Friday, October 27, 2017

Couple Discovers Cache of French Resistance Guns and Ammo

 

A Burgundy couple discovered a hidden cache of World War II-era arms that likely belonged to the French Resistance. The cache included pistols and submachine guns as well as grenades and plenty of mags and ammo.

The couple described the cache which included three Sten guns, three pistols, over a dozen grenades and well over a thousand rounds of ammunition. Two of the Sten guns have engravings. One bears the name “Pepette” and the other “Alice.”

The couple donated the cache to a local museum. The museum will put them on display next year in honor of the Maquis who lived there.

More @ Guns America

4 comments:

  1. Nice find, but the couple should have cleaned them up and go them ready for the Western Civilization vs. Musloid "goat humper" Games soon to be taking place in greater Europa! I would bet money that the wartime ammunition would still fire. The grenades would carefully be placed in a deep hole or deep lake. LOL

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    1. he grenades would carefully be placed in a deep hole or deep lake.

      You think they would be unstable?

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  2. You know, I really did not know. So I Googled "shelf life", etc. of grenades. It was an interesting find. From what I read the explosives would probably be "good" for a very long time, but the ignition system could and probably would become very unstable unless kept in a "cool dark place". On one forum a guy that was in Vietnam (1966-70) stated that he used Korean War era grenades and once had some marked 1944 that worked well too (26 years old). Another place I found where India still had some WW2 stocks of grenades and about one in three were duds. Some of the ordnance to this day that is still showing up in the Persian conflicts is vintage WW2 Soviet stuff and works very well. On one forum an American guy wrote that he had used WW1 mortar rounds for training in 1981 and the worked like a charm. I know I still have some 1946 Turkish 8mm Mauser (corrosive salts) that is very "hot" and functions fine. The earliest dated ammo I have ever shot was 1940 German 8mm Mauser. It was in the original case and in twenty round boxes on stripper clips. Each box had a paper seal around it with the "dirty bird" stamp on the band and maker/inspection codes on the cardboard boxes. We were shooting a MG42 that was acting finicky using late mid-60's Hungarian surplus ammo. We shot the whole case with only a handful of stoppages.

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