Anyone Been to SA National Historic Site

[Rate_of_Twist]

Ok, so Im a dumb ass and didnt even know there was a museum/national site dedicated to Springfield Armory. I noticed in the info about it claims to be one of the largest collections of military small arms in the world ( of course it then says most are not on display ) Is it worth the trip? I have the week between christmas and new years off from work and if its worth it sounds like a fun trip. As a side "fun" note my M1 will be having its 67th birthday around that time

 

[FSTC]

I think it is. You can also head over to S&W and the indian motorcycle museum. There are a good smattering of gun shops nearby too.

 

[Mack179]

The Museum is a pretty good take, it has some great exhibits. It has many rare and priceless M1's and the Organ of Muskets is awesome to see. However, as museums go it is fairly small and is frustrating to think of what they have that is not on display. If you have an M1 and are interested in its history you won't be disappointed.

 

[Rate_of_Twist]

I think it is. You can also head over to S&W and the indian motorcycle museum. There are a good smattering of gun shops nearby too.

Does S&W have a museum? I know they do tours,but only if you have a certian number of people.....

 

[jdesro]

Does S&W have a museum? I know they do tours,but only if you have a certian number of people.....

They don't really have a museum per-se. They have a small room at the Shooting Sports Center with a display of some of their historic firearms. They ususally swap out the display from time to time.


I don't know how far away you are, but if you are within an hour or so from Springfield I think the Springfield Armory Museum would be worth the trip. It isn't a huge museum, but you can easily spend more than an hour there looking at the displays and reading all the write-ups they have going along with the displays. If you have any interest in historical firearms I don't think you would be dissapointed.

I haven't been there in a while, but on one of my last trips there with my father, they were alowing a limited number of people to go on a guided tour of their storage room upstairs. There are some amazing things up there, that very few people actually get to see.

One of my favorite things that we got to see was an experimental M1 that used the Johnson rifle 10-shot rotory-style magazine system. How cool is that?

 

[mac1911]

I like it and make it a point to go anytime im in the area.
GPS is great for this trip. Log all the gun shops with in the area make a good day trip out of it. For me S&W does nothing for me unless you have a particular handgun you might want to try at the their range

http://www.northeastshooters.com/vbulletin/threads/69124-Massachusetts-gun-shop-map

Weedwhacker held my hand for the download to my GPS so cant help you there

 

[Esquilax]

I went there last July. The variety and volume of the collection on display is staggering; they had American weaponry like I expected, but also weapons used by every country in every war the US has ever been in, as well as neat experimental stuff that I never knew existed. They also have exhibits on the manufacturing side of things as well as the history of the Armory.

The building was smaller than I expected, but contained more than I ever thought it would.

If pictures are gun porn, then the Springfield Armory Museum is a gun lap-dance.