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I’m inheriting a salvaged M2 Machine Gun

CE1371

CE1371

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Full Member
Minuteman
Dec 11, 2007
376
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AZ/CO
I’ve been informed that a family member is passing on an originally plane-mounted M2 machine gun to me. For those interested in following along, I’m starting this as a restoration/salvage/build thread.

The story of this machine gun as I’ve heard it passed second hand to me:

My great uncle who served as a Navy Diver in Hawaii in the early 50’s found a P-40 that had been shot down or otherwise abandoned at the bottom of the ocean not far from Pearl Harbor. Following the salvage laws of the time, he salvaged all 4 machine guns (I believe 2 .30 cal and 2 .50 machine guns). He later registered all four MGs with the ATF prior to the 86 ban. Three of the machine guns were restored and he later sold them to fund a fancy RV for he and my aunt to enjoy during retirement. The fourth is rusty and Uncle believed it was deteriorated beyond restoration. It is now being passed to me.

I’d like to accomplish two things:
1) Determine if it’s possible to restore the original weapon as-is or determine if the right-side serialized receiver plate is salvageable and build a “new” functioning machine gun around it.
2) If the right side plate can be used to build a “new” MG, I’d like to install a non-functioning replacement plate on the rusted original mg parts to keep as a display piece.

I’m researching via the ol’ Google but let me know if there is an individual or company you’d recommend who can evaluate this machine gun to determine if it’s restorable/salvageable for functional service.

Pics to follow next weekend.
 
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CE1371 said:
I’ve been informed that a family member is passing on an originally plane-mounted M2 machine gun to me. For those interested in following along, I’m starting this as a restoration/salvage/build thread.

The story of the machine gun as I’ve heard it passed second hand to me:

My great uncle who served as a Navy Diver in Hawaii in the early 50’s found a P-40 that had been shot down or otherwise abandoned at the bottom of the ocean not far from Pearl Harbor. Following the salvage laws of the time, he salvaged all 4 machine guns (I believe 2 .30 cal and 2 .50 machine guns). He later registered all four MGs with the ATF prior to the 86 ban. Three of the machine guns were restored and he later sold them to fund a fancy RV for he and my aunt to enjoy during retirement. The fourth is rusty and Uncle believed it was deteriorated beyond restoration. It is now being passed to me.

I’d like to accomplish two things:
1) Determine if it’s possible to restore the original weapon as-is or determine if the right-side serialized receiver plate is salvageable and build a new, functioning machine gun around it.
2) If the right side plate can be used to build a “new” MG, I’d like to install a non-functioning replacement plate on the rusted original mg parts to keep as a display piece.

I’m researching via the ol’ Google but let me know if there is an individual or company you’d recommend who can evaluate this machine gun to determine if it’s restorable/salvageable for functional service.

Pics to follow next weekend.
Click to expand...
Raufous rounds my friend.

Doc
 
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Neat project. I’ll follow along. For me, the appeal of 50 cals, and FA for that matter, ended when I had to start paying for the rounds but It would be awesome to rescue a piece of history like this. Especially if you could link it to a specific plane, pilot and story.
 
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Ive been watching Mark Novak on Youtube channel named Anvil... This is the shit he does... Not necessarily machine guns, but rusty guns. He has a few machine gun episodes so I know he is licensed to work on them.

The other guy I would try to get ahold of would be George Christie...aka Little Fat Guy. He's the guy at Knob Creek that always has a few M2's at the end of the line. I am not sure if he is a gun smith, but I am sure he knows all the M2 guys in the country.

A buddy of mine used to have an M2, if you dont have any luck finding somebody who can work on it, let me know and I can reach out to my buddy. He knows just about everybody in the machine gun world.
 
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FatBoy said:
Neat project. I’ll follow along. For me, the appeal of 50 cals, and FA for that matter, ended when I had to start paying for the rounds but It would be awesome to rescue a piece of history like this. Especially if you could link it to a specific plane, pilot and story.
Click to expand...
Next weekend, a family member of mine will be going through Uncle’s stuff to look for more information and any historical records or pictures of the salvage. I’ll continue to update this thread as things develop. My Uncle was pretty meticulous in his records so I hope to determine a plane number at minimum.
 
