"Gunpowder Kurt" is in trouble

[mgc1961]

The villagers of Becherbach in Germany called him "Gunpowder Kurt" because they knew he was a weapons fanatic, and because he would drive up the high street in a military jeep and wear a uniform, binoculars and holster.

But they didn't realize the size of the arsenal the 62-year-old pensioner had amassed: up to 60 kilos of explosives including nitroglycerin, 50 guns including rifles and submachine guns, 60,000 rounds of ammunition, crates of hand grenades, rocket-propelled grenades and mines -- enough, in short, not just to obliterate Becherbach but also to take a small country by force.

Police found a truckload of weapons in his home last week and received a tip-off to also take a look at a barn he had rented in Becherbach, which is located near the city of Kaiserslautern. When they pushed open the door they discovered what one investigator described as "probably the largest hoard of weapons and explosives owned by a private individual in Germany."

Read the rest of the article at http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,741214,00.html

[onehandle]

1. Makes you wonder what is being 'collected' over here.

That MLK Day bomb that the none-Rachel media has ignored was supposed to be Very sophisticated. What are our 'enthusiasts' up to?

[Katya Mullethov]

2. Ever rub an elbow

With those is in the upper orbit of their field ?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAHkEsyUpPE

[mgc1961]

4. That's a great photo for this article.

What calibre is that weapon, about 88 millimeters?

:hi:

[Katya Mullethov]

7. Youre probably thinking of the 88 Magnum

They shoot through schools .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQvtfHJZTUc
But 88mm will always be 88mm

[mgc1961]

42. From what I understand...

old "Gunpowder" applied for a concealed carry permit for his 88 but was turned down until he gets a bigger pair of pants.

:silly:

[Mopar151]

10. This house (Chez Mopar) had 30,000 rounds stored in it

Formerly owned by the local National Guard's range officer. And I know of other "private arsenals" - some owned by legitimate sport shooters, some just f'n nuts.....

[AtheistCrusader]

16. Hahaha 'Tremors'.

[onehandle]

18. It's a great movie. nt

[Glassunion]

19. And he has great trigger dicipline... Even with a movie prop. nt

[safeinOhio]

3. Where does hobby end and

pathology begin?

[sharesunited]

6. I set the bar very very low, even based on posts I see here!

[lawodevolution]

8. Mental illness also becomes obvious when all the data point toward guns not being the

cause or even a factor in any of societies problems but still proclaiming they should be banned. This old guy may be a pack rat or he may just collect guns. I plan to dwarf his arsenal someday. But the difference between having a problem with accumulation and being a collector depends on how you keep the stuff you accumulate and also if you are able to downsize your collection if you have to, but owning 500 guns by itself does not mean you have a mental disorder just like owning 500 baseball cards does not indicate a mental disorder

[sharesunited]

9. Your equating guns with baseball cards is itself a warning sign of unwellness.

But you go further to declare your intention of dwarfing his arsenal someday.

Get some help.

[rl6214]

32. Sounds like you are the one that needs some help

With your fear of an inanimate object.

[lawodevolution]

40. SU, your fear and hate for guns and gun owners is truly a concern

Your inability to look at real data and modify your views makes me think you have a blind faith or ulterior motive for banning (or expressing the desire to ban) and confiscate guns and ammo.

[YllwFvr]

44. firearms tend to hold there value very well

so some may collect silver, others stamps. I know a man with 700 "assault rifles" that he bought up over years. When the assault weapons craze hit, the man went nuts with joy as over night his stock doubled or tripled in value and he started cashing in on his investment. Thats a nice nest egg not everyone can be so lucky to have. The stock market has bit more than a few.

He had no ammunition for the guns. He didnt fire them, but stored them in safes. Some of the rifles were bought for $90 and sold for $300+. He just bought a brand new F350, the lucky bastard.

[one-eyed fat man]

45. Better than a 401k

This is a Vickers. It was built in 1916 by Vickers, Sons & Maxim. The weapon had a reputation for great solidity and reliability. Ian V. Hogg, in Weapons & War Machines, describes an action that took place in August, 1916, during which the British Army's 100th Company of the Machine Gun Corps fired their ten Vickers guns continuously for twelve hours. They fired a million rounds between them, using 100 new barrels, without a single breakdown. "It was this absolute foolproof reliability which endeared the Vickers to every British soldier who ever fired one." While the gun is a robust design that statement is only true because Vickers gunners were trained to a high standard and understood intimately the proper setup, operation and maintenance of the gun.

