A neat little pocket pistol from WW II.

[John Holbrook]

An acquaintance, a WW II vet, recently died and his wife gave me this .32 Ortgies Pocket pistol. She said that he took it from a captured German officer during the Battle of the Bulge in 1944. She said that there is a holster and some "papers" with it and she will try to find them.

It is a neat little pistol with an odd safety arrangement. They were very popular during the 1920's and 1930's.

[Edward Tinker]

Nice John, good to get something like that!

ed

[AGE]

Believe it or not I had one of these as a kid in the '40s. Traded some kid from the projects a working cap gun for it. It was missing most of the internal action parts and the grips and was wrapped in tape. Once it was cleaned up and Dad made a set of walnut grips for it, it shure looked real. It was my "play war" gun during those years. I could get 50-100 loud "Bangs" out of it without reloading just like in the movies. Funny, I never had any trouble carrying it anywhere in those days as a "toy" pistol. (I guess nobody knew it was actually a real gun that this kid had.)

[Lugerdoc]

Any other "old guys" out there that remember wearing your cap guns to grade school or taking in real ones for "show and tell". TH

[AGE]

Tom,

Well now that you ask, I took a Remington 513T to school every Weds and Fri for 4 years in grades 7 through 10 as I was on a rifle team. We practiced after school on Weds and had matches between schools on Fridays. Our gym teacher, Mr. Bennett, was our rifle coach. Great guy and lots of clean fun. Who needed computers in those days!!!! (not a question)

This was in 1947 through 1950 in a small PA town. Most schools had smallbore rifle ranges. I usually got a ride with my dad to school but walked 1/2 mile home after school with the rifle on my shoulder and usually had ammo in my pocket. Try that today--Wow would it end quick.

[John Holbrook]

Here is a photo of my dad and I in Dec 1943 when I was 11 years old at our home in Sinton, Texas. This was my first deer. My dad was the county sheriff.

It was a small town and I used to walk through town with a .22 slung over my shoulder going rabbit hunting! Nobody gave me a second look.

BTW, I still have the .30-30 in the photo. My Grandfather bought this rifle new in 1926.....

[lew1]

I remember going to a high school (located next to the catholic cathederal)festival and winning a pistol (in a raffle) - only 15 years old. Then taking it and walking home with it, thru town.

Also remember going to the gun store when I was 16 and buying another pistol.

And (at 15/16) walking several blocks thru town to the dump, with a 98K and/or pistols, to do some target shooting. No one, including the police, bothered me.

This was in a town of around 50/60k people - right across the river from Cincinnati

[pipeman45]

Ok you old f**ts. How many remember picking up pop bottles for the re-fund and going to the store and buying just one or more shells depending on how much change you had?

[AGE]

Never did that. My meager allowance plus bricks of .22s for holidays & birthdays covered my ammo needs. By the way, back in the '40s even New York city schools had .22 rifle teams and matches between schools. They used paper targets, today's kids wouldn't understand paper targets (too tame in these days of drive by's I guess).

My Remington 513T was a birthday present for my 9th bd back in 1943. A real tackdriver. I have another one currently, bought to educate grandkids in the art of lead flinging. My original gun went on trade for a P-38 back in 1955.

[John Holbrook]

Here is my old "thuty-thuty" today. This old puppy has taken many a deer, if fact the carrier was so worn that I had to replace it, also the loading gate! It has been in the family for 79 years and will go to my grandson one of these days!

[AGE]

Yes, John my grandson has asked for my AR-15 and my 1911 "hardball" target gun. He is pretty good with both. He also likes the 513T but is more interested in the hotter ones. I didn't inherit anything except my mother's Colt Cobra .38 special. My son has that one. My dad didn't really like guns, he was a bow and arrow guy (pretty good too).

[trigger643]

I remember in grade school, belonging to the "rifleman's club" (grade 3 to 6), where we shot in the gym .22 shorts in rifles provided by the govt. The janitor would get upset when we missed the steel trap targets and he had to patch the cinder blocks. My "play army" gun was a Springfield '03 stock my father had built with a broom handle for a barrel (the stock was off of his deer rifle he had built for him in the 1950's). My "play cowboys and indians" guns were a Spencer Model 1865 Carbine and an 1855 Colt revolving rifle SER#155, my grandfather got from "Old Man Browning", --- John Browning's Father, when he ran the hardware store in Ogden. I traded that Spencer for a Ku Luger about 20 years ago... Dumb. Traded the 1855 for a low turret mount k98k at the same time, traded the k98k for a divorce about 3 years later... dumber.

Mrs. Pratt still owes me my cap gun that Roy shot off in class in 3rd grade. He said he just wanted to see it during some break. And she promised to give it back at end of year, but lost it, or maybe gave it to her own child. However it was, it was one of the great injustices we all have suffered as children.

[John -Melb]

Hey Trigger, I laughed about Mrs Pratt still having your capgun from third grade...........

Mrs Tucker from Ascot Park Primary School in South Australia has still got mine too.................. Damn that seems a long time ago.

[Lugerdoc]

I too took the rifle training course offered by the NRA & local PD as a kid. I doubt that police departments today would want to improve the shooting accuracy of teenagers. It's really too bad that some of the younger generation has gone to hunting each other rather than deer or targets. When did childhood conflicts turn lethal? I think the fault lies more with the liberals who make the movies, TV & video games, showing the dangers of gun violence (or the fun of shooting) rather than the NRA who preachs responsible gun ownership. TH

[AGE]

Tom,

I don't know exactly what happened, but parents and kids today have both changed. I'm sure liberals, movies and TV have been big factors. Also, discipline of kids is a thing of the past. I knew I would have been in big trouble if I did anything wrong with my gun even if it was only a .22. Today, kids are fearless and parents are afraid of being charged with child abuse if they even threaten their kids. Note that the courts have now decided that kids under 18 can't really be punished (execution is definitely punishment) for even the worst murders. I understand that kids in some areas are recruited by the bad guys to do their murders since punishment is very light even if they get caught. Also, the child murderers don't seem to realize exactly what they are doing since the dead guy on TV always shows up the next day in another program.

Better oil my guns and get some fresh ammo, you never know.