Dragonman's Military Museum in Colorado Springs, CO

[Tonomachi]

I don't know if this has already been shown by others but I just came across this YouTube video of a military museum that I have to visit one of these days.  

 

 

[manayunkman]

Who is this guy and what does he do for a living?

 

Thats an incredible ton of stuff that seems to have no end.

[Airborne-Hunter]

I believe he makes weapons and has a meet every year.

[manayunkman]

Well that’s an occupation that I would imagine opens a lot of doors.

[huntssurplus]

I have seen a lot of his videos on YouTube. From what I can tell he runs a very successful firearms business to include dealing in very lucrative, high dollar weapons.

The museum is quite amazing though, and I’m sure he has one of the if not the largest and “bestest” collection of US military items in the world (at least for the WW1 and after eras).

Looks like he gets a lot of items from veterans as well and customers of his firearm business.

Very cool guy, and if I’m ever in Colorado his museum is a must see for me!


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[BILL THE PATCH]

He has very rare german items also , one episode he had a SS belt buckle that shot small cal bullets used by hitler's SS bodyguards and other wild stuff..

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[doyler]

40 minutes ago, BILL THE PATCH said:

He has very rare german items also , one episode he had a SS belt buckle that shot small cal bullets used by hitler's SS bodyguards and other wild stuff..

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if its the buckles I recall seeing articles on in the 1970s gun mags they were fantasy items

[BILL THE PATCH]

Yes Ron belt buckles, he said hitler's bodyguards had them. He really talks up a good story. You think him being that knowledgeable with all the stuff he has, why would he show something that is fantasy. He must know?

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[vintageproductions]

There are a lot of fantasy items in there.

[36-tex]

Been to this place and even with him stating everything is 100% original it is not! Has tons of items but many are incomplete or messed up. It is worth the visit yes but if you are picky on authentic stuff you will catch yourself dissecting everything. The owner is indeed interesting. I personally found being followed around by a employee weird. Someone always follows behind the group, pushing them along and shutting off the lights. I found the ability to really look over items limited.

[Brian Keith]

I just watched the video that is an amazing collection no doubt! For a person to have amassed that volume of material is hard to imagine. As a private museum as it appears to be, I understand why you would be “followed” by staff. Most of the collection would be very easy to touch and abuse by visitors. Any large and varied collection is going to have some “issues” wither it be a WW II rebuilt 1903 rifle in a WW I display or whatever.  I find the suits of armor annoying and the plastic on the uniforms I find also annoying. But I say “Thank-You” Mr. Dragon-man for having the passion to save and preserve all those artifacts. He could have just used the money from his successful business to have a huge home or homes and fast expensive cars. But he spent a lot of it preserving historical artifacts. And he shares it with people in his museum.  It is very difficult to get everything “right” in a small exhibit, let alone a museum displaying 100 plus years of military artifacts from all over the world. If I heard him correctly, he made some type of comment about the ammo being live, he is flirting with disaster if live ammo and firearms are accessible to visiting public.

BKW

[lakenormanusa]

Dragonman is Mel Bernstein. From what I understand, he has a military museum, vintage Americana and Hot Rod collection, shooting range, paintball course, dirtbike tracks, etc, at his vast facility. One of his main claims to fame is Harley Davidson motorcycles and biking, He has one of the only machine shops in the country that builds and refurbishes vntage Harley motors, transmissions, etc. If you want to see more about his military museum, like his FB page. He's constantly adding items to his collection, and posts videos daily. Pretty amazing all the stuff Mel's into. His energy, passion and attention to detail is impressive, and makes for an entertaining experience.

 

A video link of his D-Day display:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OjvPFD2_IQ