Third Party Press

RG34 G Appel 9mm Pistol/8mm Rifle Cleaning Kit

Hercules

Hercules

Senior Member
This is the only kit I have ever seen like this. I saw the one in Bruce and Mike's book. The maker G Appel is the same as the one in the book and it does not have a WaA on the tin container. So it is police, SS, or personal use is what I got from the book. Interesting kit.

It had a G Appel spoon in it that is missing the stud part. If anyone has a spare G Appel spoon that is complete I would be interested in buying it. Thanks for your interest or reply.

IMG_2242.JPGIMG_2243.JPGIMG_2244.JPGIMG_2245.JPG
 
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CanadianAR said:
I have a similar commercial 9mm kit.
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Yes. Do you think commercial is the correct term? It looks just like the military made ones. I have a ARR43 22 cleaning kit with no WaA as well. Anyway, it is an interesting kit.
 
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I’m sure one of the more knowledgeable guys will chime in, but I believe it would likely be a private purchase item. No military acceptance, Mine has a “Gustav Appel” marked tool, which I don’t believe is seen in military kits.

But I could be totally wrong on this.
 
CanadianAR said:
I have a similar commercial 9mm kit.
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Not having any experience collecting cleaning kits, I only know of the RG34 kit for the rifle. What is the designation of a 9mm cleaning kit? I can’t find any information or pictures of these doing searches.
 
biggymu said:
Not having any experience collecting cleaning kits, I only know of the RG34 kit for the rifle. What is the designation of a 9mm cleaning kit? I can’t find any information or pictures of these doing searches.
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It has the extra 9mm brush attached to the lid of kit in my first photo. It is in Volume 2b of Bruce and Mike's book.
 
Coded cnx though?

They all dropped the waa late, but the kit above has no hallmarks of late war.
 
I believe there some late war ones with G. Appel in the sticky in this section. But, I'll look again. What other hallmarks are you seeing? I don't collect kits. I have a few and I'm asking.
 
Nice kit, picked one up last sos, wasn’t even sure what it was at the time.
www.k98kforum.com

9mm G. Appel

Picked this one up off a table at SOS, I knew I had seen that brass clip in the lid before but couldn’t remember for the life of me where or what it was for. Thanks to some old posts on this forum it all became clear.
www.k98kforum.com www.k98kforum.com

I machined some replacement studs, a mandrel and a set to fix those spoons, I gave it to someone on here, he might still have some studs left?
 
Very nice kit.
I'm the opinion that these Rg34s with the extra clamp for the 9mm brush were designed to be sold commercially. They do not have any Waffenamt stamp or any military code on their case. Gustav Appel had two production lines, basically differentiated by the markings on their parts: the production destined to fulfill the military contract and the other destined for commercial sale.
I think the additional 9mm brush was designed to clean the 9mm side-arm pistol. Personally, I have not found any official designation for this variant of the Reinigungsgerät 34 and I'm the opinion also that it was only manufactured circa the 1941 year.

Antoni
 
Doing a search for Appel kits on eBay yealded quite a few results. Most of the early kits are dated below maker on lid (‘37-‘38) with no waffenampts or just marked G Appel and no waffenampts. Is it more common than not to find these with no waffenampts? ( rarity of the 9mm fitting aside). It doesn’t appear to be a late war feature. Just trying to understand more
 
I believe there is a positive consensus in regards to Antoni's comments. With no G APPEL 9x19 brush clip tins reported bearing a WaA, they were not contracted for by the Heer. More likely, they were produced for either a German para-military organization under contract or available to these same organizations at a "retail" level. Since such internal organizations were often known to issue quantities of weapons (often consisting of captured/reissued foreign ones) and SMGs/pistols in particular, this "universal" kit would have likely proven useful. In addition, with the conjecture these kits may date from around 1941, it was close to the height of Third Reich expansion.

Regarding GA Rg34s sans any WaA acceptance, it is primarily due to the large numbers they produced for either export or non-military organizations. This was particularly true prior to the onset of WW2.
 
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Amberg said:
Who needed a 9 mm gun for private use in Germany in 1941??
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Hi Amberg,
To be sold commercially... perhaps to the officers -who carried a 9mm service pistol- who would acquire the Rg34 with the extra brush, like their privately purchased uniforms.

Antoni
 
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I would like to add some new information regarding this topic...

As fas as I know, the only official reference to this Rg34 variant is found in Karl Fischer's manual Waffentechnischer Leitfaden für die Ordnungs-Polizei [Weapon Technical Guide for the Order Police] published by R. Eisenschmidt. In the chapter dedicated to the use of the Rg34, it describes the presence of a second Reinigungsbürtste to clean the 9mm caliber pistol, in the kit that it denomines RG.34 der Ordnungspolizei. This book, although published privately, was intended for an official use. The first edition of this manual was published in early 1940 and coincides with the estimated date of the introduction of this variant.
IMHO, this is clear evidence of the possible origin of this Rg34 variant as well as identify one of its users, if not the main one.

Antoni
 
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Once had a nice copy of the 1943 edition L. f. d. Ordnungs-Polizei, but later replaced it with the 1974 compilation/reprint pictured. The original edition was kind of delicate and a collectible book. The latter, in a larger size and having really nice text/plates, is a more practical one for reference. Will have to locate mention of the Rg34 in it (but think I recall seeing this one time), as there is no index...
 

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