Estrella WarBirds Museum

I started the collection during my early childhood in the late 1950's as a result of some influence from my father and his friends. We lived in Santa Maria, Ca. My father was an avid outdoors man, interested in anything to do with hunting, fishing, and photography. He owned several firearms, and reloaded his own ammunition. He competed in various rifle and pistol matches, and later competed in trap and skeet events. As I grew older I became interested in his outdoors activities as well. I especially became interested in firearms, competition shooting, and reloading of ammunition. The first rifle that I owned was a 1903 A3 Springfield Army rifle that I purchased brand new from the DCM (Department of Civilian Marksmanship) for $14.95 plus shipping . I also purchased .30 cal. Military rifle ammunition from our local rifle club for $.02 a round , an unheard of price in today's market. With this rifle and an unlimited supply of ammo, I practiced shooting at every opportunity. I eventually became a pretty good shooter. On one Saturday afternoon while we were attending a Turkey Shoot sponsored by the Lompoc CA Sportsman´s Club, I actually won the rifle competition with the Springfield Rifle.

My father who was on the other side of the range shooting in the trap competition had no idea that I won. He thought I was at the rifle range just practicing. I was initially practicing until one of the men at the range noticed that I was pretty good with the Springfield, so he encouraged me to sign up for the next turkey shoot. I told the man that I did not have any money to pay the entrance fee ($2.00), so he paid it for me.

I subsequently signed up for the shoot, which was a running deer target at about 100 or 150 yards. When the range master blew his whistle and the target started to move quickly, I fired ten rounds into the vital front shoulder area of the target. It is important to note that the Springfield Rifle only holds five rounds, so in order to get ten rounds off, I had to reload the rifle with five more rounds during the course of firing. All I can remember was pulling the trigger, operating the bolt, and reloading with that five round stripper clip as fast as I could. I can remember that there was a lot of talk going on between the adults right after I finished shooting. Shortly, the range master came up to me and said that I had won the contest by shooting the best score in the shortest amount of time.

I subsequently picked up my Turkey at the winners stand, then went to find my Dad to tell him what I had done. Finding him on the trap range I showed him the turkey and told him about the shooting event I had just won. He was very surprised, and shook my hand several times.

Now you are probably wondering what this all has to do with an Ordnance Collection, well let me continue. Upon arriving home, my Dad took me out to our garage where all of our reloading equipment was, opened up one of those Army green ammo cans , reached inside and pulled out the largest rifle shell I had ever seen. It was a .50 cal. BMG round. He gave it to me, again congratulating me for winning my event. He told me the .50 cal. round was given to him by a soldier who was in the Army during WWII. So I guess I can say given the days events with the Springfield Army rifle, and my Dad giving my the .50cal. BMG round , all of this equated into a life long interest in Military Ordnance artifacts.
Oh, by the way, I was 12 years old when all of this took place.
   John Kinney

Cabinet #1 contains a collection of US and Japanese infantry weapons that were used during WWII, along with additional weapons used during the Korean, Vietnam, and Iraqi Campaigns. Weapons on display are a Bazooka, two disposable light anti-tank weapons, and a Japanese Knee Mortar. Included also is an example of the rounds used in each.

Cabinet #2 contains a collection of US Anti-Aircraft and small caliber field artillery shells. Also included and of special interest is a WWII German “88” anti-aircraft shell.
The shells in this display are from the WWII through the Vietnam War periods. They were used in anti-aircraft guns, field guns, howitzers, and recoilless rifles.

Considering the fact that the Ordnance Collection is an accumulation of inert, obsolete munitions related artifacts, possibly never to be used or seen again, I felt that it was important to preserve this history and subsequently share it with current generations and those to come, via the museum process. Consideration was given to the Estrella Warbirds Museum because they are an excellent, forward looking museum, with attention given to all categories of military artifacts. Furthermore they already have on site a building dedicated at this time to the display of restored historic military vehicles, and aircraft related missiles. I might add that the aircraft missile display is one of the finest and complete as I have ever seen. To compliment the museums´ existing ordnance display, I offered and they accepted the loan of my collection to be placed on permanent display. My collection consists of obsolete, inert, ordnance artifacts, that were used in wartime by our armed services. The collection is displayed in six display cabinets and a floor display as follows: infantry weapons, anti-aircraft gun ammunition, field artillery ammunition (large and small caliber), tank gun ammunition, naval gun ammunition (medium caliber), grenades, mortar ammunition, and mines.

The floor display consists of examples of major caliber naval gun ammunition in 12 inch, 14 inch and 16 inch.

Part of the floor display is a collection of general purpose aircraft bombs, torpedoes, a sea mine with anchor, and a complete Quad .50 cal. anti-aircraft gun mount. It should be noted that in no way is this collection a complete display of all munitions in the respective categories, the items are merely representative of the various categories.

The floor display includes various examples of aircraft bombs from the MK80 class of general purpose bombs. This is a complete collection from 250 lbs to 4000 lb. The bombs include examples of "high drag" folding fins to "low drag" fixed fins. 

The floor display presents one of the most comprehensive displays of major caliber naval gun projectiles you will see anywhere.  The display includes a 12 inch high capacity projectile dated 1938, a 12 inch coastal piece designed to impact 50 miles from the firing point.

Other floor artifacts include a MK6 sea mine and anchor, a practice submarine launched torpedo, a WWII Quad .50 caliber anti-aircraft machine gun mount that has a story all of its own and a Vietnam era 81mm mortar mount with inert shells.

Cabinet #3 contains a collection of large and medium caliber shells from naval guns. Of special interest in this display is and example of the 8”/55 brass and projectile. This round was composed of the largest brass shell casing ever used in the US munitions arsenal. The casing, separate loaded with it’s high capacity explosive projectile constituted the largest round of ammunition ever used in an automatic naval gun system.

Of further special interest in this display is a cut-away example of a 6” high capacity projectile. This projectile was produced during WWII to be used in naval ordnance training classes.

You will also see various examples of fixed and semi-fixed naval rounds, along with examples of shrapnel derived from an exploded projectile. The shells are from the WWII period, with the exception of the 8”/55 which was developed during the 1950’s and used into the late 1960’s.

Cabinet #5 contains a display of Large Caliber Field Artillery projectiles. All of these examples are considered separate loading, consisting of a projectile and bags of propellant (propellant bags not show in this display).

The projectiles in this display are from the Vietnam War period through the early 1990´s.
The examples represent projectiles in the high explosive, rocket assist, mine dispensing, smoke and illumination and practice categories. Of particular interest in this display is a WW2 vintage 155mm loader training dummy projectile. These are very rare and seldom seen in collections. All projectiles in this display are used in field howitzers, with the exception of the 175mm projectile which would have been used in a field gun system.

It has always been my desire and ambition to share the artifacts and associated history through the museum process. The Estrella Warbirds Museum, in my opinion, is the perfect venue for the presentation of this collection.
I would like to thank the Estrella Warbirds Museum, the Board of Directors and the membership for accepting the loan of my collection as an integral part of the museum.