Why Do You Collect Flare Pistols ??

[signalman]

I thought it would be interesting to know the stories about how, and why our members started to collect flare pistols.

My story begins in College, when I began to shoot, and then collect pistols. My passion was Odd and Early semi - automatics, especially the Mauser Mod 1896 " Broomhandles ". I continued after College soon buying Odd and Unusual European Military Revolvers. They were expensive for someone as young as I was, so I began to buy and trade cheap guns to earn money to pay for the collectibles I was keeping. One type of gun I bought and sold because they were so inexpensive were Flare Pistols.

I was fortunate enough to work in a Family Business that also gave me enough money to live on, and extra to "invest" in guns.

In the 70's and 80's most flare pistols were really inexpensive, yet they were also difficult to sell, so I soon had an inventory of about 30 different flare guns. I noticed that besides being more inexpensive than the pistols I collected, they had really different and unusual designs. The variations and designs impressed me so much, that I decided to collect Flare Pistols as my primary collectible, and the semi-auto pistols, and odd and unusual European Military Revolvers became secondary.

From collecting pistols, I realized I could have a world class collection if I purchased Collections of flare pistols instead of individual guns. So Besides buying at gun shows, I purchased any large collection of flare pistols that came up for sale. When a collection was purchased I would sell many of the Duplicates to help pay for the collection, and keep the New Variations, or the extremely rare duplicates. Buying collections quickly taught me what was rare, from what was more common.

Now it is 40+ years later, Except for flare pistols, I have sold off much of my collection in retirement. I Have been selling and trading many of my flare gun duplicates, and common flare pistols as well. However I still buy the Rare, and unusual flare pistols, so slowly the number of different variations in my collection keeps going up. I will never stop collecting them, and I hope to donate some of my rarer Flare pistols to the NRA Museum before I leave this world.

So Why do I collect Flare Guns?? I love the designs, variations, history, and the fact that so few collectors were involved when I started, There is so much New ( Old ) information to discover ! It is blazing your own path in collecting instead of following the common Colt, Winchester, Mauser, Luger collectors and contributing little.

[BrunoH]

Hi,
Well.. I think I'm suffering from the same disease... Why flare guns ?

Because when I've decided to collect in the militaria area, a friend of mine give me the following advice: Focus on one direction and try to avoid to go everywhere !!!

So, my first interest was weapons but as I'm not a millionaire, and as I was afraid by the large number of copies / fakes (specially in the area of helmets, clothes, etc...).
I make the choice to choose flare guns and to limit my scope, I select German ones and because I'm a beginner, I make an other range selection to the period of WW II and here I am.
I certainly haven't such nice collection as yours but I've learned to be patient.

I get the opportunity and the chance to buy a quite nice collection of ammunition (it helps me to avoid to wait too much) but discovers that the variation of flare guns is enormous.

What I've found is that I'm not alone and that more and more people like flare guns !!! Some kind of fashion maybe ? So .... I continue to learn and try to grow my collection ...

Wishing a nice week end to every body.

Regards

[signalman]

" and as I was afraid by the large number of copies / fakes (specially in the area of helmets, clothes, etc...). "

I also did not like the large numbers of fakes in collecting Colts, Lugers, etc.

Although the flare pistols are rarely faked, It is increasing.

It is a shame that many of the Holsters, Rods, and other accessories are turning up totally faked, or with fake markings. The worst seem to be the Luft leg straps, New cleaning rods, and Russian and other holsters with " rare " nazi marks added. A little care would avoid most of these.

[BrunoH]

And in the fake's family, some Z made on normal ac or ayf LP with postwar riffled barrel (but of course, the wrong diameter...)....
Regards

[bergler]

Well, for me it is a similar story.....why flare guns? I was always interested in old guns because of 2 factors:
1 - Mechanics……how do they work, how are they build, what are the differences, and 2 - History…….what actions have they been in, what is the story behind? So I started collecting old hand guns, mostly german guns from WW1 and WW2. But, as the gun laws in most countries here in Europe are quite strict, one reaches the legal limits VERY fast. And then a friend of mine gave me 2 flare pistols he found, amongst many othet things, in the lakes near my home town. Soon I discovered that flare guns are AT LEAST as interesting as “normal” hand guns, there are less fakes around, one can build up a good kowledge with reasonable efforts, and there is a lot of history behind as well. And there is a good group of enthusiasts that focus on this topic. Now it really seems that more and more people take on this area of interest. Which is good, because the market gets bigger and one sees more and more unusual items, and bad, because prices rise ;-)
Still……for me, one of the best areas to invest time and money when it comes to militaria or guns……

[JoeW]

My interest started in the history of the German police and everything related to that. I started with pistols and long guns, graduated to uniforms and accessories. And as I learned more about the police, much of which I put forth in the article placed on this forum, I found and incorporated flare pistols into the collection.

[Sedov]

It is very difficult to talk about the reasons for collecting when they have already named. This variety of materials of manufacture, design, variety of constructions. Many pistols are available in the collection are history and are associated with known events. Buying a new instance of the collection, I try to study that period of time when it was applied to understand why such a device was taken into service. I am interested to monitor the signal arms. Also, the signal issue of weapons of poorly described in the literature compared to other weapons, I want to create a shared directory of flare pistols in the world. Sorry for my bad English. Regards

[K & K Collection]

Hi,

A few years ago, it was the only pistol that was free in Belgium. So I start to collect and now I have more than 200 different pieces. The top of my collection is the doubble LP 42. I'll spend all my little free time with surching information about flare guns.

I have one big problem, My Englisch is very bad. I'll hope that you can wread it.
Best regards

[bergler]

Hi,

A few years ago, it was the only pistol that was free in Belgium. So I start to collect and now I have more than 200 different pieces. The top of my collection is the doubble LP 42. I'll spend all my little free time with surching information about flare guns.

I have one big problem, My Englisch is very bad. I'll hope that you can wread it.
Best regards

Hi Kurt,

your english is much better than our flamish ;-)
No problem, if there is anything not too understandable there is always somebody to help out. Weidman Bemelmans is dutch, I understand flemish as well, and your english is good anyway.....

[Weidman]

Why do you collect flare pistols?

I was metal detecting in a forest in Germany and found a Luftwaffe Model L. I was hooked!