Original Item: Many years ago I stood in a European military arsenal watching soldiers “destroy” endless numbers of original MP 40 Sub Machine Guns. No amount of begging did me any good whatsoever. One by one each gun was disassembled, the parts crushed then fed into the smelter. I was actually there collecting a Government release of militaria, helmets and leather goods, but that didn’t compensate for my anguish at seeing what was going on. That night in the local hotel I was sitting at the bar drinking the local beer when someone I recognized came in. He wasn’t wearing his uniform and he reminded me how I had offered to buy him a drink back at the depot. After three or four beers with the ice now fully broken he suggested that $ 100.00 might be a good investment for me to have him tell me a secret. I bit. The secret was a hidden treasure! The treasure was secreted in a flower box outside the Inn and turned out to be a plastic bag containing 75 MP 40 extractors each carefully removed from the weapon before destruction. An investment indeed! I never saw my benefactor again and believe you me, I looked for him. Now, 25 years later, I found that bag in our big IMA clean up.
The story is true. The extractors are real. Original WW2 MP40 extractors always have been hard to find and they do cost money, but thankfully, there is no charge for the story. Approximate…
Read More