# From Iraq: Unique Gold Plated Tabuk Sub-Carbine & other captured kit - PICs



## 1feral1 (21 Apr 2007)

Ok, This is an unusual find, and ended up in Australian hands, ha! It was presented to our GEN Cantwell from US Forces in Baghdad, and GEN Cantwell will present this to the AWM for display in the near future sometime.

This Tabuk is Iraqi made, or parts made in Iraq anyways, but either way, its assembled in Iraq on Yugoslavian machinery. There is much Yugoslavian influence throughout the country, usually in the form of plant equipmetn and infrastructure. Prior to the fall of the regime, Yugoslavian citizens had free reign in Iraq, not even requireing a visa, adn could work/live as required.

She (the Kalashnikov) was mint, handled, but never fired, and gold plated, and I mean gold! Every single part was dipped, all except the rate reducer.

Op rod, extractor, firing pin, hammer trigger, etc! Even the mag follower and the inside of the magazine. 

The furniture was unique too, with gold embossed lettering which said (transalted) 'A gift from the President, The Great Leader of the People, Saddam Hussein', then who it was presented to.

So where is this now? It is safe in Australia.

Upon departure for Australia, myself and the Army Histroy Unit rep from the Australian War Memorial in Canberra went through our captured stuff. I had every single item catalogued with its historical significance/history related to us. Everything, also what was to be destroyed too, as we had some crap also.

I had already made the cull on what would be suitsable for the AWM collection, had the tags given to me by the rep, so this along with other weapons will go to the museum, and be on display I am told within 10 months.

No, none of this stuff will be de-activated, it will all be 'goers'.

Anyways, enjoy the pics, and sorry for my feet in the pics.

More pics to follow.


Cheers,

Wes


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## Nfld Sapper (21 Apr 2007)

Nice find Wes. Truely unique.

:cheers:


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## 1feral1 (21 Apr 2007)

Thats me with a Russian 'Tula' (c.1971) 7.62mm AKMS, happily blipping away with ammo I scrounged from the USN EOD types at the 'then' 4BCT at FOB Prosperity. This pic taken about 30km from the Iranian border on my birthday, 26 Oct 06.

The next pic is some extra captured weapons kept in our LAV, again taken out for a 'famil' shoot for the Lads.


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## 1feral1 (21 Apr 2007)

Now some more of our gold plated friend....

Pics are self explanatory.


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## Mike Baker (21 Apr 2007)

Beautiful! I have seen pictures of that weapon before, an I liked it then! ;D


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## 1feral1 (21 Apr 2007)

More....


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## 1feral1 (21 Apr 2007)

More...


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## 1feral1 (21 Apr 2007)

More...


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## 1feral1 (21 Apr 2007)

Again more...


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## 1feral1 (21 Apr 2007)

The last three....


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## ProPatria031 (19 Aug 2007)

those were used by saddams bodyguards I believe, there so nice i wouldn't want to fire them and get them covered in carbon fouling.

 :cheers:


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## 1feral1 (19 Aug 2007)

Who ever told you that is simply full of shyte

Firstly, gold has a low melting point, and secondly it says right on the handguard " that it was presented to an official" as a gift from Saddam himself.

I hate when stipid rumours start, so it ends here NOW.

Carbon covers all gas effected parts, and them some! I have fired captured AKs until there were too hot to hold even with gloves on.

Wes


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## KevinB (19 Aug 2007)

ProPatria031 said:
			
		

> those were used by saddams bodyguards I believe, there so nice i wouldn't want to fire them and get them covered in carbon fouling.
> 
> :cheers:



With all the Iraq time you have, your qualified to make an assesment of that eh?


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## 3rd Herd (19 Aug 2007)

So are you bringing a couple back for the museums here in Canada ? Safe journey


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## Trooper Hale (19 Aug 2007)

Going to be a really interesting trip to the War Museum next time i'm in Canberra. Should be a whole bunch of awesome new exhibits (including one or two with yours truly in them!).

Now Wes, about me gold plating my Steyr...i suppose i could just paint it and pretend....


