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Old 03-24-2018, 11:50 AM
Olefin Olefin is offline
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Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Greencastle, PA
Posts: 3,003
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Location of the collection is the following:

Location Portola Valley, California
Coordinates 37.200978°N 122.112816°W

Its in the mountains between San Jose and Santa Cruz

The ones that he had running and operational he had spare parts for - i.e. the whole collection wasnt operational but he had a significant amount of vehicles ranging from tanks to trucks to self propelled guns that were fully operational and had spare parts for - when the place was auctioned off a lot of what was bought was the huge spare part collection he had - and some of his vehicles (like his Ferret for instance) would have only needed to have functional machine guns put on them and they would have been fully ready for combat

As for ammo for the bigger vehicles - he had a lot of shells of various kinds that could have been used - they were practice rounds (and from what I understood he did have a small amount of live ammo as well) but those could have been made live - keep in mind that the many of the tanks and other armed vehicles he had used the same ammo that was already being used by MilGov units in the area (i.e. for instance for his M60A1 that had a live barrel and for his M60A2 with the live barrel as well as his Centurion Mk13 that used the same ammo that the M1 used) - so its more a case of some of the oddballs instead of most of what he had that was working

As an example of what he had this is the description of the M50 Israeli Sherman Tank that he had including its condition and the spares that came with it when it was auctioned off

Paul - can the ammo for the LAV-75 be used for that gun? The 40th had LAV-75's issued to it

"The tank being offered, M50 Israeli Sherman Medium Tank, is in beautiful condition. It is based on an M4A4 hull and has been upgraded by the Israelis with a Cummins diesel and HVSS. In Israeli terms, this version of the M50 is considered to have all of the final modifications done to it. It has the later engine deck with the exhaust louvers cut into it and the engine exhaust outlet mounted on the rear of the engine deck. An exhaust outlet for the auxiliary generator is fitted to the left side of the hull. It has full applique armor on both the hull and turret. A bracket for carrying a roll of barbed wire is mounted on the driver's applique armor plate. Exterior and interior paint are perfect. The turret bares the tank number “A-2” in Hebrew. All exterior lights are present and intact. A bracket for a main armament searchlight is mounted on the mantlet. However, the searchlight is not included. A canvas cover that is in excellent condition seals the gap between the gun mantlet and front of the turret. The turret roof in front of the commander's cupola has been fitted by the Israelis with a second machine gun pintle socket. The tracks, wheels and other suspension components are perfect. It is currently equipped with T84 rubber block tracks. Two different drive sprocket plates are fitted to this tank, the D47366B forged type and the D47366 flat plate type. The engine runs well and the vehicle drives well. All driver controls function normally. The turret has the hand-operated spotlight mounted on the roof. The commander's turret hatch rotates freely on its ball race. All hatches open and close normally. The canvas head pads on the hatches are in very good condition. The main armament elevates and depresses manually. The turret rotates manually. The operational status of the hydraulic turret traverse is not known. A U.S. VRC-type radio is installed inside the turret bustle; however, it is not known if it is operational. Crew intercom boxes are mounted at each crew station. All periscope glass is in good condition. Several spare periscope blocks are included. It comes equipped with six spare track links, two spare roadwheels, seven Israeli pattern plastic water cans, and several machine gun ammunition boxes. Pioneer tools included with the tank include the axe, mattock and mattock handle.

The M50 as the upgraded tank was called consisted of the 75-mm CN75-50 gun mounted in the modified turret.

Please note, this lot is a registered Destructive Device. Bidders for this lot must meet certain qualifications; please review the BATFE guidelines"

Last edited by Olefin; 03-24-2018 at 12:03 PM.