Grease Gun Flea Market Find

[Brian Keith]

I hit a small flea market today and found a US M3 sub-machine gun, AKA, Grease Gun. Well part of one anyway. Couldnt pass it up for $30. Im quite sure Ill never own an intact one.

These were made during WW II in Anderson, IN by Guide Lamp Division of General Motors. Later, in the late 50s early 60s I believe the M3A1 was made by Ithaca. I understand they were issued to crews of tanks and maybe other armored vehicles into the 90s. I love Indiana-Made militaria!

Thanks for looking!

BKW

(No, the vendor didnt have the rest of it. It was just something he got somewhere, sometime.)

 

[bigkahunasix]

Last time I played with a grease gun was 1997 or early 1998.....Guard unit in Southern Indiana had 3 for a M-88 Retriever that had never been unpacked, cleaned or test fired and the new CO wanted them fired for familiarization at the next drill. My buddy, who was in the guard, called me and asked if I new my way around one and when I said yes he asked if I would be willing to give a class on it.

 

I gladly agreed and spent an evening that week giving the CO, supply folks and training SNCO a class on the care and feeding of "Sub-machine gun M3A1". Afterwards the CO and I had a cup of coffee and he pitched me on coming to drill and running the M3A1 course of fire for him...I agreed and went along to Camp Atterbury the next weekend, trained his maintenance section on the M3A1 and then spent the rest of the weekend shooting Uncle Sugars free .45acp ammo as most of the Battery FAM fired them....had a ball.

 

What really surprised me was that they had been in their inventory for at least 10 years according to the supply geeks but had never been out of the arms room....and NONE of them had any idea how to operate / service them. Odd.

[themick]

Would the piece that Brian acquired be considered a receiver? it houses the bolt and trigger mechanism. It's from an automatic weapon. Isn't this sort of thing illegal absent a federal class 3 license? I'm definitely not an expert on this subject.

 

Steve

[hbtcoveralls]

Would the piece that Brian acquired be considered a receiver? it houses the bolt and trigger mechanism. It's from an automatic weapon. Isn't this sort of thing illegal absent a federal class 3 license? I'm definitely not an expert on this subject.

 

Steve

no it isn't. It's clearly not intact having been cut entirely in half. Find the other half, weld it back together and then you have a problem

Tom Bowers

[M24 Chaffee]

That's very cool that you found that! My Father was a WWII tanker and I have photos of him carrying one.

 

Frank

[Brian Keith]

Thanks for all the comments and stories. Yes, it has cleanly been cut in half to de-mil it.

BKW

[MikeL]

Nice find Brian.

[GWS]

Very cool! I guess I'm going to the wrong fleamarkets in Indiana!

[ikar]

My Father used to tell me that when they would go out on a special mission he would take the grease gun over the Thompson every time. I've never seen a real one but would love to try one.

[Lawguns]

I thought they were out of the army inventory and then while deployed to Bosnia in the 95-96 time frame I saw some of the M88 crews carrying them. I asked and was told a few of the old timers still liked them. Most of the young guys carried M4s.

[bummer]

The VTR crew had 2 when I was at Ft Polk 81-83. My old neighbor when I was growing up stopped by one day when I was home on leave and we shot the bull for a few moments. He asked me if they still had grease guns and I said yea but I wasn't issued one. He then told me how much he liked them and that he tried to bring his home after WW2. He said he almost made it through the mustering out line, when the officer in charge made them empty there duffle bag well you know the rest of the story. He ended up with no grease gun but he said he had a good rump chewing

[mikie]

That is cool! I had no idea that they were in use for so long a time. I enjoyed the stories about them too. A few weeks ago I picked up a grip/hammer section of a demilled frame for a British revolver dated 1941. I grabbed it for 20 bucks. Of course, the mental case that I am, I want to try to rebuild it, at least for display purposes. Original parts, of course. Hopefully, I'll cool down to the idea before I spend about twice the cost of a complete one on spare parts. At least yours actually looks like something as is.

 

Mikie

[phantomfixer]

That is way cool..... I would be way too tempted to weld some SM to it....and it looks like there is one person online selling parts kits and demilled receiver/body...

 

there is a forum member that took a demilled 1911A1...several of them actually...and put them together in their relative positions, in a shadow board for display...turned out very nice...

[Brian Keith]

Love all the stories! Thanks for all the comments guys! From the condition of my piece, it likely never saw much use. I doubt any body thought these war time expedient guns would see 50 years of service!

BKW

[dalbert]

Would the piece that Brian acquired be considered a receiver? it houses the bolt and trigger mechanism. It's from an automatic weapon. Isn't this sort of thing illegal absent a federal class 3 license? I'm definitely not an expert on this subject.

 

Steve

 

 

no it isn't. It's clearly not intact having been cut entirely in half. Find the other half, weld it back together and then you have a problem

Tom Bowers

 

I would consider this contraband. While not likely to arouse much interest, it does not conform to the current machine gun destruction standards, and thus remains a machine gun in the eyes of ATF. All NFA Rules Apply.

 

Here is the appropriate ATF reference:

 

https://www.atf.gov/firearms/machinegun-destruction

 

The purpose of this procedure is to destroy the receiver or frame in a manner that will prevent its function and future use as a firearm. A proper method of destroying this firearm is to cut the receiver into separate pieces as follows. All cutting must be done with a cutting torch having a tip of sufficient size to displace at least ¼ inch of material at each location.

• Each cut must completely sever the receiver in the area indicated by the diagonal lines.

• The receiver must be completely severed in each area indicated with a diagonal torch cut.

• Cutting by means of a band saw or cut-off wheel does not ensure destruction.

Note: Alternate methods of destruction defining the proposed procedure must be submitted in writing to the ATF Firearms Technology Branch for review and approval prior to implementation.

 

Sorry to rain on the parade, but I would not touch this item. You should turn it in to ATF at your earliest opportunity.

 

David Albert

[email protected]

[Brian Keith]

Hello Mr. Albert,

Thanks for your information about the current destruction standards. It is likely that this was destroyed when the standards were different. I don't know, I got it just as you see it. I don't have any other pieces of a grease gun or any machineguns. With a resume like you post, it is very likely you have lots of $ invested in machineguns. Even one original Thompson is big bucks. I can see why you would be extremely cautious about touching anything that you think could be the slightest issue that could jeopardize your collection with the BATF. We have all heard about BATF abuses. I think Atlanta Cutlery left all those Sten guns in Nepal because it wasn't worth the time, effort and shipping to get them into the states. I'm pleased this post has brought so many comments and stories.

Thanks again,

BKW

[BOLO]

a local surplus / parts warehouse I use to shop at had WWII German MP40 sub machine guns that had the tube cut, the rest of the receiver was still complete with the folding stock, grip, bolt, etc

 

they could be used to make a non firing "dummy"