back when business men and women appeared to display a bit more common sense. Sorry to have temporarily diverted this thread. I just thought it interesting that the clever uses for surplus stuff of yesteryear just doesn't seem to happen as much now days.
HollowPoint
No, SS is not doing any business. At least not currently. The owner had a serious medical issue a while back and shut things down.
As justa said, they got rid of the rifles but I think he still has his parts inventory but I could be wrong.
Definite gun porn.Quote:
Originally Posted by 17nut
Yes grants farm has many barrels made into a fence. Drove past it last week. Going past it today. Every time I go past it I thank of all the trapdoor rifles I could of had. I only want one ism not gready. They also have 32 lb cannon balls along the drive way. I noticed the fuse or disk is gone and they are empty but are cool to see. They also have a stack of them like a piramid at the end of the drive way. Cool place to visit .
Years ago, I was helping a corn sheller. We were at a job and he was changing wagons so we were taken a break. I was looking around at the crib. It was an old one, that looked like it was built around 1900 or so. There was about three or so double barrel 12 gage muzzles sticking out of the foundation. I asked the farmer about them. He didn't know much, but said that when the crib was built they used at least a dozen old shotguns along with other old steel to reinforce the foundation.
I thought that was very strange, but that was common practice in those days.
Rob
I hope this isn't moving the thread too far off topic. I see Springfield Sporters mentioned frequently, as well as surplus gun parts, etc., so this is sort of on topic. Anyway, let me say right up front that I do not know the folks who ran Springfield Sporters personally -- don't even know their names -- but nevertheless think highly of them. Over a number of years I had several favorable and interesting experiences with them.
First, they used to advertise in the Shotgun News that they had the largest inventory of Lee Enfield parts in the world. I took advantage of that claim and their most favorable prices to stock up on some of their parts, which usually proved to be like new or even unissued, and with which I was able to solve the headspace issues on many Lee Enfield rifles. Of course L.E. No. 4 rifles' headspace can be adjusted using numbered bolt heads of different sizes, but generally these are not available for No.1 rifles. But, way back when, I phoned and talked with a very nice lady and explained that I had one with headspace problems. She said that they had just the right part, and after a few days I received a bolt head in the mail that put the No.1 rifle I was working on back into specs. I was able to do the same for several other rifles using brand new bolt bodies in combination with ordinary bolt heads, but the time arrived when once again I was unable to find anything that would work.
So, I phoned S.S. again and chatted with the same lady who informed me that larger sized bolt heads to correct headspace in No.1 rifles did not exist. This was kind of astounding, since she was the same person who had previously known about, and sent me, a bolt head that did exactly that. I brought that fact to her attention, and she said that they had been sued in court about whether or not they existed and had lost, so that they did not exist, and anyway they had no more of what I'd previously purchased. To this day I honestly do not know the truth of the matter, having read that Lithgow Arsenal did make them in different sizes, but that the British arsenals did not. Wish I had a parts drawer full of them if they do exist. Many No.1 bolt heads are stamped with a letter, like "E", but the one in question had an "X". It was finished in a black oxide rather than the usual blue.
On another occasion I was looking for a couple of nice condition Carcanos for my collection, and S.S. had these rifles advertised, but in "fair" condition. I again talked with this same nice lady and told her that I wanted a couple in better than average condition. She said that she'd talk to the owner, and when they arrived I was very happy with them. They were practically new, and there was no extra charge.
I always read their ads in the Shotgun News in great detail back then, just like the SARCO ads of today. Nice folks and a good business, sorry to see it pass into history.
DG
Yes, I agree on SS. They used to have some pretty good deals on bayonets. Also, used to love all the ads in the Shotgun News pre-internet days.
When I was in college ROTC our sergeant found a rack of '03s that had been listed as "destroyed for parts" yet there they were as complete rifles. They ended up as rebar!!!
Museum director in 1990s was looking for a contractor to check one of the casemates that was suspected of containing the fort armory's trapdoor Springfields. All the casemates were concreted in and the cannons were used as rebar when it closed!Attachment 242135
someone in Pa upset them, this is whats left of their web site. https://www.ssporters.com/
What's up with Yankees using guns for rebar? A Southerner would scoff at the mention of such a waste!
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