Читать книгу Standard Catalog of Military Firearms. The Collector's Price and Reference Guide онлайн

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A primary market for these firearms was the veterans who had learned to shoot during the war. Many of the military rifles were purchased to provide cheap hunting guns. Unfortunately, many of these simply had the stocks chopped to make the gun look more like a hunting rifle. Others went to gunsmiths who stripped them for the action, which was rebarreled in a new caliber. A few articles appeared in firearms magazines dealing with the foreign firearms but most of those either questioned the quality of manufacture or told of how to convert or “sporterize” the inexpensive guns. Pistols were bought by the veterans who never got them as souvenirs while in the service.

In the 1960s some baby boomers who had grown up in the shadow of the “greatest generation” and saw all the war movies popular in the post war years started collecting these pieces of history. This period was the beginning of gun collecting as we know it today. This first generation of gun collectors had almost no reference material about the firearms they were collecting. No Standard Catalogue of Military Firearms back then! There had been a few articles published in military manuals and magazines during the war about the equipment the enemy used. These had only a small part of the information that the new collectors wanted. They pooled information with other collectors about the guns they had, and they learned about production numbers and variations. Some even traveled overseas and contacted the makers to ask for production data. Not that it was very easy to find. Much of the information about Axis weaponry had been destroyed during the war. Often makers were reluctant to discuss their participation in arming the enemies of the USA. As the knowledge base expanded, books were written and collecting clubs were formed.