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Old School SF Gear - Surplus Store Finds


Nkomo
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  I LOVE OLD SURPLUS SHOPS!!!!  I was trolling through an old surplus shop while I was out of town today and came across these two hidden gems.  Both of these are remnants from the HUGE SF DRMO (government liquidation) sell off from back in the late 90s and early 00s.   

 

To make a long story short, the US Govt surplused off all sorts of Special Forces/Special Operations equipment, gear, and uniforms.  From what I understand and have been able to piece together, these auction lots were all pretty much at Ft. Knox and Ft. Campbell.  Many of the local surplus stores won the auctions and many of these lots ended up in and around those geographic locations.  These items are remnants of those auctions over 20 years later,

 

The pouch is for AR magazines and was part of a modular vest system (pre-MOLLE) that used snaps and velcro to secure the pouches to the vest.

 

From what I understand, the holster is a black M12 holster (80s version) for the Beretta 92 that was used for a very short time by the SEALs.  Instead of having a flap like the other M12 holsters, this one has a strap on top that secures the pistol.  The strap is made by Bianchi as is the holster.  

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14 hours ago, USMarineCorps said:

Great stuff, especially the M12 holster. Well done!

Thank you kindly.  I was really surprised to see the M12 holster and for $15 nonetheless.

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I love that stuff.

Unluckily the Bianchi holster was a style of holster so popular that is still sold today, so in this case it is still more a "believe the story and not the item".

When Us armed Forces made the shift between the 1911 and the M9 everyone was supposed to get them, including Navy Seals that had them until deciding that the Sig p226 was better suited for them (the slide cracking accident ecc..). The few years the have the beretta they were issued with a Bianchi kit like the others, only in black. It included the M1415 thumb snaop conversion kit as pictured. For what is wort also British SBS got that kit issued, but i doubt it is one of those :). I am not sure other branches like afsoc had black M12 kits, but i THINK they didn't.

 

In the attached pic "A Beretta 9 mm pistol, M60 machine gun rounds and a knife are worn by a US Navy Sea-Air-Land (SEAL) team member during a training exercise", picture dated 1/9/1987, official Navy picture from a set taken during a training with other pictures you sure have seen.

 

Regarding the panel, it comes from an American Body armor vest, it is one of the earlier pre-buckle closure AR15 panel. A popular SOF vest in the late 80's. The strap looks like a leg strap, but now i also see that at the top It has tree female snaps instead of one. central one was the original one, meant to fasten to a specific point in the vest, the two external ones have been added. I THINK this work has been done to attach the panel to the lower snaps of the vest side and fastening the strap to the leg as to have a leg panel worn not too low, a style that would become popular as hip/mag pouch as introduced by blackhawk some years later. Arch, you surely have an american armor vest, try it.

I have seen some modular panels modified to be leg worn, expecially the 40mm ones, but never that way. I love them.

 

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Does the M12 holster have a contract number where it says Bianchi?     Its always cool to find random stuff like this, Ive had some luck time to time myself, but old school shops are so few these days.

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milsurp_scout_14

Quite a few stores look at the back of those Snap-Trac pouches, see bare snaps, and just toss them in the 'forgotten bin', thinking they're not useful. They're never more than a couple bucks when I find them. Great finds!

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