Cuba Garands?

Navy Gunner

Navy Gunner

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Cuba, used to use US small arms right? Think of all the rifles that were captured during the Bay of Pigs. I wondered if they were ever stored or what shape they are in? The US can't import them, so has anybody ever looked into this and get them imported into Canada?

Navy Gunner
 
Odds are pretty good that any they had were given to the Sandinistas or other South American rebels.

Why would Fidel worry about keeping them when Uncle Nikita and Uncle Leonid were supplying him with new AK's?
 
I've been to Cuba three times. The second place I stayed at had a daily pellet rifle shooting compettion. Anyhow, the guy who ran the shoot and I talked quite a bit about guns in Cuba. He told me there were lots of guns in Cuba and basically everyone had one. I was a bit surpised to hear that. Then he picked up a rock and siad, "this is a Cuban gun" and smiled.

I gave him a beer after that, (well it is an all-inclusive!)
 
Cubans can own guns, but you have to be able to afford it. To have a gun you must be a member of a hunting club and submit to an inspection every three months. I assume that a gun owner must have the proper connections within the party as well.
There are no gunshops in Cuba, there was one in Havana that has been turned into a museum. From the doorway I could see a Garand, a Lunjmann and a couple of Czech 52s and a bunch of Browning A5s. I didn't go in though.
I noticed that the local police carry Makarovs if they carry a gun ( about half have an empty holster). The armoured car and "private" secutrity guys were carrying Smith & Wesson type revolvers in .38 Special. The revolvers were Kframe size with a full underlug. Occasionally there was a real S&W. Spare ammo was 6 cartridges ( Truncated cone FMJ) in belt loops.
The motorcycle police had what looked like a hi cap 9mm. I couldn't identify it though, they look a lot like a S&W M59. I thought it might be unwise to walk over and ask to have a look.
The "secret" police appear to carry Makarovs when they carry.

Cuba sent lots of soldiers to Angola and other parts of Africa in the '80s and now the army is less than half the size it was. I suspect that that anything that could be sold was sold in the 90's when the Russians stopped propping them up and the Cubans ran out of cash. Who knows though, Fidel may have kept them in reserve.
 
CanAm said:
Yes, I remember reading about Cuba sending many of the guns to Commie rebels across Central America. They even bough a few AR10's.
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Peter Kokalis has done several articles about small-arms captured from insurgents in El Salvador. A lot of them were FNs which can be identified by the round hole milled where the Cuban Coat of Arms was removed in an attempt to "sterilize" them.
 
Castro invaded Cuba with M1 Carbines, Johnson Rifles, and Garands. Examples are on display at the "palace of the revolution" in Havana.
These were supplanted by the AK 47s. The SKS was never common in Cuba.

And if you are going to visit Cuba, check to see if the resort has air rifle shooting. If so take a thousand or so pellets with you. Some of the pellets the Cubans use at these resorts are undersize and don't shoot worth crap. The rifles are usually older Russian or Chinese air rifles and are capable of dime sized groups with a quality pellet. Using the local pellets supplied in cuba you might be lucky to hit the paper.
 
I read something recently on a site about Johnson rifles. A lot were bought by the CIA for use in the Bay of Pigs invasion.
I mentioned this to a Canadian importer, that it might be worth checking into.
However, anyone dealing with Cuba would probably have a hard time doing business in the USA later.
 
First of all, where is the Big "For Sale" sign in Cuba saying there is Garands and Johnsons For Sale there? Or is it just an assumption. And if there are some there, maybe they're not for sale? I'm sure they have the internet too.

Of interest though, back in 1991 or so, after the Berlin Wall came down, I saw a wooden box of 1911's come out of East Germany and imported to Canada that were wrapped in Cuban Newsprint.
 
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Coyote Ugly- Those 1911's and 1911A1's came out of Cuba from the Bay of Pigs invasion and Lever Arms had boxes of them and some of them were quite rare. I had a refirbed Springfield 1911 that came out of those that were imported. Joe Salter had a crate of them that I picked through. Some were excellent then at the bottom some needed to be rebuilt. They are all gone now but it was something to see.
 
A number of Cuban VZ-52 rifles were imported by International Firearms of Montreal, some years ago.
 
LocknLoad said:
Coyote Ugly- Those 1911's and 1911A1's came out of Cuba from the Bay of Pigs invasion and Lever Arms had boxes of them and some of them were quite rare. I had a refirbed Springfield 1911 that came out of those that were imported. Joe Salter had a crate of them that I picked through. Some were excellent then at the bottom some needed to be rebuilt. They are all gone now but it was something to see.
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LocknLoad,
I even saw some 1911 and 1911A1's in that box that were nickel plated -frame and receiver, all USGI guns. I wonder how that came about?
 
Prior to the Revolution, Cuban guerillas would use whatever they could get their hands on. The Cuban military pre-59 was an assortment of old Spanish muskets and mausers mixed in with US army surplus (US puppet government from 98-59). Most of the arms in the Revolution came from captured army stores, thus extensive use of US equipment.

Post 59, it became Soviet standard weaponry.
 
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