Some more comments and historical information
A interesting thread and a nice rather "typical" German middle-class hunting rifle. Most of the older ones - previously in longtime private possession of fellow hunters - have ended up in the United States, due to the events of March-July 1945 ;-). Well, that is the course of fate, and the lot of those who lost the war, I fear...
Now, a few comments.
I. On liberated arms, stolen family heirlooms, and due spoils of war
1.
With all due respect for the servicemen who fought a good cause valiantly, the usual "sniper rifle" tale is just that: military lore and a tall tale. It's the same with the tens of thousands of German WW II bringback pistols, every single one of them picked up from the clutched hand of a dead Waffen-SS tank commander :-D.
2.
In reality, the historical picture is more mundane.
a) All captured German troops who still had their weapons had to surrender them, often while passing a large gun pile. There are countless pictures around which show the vanquished soldiers passing one by one and throwing their arms on these large heaps.
b) Frequently, the long arms were destroyed by tanks running over them. The US armed forces (contrary to the Russian and French practice) usually did not inspect, repair, and store the captured German weaponry, but rather made them unusable.
c) Before that happened however, ordnance personnel or quartermaster staff would often summarily look over the pile. If something looked very unsual and intriguing, it might be pulled out and be shown to an officer in command (might be a secret German weapon, after all?). Handguns were usually picked up and either kept by those who had the factual opportunity to do so, and otherwise bartered (or sold) to other soldiers. Barter was and is a very common opportunity and pastime with soldiers in all armies, times and ages.
d) There was a very vivid demand for war souvenirs, and the handy and nicely sized pistols (or revolvers) were the most popular souvenirs, rather than a clumsy and hard to ship rifle ("duffle bag cuts"). "Nazi paraphernalia" scored a close second as to souvenir popularity.
e) Since a souvenir is intended to
testify, it almost always either was acquired together with a tale (if I give a bottle of booze, I may well demand to get a nice story about the pistol I receive, such as to tell the folks at home), and or a tale spun shortly afterwards. For those readers who now think of their aged relatives, let me add that I see nothing illicit or dishonest or in this; it is the common practice of "military lore".
3.
After the occupation, all civilian owners of firearms (hunters, shooters, collectors, regardless who) had to declare and surrender these to the occupation forces. This practice was the same in all our German occupation zones. Failure to comply was punishable with death.
4.
The surrendered weapons would be sifted. Those "at the source" '(which could be as lowly as a private in quartermaster services) had the chance and therefore the "right of first spoils", if not
de iure, so
de facto. The weapons who remained would often be looked at by officers or other higher brass. In the Soviet occupation zone (Middle and East Germany), majors, colonels and especially generals would regularly thus acquire the finer combined hunting weapons, especially if engraved or otherwise adorned. This was a consented practice of self-reward for presumed merit.
5.
What remained after these steps, would then wait for its eventual destiny, and in the meanwhile be given or traded off to other soldiers by those who oversaw the storage piles. Again, this was a consented practice ("war souvenirs") - after all, why not give to an interested comrade what otherwise would just have to be destroyed?
6.
What remained unclaimed - just as the military weaponry - would eventually wander to the foundry / into the smelter. In the French and Russian controlled territories, conquered military weaponry went into inspection, refurbishment and storage (e.g. the many "Russian" and Ukrainian Kar 98k that have flooded the market now) or would be re-issued to police, to colonial troops (Indochine Francaise), or would be sent to befriended nations and liberation movements.
For illustration, see here:
http://www.panchogun.com/FVWebPhotos/FV-Collectors-in-WW2-5x100px.jpg
II. On German sniper (military sharpshooter) weaponry
1.
In the Great War (which was later to be called the First), German sharpshooters were indeed initially equipped with whatever telescopic rifle could be scrounged. Many of those were patriotic donations from civilian hunters; this was necessary because the sharpshooters themselves, though frequently taken from
Jäger batallions, and having a civilian background of being foresters, hunters, or poachers (often!) did not themselves possess the expensive, newly-developed and rather unsporting telesope rifles. Officers, who might have privately owned such guns, were not snipers.
2.
This was no longer true for World War II. The German Wehrmacht's sharpshooters (small in number and under-trained, as with every other army at the time) started with a few old scoped Karabiner 98b from Weimar Republic Reichswehr times, which had remained packed in cosmoline, neglected and unissued for 15 years: the so-called "Karabiner 98b" were actually long rifles of Gewehr 98 provenance with a bent bolt and a modernized interwar tangent sight. Then, the scoping of Kar 98k began. The Wehrmacht did not use private or civilian rifles for sniping purposes; only the Kriegsmarine issued hunting rifles to their arctic weather parties (who incidentally not only fought polar bears, but also Russians, Danes and Americans in the eternal ice), and the Luftwaffe issued some survival rifles and esp. combination guns to aircrews. Also, the German occupation forces installed a military hunting administration, especially in the East.
3.
While in the end of the war, many auxiliary weapons were pressed into service, the Wehrmacht never used civilian rifles (officers' handguns are another story). However, the German Volkssturm, the last-ditch people's militia, was raised in autumn 1944. These last resort troops consisting of previously exempt civilian workers, invalids, old men and boys, were to be armed by the party, rather than by the Wehrmacht which would not help with any weaponry (the Gauleiter in their military function as Reichsverteidigungskommissare were also the nominal commanders of the Volkssturm, though the single units at the frontline were to be subordinated under military command). The scrounging and scavenging collections of the party however yielded very little in terms of weaponry, as the few existing archival sources on the Volkssturm can show us. Basically, the civilian rifles were kept by the owners, and all that could be drawn together were some training rifles from the party's own formations, namely HJ and SA. Most Volkssturm small arms were thus foreign weaponry (mostly Italian Carcanos but also Lebels and Dutch Mannlichers).
*blush*
