KM Flare gun

[ayf]

SLD Kriegsmarine

I have never found any information who tell me that this type SS flare guns was made for German Uboat.This was a modell made for german navy and used in vessels and costal fortresses.If someone have dokumentation regarding produktion of these flare guns for U boat, it has been interesting .

Regards from Norway .

[merdock]

Hi,
Just come across this thread from a link of one for sale ,i do wish i could have that one as well ,
here's mine as to the u-boat question mine was taken from a captured u-boat by a navel man that surrendered to them, .
how many of these weapons are out there.
Merdock

[merdock]

2

[jwburchell]

Well, one lives and learns...and that is a good thing. However, sometimes the truth hurts. I refer to my KM anodized aluminum version of this flare gun introduced above in posts 12, 13 & 14. Please read on....

A fellow collector on this forum pointed-out to me (subsequently confirmed by another) that there appears to have been a modification made to my gun, specifically, the breech end of the barrels having been re-chambered. Note the "shiny" area visible in the picture. This extends into each of the barrels for about 1 cm., which I am told should not be the case.

I certainly believe this one to be a factory original, and when this was pointed-out to me, wondered if it might be a period or post-war modification, and for what reason - the only one I could imagine possibly being to accommodate a different type of flare cartridge.

What I am told is that if the 1 cm. "shiny" area is of a slightly larger diameter than the bore (which it is), it has definitely been altered and that this would not have been done during wartime by the Germans, and that most probably it was done by someone post-war to accomodate a 4- gauge tear gas or shotgun shell with a thickened area around the base of the shell....or...someone also might have made an insert, and then had to relieve the chamber to get it to fit.

All of which probably renders it unsafe to fire, the flaregun walls having been thinned at that point, making it dangerous for a shotshell, and even with 4 gauge flares, which would no longer fit snugly into the chamber and the gap could cause a shell rupture.

Sadly, this decreases the value of this flaregun, although it does remain a lovely, period piece of KM history. As I do not wish to be seen as presenting an item that is inaccurately described, or deceptively described by omission, I have added this new information so that all can learn from it.

Regards,
John

[ayf]

Modification of camber.

This modification is done after -45 and its done to make it possible to use british 1 inch flare cartridges,the 1 in cartidge have aprox 0.5 mm bigger diameter and its difficult to install.

[Simon O.]

Just a question, a beautiful example of one of these, dated 1940, stainless steel KM stamped and with the Walther logo was recently donated to a local museum here. It had been used at the German seaplane base to warn aircraft if it was too rough to land.

What kind of rough value would one like that have these days?

[Bob Hritz]

The KM doubles are all breathtaking! I would love to have on in my collection.

Bob Hritz

[ayf]

Km sld 1940

Very interesting item,normaly the Luftwaffe used the fleger leuchtpistole SLD made of aluminium.The value of a KM SLD in steel in nice orginal condition is aprox 2000 Euro.

Regards Norway