So, for the past two weeks I have been about ready to burst. I was contacted by a gentleman from the West side of Michigan about a donation of some military related firearms. Basically he was looking for a museum that might take them and I quote "before Biden takes office and destroys them" . No strings attached, no tax deduction, just a 501c(3) museum that would be willing to take them.
I told him we were certainly interested and he said he would send me the details with a flash drive in the mail. So, my inner self chalked it up to another "tire kicker" and I moved on... Last Monday to my surprise, the aforementioned flash drive arrived in the mail. I plugged it into the usb port and nearly fell out of my chair!
In the drive were photos of 120 weapons from the American Revolution through the present time complete with slings and bayonets! To name just a few, there was a 1941 Johnson Rifle with bayonet, an American Civil War Greene Rifle, of which there were only 900! A Finnish Suomi SMG, all of what you might call the common weapons from all periods and all major combatants with almost no duplication. Where there was duplication was in 3 US M-4 carbines in various sight and grip configurations, 2 French Gras rifles from different arsenals, and 2 Tokarev pistols.
Well, today I made the pickup with a crew of 7 and it took 2 hours to load them all into a van and two full size trucks! The donor also forgot about 10-15 more, most of which were non-guns like a PPsH, a Thompson, a Sterling and a British SA-80 but also several actual guns like a Soviet PPS and more! We also received 3 very old de-milled LMG's to include a Bren, a BAR and an MG-34. All told somewhere near $200,000.00 worth of guns and bayonets. A donation that will certainly be hard to beat in the future. So, my museum in full to the top with these until we can get some custom cabinets built and we are just beside ourselves.
The donor is a retired Marine Major who also offered 1600 built military models that are top notch, though we simply cannot care for that many at this time and its really too far to move them as its about 2.5 hours one way for the drive... He has two more guns at the gunsmith that I have to go back for and a few other misc items as well. Just an amazing day to say the least. I will try and post some pics Wed as I begin to sort and catalog them with the volunteers. All told there are around 150 weapons and nearly as many bayonets! Scott
Topic: Day of days so far at the museum (Read 1341 times)
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