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jrhtx said:
You need to reach out to
Bubba Naess - Black River Militaria
or
Bob Landies at Ohio Ordnance Works
Click to expand...
Both great guys. If you have papers on this gun i know a fellow who can do what you need if he has the time. I can contact him and check. He rebuilt my 50 cal for me twice.
Rad
 
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My recommendation? Delete this post and don't advertise on the internet that you have an automatic weapon. It may be legal, it may be inoperable, but with the stroke of a pen your new supreme leader can turn you an otherwise innocent gun owner into a felon so... be smart.
 
HousePlant said:
My recommendation? Delete this post and don't advertise on the internet that you have an automatic weapon. It may be legal, it may be inoperable, but with the stroke of a pen your new supreme leader can turn you an otherwise innocent gun owner into a felon so... be smart.
Click to expand...

LOL

You do realize this is a gun forum... with, before the last rebuild, a section dedicated to NFA weapons which includes full auto's... Im pretty sure there is a TON of full auto stuff on this forum.

You probably shouldnt visit the sturmgewehr forum... and if you do, better tighten up the tin foil...
 
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HousePlant said:
My recommendation? Delete this post and don't advertise on the internet that you have an automatic weapon. It may be legal, it may be inoperable, but with the stroke of a pen your new supreme leader can turn you an otherwise innocent gun owner into a felon so... be smart.
Click to expand...

From the OP, the guns were registered prior to 86 and therefore are on a Form 4 and if they are "passed down" to him will do so tax free on a Form 5.

ATF/DOJ aint running to the interwebs first for tin foily confiscations. They'll grab a computer printout from the NFA and start with that.

damn, have more common sense than that.
 
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Even if the side plate is super beat up you can have it repaired. As long as it is registered as a mg don’t get rid of it. You would be surprised what can be fixed.
You need to contact Ian of Forgotten Weapons. [email protected] He is a acquaintance of mine and can point you in the right direction for both the legal and technical aspects of this.

You are probably going to want to convert it to the ground version of the M2 so it is useable, so keep your eyes out for parts.

 
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jrhtx said:
You need to reach out to
Bubba Naess - Black River Militaria
or
Bob Landies at Ohio Ordnance Works
Click to expand...
I can personally vouch for Bob Naess' work. He re-watted a captured MG 15 for me, can't tell there was ever a welder taken to it. Gun was captured in Fountain Bleu France in 1944, and mailed home in pieces.
 
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still anxiously awaiting pictures. Anything WWII related is cool to begin with, coming from an airplane, even cooler.
 
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I’m also eagerly awaiting pics. I’m relying on a family member to go take some as I’m not in the area. Should be this weekend. He’ll also be sending pics of supporting documents.
 
I am so excited to see this process! In my opinion there are not many things in life better than passed down guns with a great story. I can't wait for pictures
 
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rjacobs said:
Ive been watching Mark Novak on Youtube channel named Anvil... This is the shit he does... Not necessarily machine guns, but rusty guns. He has a few machine gun episodes so I know he is licensed to work on them.

The other guy I would try to get ahold of would be George Christie...aka Little Fat Guy. He's the guy at Knob Creek that always has a few M2's at the end of the line. I am not sure if he is a gun smith, but I am sure he knows all the M2 guys in the country.

A buddy of mine used to have an M2, if you dont have any luck finding somebody who can work on it, let me know and I can reach out to my buddy. He knows just about everybody in the machine gun world.
Click to expand...
Mark is awesome, I love his videos !
 
BLEE said:
Looking for some vintage barrels and stocks and ran across ma deuce barrels, here:
www.gunpartscorp.com

Gun Barrels for Sale | Numrich Gun Parts

Find your replacement gun barrels here. Numrich offers gun barrels for sale from top manufacturers of handguns, rifles, shotguns and more. Order today!
www.gunpartscorp.com www.gunpartscorp.com
Not sure if they are a good shop. May be useful.
Click to expand...
Numrich is the internets version of the grumpy old guy at the gun show that has a collection of 5,000,000 obsolete and hard to find parts in shoeboxes and old coffee cans.