The gun in the picture was sold out of British Army service in 1968 in Hong Kong. It came complete with the "Gunner's Wallet", spare parts box, tripod serial numbered to the gun, 6 spare barrels, belt-filling machine and transport cases. The $200 tax paid to register the gun exceeded the cost of acquisition and shipping to the United States. The gun was bought by a US Army sergeant on leave just months before the law changed. Current value is somewhere in the $35,000 to $45,000 range.

It works as well today as it did 94 years ago. The Story of Maxim gun. The Vickers is just an adaptation of the Maxim design. At one point it does show why the typical neophyte's notion of how machine guns are employed is ineffective.

[YllwFvr]

46. very nice

if only I was rich enough...
nah I probably still wouldnt buy one. They are very cool though, and worth more for historical value than money or the novelty of owning a machine gun IMO

[friendly_iconoclast]

33. I didn't know you earned a PhD in Telepsychology, Shares!

What was your dissertation subject?

[-..__...]

5. Sounds like he might have had a pretty impressive collection of firearms.

I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of it was WW-II equipment that was unearthed/discovered over the years.

I don't know what Germanys policy is regarding the disposition of 'unregistered' firearms, but hopefully any vintage/collectible stuff will be spared from the smelter.

[Glassunion]

11. A small country by force?

Doubtful. Our own military requires more than 3 times the ammunition than that guy had to kill just one enemy insurgent.

Perhaps Pitcairn Islands? But I would not recommend a solo full frontal assault. Maybe with some subterfuge and gorilla tactics?

Question to the group... I'm not talking explosives like grenades or mines and the such. Where is the line from having a supply of ammo and stockpiling? I have cases of ammunition that I have acquired over the years. I simply rotate my stock when I go to the range. Back when there was an ammo shortage, I did not make any ammo purchases, and was still able to get to the range about 2x a month.

So all in all I have enough rounds for several different firearms to last me about 4 months of range time.

Am I hoarding, or is this just about right?

[PavePusher]

12. Whut are ya, a militia'r'sumpin?

:sarcasm:

[Glassunion]

13. Nah...

I'm looking to qualify and compete in two tournaments this year.

[AtheistCrusader]

17. You are a bad, bad man.

You should have no more than one 50 round box of ammo. Clearly you are a hoarder.

[Glassunion]

22. I remember when I was growing up, my folks would pick up ammo for my 22LR

by the pound.

1 lb would work out to about 125 rounds.

Now it's about 7-8 cents a round for small boxes and 3-4 cents a round for cases. You can get a full case for about $190.00. At these prices is it any wonder I'm a better shot with my .22 than any other firearm?

[RSillsbee]

20. Pitcairn Islands

Almost every one who lives on Pitcairn Island is descended from the survivors of the HMS Bounty Mutiny. When Robin Lee Graham visited the Island in the late 60's on his solo circumnavigation of the globe he reported in his log that "They are all inbred and quite queer".

[Glassunion]

24. So that would make them Republicans?

[RSillsbee]

34. I think they are a British protectorate

so it wouldn't apply

[Glassunion]

38. Hey... They gotta come from somewhere.

[RSillsbee]

39. Nah, According to Mr. Graham

The islanders are quite nice and give each new married couple a new home to live in. Doesn't sound too Pug to me

[RSillsbee]

21. I thought having a supply of ammunition WAS stockpiling NT

[rrneck]

25. Intent. nt

[Glassunion]

27. I intend to shoot paper at the range on weekends.

Or soda cans or milk jugs at my grandmother's farm.

Grandma has the largest "range" near my house and I don't have to pay. But I usually bring her some sausages that I pick up from the farmer's market.

So for the cost of a sausage and ammo, I can shoot all day at anywhere up to 500 yards. The largest public range within an hour from my house is 100 yards. 2 hours in the car and I can go to a 1000 yard bench-rest (semi-public)range, or drive another hour for a 1000' unrestricted range.

So 20 minutes to grandmas is usually my choice. But I never go early in the morning or during dinner time. Don't want to bother the neighbors.

[rrneck]

28. Now there you go

making me want to go to the range and I have to work today.

[Glassunion]

29. Get the value pack...

This will last most of the day...

http://www.luckygunner.com/federal-22-lr-ammo-for-sale-22lr36cphpfedchampion-5250

[shadowrider]

14. The weapons and amount of ammo he has doesn't bother me

but the nitro concerns me.

[Glassunion]

15. I was concerned with all of the explosives...

Mines, grenades, RPGs, etc...

[RSillsbee]

23. I remember reading a book about a German family that lived through WWII

The author noted that at the end of the war boxcars full of weapons, ordnance (which I would consider to be mines) and ammunition were looted all over Germany.

