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Value of a Gustloff bcd G43?

neelyja

Well-known member
Value of an all-correct Gustloff bcd G43?

I have a Gustloff bcd G43 that I am thinking of selling to help pay for my Grandson’s college, but I have no idea as to the going prices for these rifles. To the best of my knowledge all parts are matching and the stock has not been sanded. If my calculations are correct, this rifle was made in July of 1944. As the Buchenwald factory was bombed out-of-existence in August 1944, this was one of the last Gustloff G43 rifles made!!

The bore is a bit dark and somewhat frosted, but the lands and grooves are strong (about a 6 on a scale of 1 to 10). The stock is in Very Good condition, with only a few dings that show it has been there and done that. I have not fired this rifle (who would??), and there are no import marks that I can see. I have taken a number of photos that may be seen on IMGUR. Unfortunately, I have not yet learned to present them in a logical, orderly fashion in that format!!

Please use the following two links:

G43 Photos #1 = https://imgur.com/a/1zNqLdT
G43 Photos #2 = https://imgur.com/a/gvIyl11

I would greatly appreciate comments on this rifle’s characteristics and value from those of you who are experts on the G43.

My Thanks and Cheers,

neelyja
 
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It seems that Bubba has always leaned toward the BCD G43 making an already rare rifle, rarer.

I think the BCD still commands a premium - perhaps as much as a $2K premium.....
 
It seems that Bubba has always leaned toward the BCD G43 making an already rare rifle, rarer.

I think the BCD still commands a premium - perhaps as much as a $2K premium.....


ebeeby:

I am not sure what you are telling me!!! Are you telling me that this rifle has been worked on by Bubba?? Are you telling me that the rifle is worth $2000.00??

Please elaborate!!

Thanks, neelyja
 
He's stating that for some reason "bubba" was attracted to the less common bcd when it came to destroying the originality, the same happens to original snipers for some reason. As far as the 2000 price, he's ascribing a premium of 2000 dollars over a comparable BLM / Walther produced rifle. The rifle looks to be an original honest rifle. Do the bolt lugs match? (They should have the serial number e penciled or acid etched on the side.) I'm sure you will receive some PMs shortly with offers.
 
Indeed Bubba has destroyed some pretty darn rare rifles over the years and as far as the G / k43 series go I find a lot of rifles made by this manufacturer destroyed or ruined by Bubba. And as you stated this manufacturer is hard to find because the factory was destroyed as well as a lot of these rifles were sabotaged during their production. They were made by slave labor after all in buchenwald.
 
I can advise you on what I paid for my two original ones. I never thought I would ever own one, much less two. But both became available. One I have is in the book “Hitler’s Garands” and the other came from a nice collector that is known here on this forum. I’m grateful to have the two. You can PM me if you’d like and I can advise you. I also keep a detailed list of these as well as BLM and the Walther G/K.43’s. Yes, these are rare. Yes, you have a correct one from what is shown so far. Last known are these two:

G.43 bcd #8337c
G.43 bcd # 237d

The only prior record I have on yours is an entry in Claus Espeholt’s serial number data base.

-Kelly
 
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Looks like a nice example to me. I am out of touch with costs these days but I would think around $3000-3200 being a bcd. Unless a rare version, the other makers tend to be a little less 2500+/- so 3000 would be the starting point of fair? I do stress I am out of touch with current costs.
 
Can’t help you with it but here’s another one for Kelly’s records
 

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He's stating that for some reason "bubba" was attracted to the less common bcd when it came to destroying the originality, the same happens to original snipers for some reason. As far as the 2000 price, he's ascribing a premium of 2000 dollars over a comparable BLM / Walther produced rifle. The rifle looks to be an original honest rifle. Do the bolt lugs match? (They should have the serial number e penciled or acid etched on the side.) I'm sure you will receive some PMs shortly with offers.

Yes, thanks, exactly.
 
Kind of giving an idea of how rare the bcd G.43’s are; here is how many pages are in my serial number listings compared to Walther and BLM:

Gustloff: 19 pages
Walther: 166 pages
BLM: 100 pages

There’s no fixed amount of rifles to a page as it just depends on how much info I have on a particular rifle. Sometimes I have just a few words to a rifle and sometimes a whole bunch.

I guess I need to count how many rifles I have cataloged.
 

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