I've bought from them before, and when I can't find a part I need anywhere else I'll buy from them again.
 
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Having had the pleasure of firing M2’s (being in infantry we got all the goodies but my job turned out to be electronic warfare)

And having a Quad Fifty on our hill, good luck.

M2’s are ONE HECK OF A GUN!
 
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Ok a few thoughts...

One, Bob Naess is the varsity. Contact him. Really. He knows the in's and outs.

Some other thoughts. If the gun has either MG Class III registration paperwork or a DeWat paperwork, you can re-activate. But ONLY if it is already registered. That's the best case. Because incredibly valuable if registered and you can return to FA status.

If it has no paperwork, cut the right sideplate into several pieces with a torch... not a saw... or you have a machine gun. And that is bad news. No matter how rusted, if that sideplate is NOT registered and IS functional... then it must be destroyed. It cannot be registered now. Under no circumstances. If you have it in presence of parts, it can be construed as having a complete machine gun. If it is 'alone' it is still an unregistered machine gun, even if no parts are present. A 100 percent side plate is a machine gun. Regardless of the presence of the rest of the parts.

You cannot register it except with a pre-86 registered sideplate and you will not find one of those these days. They were all consumed on restorations years ago. You CAN reactivate it as a semi-auto with a sideplate (with denial blocks) and suitable internal bolt modification to make it conform to semi-auto standards.

But if you can find registration paperwork, you hit the lottery! It can be restored. But if not, don't take chances.

Hope this helps. Sirhr
 
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if you can't find the registration paperwork, disassemble the gun and keep all the legal to own parts at a buddies place. Merely keep the right side plate in your posession. Make ABSOLUTELY sure that you can't find the paperwork. Then call the ATF. Sometimes they can help you find the paperwork. All this is laid out in the video I posted above of how to handle this. If you call them before you have disassembled the gun and removed all the good parts, they will take the whole thing and you may lose a lot of valuable parts.
 
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I believe in the original post it was mentioned that it was registered. He said the original owner registered all four before '86 and had successfully transferred the other three.
 
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Yes, but if you can't find the paperwork and the ATF "lost" their copy of the paperwork that may cause some small problems, yes?
 
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sirhrmechanic said:
Ok a few thoughts...

One, Bob Naess is the varsity. Contact him. Really. He knows the in's and outs.

Some other thoughts. If the gun has either MG Class III registration paperwork or a DeWat paperwork, you can re-activate. But ONLY if it is already registered. That's the best case. Because incredibly valuable if registered and you can return to FA status.

If it has no paperwork, cut the right sideplate into several pieces with a torch... not a saw... or you have a machine gun. And that is bad news. No matter how rusted, if that sideplate is NOT registered and IS functional... then it must be destroyed. It cannot be registered now. Under no circumstances. If you have it in presence of parts, it can be construed as having a complete machine gun. If it is 'alone' it is still an unregistered machine gun, even if no parts are present. A 100 percent side plate is a machine gun. Regardless of the presence of the rest of the parts.

You cannot register it except with a pre-86 registered sideplate and you will not find one of those these days. They were all consumed on restorations years ago. You CAN reactivate it as a semi-auto with a sideplate (with denial blocks) and suitable internal bolt modification to make it conform to semi-auto standards.

But if you can find registration paperwork, you hit the lottery! It can be restored. But if not, don't take chances.

Hope this helps. Sirhr
Click to expand...
Thank you, Sirhr. My other family member who is the executor for the will has in years passed seen what he believes to be the registration paperwork. My Great Uncle was a very detail oriented sort of fellow so I’m feeling optimistic that we’ll have it in hand. Once we do, I’ll look into form 5 transfer - and then it looks like a call to Bob Naess.
 
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and the pro communist government now in power in Washington will somehow look at this and go lol let him have it while for the last 4 years every word out of there mouths has been they are going to take all our guns away , I don't see you being that lucky . here's hopping I am wrong .
 
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