Wooden Machine Gun - Kid's Toy or 1941 Maneuvers?

[checkit]

I had visions of this 42 1/2" long wooden gun maybe being one of the fabled dummy guns of the 1941 Louisiana Maneuvers - but beginning to lean towards Toy Gun. It certainly looks old enough, though ...

 

Any thoughts?

 

[checkit]

2

[Bodes]

I'd say training weapon, at a time when there was a shortage....Nice item and photo, Bodes

[checkit]

Wow - thanks Bodes for that. Either a lucky find or we are both hopeless romantics.

[Chris_B]

child sized in my opinion

[vonmoen]

42 1/2 inches sounds a tad large for a child's toy.

[Chris_B]

~43 inches? Might seem that way. But I am not talking about a toddler. Consider that an M1 carbine is only about 6" shorter. When I was a child I had a full scale M16 toy. Was no problem for a ten year old.

 

A real M1917 was considerably shorter than this, that is true, but 'child sized' also takes into consideration of more than just the length. Like the height of the tripod, which only features elevation, looks like. About 14" from leg to leg. Compare to a man-sized example in the other photo. Yes, I am aware that there was more than one tripod height. But that's a nice height for a kid to sit down behind it.

 

When I was ten my Dad could have made this for me in half an hour. Could it be a dummy form pre-war? Sure.

 

Maybe the tripod is a kiddie piece added later on. It's been a long time since those manuevers.