When I was 4 years old, my Dad's pall Miller Epps came to the house with what I now know was an Arisaka rifle. He and my dad took it apart and removed the firing pin (Never understood that part as 6.5 Jap Ammo wasn't exactly on sale at the 5 and dime) and that was my intro. That was my favorite toy from that point onwards..other kids had their "Winky-Dink" and Howdy Doody stuff; me I had my Jap Rifle and was John "Sands of Iwo Jima" Wayne, Jr.
A couple of years later, we moved, and a guy down the street had a luger...actually, it was his Dad's (What a surprise) He was older, had more street-savvy and knew a mark when he saw one. He let me hold it one afternoon when his parents weren't around...charged me a dime for the pleasure.
When we moved to Beverly Place, our next door neighbor was a USAFR officer who had a Luger he brought back from Germany flying the Airlift; he 's'plained to me that the DWM was the monogram of the Natsi Gen'ral he captured it from...I was getting hooked but had no money.
My first one that I ever owned was a Bulgarian contract rig with 2 matching mags...bought from Manning's Bait and Tackle, Macon , Ga in the early 1960's...I think I sold some Nazi stuff (the place was awash in it at the time)and paid something like $60 for it.
Been addicted since.
Tom A.
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