Great tale, John, very well told. as a youngster of 6 or 7, I often went with my Grandfather to visit an old friend & WWII vetran. He’d been badly injured during one of the final assaults in Berlin near the end of the war, however not before he’d “liberated” a number of pistols from the enemy, along with a bunch of other regalia...buttons, belt buckles, collar dogs & tabs, etc.
He managed to get a lot of stuff home, including a Luger and what turned out to be a scarcer than normal broomhandle Mauser. Over the course of many visits, the two of them spent hours behind the motel his friend owned, shooting a couple of old rifles,lnfrequently the old broomhandle (ammo for it was hard to find, even in the early 60’s. The Luger was shot much more; he had a regular soruce of ammo for it from someone.
I’ll never forget that Luger; it was the first firearm I’d ever fired, and I wasn’t allowed to tell anyone, Especially not my Mother. she was not a gun fan, AT ALL. At 6 years old, I could barely hold it up at arms length, and dropped it after the first round went off from the recoil, I was allowed to shoot it many times after though.
When his friend passed away, my Grandfather was offered the two pistols, but he declined; it wasn’t really his thing. The family had no interest in them, so they were surrendered. It seemed I was the onky one who really wanted them, and for some reason no one thought giving them to a 10 year old was a good idea..!!!???