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## Matt_Fisher (19 Aug 2007)

That's a truly interesting piece of war memorabilia.  We came upon something similar when I was over in the form of a nickel plated AK, but regrettably, I never took any pics of it.   :


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## geo (20 Aug 2007)

Wes,
Considering that the parts are "gold dipped" and do not have "gold leaf" applied.  Do you figure that the parts were machined down a bit in order to take into account the additional thickness of the gold? or is it a case that there are some large tolerances to begin with?


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## KevinB (20 Aug 2007)

A lot of the coated guns don't work very well, some do - some don't.

  I'll grab a few shots of other coated ones in the next few days.


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## 1feral1 (20 Aug 2007)

Hey Geo,

From memory, this weapon was just a generic plain-jane Iraqi made/assembled Tabuk subby, new unfired, dipped in gold, the plating was very fragile, and very thin, and in some places, was peeling. Then a fancy set of handguards was installed  with an inscription inlayed with gold. A typical Yugoslavian matt back pistol grop was added. In short everything metallic (and I mean everything) was gold plated shy of the rate reducer (if you are familiar with the AKM's guts.

There appeared nothing special about the subby, and I don't think it was ever intended top be fired. I reckon if anyone fired it, considering it was a gift from the master himself, this might have been considered disrespectful, and it would have ended in a dirt nap for the owner. We did have some nickel plated old Russian AK-47's (pre 1959) rifles, of these, they were fired, and had been carried, but only the external surface of the bbl and reciever had been plated. The internals guts were still in the original finish.


Cheers,

Wes


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## 1feral1 (23 Aug 2007)

Update on Cantwell's AK.

This is the one we had in our location.

Note no mention of Tabuk or sub-carbine, and calling it an Ak-47.

I look forward to seeing this rifle on my next visit to the AWM in Canberra.


Cheers,

Wes
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A display of excess
By Cpl Mike McSweeney

Edition 1169, June 28, 2007 
    
   
Man with the golden gun: DCA Maj-Gen John Cantwell hands the gold-plated AK-47 – presented to him in Iraq – to Nola Anderson, of the Australian War Memorial.
Photo by Cpl Rachel Ingram 

A GOLD-plated AK-47, once a gift from Saddam Hussein, was presented to the Australian War Memorial in Canberra on June 18.

DCA Maj-Gen John Cantwell gave the weapon to AWM assistant director Nola Anderson as a contribution to preserving Australia’s military history.

“The weapon was captured in a fight north of Baghdad,” Maj-Gen Cantwell said.

“It’s a relatively rare piece, especially crafted and presented to select members in the senior leadership of the Saddam regime, often in recognition of them carrying out his work for him.”

The assault rifle was presented to Maj-Gen Cantwell while he was the Director of Strategic Operations in Iraq.

He was visiting the American 101st Airborne Division to discuss operational matters. During the visit a commemoration occurred for several US soldiers who had been killed in action.

In this context both then Brig Cantwell and the US commander spoke about their shared commitment to the fight against terrorism. 

“As I was leaving the American general presented it to me on behalf of the 101st Division and the US forces,” he said. “I spoke to some of my Iraqi Army senior colleagues when I got back. They told me about how the favoured generals would display this weapon as a symbol of patronage and trust with Saddam often for doing his dirty work.”

Maj-Gen Cantwell said the weapon symbolised a culture of violence.

“We’ve got the idea of a gross excess – gold plating a weapon at the same time as millions of Iraqis were living in abject poverty, with no proper education or health services. Even more so now, it’s important that we continue to strive to assist people like the Iraqis and Afghans and others in other parts of the world.”

On return from his visit to the 101st Airborne Division, Maj-Gen Cantwell said he had some fun with some American officers waiting for a helicopter.

“I got off the helicopter carrying this gleaming thing and there were all these US officers standing around and they went ‘Whoa! How come you’ve got that?’ So I said of course all Australians carry gold-plated AK-47s.

“So there are probably people out there convinced now that we’ve all got gold-plated AKs.”

The AK-47 is now on display at the Australian War Memorial.


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## geo (23 Aug 2007)

Nice piece.... the AK is pretty too


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