I was digging around in our property room last week (I work at a small police department for those of you that don't know me) and found an interesting gun. I took a cell phone picture of it shown below. It's a WWII MP40 submachine gun that's in good shape. I asked the other cops there that have been there the longest (25 years) and they said they've seen it before but it's been there as long as they have. They never knew what it was or that it came from Nazi Germany. I've examined it and it is definitely original: Nazi proof marks, no importer or manufacture stamps, 3-digit serial number. I called the ATF and they don't even have record of it. They said I need to file it on a Form 10 and it can never be sold except to another police department. I asked them if I could sell it to a museum but they said they didn't know and would have to call me back on that one. This thing's a piece of history. I wish it could talk.

Sry, where do you live??

Beautiful condition it seems like, bet that is worth a pretty penny. Nice find.

I live in Florida but it ain't worth a damn if it can't be trasferred. That's the problem.

wow,a great gun and piece of history, you should see if you can take it out for a "test drive" hehehehe, i'm still trying to find an old greese gun that was stamped out by GM.....

Some GI must have snook it home and then screwed around and got arrested and confiscated back in the day before computers and the ATF

I am going to go shoot this thing, trust me. It's in great shape and I want to be able to say I've shot a real MP40.

SEE??? ya shoulda just stuck it in your briefcase and no one woulda missed it... LOL You blew your chance!!! AH WELL!

Seriously, though... its a shame that things like that have to be locked up in a back room vault somewhere...

That is a nice piece of German WWII history. Any idea of how your dept acquired it?

I don't know. No one there knows. Even the oldest guys were like, "I've seen that before but it's from WWII? Really?" I seem to be the only one who has any knowledge of history, go figure. Anyway, this thing looks like it's been through a time warp. The blue is still sharp and the only problem is, it's been locked away as laws have been passed. Since it has never been registered, it's a LEO-only gun now. Such bullshit!!

Well as you are LEO... SCORE!!!

Not going to lie, I'm jealous

What does it shoot? 9mm Luger?


It's got an underfolder? That's pretty slick.

Those underfolders are where the AK underfolder idea came from and almost identical.

Yeah, it looks about the same as my Yugo.

Predecessor to the STG44 which is what the soviets eye-balled to help produce their verison of assault rifles...Saltpeter, you MUST get video of shooting that gun! I DEMAND IT!!

There was another story like this one. A great piece of history was found in a church or library,and they wanted to sell it to a museum.
The guy at the BATF told them to destroy it.

As a firearm instructor of my department, I declare that this submachine gun must be tested by myself and other knowledgable individuals. I'll see what I can do to get it out of the building for T&E soon. All Saiga12 members in Pinellas County Florida are welcome to partake. I'll see what ranges are willing to let us have a go at it.

Damn I wish I lived closer! Youtube it and a full report expected officer!

Now I remember, I did my freshman year of high school in 73-74 at St. Petersburg Hi. I must have left that in my locker when we moved back up north, thanks for finding it, now when can I come get it. No crap, I did go to school there in 73-74.

/\/\

SaltPeter, knights shouldn't have an issue with it....and we get LEO/EMS discounts....

Take lots of pictures

Went to a machine gun shoot a couple weekends ago and a guy had an MP40 and a STG44. The MP40 fired like a singer but the STG44 slamfired and blew the side out of one of the cartridges.

Ugh IF it wasnt registered when there was amnesty then it can NEVER be registered and could lead to a BUNCH of trouble regardless of LEO. Trust me, I know...

Our dept has had several seized guns over the years that were military war trophies. ATF was correct. You fill out the form and it will be legally owned by your department. We did the same thing with a WWII Thompson that we seized back in the 70's. Our department used it for years as one of our first SWAT weapons. A few years ago we audited our inventory and found that we did not have any paperwork for the Tommy so we called ATF. They directed us to the proper paperwork and it is now registered to our department. Your department will never be allowed to sell or trade it however. Our Tommy is now considered obsolete so we took it and the other Tommy we purchased back in the 70's and put them in a display in our office. If we were to try and get rid of it we would have to send it to the Sheriff's Office for disposal. I have rescued several historic pieces over the years. The only part you are required to have destroyed is the receiver with the serial number. The rest of the parts can be removed. We have traded parts to our suppliers for new handguns for our officers. This can save your dept a lot of money when purchasing new weapons. We found that the Sheriff's office had been doing this for years so we started stripping weapons before sending the receivers for destruction.

Edit: You may want to wait to have the proper paperwork in hand before taking that little beauty to the range. Some Fed agencies make visits to the public ranges and will ask for you papers if they see you shooting a class 3 and you are supposed to have them on demand with the gun. We were made aware of this when our SWAT guys took their issued Class 3 weapons to a public range. Even though the weapons are issued by the dept and the officers were in their issued vehicles, they were warned to get a copy of the paperwork from the property division and have it with the weapon. In your case, the weapon is not issued and there is no ATF paperwork or even an old offense report showing dept. ownership of the weapon. The paperwork is fairly easy to get and does not take that long so be patient and don't get yourself in a bind.

Very nice, and in excellent condition.

Leaving for Orlando Florida on Sunday for work, but I'm sure I could swing though sometime during the week to help you research this fine piece of history.

Go to the ATF website, click on Firearms, then on Forms, and print off Form 5320.10 (Form 10). Fill it out in duplicate and send it to the ATF. They will send you an approved copy back. Then go shoot the gun.

The gun would still be transferable, but only to another government agency.

Tony

Hey is that you JT? LOL! You better put Matt's machine gun back up before he catches you showing it off!

too bad this wouldnt work for Plain Jane.

Donate it to the NRA museum in VA.

Hey Tony,
Where can I get that information. Being a Municipal agency in Florida, we are not allowed to sell or trade seized guns to any person or agency. We have to turn them over to the Sheriff of the county we are located in for disposal. The SO can then destroy trade or sell to other agencies or dealers. If the information I have is incorrect I would like to be able to back it up with documentation before I act on it (and I do believe that it would be worth looking at for our dept).
I saw that Salt Peter said that he was from Pinellas County but the car in his avatar looks more like a municipal agency vehicle than a Sheriff's Office vehicle.

Go here >>>>> http://www.atf.gov/forms/5000.htm#firearms
Click on the Form 5320.10 (Form 10) and read the instruction page.

Last 2 lines of Section 2 under Special Notice.

"When registration of a firearm on this form by a government entity is approved, the Bureau will approve subsequent transfer of such firearm to another qualified governmental entity only, for official use. Otherwise, such firearm must be destroyed or abandoned to ATF."

Tony

Thanks, I will definitely look into it.