M22 Locust about to be scrapped...

[RangerBob]

I know a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy...

Anyway, he says a scrapper has offered to sell him an M22 Locust that the scrapper is suppose to cut up for the current owner in compliance with govt instructions. The big question is...is it possible to have mandatory scrapping order rescinded?

Such a shame to see a cool little antique like this get cut up, but I know the govt has no such sentimentality.

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5J8pPAFnH20[/media]

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaE4Uzwd75I[/media]

 

[cpf240]

Its so cute!

Too bad I'm done for the holiday season. Also, I don't have anyplace to store it, though I don't suppose the HOA would want to argue with me about it!

 

[RangerBob]

I think it would fit in your garage and they'd have nothing to complain about because they'd never see it. And you have nothing to worry about anyway, because I'm gonna get it if I can!!

 

[cpf240]

I think it woulf fit in your garage and they'd have nothing to complain about because they'd never see it. And you have nothing to worry about anyway, because I'm gonna get it if I can!!

Oh well... was thinking it would be fun to have someone driving it around while I stand there with the remote control radio from our RC car, pretending that I'm the one driving the M22

 

[RangerBob]

 

[L1A1]

Almost brought one of those back in the 90s. A fellow who lives about 30 miles south of me had a pair of them on his farm.
Matt

 

[maddawg308]

Uh, this doesn't sound right. If it was a newer tank, like an Abrams or M-60 series, yes, I have seen them come out surplus with the demil requirement, but that's usually on-base, and the hull has to be cut in many places. If this M22 Locust is in private hands, it got surplussed years ago and there should be no requirement to cut it up for any reason. Unless, the owner discovered the cannon is firing condition, and it hasn't been registered with the NFA branch of BATFE (NFA is National Firearms Act, i.e. all the machineguns and larger stuff that is privately owned) then BATFE regs say that the cannon breech has to be cut off, but that's all.

This is a very rare piece of armor. Only 830 of them were made in WWII, making it pretty small production numbers, and few survived long after the war since they weren't very useful in Cold War US inventory.

I feel we don't know the whole story here. Is it stolen from a base? Recent import from another country and the gun needs demilled? More info is better.

 

[sail-bum]

I agree with Maddawg308, the gun should be the only item in question. Standard de-milling is to cut the receiver into pieces, I have a C&R FFL license and see this all the time.

 

[Chief_919]

I gotta agree with the above- there shouldn't be any demil requirement at this point unless somehow it is just leaving government hands.

There are actually a number of Locusts around. And almost every one is minus turret- in the 50's the government demilled them by removing the turrets, then they were sold and mostly used by loggers and such.

 

[L1A1]

Actually, not only does the breech have to be removed & cut up, there also has to be a hole drilled into the pressure area of the barrel the same diameter as the bore of the weapon. Since there was no hull machine gun a common meathod of demil by the Gov't (right after the war) was to remove & keep the turret . That's why most of the M22s found so far are w/o turrets. The two I looked at both had demil cuts in the armor but were easily repairable (just a giant "L" shaped cut in the glasis plate). The Gov't started requiring a demil order on armored vehicles sometime in the 1950s.
Matt

 

[Wayofftrack]

Yeah I don't think we are getting the entire story here but we would need to know the exact details of the so called mandatory scrapping order to advise. To me it doesn't sound....accurate.

 

[RangerBob]

I'm sure that it's probably just the canon that needs to be 'scrapped'. It may be a couple of days before we get more details.

 

[hndrsonj]

Are you sure it doesn't still belong to the govt? Where did it come from?

 

[RangerBob]

The story I have is that the private owner (possibly the winner of a govt scrap auction) sent it to a metal scrapper following govt instructions to do so. The scrapper is trying to find a way to not chop it up. Hopefully we'll have the full (and accurate) story in a couple of days.

 

[L1A1]

I would think that the only way to save it from being cut up into tiny little peices is to have a museum take possesion of it.
Matt

 

[100acre]

demill the gun. or a museum I used to work for 3 different museums.

 

[Wayofftrack]

The thing that makes the most sense is an order to scrap ordnance items from a range/base cleanup which would explain the involvement of all parties. I imagine if it spent the better part of 60 years in the bush it is rough but still i hope it can survive the destruct order. I think a musuem stepping in is about the only way to get around that as someone mentioned earlier. Love to see pics.

 

[Wayofftrack]

On the off chance that this tank is in Colorado the aircraft musuem at Pueblo would be interested. They have a halftrack on display that belongs to a SS member and are mv friendly.

 

[SETOYOTA]

This tank is worth way more than scrap. The gun does not need to be cut or drilled in anyway. Only the breech and barrel need to be separated. The breech can be registered with the ATF as DD by filling out a proper form 6 and paying the .$200 tax

I really doubt the whole story. The locust is very very rare ESP. In good condition. A complete nice example would bring around 200K or more.

 

[98taco3]

Story seems fishy to say the least. Sort of sounds like the old "you can buy the tank but have to buy all 4 jeeps in the crates in front of it at $50 apiece." Would like to see photos of it in place in the scrapyard.