Gunner Quinn
Origin Story
Sometime in the 1950s, a man, his wife and his son were working a rural farm in the Texas Panhandle when a stranger showed up on their doorstep unannounced with a weapon. This was clearly a different time, so nobody got shot. The vagrant was homeless and hungry and offered to sell his peculiar rifle for food money. The farmer struck a deal and bought the drifter’s M1A1 paratrooper carbine for use against varmints around the ranch. The vagabond then disappeared — never to be heard from again.
What makes the tale so intriguing is the nature of the rifle and the timing of this encounter. This vintage paratrooper carbine retains all of its original 1942 features, not having been through the obligatory rebuild process that so corrupted most of these old guns late in the war. The only way somebody might reasonably find himself in possession of such an unmolested artifact at this point in history would be if he had brought it home from the war. That in and of itself was adequate to capture my attention.
The family used the old rifle on the farm for years and it eventually passed to the farmer’s nephew. In due time, this man felt ready to dispose of the weapon. The old farmer’s nephew subsequently asked a friend to sell it on his behalf. I had been haunting GunBroker for months looking for the perfect paratrooper carbine when I tripped over this one.
Once the gun arrived at my C&R FFL, I dutifully typed this secondhand story up and submitted it to my friend and boss Brent Wheat at GUNS. A couple weeks after publication, I got the most fascinating email from a new buddy in Texas named David Medlin. I use his name with his permission.
David is a retired Texas sheriff who claimed to recognize the details in the article. He grew up some three miles down the road from some folks who sounded very much like the characters in my story. He offered some intriguing insights.
Read the full article here