C96 adventure

[MikeP]

Got my 1st C96 at age 14 from the vet who brought it home. Complete rig, all matching, including stock and leather. Learned to disassemble and assemble.
How they ever designed, manufactured, and made those function is a miracle of the universe.
I took it with me my 1st year of college, 1965.
It got found in a dorm room inspection.
Dean of students freaked, might have been the 28 Thompson next to it.
Hauled myself and goods to the local cop shop in Jonesboro, Ark. They did not know what to do, and were basically uninterested. Remarked that they did not like the idea of minorities possibly getting such things.
Anyway they called the ATF who said they were busy and maybe could come in a day or to.
Cops gave me back my stuff and sent me on my way. I took it to a friend's house and stashed it.
Next day the ATF showed up and asked about them. I was on my way to enlist about then and was scared I was in trouble.
I was never charged or arrested. They had me sign a paper stating "Willful" abandonment of property and that was it. Stock combos were not legal then and the Thompson was certainly not.
Followed me around, when I got my SECRET security clearance in SF, a couple years later, I had to go to some office and 'splain myself.
When I got out the army in 1970, my buddy was working as a gun Nark for the ATF. He was going to go to the academy and they needed to replace him. "Hell no," was my response. I did speak to one of his handlers who showed me their evidence room. He brought the Mauser and Thompson story up then. Once you are in their files, it stays. No matter what. Again I was never arrested nor charged.
That sure was a nice C96 rig, though.

[Edward Tinker]

Originally Posted by MikeP

Got my 1st C96 at age 14 from the vet who brought it home. Complete rig, all matching, including stock and leather. Learned to disassemble and assemble.
How they ever designed, manufactured, and made those function is a miracle of the universe.,....

Here is a story, joined the army in 1980, went through counterintelligence school before I swapped to an MP.
When we interviewed, you always started with a minimum of 3 people - blah, blah, blah, and can you give me 3 people who might know ed tinker. Go to those three, blah, blah, can you give me 3 people who might know ed. This went through a couple of iterations, just to get to where if you were hiding info, they'd find out. Most important thing is to always stick with your story or tell the truth in the beginning. If you told them the truth at the beginning, they just said ok (like smoking pot a few times, if you lied, they might kick you out of the MOS that required a clearance)

Any Top Secret and above, they went through the entire process, could take weeks. But, what they wanted was folks YOU would NOT put down on your list of folks you knew, so they got the truth about you. supposedly

[G.T.]

I tried again, this time with a better made tool, but nothing doing? I'm probably not getting enough compression on the spring, or the tool is stopping any progress going forward... Going to try a different shaped tool next week, weekend gun show fun is getting in the way! ...best, GT