Personal Equipment Manual

[bef]

Sept 20, 2010 18:19:16 GMT -5 dixieflyer said:

I would really like to know if jmaurer has made any more progress on those boxes for 7.62x54r ammunition.

Yuri S.

Comrade,
As long as he completes his Production Quota within the laid down Norms he will ( hopefully) have no problem with Internal Matters.

Strength to his Arm.

;D

[bef]

Comrades, The latest declassified Images of Personal Equipment of the pre/ early GPW from Comrade Zayrats..

Our thanks to you Comrade, for redoubling our Combat Efficiency.







Discuss....

[jmaurer]

Well folks, after having life get in the way of extracurricular activities, I hope the following will be of use and interest.

I finally was able to construct some cartridge boxes according to the dimensions I posted earlier (was it really that long ago??), and they have turned out great. They absolutely make the use of the various ammunition pouches much easier. The first photo is of two of the boxes with ammunition in them, and they have been placed within one of Ostfront's early cartridge boxes.

The next four photos are various views of the boxes in the photograph above.




Now, how was it done? The stapling, as I posted before, was the part that I couldn't figure out: how to install the staples with the proper alignment, which should be approximately parallel to the side of the box. This is what I found:



As manufactured, the foot of the stapler is too wide to fit deep enough into the box for appropriate stapling. Since these things were so cheap, I bought two with the idea that if I screwed one up, I'd have the chance at another attempt to modify one. It worked the first time, so I can now present a comparison of how the stapler looks originally, alongside the modified stapler used to construct the boxes:


And here is a view using one of my original boxes that depicts how the stapler should be oriented and placed to staple the sides of the box. The inserts/cartridge spacers were stapled in with a regular stapler turned upside-down, and mashing the whole works down onto the stapler with a piece of 1/8"-thick plastic scrap with a central clearance for the staple to move into. Note that for this last operation, you'll have to manually bend the legs of the staple over to close it; in so doing, you will probably end up with a better closure than some of my original boxes exhibit.

All that being said, assembly was relatively easy, and the most unauthentic aspect of the new boxes is that the card stock or chipboard that I've used is of too good and sturdy a construction. The original material is somewhat more flimsy, but as of yet I have not found an exact duplicate.

Now, it gets better. I was recently able to obtain from a collector/"amateur archaeologist" in Latvia a purported WWII box (you will recall that my originals were from a case of early 1950s Soviet ammunition). In his words, "This box approximately 250 kilometers from the city of Riga towards the Russian border is found, at deviation Russian soldiers it is a lot of after itself have left, soldiers took with themselves only rifles and ran so quickly as soon as it is possible." Apparently, an entire tin of ammo was unearthed from which the cartridge packing I obtained was taken. I guess this was from the Volchov/Volkhov pocket area, and the gentleman seemed to think the combat in the area of the find occurred in 1941. Anyway, for your edification, I post photos of the original:




You will note in the last photo that there are no transverse dividers for each individual cartridge; otherwise, the cartridge pack appears to be identical in dimensions and construction to my original 1950s packs. This will make things a lot easier and faster; simply leave out the dividers and the irritating slots for the same to duplicate the battlefied find. I hope to obtain some photographs of the location of the battlefield tin and cartridges, and if I do (and with permission) I'll post them here. Enjoy!

[jmaurer]

I forgot to mention that standard office staples (as included with the Etona Swivel 2 stapler) are so close in size to both the Latvia box and my 1950s box that any differences are negligible and indiscernible.

[horsesoldier176]

Tovarisch Maurer;

So, how soon will you be producing these for offer to those of us here on the forum?

I wish I had the time to follow up on this project, but I have so many irons in the fire now, that some of them are melting before I can get them to the anvil, so to speak.

Boridin

[bef]

Comrades, From Comrade Zayats Rezidency...

ИНСТРУКЦИЯ ПО УКЛАДКЕ, ПРИГОНКЕ, СБОРКЕ И НАДЕВАНИЮ ПОХОДНОГО СНАРЯЖЕНИЯ БОЙЦА ПЕХОТЫ КРАСНОЙ АРМИИ

warstar.info/rkka_1941/snariagenie_rkka_1941.html

If you want a Complex?, he has the Gen!... .

Enjoy. ;D

[sasha]

And it looks like here is where those cardboard boxes go....

[jmaurer]

Jun 15, 2011 8:57:07 GMT -5 horsesoldier176 said:

Tovarisch Maurer;

So, how soon will you be producing these for offer to those of us here on the forum?

I wish I had the time to follow up on this project, but I have so many irons in the fire now, that some of them are melting before I can get them to the anvil, so to speak.

Boridin

Tovarisch Boridin:
I may have gotten lucky and fallen into an arrangement for having a few of these made by die cutting; final assembly would be by myself. It would certainly be sometime in the future, hopefully sometime in the next couple of months. Right now I have no way of estimating what the cost could be. Any suggestion as to what would be reasonable? I know these are expendable items in a reenacting scenario (or not, if used for static, living history events), so I'll try to work the best deal I can to get these made as economically as possible.

[horsesoldier176]

Jul 1, 2011 13:36:47 GMT -5 jmaurer said:

I'll try to work the best deal I can to get these made as economically as possible.[/quote]

Depending on the price, I suspect you may have good interest. I have no idea what a "fair" price would be, but I suspect the more you have made (die cut), the cheaper each one becomes.

Boridin