I wonder how many MP-40s and Stiel Grenates ended up in attics all over Europe. And I wonder how many are still there

[Glassunion]

26. Oh man! They are great for making mashed potatoes, right?

[PavePusher]

30. Heh, only once.... n/t

[Glassunion]

31. No kitchen would be complete...

[RSillsbee]

35. I remember reading in "The Hiding Place" a majority

of Wermacht weapons were made by slave labor late in the war and the grenades were notoriously unreliable. If I was a slave laborer I would try to make them so they would detonate as soon as the pin was pulled

[friendly_iconoclast]

36. Sabotage was fairly widespread in munitions factories, apparently

I recall a new forward to a reissue of Ambrose's Band of Brothers, where a reader of the first edition commented about

an incident where a Panzerfaust (antitank rocket) warhead failed to go off. ISTR that the reader had been a slave laborer in a

munitions factory and said the inmates would put sand in the warheads whenever they could get away with it.

Also, a quick Google search revealed this:


http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2008/feb/14/sabotaging-hitlers-bombs/

...In 1978 I worked with Norwegian colleagues during a US–Norwegian geophysical study of the Norwegian continental margin. For seismic sources, we used World War II surplus Nazi explosives which were stored in man-made caverns along Norwegian fjords.

It was my personal observation that while the munitions dated 1939–1940 were reliable, those with dates from 1943 and later were typically weak or noneffective. This difference I ascribe either to intentional sabotage by the “Jews and concentration camp inmates” or to the simple substitution of inert materials for active ones by munitions plant managers, presumably due to the conflict between production quotas and availability of nitrates.

Speer was apparently not above “production for production’s sake” with a blind eye to quality control.

John Diebold

Chief Scientist for Marine Operations

Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory


Palisades, New York

Richard J. Evans replies:
I’m grateful to Mr. Diebold for his interesting letter. There were certainly growing materials shortages in the second half of the war, and forced laborers in munitions factories were starving, weak, and constantly maltreated; the quality of their work cannot have been very high. No one can be sure how widespread sabotage by munitions workers was, but there is plenty of anecdotal evidence, including a story I can contribute myself. A German bomb fell through the roof of my wife’s grandmother’s house in the East End of London in 1943 and lodged, unexploded, in her bedroom wardrobe. When the bomb disposal unit opened it up, they found a note inside. “Don’t worry, English,” it said, “we’re with you. Polish workers.”...

[one-eyed fat man]

43. Sabotage in small arms

One rather common bit of sabotage was to make the safety on the P-38 pistol too hard and therefore brittle. In routine usage when the safety is placed to the "SAFE" position the firing pin is blocked, then the hammer is released. The blow to the firing pin is not transferred to any cartridge in the chamber.

Back in the Fifties there was a rash of discharges in veteran souvenirs when the brittle safeties failed after an untold number of hammer blows. Most serious collectors of wartime P-38's are aware of the defect and take great pains not to allow the hammer to drop unrestrained when engaging the safety as well as to ensure it is pointed in an absolutely safe direction, just in case.

It has long been held that Nazi weapons bearing the WaffenAmt Na410 stamping indicating inspection and acceptance by the office responsible for overseeing production at FN Hertsal do not always exhibit the factory's best work. (The magazines for this P-35 would be banned.)

[one-eyed fat man]

37. Despite strict laws and registration

The last amnesty netted over 200,000 illegal weapons turned in, yet the German authorities estimate the number of illegal weapons is at least double that of legal guns.

The proliferation of illegal small arms and light weapons in and around the European Union

[Euromutt]

41. That reminds me of the Mother of All Amnesty Stories from my home town

During the 1980s in the Netherlands, there were periodic "hand in weapons - no questions asked" amnesty periods, usually after the law had been tightened (again). During one of these periods, a old guy in Scheveningen (former coastal fishing village since incorporated into the city of The Hague) calls the local police station and says he has something to hand it, but it's too big to carry to the station. So the cop on the phone asks "do we need to send a car round?" and the guy replies "I think you'd better send a crane."

As it turns out, sitting in his attic is a complete German quad 20mm anti-aircraft cannon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2_cm_FlaK_30/38/Flakvierling#2_cm_Flakvierling_38)!

In 1943, Scheveningen was forcibly evacuated to create a a fortified coastal zone, part of Fortress Europe. After the guy had been thrown out of his house, the Germans decided it was in a good spot for an AA emplacement, so they removed the (interlocking) roof tiles, stacked them to the side, and placed the gun there.

After the German surrender in May 1945, the guy comes home to find the gun in his attic. He doesn't know what the hell to do about it or who to call (the government still being somewhat in a state of disarray), so he lets down the legs of the mounting platform, puts the tiles back on the roof, covering up the gun, and over the years he periodically comes up and dusts and oils it.

So yeah, in the end they had to strip off the tiles again, and the gun got a new home in the national war museum.