Post by mg34dan on Sept 14, 2015 15:12:13 GMT 1
A friend of mine recently suffered the loss of a relative. He and his family are collecting all the deceased's gun stuff, categorizing it, and getting ready to sell it in order to offset funeral expenses. He called me recently to take a look at what they dug up. In the pile of "stuff" was an M2 tripod like I never saw before. It has an aluminum tripod head and a pintle that utilizes a chain attached QD pin instead of a nut and bolt. The pin works exactly like an M35 tripod cross pin. Nobody knows where the tripod came from. Initially I told my buddy it may have been a home made one-off. Whatever it is, it sure is unique. Has anyone ever heard of an M2 tripod like this?
At first everyone who has seen it has identified it as an FN build. But, both Dolf and Alex Krueger, formerly of the Nimitz Museum in Fredericksburg Texas, have identified it as a post war British build. Neither could provide any additional information though. Why on earth would the Brits build a new M2 tripod when all of Europe was flooded with surplus US M2 tripods? It makes no sense to me.
Here are some pictures:
