All I can say to you is BE CAREFUL !!!


Because there are enabling jerks on ar15.com who will ruin you financially


Let me regale you with my pathetic story of woe:

A few years ago, I found display guns (i.e. demilled non-functional) of the old Danish Madsen machine gun that I have always found interesting.  IMA (the place I had bought my Martini Henry rifles from) had them, and so I considered buying one for my library/me room.

But then an arfcommer told me that a company actually made fully functional semi-auto versions of these guns.  A little pricey at about $3000, but hey - it's a functional Madsen gun, with all its cool Victorian steam-punkiness, so how can you resist right?  Plus, I was going to spend around $500 on a completely useless display gun, so how could I not buy one?  (Plus, it came with two interchangable barrels - one in .30-06, and one in 8mm german, so it was almost like getting two guns for the price of one!).

So I bought one.

Then, of course, I realized that it would be much cooler with the original tripod, which IMA also had for sale, so I bought one of those (I forget how much, but it wasn't cheap).

With an old design like that, naturally, you are going to worry about parts, so I found a pretty cheap Madsen kit (of the same model), so I bought one.  Then, after about a year, I realized that instead of having one Madsen with two barrels and a kit, I could have someone build the kit into another gun, and have one dedicated gun in .30-06, and one in 8mm german.

Soon, I had two Madsens.  

But, this guy wasn't DONE enabling me.  Oh no.  He then started letting me know whenever Rock Island Auctions had original full-auto Madsens for sale, and eventually the itch to have one became irresistible.  After all, isn't it a little lame to have a semi-auto version of a full-auto historical gun, when the full-auto guns are actually available and almost "affordable"?

So I bought one.



What started with the innocent thought that it would be "neat" to have a Madsen display gun in my Danish themed me-room, has cost me as much as a nice new car.  



... and I'm not even mad at the guy.    I'm like an abused wife that still loves the husband that beats me.  

Very cool, and haunting.

I have a couple of recruiting fliers/pamplets from 1917 framed - with awesome questions like "What will you tell your children when they asked what you did during the Great War?" - next to my trench map from Ypres.  I've always been fascinated by the Passchendaele battle(s), and was thrilled when I found a trench map in great condition from there.  (I am pretty sure the eBay seller didn't realize it was of Ypres).  Even thought my library has mostly Danish crap in it, that map and the pamphlets have a prominent spot.

they are not that rare down here.

Bastard!  

I've posted it before (because I am such a huge attention-whore , and in other threads about "man caves"), but here is an older picture: