Saudi Arabia

[tudorbug]

Ed:

When I was in Saudi Arabia, I had to make a trip to Khamis Mushyat in the south eastern portion. My co-worker there was a gun collector and, in the course of our conversation, he told me that he had been offered a Luger by a gun seller in the suq (market). This came up after he showed me a small, very collectable revolver that he had acquired there. I don't remember the maker or model.

We went to the suq the very next morning and found the seller. When asked, perhaps because he did no recognize me, he would not produce the Luger. He did, however, produce a K98 that was in mint, virtually unfired condtion, with no track on the loading ramp showing a cartridge had been run up into the chamber.

He passed on the K98 which in later years I much regretted.

My Chief of Section in Tabuk told me of his early time in the same area. He was told that there was a storage of 1866 "yellow belly" Winchester rifles under control of the prince of that region and, if I recall correctly, the prince awarded one to someone, not a Saudi national, who had excelled at some effort the about which the prince was concerned. The Winchester was in mint, unused condition.

Not that in the dry, near zero percent humidity, exposed steel surfaces in Saudi Arabia do not rust. In my location in Tabuk we had mint, new, unrusted but sand covered parts for 1956 Chevrolet trucks that had diappeared long before I arrived there in 1973.

It's an interesting place.

David
David