Third Party Press

Opinions in a pinch....

my66coupe

Senior Member
I had a duv44 sent to me with a 3 day inspection. It was advertised as matching, with capture papers, 3 repro mag pouches, with 5 repro magazines, 1 original mag that looks like it has sat at the bottom of a swamp for 60 years, an original unmarked sling in poor condition, and a repro sling. It is an early D block, with a milled action cover and no muzzle nut or threads.

It is missing the sliding dust cover, the sight hood, and entire bolt latch/catch assembly (latch, spring, plunger, and pin that affixes it all to the bolt carrier. The capture papers are very frail, and are missing the center of the document that would have listed the G43 or item captured. The vet and vets serial number all prove to be correct. The stock was coated in some type of poly that is flaking. The stock has not been sanded, the cartouches are perfect, serial number and suffix all match. There appears to be a crack or some subtle delamination near the wrist. All numbers match internally/externally, lugs, pin carrier, bolt, bolt carrier and the gas cylinder. The blueing is about 80%+ showing loss on the barrel and barrel band. The butt plate is in the white, with the "ribbed" type door. There is a ww2 type oiler inside the stock. The op rod is not damaged, no cracks on the bolt carrier or fatigue in the receiver. The bore is minty. All correct WaA214s throughout the rifle. The hanguard is not Durafol, but appears original wood and not cracked. The original magazine is severely pitted/rusty, probably not restoratable.

The seller values it at $3k and he is currently holding a check until I decide to take ownership or not. I consider it more of a restoration project than a nice collector example I initially wanted. I've found all the parts to restore it though:

Sight hood (original) $100
Dust over for milled cover $220
Magazine $250-400++
Bolt latch assembly....$30 reproduction from Shoei (not sure it will work)

OR


Spare bolt carrier to rob bolt latch $220 ebay find.

Am I out of my mind for even considering this rifle? Or should I send it back ASAP? My brain is fried thinking about it :googlie, and need some like minded, collector types to share opinions.

Thank you
 
Honestly, that does not sound good. For $3K you shouldn't have to go hunting for parts and swapping anything out and piece milling things around. The bring back paper sounds worthless if it doesn't have your gun on it or where the gun was is gone. How do you show that paper is for that gun to someone in the future?

I vote send it back. Sounds like a headache and a gun that is going to be a matching parted out rifle. For a few hundred dollars more, you should be able to find a nice one that isn't a headache like this sounds like it is. I think you already know this one isn't the "one" for you. For a few more hundred, like around $3,500 on up, you should be able to get a nicer one. Nicer ones come up from time to time, just have to be patient.

Hope this helps.
 
You didn't say if the stock is serial numbered to match... It should be. Pictures will tell the tale. You are looking at putting in at least another $1000+ just to get correct original parts to bring it back. Mag, sling, dust cover for milled type rear cover, sight hood, and a bolt carrier to part out. Then you need to get the poly finish off the wood... I does not sound like it is an especially rare variant so think about how bad you really want it...
 
It is missing the sliding dust cover, the sight hood, and entire bolt latch/catch assembly (latch, spring, plunger, and pin that affixes it all to the bolt carrier. The capture papers are very frail, and are missing the center of the document that would have listed the G43 or item captured. The vet and vets serial number all prove to be correct. The stock was coated in some type of poly that is flaking. The stock has not been sanded, the cartouches are perfect, serial number and suffix all match. There appears to be a crack or some subtle delamination near the wrist.

I spoke with the seller this morning, a refund for the missing parts wasn't discussed, but having to spend an additional 1k+ on this thing to get it where I want it isn't very encouraging. Plus knowing it has repro, or not original parts is going to bug the crap out of me. The seller also knows that if he puts it on gb, he'll make 3k easily.
 
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These are the pictures I have from the seller. Taken poorly from a cell phone camera. Its hard to see, and I missed it before he shipped it to my FFL.... but the latch is missing from the bolt carrier and the dust cover is MIA.
 

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I spoke with the seller this morning, a refund wasn't discussed, but having to spend an additional 1k+ on this thing to get it where I want it isn't very encouraging. Plus knowing it has repro, or not original parts is going to bug the crap out of me. The seller also knows that if he puts it on gb, he'll make 3k easily.

I'm not quite sure what your intentions are, putting the rifle back into all original condition as a collector item or get it ready for shooting? Luckily, these options aren't mutually exclusive; you can have your cake and eat it, too. It all depends on how much time and patience you have. Actually, it seems you need very few parts to complete the rifle and none of these parts are usually matched/serialed to the rifle anyways. You could start out with reproduction parts if you are in a hurry to get to the range and pick up originals whenever you run into them cheap.

A reproduction dust cover for the milled bolt housing goes for about $50 bucks on fleeceBay. They are out of France and require filing the rear tabs for fit and smooth movement but otherwise they are pretty faithful repros. The sight hood, well, that's going to be a problem. Original hoods are hard to find for $100 and the repros are kind of loose. I would start with repro parts and watch the usual web sites for original parts to pop up. An acquaintance of mine bought an original K98 hood and what seemed to be at least an excellent repro -if not an original- sight hood for a G43 at the last gun show for $5 all together. I saw it with my own eyes, that's not a fairy tale. As for small parts missing from the bolt carrier, if you're planning on shooting the rifle, you need to swap out the entire bolt assembly for a non-matching one anyways. After that you will run into enough opportunities to pick up the missing pieces needed for completing the original bolt carrier.

Assuming the stock is original to the rifle, in its current condition the rifle has a value of no more than $2000, most likely less because of the crack at the wrist. The stock looks a little bit too smooth to me, I suspect some degree of "enhancement" has been performed before poly coating. If the stock is not matching, the value drops down to $1100 to $1300. The "capture papers" are worthless unless you can establish a relationship between them and the rifle other than the seller's word.

If he thinks he can sell it for $3k on GB, good luck. My question to you is, how can you justify throwing 3 grand at a rifle you only know from crappy cell phone pictures?
 
My intentions are to have an original condition rifle, unmolested stock and parts etc. I want to show, and store it in the safe. Shooting would only happen (rarely) if it it had the springs and a shooter kit installed. The gun came from a reputable seller with a shop from gunauction... with a guaranteed inspection. We've been in correspondence for over a month. I'm not worried about him flaking. As far as justifying the rifle from the pictures. I have more on my email....showing most aspects of the rifle, just fuzzy quality pictures...but enough for me to make my choice....(a bad one!). I'm having my FFL send the rifle back tomorrow and he is giving full refund. No harm, no foul. Another lesson learned on my quest for a G/K43. :facepalm:
 
Yeah, there's just too many things wrong on that one to justify $3K for it. I've never seen a mag in that bad of a condition -except the ones dug up like mentioned above.
 
I hope he puts it on GB jut to see what it will go for. No way is that a 3K gun. (the mag is a joke)


HDH.
 
Thank for all the replies gentlemen:hail: The rifle is on its way back as of this morning. When and if it pops up on GB, we'll have to start a turd alert thread.
 
Well, I don't know. It didn't sound like a "turd rifle". It sounded okay, but just due to the price tag and the amount you were going to have to put into it, it just wasn't a good deal. Except for the aftermarket pieces, it sounded "original" and the aftermarket pieces sounded like ones that could have been replaced. So "turd level" might be a little harsh on this one.
 

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