Crude S-block bnz 45

This one has a weird bolt.... no alpha on the body & only bolt part numbered is the body. The forged gas shield was never cosmetically milled up top, and then not numbered. Bolt body has a fire proof.

Still unmistakably correct. My guess is that the bolt screw failed inspection after numbering and the unnumbered late bolt sleeve/cocking piece/safety/firing pin went in as a correction to get a functional rifle out the door. I think that Steyr likely did the same thing with unnumbered replacement bolts for the same reason. Beautiful rifle.

Gotta love that Steyr quality!

Great gun Bob! I love the bolt sleeve. nasty. Its definitely all steyr. lol

That is a wonderfully crude bnz45 Bob! Nice!

Pisgah said:

Still unmistakably correct. My guess is that the bolt screw failed inspection after numbering and the unnumbered late bolt sleeve/cocking piece/safety/firing pin went in as a correction to get a functional rifle out the door. I think that Steyr likely did the same thing with unnumbered replacement bolts for the same reason. Beautiful rifle.

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Maybe, but I would think it still should have been properly numbered after the fix. From the missing alpha on the bolt, I think this is just really sloppy quality control.

This is why bnz45 are cool. You often see something different and interesting. Nice one, Bob!

RyanE said:

Maybe, but I would think it still should have been properly numbered after the fix. From the missing alpha on the bolt, I think this is just really sloppy quality control.

This is why bnz45 are cool. You often see something different and interesting. Nice one, Bob!

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I agree that the missing S is likely a quality control issue (or extremely light strike), but Steyr had a thing with replacing parts with unnumbered parts that the other manufacturers did not seem to do. There are too many otherwise all matching later Steyr rifles out there with unnumbered Steyr inspected bolts in them to be just a coincidence. Here's a link with a couple of them:

http://www.k98kforum.com/showthread.php?2859-A-little-Steyr-T-block-weirdness

I think I have at least two more single rune Steyr rifles with unnumbered Steyr bolts. I also agree that Steyr was haphazard in the way they assembled and marked rifles. I just believe the unnumbered factory parts are sometimes more than just an accident.

FWIW I have a bnz 43 which is completely matching as it should be (bands included) that is sitting in a completely correct, but also completely unnumbered standard, minimal cutout stock. Could be quality control. Could be a correction due to a stock issue noticed later in the assembly/inspection process, or could be a postwar collector fix. Finding the exact stock for that rifle in unnumbered form would be a chore. Not saying that it couldn't have been collector enhanced either. I recognize I am making subjective statements. For whatever reason it sure seems like I see the lack of expected numbering more on Steyrs than with any of the other manufacturers.

I agree, the guy that got this rifle put in his hand knew the war was over, - if he wasn't sure before...

Bob, can you do the RR and the BC? (never mind, EK, got it... would like to see the RR and whether you noted any unusual markings anywhere on the receiver, V/7, circle "M" etc..)

mrfarb said:

Gotta love that Steyr quality!

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Nice.....................

Gotta love this one
Metal looks like it was made from railway tracks

Correctly crude and strangely beautiful. Good pics of a nice rifle. Thanks for posting.

Man I've never seen a shroud that wasn't milled across the top, awsome! I'd like to see that FP, doesn't happen to be an unumbered "Byf" milled is it? Or just unmarked?

Pisgah said:

.... My guess is that the bolt screw failed inspection after numbering and the unnumbered late bolt sleeve/cocking piece/safety/firing pin went in as a correction to get a functional rifle out the door. I think that Steyr likely did the same thing with unnumbered replacement bolts for the same reason.

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This makes a lot of sense to me when considering the sequence of numbering and then phosphating. Expectation would be that the bolt (initially) was all numbered, and then phosphated.... so Pisgah's notion seems probable.

This example suggests Steyr had some phosphated & unmilled gas shields "ready" for use as milling topside occurred before phosphating.

It was either a careless oversight or a late fix to get the part out the door. Finding a similar loose late unnumbered bnz gas shield would be a virtual impossibity. I had neither seen one on a rifle or as a spare part. My vote on it is that it was a factory fix.

I have an S block with an un-numbered bolt..

..

Turbo Archie said:

I have an S block with an un-numbered bolt..

..

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Post some pix. The more Steyr late war porn the better.

flynaked said:

Man I've never seen a shroud that wasn't milled across the top, awsome! I'd like to see that FP, doesn't happen to be an unumbered "Byf" milled is it? Or just unmarked?

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Well, the floor plate is yet another enigma... chalky gray-phosphate, and reused with a cancellation??

RR is the basic E/623.

I thought this was the one that was up in MI. You're lucky I had just picked one up a few weeks earlier

RE

Super cool gun, great late war example

What type of follower does it have? I'd bet the floorplate is a replacement myself but stranger things have happened.

mrfarb said:

What type of follower does it have? I'd bet the floorplate is a replacement myself but stranger things have happened.

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Certainly could be replaced... follower is milled, numbered.