M3 Grease Gun

Neat find, too bad it met a sad end. Never shot a greasegun but have shot a Thompson. I do have a few gg mags for my pcc’s. Given the 30 trillion national debt and agencies always needing money you would think that it could have been reentered into the system and sold for a ton of money to help the taxpayer out. But that would imply that someone in DC cares and we know they don’t, after all its not their money.
 
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My brother got ahold of one during his time in Viet Nam. Said he was going to disassemble it and bring it home in his baggage when he returned back to the US. He wisely chickened out when it came time to get ready to leave!
 
When I was in our Ballistics Unit, we would get calls all the time about crazy stuff people would turn into police stations. Our unit was staffed with guys that knew the historical significance of these guns and we would keep them in our Reference Collection. They can never be returned to the wild but at least they didn’t get chopped up and melted. As the greatest generation, and even baby boomers are passing on, there are thousands and thousands of these types of items stashed in basements and attics. Once I received a call from one of our barracks up north. The trooper said an old lady came in to drop off her recently deceased husband’s “deer rifle”. I asked them why they would call us for a regular firearm. The trooper explained that the gun looked like an AK-47, but was covered with stamped eagles and swastikas. It was, in fact, an MP-44. We grabbed it for our collection. It was operable, and though ammo was expensive, we all bucked up and bought some boxes of 7.92 Kurz. We each put a mag through it. It shot like a dream.
 
Amnesty Period after GCA 68

sjbrdn said:
No, I didn't buy one, but I wish I could. ;)

I got a call from a friend yesterday. He sold his mother's house and the new owners were doing some renovations. Look what the contractor found hidden inside the wall!

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It's missing the barrel and the mag.

The contractor gave it to the homeowner who, in turn, called my friend to inform him. It's now in the custody of the ATF.

My friends stepfather, long since passed, was an FFL holder. Since the gun was in the wall, however, I don't think he had the appropriate paperwork on this one!

You just never know...all I ever find are bugs, terds, and snake skins. :D:D
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Before GCA 68 went into affect there was a brief amnesty period to allow registration of unregistered machine guns.

Thanks to this amnesty a number of guns were added to the NFA registry before the door closed for ever. Unfortunately the amnesty period was arguably not well publicized and there were some people who would have been willing to come forward and register guns but were unaware of the amnesty until it was too late. There were also people who incorrectly believed that the amnesty period was a ploy to locate and confiscate these guns after they were declared. This may be why this M3 never came out of the woodwork. There may also have been a reluctance to come forward with stolen government property. The M3 was still a standard issue weapon at the time . While some US military stuff such as at least one M-14 did show up I would imagine that some one with a war souvaneir like an MP 40 or PPSh 41 might be a little less concerned about coming forward.

I was 13 at this time and was just getting started as a target shooter but I already had a strong interest in history. To me the worst thing about GCA 68 was the import ban an military surplus guns. This part of the law prevented any further importation of transferable full autos. It also stopped further release of transferable full autos from US Govt stock to law enforcement agencies. Most of the transferable M3s , GI Thompsons, Madsen model 50s etc. found their way into private collections through this route.

In the years following GCA 68 interest in owning a full auto grew and it was still possible to legally convert semi auto to full or make new transferable full autos. This changed in 1986 and the number of transferable full autos is permanently fixed where it is.



.
 
My uncle brought a 1911 home from Korea. Actually, he brought the shoulder holster and the mag; the officer carrying the gun for him absconded with it.

I suspect this grease gun could have come back a similar way, with the mag and barrel traveling separately to reduce the size. Barrels were easily removable, IIRC.
 
Grayfox said:
That one is missing the barrel. Can't tell if the bolt is in it either. I'm afraid that is just some junk spare parts. :(

1972-73. I was the driver of an M578 Recovery Vehicle in 2nd Armored at Ft. Hood. I was supposed to carry a 1911, but we didn't have enough to go around. There was no rack for a rifle in the driver's compartment. After breaking my 3rd M-16 stock :rolleyes: , our Armorer found me an old M3A1 to carry as a personal weapon.
I liked it. I'd just hook the wire stock in my web gear and wear it like a pistol. It sure beat lugging a rifle around all the time. ;)
BTW: it doesn't fire nearly as fast as you see in the movies. Its actually pretty slow for a sub-machine gun. :rolleyes:
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LOL. No not some “junk spare parts .” Most likely the barrel was removed to make it easier to hide in the wall . Probably the barrel and mag or mags are stashed in another wall . And even if they’re not a little search time on the internet will get you what you want .
 
My best friend found two WWII hand grenades in the wall of a house he was working on. He was in the National Guard at the time, and turned them in to the Amnesty box when he was next at the main depot.

NOT FULL AUTO BUT PROBABLY VERY HOT!: A plumber found an old Bushmaster Bull Pu (South African made) in an open crawl space in Florida. I owned it for a few months then sold it. I figured it was used to rob someone and the robber didn't want such a distinct gun on him when questioned.

Ivan
 
The BATF 'NFA Handbook' gives a pretty good rundown of the can and cannot do under the current NFA rules.
Also some of the past history of it.
https://www.atf.gov/firearms/national-firearms-act-handbook

The 1968 Amnesty was a very poorly rolled out program.
It was done of necessity because of the change in NFA rules over the commonly called 'DeWAT' full auto guns.

Up until the GCA68, a deactivated full auto required no registration, no license to buy, no Fed license to possess.

