privately owned Ferret Scout Cars

[Olefin]

Saw this site when I was searching google for information on the Ferret Scout Car - and found that not only are there are lot of Ferrets in private hands but that they are very affordable - less than many cars

http://www.ferret-fv701.co.uk/ferret_owners.htm

One piece of info in particular caught my eye there

"My Ferret has lived most of its "life" in Germany with the Royal Engineers. Coming back from the first Gulf War it was sold to the Belgian Company 'SABIEX' along with 250 other Ferrets of different marks. 'SABIEX' thought they could fix the cars up a bit and sell them to Africa - but no one was interested. So the Ferrets stayed in Belgium stored outdoors from 1993 to 2003 when I bought mine (some are still there). It looked bad and the bins and mudguards were badly rusted, but the car was original and untouched and technically sound. It took me two years to restore it, working on and off."

Great way for the French and the Belgians to get some armor to their forces quickly - a Ferret isnt much but its better than walking and very useful in places like Iraq and Senegal and other places their forces are being deployed into - let alone on patrol in Germany and Holland against partisans

also opens up another idea looking at where all these owners are - i.e. you are sent by MilGov in the US to clean up a local militia group that is causing trouble - and you find out once you run into them that they arent equipped with the usual beat up pickups or old jeeps but instead have a couple of nicely running and armed Ferrets that a local collector had and now are part of their forces

a very nasty surprise if you dont happen to have any anti-armor weapons on you

also could be used as a treasure - similar to the canon module Gateway to the Spanish Main where the guy had a M113 sitting in his garage and him dead in the front seat of it

[Legbreaker]

In Twilight, those Ferrets were probably repurchased by the British the moment Germany stepped over the Polish border. If nothing else, they'd be useful for training purposes at home.

[Olefin]

A lot of them were in private hands long before 1996, especially in places like the UK, US, Canada and the Netherlands. So having them in the hands of private citizens and thus something you could encounter in the hands of marauders or militia is a real possibility.

If you look at that site a lot of them had vehicles in their hands long before the War brings the Brits and the US into the war, with many of those Ferrets being retired in the late 1980's

That actually leads to an interesting question - there are a lot of operable tanks, APC's, IFV's, etc.. in private hands here in the US and elsewhere. So what happens to all the Shermans, Stuarts, Ferrets, M113's, etc.. that were sitting in the hands of collectors during the war?

Gateway to the Spanish Main shows at least one APC in the hands of a private collector and ready to be found as a "treasure" by the players in a forgotten garage.

There are definitely a significant amount of military vehicles in the US in the hands of collectors that are fully operational even to having live tubes. (can think of at least four Shermans off the top of my head that I know of in collectors hands that, given ammuntion, could still put a round on target with a live tube)

And that goes for a lot of guns - just recently saw an ad for a fully functional 57mm WWII anti-tank gun with a live tube

[Legbreaker]

There's quite a lot floating around here in Australia too including relatively recent model machines like Scimitars. A paintball range in Western Sydney even has a working (except for the weaponry) Centurion MBT sitting out the front.
"Come on, capture MY flag, I DARE you!"

[Olefin]

definitely can add a lot of flavor to the game

You and your party have been on foot now for several days since the HMMVW broke down and couldnt be repaired. You take refuge for the night in a house with a barn in the back of it. After a long search all you find that you can use are some sheets and towesl, a couple of cans of very old corn and a pack of matches.. and the dead owners in their beds, dead at least two years. Even though it is raining cats and dogs you decide to make the trek out to the barn.

As you open the door, you see it is filled with all kinds of junk. After a long search you uncover a large object covered by tarps and debris. You remove them and you find yourself staring at what looks likes a perfectly preserved M3 Halftrack. A continued search finds a trapdoor that leads down to three 50 gallon drums, still full of gasoline.

"looks like we are done walking boys!"

[Olefin]

Did some more research on Ferrets in the US and found that they are actually street legal to drive here and several owners drive them around on a regular basis - i.e. why transport one to a military vehicle show when you can register it legally as a legal vehicle and just drive it there?

https://www.autoevolution.com/news/d...al-117952.html

[Raellus]

Originally Posted by Olefin

A lot of them were in private hands long before 1996, especially in places like the UK, US, Canada and the Netherlands. So having them in the hands of private citizens and thus something you could encounter in the hands of marauders or militia is a real possibility.

This assumes the v2 timeline, in which the Cold War ends in '91. In the v1.0 alternate timeline history, the Cold War didn't end, so a lot of stuff that, IRL was sold off to 3rd world countries or put on the open market- like those Ferrets, for example- would have remained in military reserve storage. I'm not trying to poo-poo the idea, but being as I favor the v1.0 timeline, I don't see quite as many MilSurp vehicles getting into civilians' hands.

As for the vulnerability of said light armor, is AP small arms ammo legal to buy in the U.S.?

[Olefin]

Originally Posted by Raellus

This assumes the v2 timeline, in which the Cold War ends in '91. In the v1.0 alternate timeline history, the Cold War didn't end, so a lot of stuff that, IRL was sold off to 3rd world countries or put on the open market- like those Ferrets, for example- would have remained in military reserve storage. I'm not trying to poo-poo the idea, but being as I favor the v1.0 timeline, I don't see quite as many MilSurp vehicles getting into civilians' hands.

As for the vulnerability of said light armor, is AP small arms ammo legal to buy in the U.S.?

Actually they are available in both timelines - the Ferrets were already being disposed of by the mid-80's - so you will see them in civilian hands in either timeline - now if you look at V1 versus V2 you could see a V1 timeline having the ones being disposed of being the older ones - so basically Mk1, Mk1/2 and Mk2/3 whereas with the V2 you would see almost anything being around

So again keep in mind what timeline you are looking at accordingly and adjust what might be available

the AP SLAP ammo was only issued to the US Army - have no idea if it ever got sold commercially

[Olefin]

Originally Posted by Raellus

This assumes the v2 timeline, in which the Cold War ends in '91. In the v1.0 alternate timeline history, the Cold War didn't end, so a lot of stuff that, IRL was sold off to 3rd world countries or put on the open market- like those Ferrets, for example- would have remained in military reserve storage. I'm not trying to poo-poo the idea, but being as I favor the v1.0 timeline, I don't see quite as many MilSurp vehicles getting into civilians' hands.

As for the vulnerability of said light armor, is AP small arms ammo legal to buy in the U.S.?

Keep in mind Raellus that a lot of what you see in armor collectors hands todays was surplus long before a V1 or V2 timeline would have made much different - what you really will see as to the difference would be Soviet equipment availability (except for stuff that might have been bought from Egypt or Africa) for V1 versus V2

Looked around on google and found multiple references to Ferrets in civilian hands here in the US prior to 1987 for instance - the movie Short Circuit made in the US in 1986 had a Mk1 Ferret that the production company rented

[Olefin]

FYI great site for all things Ferret

http://www.ferret-fv701.co.uk/

has lots of info on various vehicles, pictures, specs you name it - definitely has stuff you could use to flesh out a vehicle for a campaign so its not just "you find a Ferret AC in drive able condition"