A change in NFA rules in the GCA68 placed these deactivated machineguns in a new & different catagory.
They would now require being Registered with NFA, though no NFA Tax would be due on them.

The Amnesty was required as these guns were already 'out there' and had been allowed to be by IRS/NFA rules.
The 30day length of the Amnesty was chosen though they had additional choices of 60 and 90 day lengths.

By all accounts it went OK for those that did show up and 'registered' their DeWAT... and any other unregistered NFA weapons at that time.
But many more remained in hiding not trusting the Gov'ment,,or simply never hearing of the Amnesty itself.

I think most anyone interested in firearms likely has a story or two of bring back NFA weapons in a barn, basement, garage or 'a guy at work' that never had 'papers'.
 
My brother in law is a heating and air conditioning contractor near Bristow Oklahoma and was called to an empty rent house by the landlord to service the air conditioning. One floor vent wasn't flowing air very well so he took off the air vent grille and reached inside. He pulled out several small packages wrapped in aluminum foil and thought it was drugs. He unwrapped them and it was nearly $18,000 in cash. He gave it to the landlord and I asked him if he got a reward and he said "Hell No".
 
A friend of mine told me he was helping a guy clean out his deceased fathers shop. He said over in a corner was a barrel of oil with the top cut open and a couple of hooks or chains hanging over the side. When they pulled the chains out there 2-3 M2 carbine barreled actions.
 
Back when I was a kid, one of my friends father had brought back a M1919 MG from WWII. We used to play War with it, but no tripod. No idea whatever happened to it. As I remember it was completely operable, not a DEWAT. I was probably about 10-12 years old at the time, and I remember it very clearly, especially the perforated barrel jacket.
 
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About 10 years ago I held an absolutely mint unfired condition M2 carbine that a lady turned in at a very small family owned gun shop that I visited 2-3 times a week . By the time I saw it they had already called ATF to come get it .
 
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An older friend of parents called my mom one day and asked her if I could look at some of dads guns from the war. I kindly agreed thinking it’s some long guns or pistols. As he lead me to the basement he told me about his dads roll in WW1. Then pulls back a tarp exposing a Vickers and a Lewis gun complete with the bipod, canvas shroud and 2 mags. The Vicker was rusted solid the Lewis was in fine working order. After a quick confirmation of the operation on the Lewis. I called the aft a few days later to check on registration knowing they weren’t. In the meantime he panicked and threw them down a well. Ruining my opportunity to part them out for him.
 
Man I'm sure I'd make the same call eventually, but I'd have a tough time making the call to turn it in.
 
I have always told people with avery straight face and the utmost belief in my convivtion that if I had a blanket search warrant that covered every building within a 2 mile radius of where I am, I could find enough unregistered class 3/DD to raise some Fall of Saigon-level chaos.

The amount of Lugers, Nambus and assorted other wartime detritus thats washed up on the shores of my gunshop convinvced me that if --this-- is what people feel comfortable publicl;y bringing in, you ---KNEW--- there had too be boo coo naughty stuff they were holding back!

Best,
RM Vivas
 
max said:
GM made them during WWII, and I believe the cost was $17.
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GM Guide Lamp division. Same stamping equipment they made headlight buckets with.

My uncles police dept had a Thompson they took off a guy pre-68 for sure. Might still be in the armory. He had it at the police range with us one Saturday.
 
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When I was in high-school, one of my history teachers, who had been a Marine in WWII, would bring in some of his "stuff" for a show and tell for the class. Japaneese battle flags, rifles, pistols, swords, etc..

One thing stood out though. A Sten Gun. No idea how that came to be in with his pile of Pacific Theater stuff. I never asked if it was operable, or if he had the papers for it. Knowing him, and he was a family friend, as well as a teacher, heck, he went to my church, and drove my school bus for years, it could have gone either way. What happened to that stuff after he passed, I have no idea.

He was also the best teacher I ever had, and I still consider him to be a mentor. Semper Fi "Mr. Mac."
 
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DWalt said:
Just how much of such a SMG can remain to not be considered illegal? Say someone hacksawed a piece out of the receiver to the extent that it is incapable of being fired. I have seen such remnants at gun shows, but I don’t know what the rules are.
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The latest that I have read is that the receiver of machine gun must be flame cut into 3 sections. There were a number of M3-A1 and M1-A1 Thompson parts kits around in the late 90’s. Everything was there including a demilitarized receiver. The receivers were torch cut.

From what I understand you could not keep the middle section. The Greaseguns that I saw had the back end with the pistol grip and stock and were cut just in front of the trigger. The front sections were cut in back of the ejection port on a forward angle toward the magazine well and still had the dust cover and barrel ring. No middle sections were included.
 
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Our version of the Sten Gun, cheap and easy to manufacture, more reliable than the Sten. Fired one once in the National Guard years ago.
 
DWalt said:
Just how much of such a SMG can remain to not be considered illegal? Say someone hacksawed a piece out of the receiver to the extent that it is incapable of being fired. I have seen such remnants at gun shows, but I don’t know what the rules are.
Click to expand...

If you peruse that NFA handbook I posted the link to earlier. it gives details and pics of the necessary deactivation/cutting processes necessary to make a MG/SMG just that.
Torch cut is the latest method and cuts must be 1/4" in width IIRC, placed across specific areas of the weapon, etc.

Sometimes just a few internal parts of certain weapons are considered to be 'a machine gun' under the NFA law. So it can be a confusing bit of landscape to travel through

The Handbook downloads slowly at times, but other times seems to play nice.

National Firearms Act Handbook | Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
 
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